Alongside the already popular Blackboard, Biola has taken an additional step toward becoming a paperless university by introducing an online method for Biola employees to record their hours. As of Jan. 21, Biola switched to an online time card processor. Until this date, Biola employees had used traditional paper time cards.

A main concern would naturally be how quickly Biola employees could adapt to this new system. However, the program’s developers in Information Systems made it easy for the employees — instead of utilizing an entirely new program, the timecard function was added to the Launch Menu on Portal, making logging on to record hours as natural as logging on to check grades.

“The tools that employees use are in Portal,” said Sam Lee, the assistant director of information systems. It made sense to keep the program simple, however, some employees seem to think that it’s still a little confusing.

“I think [the Web time cards] might be difficult for people to understand at first, but once you get it down, it’s really easy,” Amber Hinman, a student receptionist in Human Resources, said.

Using the Web timecard system is a relatively simple process: the employee enters the pay period link, types in how many hours he or she has worked, and hits “save.” The employee’s name and identification number are already filled in, and the program ends the pay period right on time — no more confusion with hours added and subtracted because they belonged in the last or next pay period.

Turning in the time cards is simple as well. The employee downloads the timecard file, prints it out, signs it and presents it to the reception desk in Human Resources after his or her supervisor adds his or her signature.

Christy Mulligan, the occupational safety coordinator in Human Resources, is handling the new Web time cards. Mulligan said they were implemented to improve processing and to simplify the ordeal of counting and sorting so many time cards every pay period.

However, only the hourly and student employees will be affected by the new system because staff, like professors, that are paid on salary do not turn in time cards.

Biola staff began using the new Web time card system on Jan. 21, followed by the student employees who began on Jan. 28.

Before Web time cards, Human Resources was flooded with the outdated paper time cards, which were manually counted and checked. With the new system, there are fewer propensities for error.

“Our goal is to eventually have a time and attendance system that’s much more accurate than what we previously had,” Mulligan said.