Japs AS: time tracking that revealed late starts and changing time
Pärnu fish processor Japs AS kept working time on paper, and the accountant only saw it at the end of the month. With hours24, arrivals and departures became visible as they happen, and patterns surfaced that nobody had noticed: breaks before the working day began and changing time ranging from 5 to 35 minutes.
- hours24 team
AS Japs is one of the oldest privately owned fish processing companies in Estonia: it started in Pärnu in 1992 and fillets and freezes mainly pike-perch, perch and pike. About 50 people work in production. The working day officially starts at 7:00, at 8:00 for parents who take their children to kindergarten, and in practice arrival often depends on the bus timetable or family needs.
From paper to a running overview
Working time used to be kept on paper and reached the accountant only at the end of the month. There was no daily overview of who came to work and when.
Hours made it possible to track employees' arrival at work simply, accurately and as it happens.
What the system brought to light
The rollout revealed patterns that paper had kept hidden. Some employees arrived early but only started their working day after a coffee or smoke break. It also became clearer how to count a doctor's visit as working time.
The biggest discovery was about changing and washing work clothes:
One employee spends 5 minutes on it, another 35. We did not have that kind of overview before.
That put a question on the table: when does the working day end, on entering the changing room or after washing and changing? In the food industry, where hygiene rules make changing mandatory, it is a question of minutes that comes up every day and stays unsettled without data.
Accurate time tracking is not only a legal obligation. It gives a manager the data to agree fair rules: when the working day starts, what counts as working time and what does not.
Step by step
For now Japs is focusing on recording the start and end of working time and absences accurately. Next, they see value in managing sick leave and holidays and in a connection to the accounting software.
Hours has a wide range of options and every company can choose the features that matter most. We are moving forward step by step, but the more solutions we use, the more useful and meaningful the process becomes.
Working together
Besides the software, Japs values that help is quickly at hand and that the company's ideas are taken into account.
Sven and Mihkel are always available, solutions come quickly and our ideas are taken into account.
What to take away from this story
In a production company the biggest value of time tracking is not always the time saved in payroll. Often it is transparency: when arrivals, breaks and changing time are visible, you can agree rules that are the same for everyone, and arguments are replaced by data.
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Learn more: Time Tracking