Patent ID: 7089200

Claim:
A method for use in an apparatus for maintaining a payroll, the method comprising: preparing a roster comprising a work schedule or list of duties in a roster preparation means of the apparatus; storing said roster in a processing means of the apparatus; receiving in said processing means attendance information pertaining to one or more workers; preparing said payroll in the processing means; comparing said attendance information for the respective workers with the roster in said processing means to determine if the attendance information pertaining to the respective worker agrees with the roster to within a predetermined tolerance, wherein said predetermined tolerance comprises: (i) agreement to within a predetermined time period between rostered and actual starting times, between rostered and actual finishing times, or both, for said respective worker, or (ii) agreement to within a predetermined time period or factor between rostered and actual total attendance for said respective worker; and authorizing the payroll in an authorization means of the apparatus for each of said workers whose attendance information agrees with the roster within the predetermined tolerance; wherein the payroll is prepared in the processing means on the basis of the roster rather than the attendance for the respective workers whose payroll has been authorized.