MITREFINCH, the York-based time and attendance company, claims to have won £360,000-worth of new business in a year for its pioneering "clocking in" systems as a result of the Government's flexible working initiative - and is braced for more orders.

The effect on the Clifton Moor firm's business was disclosed as this month marks the first anniversary of the initiative. Since it began, a quarter of all UK businesses have implemented flexible working schemes in response to employee requests.

The initiative gives employees with children aged under six, or 18 if disabled, the right to request more flexible working hours. This could include flexitime, home working, job sharing and staggered hours.

Mitrefinch's Time & Attendance software can incorporate all these changes at the press of a button.

The firm reckons that with the improved technology it has devised, the wider acceptance of flexible working schemes will account for 15 per cent of its turnover over the next year.

Debbie Guppy, Mitrefinch's director of business management, said: "We estimate that we have won £360,000 of new business in the last 12 months because of companies wanting to implement a flexible working scheme.

"We believe that the uptake of flexible working will gather pace as more and more businesses and employees start to see evidence of the positive impact that this has on productivity and creating a work-life balance.

"Mobile working, working from home and flexible hours are a significant component of the modern working environment and we believe that this trend will continue.

"In our industry, this means that in addition to using traditional clocking in and out with swipecards, today's businesses require mobile solutions for employee time management.

"New technology continues to emerge which will improve the way we do business.

To satisfy demand, Mitrefinch has recently launched Time & Attendance.NET which allows human resources functions such as time and attendance, shift planning, holidays and absences to be effectively conducted by WAP mobile phones, PDAs and PCs on-site and off-site.

"With new technology at our fingertips, we envisage that a substantial part of our future growth (15 per cent over the next 12 months) will come about as the country moves to a wider acceptance of flexible working schemes."

Updated: 11:42 Monday, April 19, 2004