by Mark Nemtsas | Jul 20, 2021 | News
We are committed to giving all Time Clock MTS users a functional employee time clock if Windows 11 brings about the end of Time Clock MTS. As we mentioned previously we’ll be offering all existing customers at least six months free use of our online time clock system. If you are thinking about transitioning to Online Time Clock MTS the table below gives a comprehensive comparison between the two systems.
We encourage you to consider this table carefully to ensure the features you need are included in the online system. We also encourage you to consider the much simple process for setting up Online Time Clock MTS and the much lower on-going cost of ownership of the system. Moving your time clock to the cloud removes the continual risk of software downtime due to Microsoft Windows updates and changes.
Are you ready to migrate to Online Time Clock MTS? Contact us now to get the process started.
| | Online Time Clock MTS | Time Clock MTS |
Compatibility
| Any web-browser, Windows/Apple/Mobile | Windows XP->Windows 10 |
| Installation Free? |  | No |
| Any Device? | | Windows devices only (pre-Windows 11) |
| Works on Cell Phones? | | No |
| Works over Internet? | | No |
| Multiple Locations? | | No |
| Multiple Timezones? | | No |
| Variable Payroll Rules | | No |
| High Data Security | | Moderate |
| Job Tracking | | |
| Geo-Tracking | | No |
| Vacation/Sick Time Tracking | | |
| Multi Level Security? | | Single Level |
| Immune to Windows Updates? | | No |
| Requires Internet Connection | | No |
| Leave Requests | No | |
| Tip Tracking | No | |
| Fingerprint Scanning | No | |
| Image Capture | No | |
by Mark Nemtsas | Jul 13, 2021 | News
Microsoft Windows 11 is due for release in November 2021 and it brings with it a great degree of uncertainty for the future of Time Clock MTS. Right now we are not sure that Time Clock MTS will run on Windows 11 and more clarity will not come until October 2021 at the earliest. We are currently hoping for the best, but putting in place plans if the worst does eventuate.
What Will Happen if Time Clock MTS Doesn’t Run on Windows 11?
If the software doesn’t run on Windows 11 we will not be able to fix it in a timely or cost effective fashion. In effect the software will be rendered obsolete.
What about the existing users of Time Clock MTS?
Obviously if Time Clock MTS doesn’t work on Windows 11 we will not leave you without an employee time clock. All Time Clock MTS users will have the option to move to our Online Time Clock system for at least 6 months free of charge. The options we have available if Time Clock MTS is obsoleted by Windows 11 are:
- Users with current support can transition to Online Time Clock MTS and get a 12 month subscription to that system and we will transition all of your time clock data from January 1 2020 to present to the online system.
- Users without current support can transition to Online Time Clock MTS and get a 6 month subscription to that system.
- Users with current support who do not transition to Online Time Clock MTS can get a pro-rated refund on their most recent support purchase or software purchase if they wish. Refunds will not be available until after the release of Windows 11 in November 2021.
What Next?
We will be emailing every Time Clock MTS user in the next few weeks with details about transitioning across to Online Time Clock MTS. If you don’t want to wait for your email you can contact us now to get the process started immediately.
by Mark Nemtsas | Feb 27, 2018 | News
You might be aware that we also have an online employee time clock system called (rather imaginatively) Online Time Clock MTS. We’re just entering the last stages of testing for a major update to that system that includes Geolocation (or GPS tracking) and Geofencing.
Geolocation & GPS Positioning
Online Time Clock MTS can record the GPS location of employees when they punch in or out. The position is obtained from the device GPS (if you’re using a mobile device) which is very accurate. If you’re using a device that doesn’t have a GPS then Online Time Clock MTS will use Geolocation to attempt to determine the employee’s position, this is less accurate but can still be useful. Time clock administrators can view the coordinates of employee time punches on an interactive map display shown below. Punches can be clicked on to view the details of that punch and punches recorded in very similar (or the same) location are ‘spiderfied’ into a graphical web arrangement to allow for easy analysis of stacked time punches.
Employee Time Punch Map
Geofencing
A powerful new feature is Geofencing. Basically this means administrators can define geographic regions by drawing shapes on a map and restrict employees to punching in and out when they are physically within those regions. One or more Geofences can be applied to time clock logins and employees will not be able to punch in or out when their location is outside of the fences. Obviously this is going to be a lot more useful when your employees are using the mobile time clock interface on their cell phone or tablet. Below you can see a couple of screenshots showing how a geofence is defined and a map view showing the fences that apply to a given time clock location.
Creating a Geofence
Viewing Geofences for a Location
Using Online Time Clock MTS
If this sort of control over where your employees can punch in or out is of importance to you then please consider using Online Time Clock MTS. Right now it’ll cost you nothing for 13 months to do so, users of the desktop version of Time Clock MTS can get a one month trial and then a free 12 month subscription to our web based time clock system. Just head over and setup a 30 day trial and at the end of your trial send us an email and we’ll setup the additional 12 month subscription for you.
by Mark Nemtsas | Feb 14, 2018 | New Releases, News
We’re uploading version 6.1.6 of Time Clock MTS as this blog post is being written. This version contains a few minor fixes and performance enhancements as detailed below:
- Deleted employees are no longer checked when updating the status of employees on the employee list.
- Employee count is now gathered during the main employee status query rather than separately when updating the employee list status.
- The query that gets the status of a single employee now works correctly if there is more than one time note assigned to the most recent time punch.
- The grouped employee status query now groups time notes by time rather than returning all notes.
- Fixed a long standing problem with the selected employee not updating correctly on the employee list when department folders were displayed.
- Tie breaker sort criteria added to the grouped employee status query to stop it returning more than one record from a sub query. Of course, there should NEVER be two most recent time punches but in the case of database corruption it can happen. This tie breaker criteria will stop an ugly error being thrown.
by Mark Nemtsas | Feb 6, 2018 | New Releases, News
Today sees the release of Version 6.1.5 of our time clock software. This version has a number of performance improvements as we continually seek to provide a better experience when using Time Clock MTS with a remote database server like MySQL or SQL Server. Here’s a detailed list of the changes:
- Code for filling the employee list has been greatly improved. Key changes are selection of employee status information via a single query and removal of queries that were selecting non vital data.
- Just two queries are used to generate the Employee Status Report, formerly a query per employee was required.
- Checking of compliance with license conditions has been greatly streamlined by combination of database queries into one grouped query.
- Checking for a live connection to the time clock data file is now only carried out every 10 seconds rather than with each and every new attempt to pull data from the data file.
- Removed a pointless check for duplicate time punch check when punching in or out.
- All parameterized queries have been removed when using a MySQL back-end with the Network PLUS Edition of Time Clock MTS.
- The View Release Notes button on the Check for Updates screen now displays the Release Notes page from the timeclockmts.com website.
- The warning about the Stand Alone Edition running on more than one computer now includes a link to a blog article that explains how to solve the issue.
- Two new time punch formats added to Event Based Data Export formats, HHNNSS and HHNNSS AMPM.
- Reminding of new users about Employee PINs is now done with a properly styled form with a link to the explanatory video on our website.
- The first administrator login prompt is now done via a properly styled window.
- Whenever the software tries to access our website it correctly tries to access the HTTPS version of the website rather than the old non-secure address.
- Fixed a problem with the crosstab query when loading a group of time punches and there was more than one time note recorded against a single time punch.
- Fixed a problem with the display of status icons on the Edit Times screen and the Dept. Folders on Employee List setting was switched on.
by Mark Nemtsas | Oct 30, 2017 | News
We’ve just posted a small update to our tool to export data to SQL Server or MySQL. The rather imaginatively named “Database Exporter” will now gracefully handle the case where NULL values have been inserted into numeric database columns. This can ONLY happen if you’ve added custom data columns to the Time Clock MTS database, as Time Clock MTS is well-mannered enough to make sure it actually inserts values into numeric columns rather than leaving them NULL or empty.
The latest version of our Database Exporter tool can be downloaded from here. Note that this tool CAN ONLY BE RUN FROM A COMPUTER WITH TIME CLOCK MTS INSTALLED ON IT as it is dependent on libraries that are installed with our time clock software. Note also that it must be installed in the same folder that Time Clock MTS is.
