by Mark Nemtsas | May 24, 2009 | How To, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
Changing the Windows System Time
You may well know that Time Clock MTS can determine the internal time used for clocking in and out from an Internet time server. This is a pretty foolproof way of preventing time clock fraud as the times recorded are completely independent of the local PC clock setting. You can turn on this feature in the Time Clock MTS administrator program on the Tools->Options->Security Settings page. Just tick the Use Internet Time Server checkbox, then pick our dedicated time server (time.timeclockmts-online.com) from the dropdown box and click SAVE to save the change. You can read about how to do this in more detail in this blog entry
The above works well, but for whatever reason very infrequently it doesn’t work in a fool-proof fashion. This won’t result in incorrect employee attendance data but it can prevent employees from clocking in or out. Time Clock MTS will actually prevent employees from clocking in and out if it cannot contact the Internet time server for an hour (this is to stop employees just pulling a network cable to get around the Internet Time Server setting). Sometimes the reason Time Clock MTS cannot contact the time server can’t easily be determined, it may be network congestion, it might be firewall problems, or it might be problems with the time server itself. When these sorts of problems occur frequently it may be adopting a different solution to setting the system time using Windows itself. Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Turn off the Use Internet Time Server setting in Time Clock MTS. This will result in Time Clock MTS determining all times from the local PC clock.
- Change the Windows settings to have the local pc clock time determined from an Internet time server. How you do this will depend on the version of Windows you are running. For example, in Windows Vista/7/8 you can do it by simply right clicking on the Taskbar clock and then selecting Adjust Date/Time from the popup menu.
- Change the Windows user account permissions that Time Clock MTS is run from to prevent changing the Windows System time. How you do this is well beyond the scope of this entry as it will vary tremendously depending on the version of Windows you are running and any sort of network management software you happen to be using.
That’s all there is to it. What you’ve done is set the local PC clock to get accurate time from an Internet time server and Time Clock MTS will get it’s clock in and out times directly from this. By adjusting the Windows user account permissions you’ve prevented employees from changing the system clock of the PC in an attempt to provide fraudulent time clock data.
by Mark Nemtsas | May 21, 2009 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
Update 24 November 2014 – This setting was removed from Time Clock MTS with the release of version 5. The content of this blog only apply to versions of Time Clock MTS BEFORE version 5.
I’ve had a couple of Time Clock MTS users send in emails about the same thing in the last week and it worth covering the issue here. Basically the symptom is this, when running reports (say for a week), sometimes it appears that the reports pick up a time or two from the next weeks report. When they run the next weeks report it is missing these times that show up on the previous weeks report. When you examine these times that seem to mysteriously appear on the wrong weeks report it turns out that the clock in time was before the usual clock in time for the day. The reason this is happening is because employees are clocking in BEFORE the First Day Starts At setting used by Time Clock MTS to determine when the work day (and thus work week) starts.
So, for example, lets say you have the First Day Starts At setting in Time Clock MTS (set on the Tools->Options-> Payroll Settings page) set to 8:00am. Now lets say an employee clocks in at 7.30am on Monday AND you dont have report rounding time turned on. Time Clock MTS considers the time worked between the clock in and the time when the employee clocks out to OCCUR ON SUNDAY rather than Monday. The time of clock in determines the day on which the recorded time occurs. This is complicated a little if you have report rounding turned on. If you have report rounding set to, say 15 minutes, then an employee can clock in up to 15 minutes prior to 8:00am on Monday to have their time to be reported on Monday. If they clock in more than 15 minutes prior to 8:00am then the time will be reported on Sunday.
There’s a couple of ways of preventing this sort of thing happening in Time Clock MTS.
- Examine if you need to actually use the First Day Starts At setting. It is really only useful if you run shifts or if you want to restrict clock in times to stop employees clocking in early. If you dont need to use the setting leave it set to 12:00am (again you can change this setting on the Tools->Options->Payroll Settings screen.
- Turn on report rounding and restrict clock in times to the same period as you’ve set report rounding for. So, for example, if you set report rounding to 15 minutes set the clock in restriction to 15 minutes before shift start. To restrict clock in times you must assign an employee to a shift and then set the clock in restriction on the Tools->Options->Shifts screen.
by Mark Nemtsas | May 3, 2009 | How To, New Features, Using the Software
This report shows you what computer your employee has clocked in or out from.
One of the most common forms of employee time clock fraud is buddy punching. This is simply when one employee clocks in or out for another one. Time Clock MTS has a number of methods built into it to help you reduce or eliminate this practice including fingerprint security, image capturing, and employee PINs. Version 2.2.12 saw a new feature added to the software to help further eliminate buddy punching.
When an employee clocks in or out Time Clock MTS now records the Computer Name and Network MAC address along with the time record. Each computer on your network will have a unique computer name and the network cards in these computers all have a unique MAC address. Armed with these two pieces of information you or your network admins can determine exactly which PC an employee clocked in or out from. To give you this information in an easy to read format there’s a new report, the Time Location Report. You can run this report in the same way as you run all the other Time Clock MTS reports, from the Report Configuration Screen. An example of this new report is shown above. Each time recorded for the employee has it’s own line and each time shows the computer name and MAC address of the computer the employee clocked in or out from.
So, if each of your employees is supposed to clock in and out from their own PC, and you suspect someone is clocking in or out for someone else, then this new feature can help you detect this practise. Just run the Time Location Report and you can see quickly and easily where an employee is clocking in or out from!
by Mark Nemtsas | Apr 28, 2009 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
I am beginning to think that there’s some confusion about what the File->Reset Administrator Password menu item does so it’s worth a little bit of clarification. A few months back I described how you could use this menu item to Reset Your Administrator Password.
When you Should Use the Reset Administrator Password Menu
You should only use the File->Reset Administrator Password menu when you’ve forgotten your administrator password and you need to reset it. To reset your administrator password successfully you’ll need to know the answers to the reminder questions. If you answer the questions correctly then Time Clock MTS will contact our web server to get a new password and reset the password. If you’re a registered user of Time Clock MTS then the email address you used to purchase the software will be emailed the new password. If you’re using the trial version or the free version then you’ll be told what the new password is via a popup message.
You shouldn’t use the File -> Reset Administrator Password Menu if you know your Administrator password and just want to change it.
Manually Resetting Your Administrator Password
If you know your administrator password and just want to reset it to something different then you should not use the above method. Log in as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options->System Settings page and reset the password there. You can read more about this in the System Settings Help Topic.
What to do When You’ve Forgotten Your Admin Password AND Reminder Question Answers?
In this case you’ll need to get us to reset your admin password for you. You’ll need to email us your Time Clock MTS database. We’ll reset the password for you and then email your database back, once you’ve got it back you’ll need to read the instructions here to learn what to do.
I hope that this helps to clear up any confusion!
by Mark Nemtsas | Apr 16, 2009 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
A fairly common question that we get asked about our software is what is the difference between a “client” and an “employee”? It get’s asked enough that we thought it was worth writing a blog entry about it.
What’s the difference between clients and employees in Time Clock MTS?
Put simply an employee is a record in the Time Clock MTS database corresponding to a person in your organization for whom you wish to track time and attendance data. That’s someone for which you want to track time for.
On the other hand, a client is a computer on which you have installed the Time Clock MTS Client software so you can record time and attendance information using that computer for any employees in your Time Clock MTS database. You might have multiple computers in your workplace with the Time Clock MTS Client installed on it so employees can clock in and out anywhere around the office or factory. Administrators can’t use these computers to add employees, or edit times, or change their time clock settings.
The cost of Time Clock MTS is basically dependent on both the number of time clock computers that you need. If you need just one time clock computer and you’re happy to manage your software from that same computer then our most popular product is the Time Clock MTS Stand Alone Edition. It’s exactly as it sounds and uses one computer for both tracking employee time and administrative purposes. One computer will track up to 500 employees for $99 (US).
However, if you’re wanting to manage your software from a different computer than the one your employees punch in and out from then the Network Edition allows you 20 time clock (or client) computers and one administrator computer. As well as the 20 client computers you can track up to 500 employees for $199 (US).
If your business is very small and you just want to track 3 or fewer employees on a single computer then you can use Time Clock MTS for free.
As you can see there’s an edition of Time Clock MTS to suit almost any business. You should take advantage of our completely unrestricted free 30 day trial to see if it suits your business. It really is time clock software for ANY business.
