From a paper punch card to approved payroll.
For the same First Nation government in British Columbia, we replaced the hand-computed punch-card routine with a system that reads the cards, computes the timesheets, and puts approval one email click away — with leave, overtime, and mileage handled by text message.
Every pay period started with arithmetic.
The same First Nation government whose back office and field operations we systematized ran payroll on paper. Staff clock in and out on a punch-card machine that prints paper strips. Every two weeks, one person gathered the cards and hand-computed each employee's hours — in at 7:55, out at 4:15, round up, round down, subtract the break — for every employee, every pay period.
Everything around the cards was manual too. Timesheets were hand-carried to a desk for signature. Leave was a paper form; overtime approval meant printing a form, filling it by hand, and walking it to an office — so annoying that people simply worked the overtime and argued about it later. When someone didn't show up, nobody knew why. And once hours reached payroll, corrections happened silently — no note, no record, no way to say which number was right.
Payroll that starts from proof, not paperwork.
The cards come in by email, the timesheets compute themselves, and everything around them — leave, overtime, mileage — runs through the same approval flow.
Cards are scanned, not transcribed
Staff photograph or scan the punch cards and email them to one address. The system reads every punch off the card image and files it against the right employee — an unreadable card is flagged for a person, never guessed.
Timesheets compute themselves
Ins, outs, rounding rules, and breaks are applied automatically, and each employee's timesheet for the pay period fills itself in. Every computed line links back to the card image it came from, so checking the system's work takes seconds.
Approval is one email click
The approver's email lands with the period's timesheets; one click approves. After approval the record locks — corrections are manager-owned with a mandatory note, and payroll receives the approved hours read-only. No more silent edits.
Leave by text or form
Vacation, sick, and unpaid leave are requested by plain text message or a web form — whichever is easier for the employee. Approved paid leave fills the timesheet at standard hours and draws down the balance, and a no-show is visible the same day instead of at period end.
Overtime is authorized before it happens
An overtime request goes out and gets approved the same one-click way — before the hours are worked, not argued about after. The approved OT is already on the timesheet when the period closes.
Mileage without the paperwork
A mileage claim is a text or a short form — from, to, and why. Distances are double-checked against map data, claims roll into the same approval flow, and the biweekly payout list writes itself.
From hand-computed hours to numbers payroll can trust.
Two weeks of cards, read in minutes
The hand-computation is gone. Payroll starts from timesheets the system has already computed and reconciled — not from arithmetic done under a deadline.
Nothing changes after approval
The post-approval lock and manager-owned corrections mean payroll can finally trust the numbers — every adjustment has an owner and a reason attached.
Absences are coordinated, not discovered
Leave is requested, approved, and reflected in the timesheet automatically — and a no-show raises a flag the same day.
Every hour has its paper trail
Each computed timesheet traces back to the scanned punch card behind it, so a question about any number is answered with the source, not a guess.
Still computing hours by hand?
Tell us what your timesheet routine looks like — the cards, the forms, the approvals. We'll come back with a short read on whether a system like this fits and what a first engagement could look like.
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