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 15, 2009 | How To, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
If you’re using Time Clock MTS to track your employee attendance then you can allow employees to view their own time cards. This blog entry will cover how you can setup the software to do this and how your employees can then view their own information.
The Interface Settings Screen
Setting Up the Software
Setting up the software to allow employees to view their time card information is very simple. Just log into the administrator software as the administrator and then go to the Tools->Options->Interface Settings page. All you need to do then is check the ‘Employees Can View Timecard’ checkbox. You can also allow them to print their timecard by checking the ‘Employees Can Print Timecard’ checkbox. Click Save to save the changes. Note that employees can only print and view their own timecards when you’re using the Employee List Interface.
Employees can view their own timecards.
Employees Viewing their Timecard
If you’ve setup Time Clock MTS to allow employees to view their time card then they can do so very simply. Here’s how employees can view their time card information if you are using the Employee List interface of the software:
- Have them select their name from the employee list.
- Click the View Information Button and then the View Timecard option.
- If you’ve got employee PIN’s or employee fingerprint security turned on then the employee will need to enter their PIN or scan their fingerprint to view their time card.
- The report configuration screen will be displayed. The employee can pick the date range from the top right, and the report they want to view from the report list. Note that the employee cannot pick any other employee from the list of employees.
- When they’re ready to view their timecard they just need to click the Create Report button.
- Employees will then be shown their timecard for the period they selected. If you’ve allowed them to print their timecard then they’ll be able to print their time card too.
Report Configuration Screen
If your employees are using the keypad interface and they want to view their time card information then they need to follow this process:
- Enter their employee badge number into to the badge number field of the keypad interface.
- Click the View Timecard button which is immediately to the right of the badge number field.
- If you’ve got employee PIN’s or employee fingerprint security turned on then the employee will need to enter their PIN or scan their fingerprint to view their time card.
- The report configuration screen will be displayed. The employee can pick the date range from the top right, and the report they want to view from the report list. Note that the employee cannot pick any other employee from the list of employees.
- When they’re ready to view their timecard they just need to click the Create Report button.
- Employees will then be shown their timecard for the period they selected. If you’ve allowed them to print their timecard then they’ll be able to print their time card too.
Keypad Interface with View Time Card Button
That’s all there is to it. A lot of companies like to make this information available to their employees because it saves a lot of questions for the payroll staff. If you didn’t know Time Clock MTS could do this and your company would find it useful why not turn on this useful feature today!
by Mark Nemtsas | Jan 20, 2009 | How To, New Features, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
In part 1 of configuring Time Clock MTS to comply with Californian Overtime Regulations I covered how to setup the software to calculate this sort of overtime automatically. In this second part I’ll cover how it is displayed in reports.
Report Template Changes to Show Overtime Rate 2
Modifying Report Templates
If you have only just started using Time Clock MTS then you will not need to modify your reports to display overtime rate 2 as the software will have set it up by default. You can therefore ignore this part of this article. However, if you are an existing user of Time Clock MTS upgrading an old version of the software to a newer version that supports the Californian Overtime Regulations then you will need to modify the Payroll Information report section template. In the image above you can see the relevant section that I have added to the report section template. I have added this immediately under the line that was already there that displayed the overtime rate 1 information. The line I have added is:
Daily OT2 Hours: <T><DAILY_OT2_HOURS> hrs @ <OT2_RATE> /hr = <DAILY_OT2_EARNINGS>
Basically this displays the heading ‘Daily OT2 Hours:’ along with the actual hours worked at overtime rate 2, the rate of pay for overtime rate 2 (which should be set to double time) and the earnings at overtime rate 2. If you don’t understand what the report section templates are then you should take a look at my posts on customizing Time Clock MTS reports in part 1, part 2, and part 3.
Overtime Rate 2 Report Date in Payroll Summary Section
Viewing Overtime 2 Payment Amounts in Reports
If you choose to display the payroll summary section in a report (or run the payroll summary report) then you will be shown the new overtime rate 2 payment information as per the image above. You can see in this example that the employee is entitled to 1 hour of overtime at overtime rate 2 which is set to double the normal rate.
So, that’s all there is to it. It is very simple to configure Time Clock MTS to comply with the Californian overtime regulations. Doing so will give you significant productivity improvements come payroll calculation time, and will help to you do reduce and eliminate payroll errors. As always please email me if you have any questions.
by Mark Nemtsas | Jan 20, 2009 | How To, New Features, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
Employee Settings to Suit California Overtime Regulations
California has it’s own set of peculiar regulations for payment of overtime to employees. They are reasonably complex and are tedious when you have to apply and calculate them manually. As of Version 2.1.11 Time Clock MTS is now fully compliant with these regulations saving you a lot of time calculating your payroll and overtime pay. You can read about these regulations in detail on the Californian Department of Industrial Relations website. The relevant section of the page that applies (given that an employee is not subject to an exemption or exception) is:
1. One and one-half times the employee’s regular rate or pay for all hours worked in excess of eight hours up to and including 12 hours in any workday, and for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek; and
2. Double the employee’s regular rate or pay for all hours worked in excess of 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked in excess of eight on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek.
Thus overtime can be split into two parts:
- Daily Overtime: hours worked between 8 and 12 in a single day are subject to 1.5 times the normal rate of pay. Hours worked in excess of 12 hours in a single day are subject to 2.0 times the normal rate of pay.
- Seventh day overtime: If an employee works for the first 6 days of a work week then they are eligible for overtime if they work on the seventh day of the work week. The first 8 hours of work on the seventh day are subject to 1.5 times the normal rate of pay. Hours worked in excess of 8 hours are subject to double the normal rate of pay.
Overtime Settings to Suit California Overtime Regulations
Setting up Time Clock MTS to comply with these regulations is simple. Firstly, you must edit the employee payroll information for each employee that is to receive overtime. In the first image in this post you can see an employee configured with overtime rate 1 set to 1.5 times the base rate of pay, and overtime rate 2 to double the base rate of pay. Once this is done for each employee you can then move on to the global overtime settings.
The second screenshot in this post shows Time Clock MTS configured to calculate overtime as per the Californian stipulations. Daily over time rate 1 is set to trigger at 8 hours and over time rate 2 is set to trigger at 12 hours. Weekly overtime is turned off and the calculation of overtime is set to daily overtime only. Lastly, the seventh day overtime setting is checked and the limit set to 8 hours.
In part 2 of our California overtime regulations compliance I’ll cover modifying the Time Clock MTS report section templates to display the new payment amounts covered by overtime rate 2.
by Mark Nemtsas | Jan 8, 2009 | How To, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
Here’s a question I got this week that I thought was worth posting up here along with the solution:
We offer our employees vacation pay but not on an accrual basis and I canʼt seem to make the software set up a specific amount of time without accrual. For example, if any employee is consider full time for one year beyond their hire date we offer 40 hrs of paid vacation to those said employees. And every year after the next fiscal year this time starts a new 40 hrs so on and so forth. This is pretty much the same scenario in regards to sick time.
This is how to configure Time Clock MTS to allow for this sort of accrual scheme.
- Assign all employees with this sort of accrual to a single employment type. You could call the employment type to “yearly accrual” or whatever you like.
- In the administrator version of Time Clock MTS go to the Tools->Options->Vacation Accruals page and select the yearly accrual employment type you have setup.
- Check the Accrues Vacation Time check box.
- To start time accruing at hire date set Start Accruing Hire Date Plus setting to zero.
- If you want to allow for accruals in advance then set the Start With setting to some number, or otherwise set it to zero.
- Set the Accrue text field to the yearly allocation you wish to allow each employee.
- Set the For Every text box to 12 and the units drop down to Month.
- Make sure the Use Hire Date not Fiscal Year checkbox is checked to us the hire date anniversary to reset the amount of time accrued rather than the fiscal year.
Yearly Accrual Setup
There you have it, it’s not too hard and allows you a great deal of flexibility.
by Mark Nemtsas | Nov 7, 2008 | How To, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
Add, edit, and delete shifts.
Time Clock MTS has a system built in to prevent employees punching in too early. To set this up you must be logged in as the time clock administrator and then navigate to the Tools->Options->Shifts page (see image above and the shifts help topic). Click the new shift 
button and you’ll be taken to the Add/Edit shift screen as shown below.
Shifts can be used to control when employees can punch in.
At the bottom of this screen you can see the new setting Restrict First Clock in to XX before shift. All you need to do is make a selection of None, 1 minute, 6 minutes, 15 minutes, and 30 minutes from the drop down. Obviously if you select none then there will be no restriction on when an employee can clock in. However, if you select one of the time limits then any employee assigned to that particular shift will be prevented from clock in any earlier that the chosen limit before the shift start time. So, for example, in the shift above, any employee will not be able to clock in any earlier than 7.30AM.
The clock in must be the first one of the day for the restriction to take effect.
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