Time is running out for the old mechanical time clock.

Businesses are replacing the old-fashioned system of time cards and clocks with high-tech computer systems that let employees "punch in" using a magnetic card, a palm print or even a phone call."The time clock is really an anachronism," said Maris Harris, spokeswoman for Kronos, the leading make of electronic devices used to track workers' hours. "We don't even call them time clocks, we call them data collection devices."

These new devices are computer-driven and cost three to 10 times as much as their mechanical cousins. But the mechanical ones couldn't add up workers' hours, calculate overtime or print out reports on tardy workers - like the new ones can.

The new machines are also tied into computerized payroll systems so there's no time card involved at all. When workers "punch in," their hours are automatically logged by the computer.

And the old ones were easy to cheat on if you knew how to work the lever that set the date and time. You've got to be a computer hacker to outsmart many of today's time clocks.

"It gives us a report on people who are coming in tardy a tremendous amount of time," said Yolanda Baisch, human resources administrator at LoDan West, a San Carlos computer cable manufacturer.

LoDan West switched from a mechanical time clock to a badge-swiping system in 1993. Baisch said the new system has helped her uncover and fire some time card cheaters.

But most importantly, she said the new time clocks save her time by automatically adding up employees' hours worked - a task she used to do by hand.

"Looking at 250 time cards is a pain in the butt," she said.

But like all technology, there are a few glitches in the system.

Cal Poly Pomona Foundation, which runs the food service and library staff at Cal Poly University, switched to a badge-swiping system a year and a half ago. But it still doesn't work with the foundation's payroll software.

So a worker has to manually type the hours into the computer every other week. "It saves time up front," said Brenda Briggs, director of financial affairs. "But we still need to interface to our current accounting system."

Even so, the new clocks are selling like hotcakes.

"I can't remember the last time I sold (a mechanical) one," said Jim Chakos, a salesman at Timpac Inc., a Burlingame firm that sells time clocks from many different manufacturers.

The mechanical clocks cost about $300 apiece, while the badge-swipe systems go for between $1,000 and $3,500.

The fingerprint and palm print systems are still too expensive - $3,000 and up - to be commonly used, he said.

Kronos, which is based in Waltham, Mass., estimates that about half the nation's businesses using time clocks still use the mechanical kind.

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The rest use some form of electronic system, although many have only upgraded to time clocks that will add up the hours but don't hook up to computer systems.

Although the percentage of hourly workers in the United States has remained fairly constant in the past 15 years, use of time clocks has declined a bit.

But analysts say the increasing use of PCs in businesses is driving more companies toward computer-based time clocks.

But the Society of Human Resource Administrators warns its members to temper use of time clocks so workers don't rebel.

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