The earliest form of automated employee scheduling and managing of employee hours was the [[PunchPunched Cardcard|punch card]]. The idea first created by [[Basile Bouchon]] developed the control of a loom by punched holes in paper tape in 1725. [[Herman Hollerith]] improved the design.<ref>Trogemann, Georg (eds.); et al. (2001). Computing in Russia. Verlag. pp. 47–49. The article is by Gellius N. Povarov, titled Semen Nikolayevich Korsakov- Machines for the Comparison of Philosophical Ideas</ref> IBM manufactured and marketed a variety of unit record machines for creating, sorting, and tabulating punched cards, even after expanding into electronic computers in the late 1950s. IBM developed punched card technology into a powerful tool for business data-processing and produced an extensive line of general purpose unit record machines.<ref>Essinger, James (2004). Jacquard's Web: How a hand-loom led to the birth of the information age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-280577-0}}.</ref>
