by Mark Nemtsas | Jul 18, 2013 | News, Tips and Tricks
Just recently I was interviewed for an upcoming article on a fairly popular small business news website. The article addresses the question “What is Timecard Software?”. As part of this interview I answered some questions the journalist sent me via email about time card software. I thought it would be useful to reproduce those answers in a blog article.
1. What is timecard software and how does it work?
Time card software is used to collect information about when employees arrive at work, when they take breaks, and when they leave for the day. It is designed to replace paper timesheets, punch clock machines, and time card machines. The software will store this time card information and make it available to payroll staff and managers so they can run reports to work out employee payroll, what employees are spending their time on, and who is (or isn’t) at work. Typically timecard software takes one of two forms. The first is installable software that shares data across your network and allows your employees to clock in and out on one or more computers. The second, is a web based time card system that allows employees to clock in and out via a web-enabled device. These days a third type of system is becoming more popular, namely time card apps on mobile devices. However, these are typically linked to some sort of web based timecard system anyway.
2. What are the benefits of using such software?
There are three main benefits to using time card software. The first, is that it will save a company money. Cost savings come through reducing the time taken for manual payroll calculations, a big reduction in payroll errors, reducing employee time theft, and reducing consumable costs from manual timesheet systems. The second area of improvement will be freeing up of time of both payroll staff and employees. A good time card system should make processing payroll much faster and should allow employees to clock in and out very quickly and easily. This time saved can be spent improving other areas of the business. The final benefit is one of increased employee satisfaction. Obviously payroll staff will be happier because their jobs are easier. But less obviously, normal employees should be happier with a good time card system. Payroll errors should be reduced, they should be able to see quickly and easily what vacation / sick time they have owing, and if the time card system allows it, they should be able to request time off and communicate easily with payroll staff using the time card software.
Time Clock MTS on Windows 10
3. What are the drawbacks?
Clearly any system is going to require up-front costs and on-going training for new and existing employees. Also, there’s almost always going to be a need for an internal “product champion” that people can fall back on if there are questions or issues with the time card system. Other problems can be more technical especially if the time card software is installable rather than web-based. Computers can fail and the time card software can be incompatible with new operating systems. This can lead to an on-going cost of ownership that web-based time card systems do not have. The final drawback is usually one of employee resistance. Some employees will hate the idea of a system that can track their times accurately and cannot be manipulated. This problem is more of a cultural one rather than a drawback of the software itself. It is, however, an important problem that must be addressed.
4. Can employers use timecard software to help manage remote or offsite employees?
Off-site employees and remote employees are easily dealt with by web based time card systems. Such a system should allow employees to clock in or out with any web-enabled device or perhaps via an app on a smart phone. The data will be recorded back to a central server where it can be easily reported on by payroll staff. Installable desktop time card software can be a little more problematic, but the problems are not insurmountable. Remote login tools like Windows Terminal Services or even free tools like Log Me In make it fairly simple for a remote employee to clock in or out via a remote desktop connection.
5. What are things small business owners should look for in timecard software?
There’s probably 5 key things I’d recommend anyone look at before purchasing a timecard software system. The first is to ensure that the system is compatible with your computer system. The second is to evaluate both upfront and on-going costs. It’s simple to get fooled by a low cost system that has high on-going maintenance costs just to keep the software running.
The third area is one of technical support. Ensure your chosen vendor has excellent online support resources. My experience is that most people like to work out problems with their time clock software before picking up the telephone so make sure the online support resources are there. The fourth thing to consider is to ensure that the chosen system has the features you require. Look beyond the simple need to clock employees in and out and hourly rates. Look for the ability to deal with the sorts of overtime you need, look for vacation and sick time accruals and look for the ability to track time spent on jobs. The best way to work out if a timecard system has the features you want is to try it before you buy it. For at least one full payroll cycle.
The final thing to consider is ease of use and quality of reports. There’s no point having a system that is laborious to run and takes a lot of time to maintain and equally there’s no point having a time clock system that just doesn’t give you reports on the time clock data you need.
6. Do you see time timecard software becoming more of the norm moving forward?
Absolutely. There’s low cost time clock systems out there (such as “Time Clock MTS) that can be had for well under $100. Even if you’ve got just a few employees you’re likely to recoup that cost in time savings in just a month or two if you’re currently using a paper based time card system. We have users of Time Clock MTS who have 5 employees and users who have 1000 employees. They are all finding it worthwhile. We’ve also got a free version of Time Clock MTS available for companies who have less than 4 employees so there’s really no reason for even the smallest business not to be using time card software.
Online Time Clock MTS on Windows 8
7. What do you think is holding back some businesses from adopting timecard software?
Three main areas. The first is a perception that there will be some sort of need for an internal IT whiz to keep your time card software running. A good time card system should be easy to install, simple for employees to use to clock in and out, and produce reports quickly and easily. The second area of concern most people have is one of security. They believe any time card system will be easy for employees to manipulate. A system like Time Clock MTS includes a raft of features to stop this. Including integration with fingerprint scanners, using internet time servers to set the internal software time, taking pictures of employees when the clock in or out, and a strong password system. The final reason is one of perceived cost. Sure, some systems are very expensive but there’s some really affordable installable and web-based time card systems out there these days that really do pay for themselves very quickly.
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Jul 11, 2013 | New Releases, News
I’ve been working on Time Clock MTS Version 4.1.4 for a few weeks now and have uploaded it to the website today. Here’s a detailed list of the changes made to this release.
- Fixed a typo on the Vacation Accruals and Sick Time Accruals screens.
- Resetting the administrator password by answering the secret questions is no longer case dependent.
- Reworked the trial reminder to be a more attractive form rather than a simple message box. Also, the trial reminder can now be dismissed for up to seven days.
- When the trial is expired a proper form is now displayed rather than a simple message box.
- When operating in free mode there is only one reminder rather than one every time the software is started.
- There was a problem with the Job Details Report showing times booked against no job being recorded against a non existent job number. This has now been fixed.
- The “Clock All Employees Out” button on the Edit Times screen now allows the administrator to clock the selected employee (or all employees) in.
- The employee and administrator time off request screens now do proper date sorts for all date based columns.
- When a time off request is deleted from the administrator time off request screen the time off requests retain their sort order.
- Time Clock MTS now remembers the setting to automatically create a bulletin when a time off request is approved.
- The employee bulletin screen is no longer shown to employees if there are no bulletins to show the employee.
by Mark Nemtsas | May 31, 2013 | News
This weekend I’m rolling out changes to the pricing structure of Time Clock MTS. Gone will be the old (and frankly confusing) system that required you to choose from a large number of different client packages decide on the number of employees that you wanted to track. Instead there are going to be just three options when purchasing Time Clock MTS.
The Network Edition
The Time Clock MTS Network Edition will be just $199 (US) for 20 time clock client computers and 1 time clock administrator computer. You will be able to track up to 500 employees using the Time Clock MTS Network Edition. The price of $199 (US) represents about a 60% price drop over the old pricing structure.
The Network PLUS Edition
The Time Clock MTS Network PLUS Edition will be $399 (US) and allow for 1 administrator computer and up to 100 time clock client computers. To support more than 20 time clock clients it will require the use of one of the Enhanced Backend Database options. The price of $399 (US) represents a 50% price drop over the previous pricing structure.
The Stand Alone Edition
The Stand Alone Edition allows you to install Time Clock MTS on one computer and track up to 500 employees. We’ve maintained the price of the Stand Alone Edition at $99 (US) but the ability to track up to 500 employees gives a saving of around 60% versus the old cost.
If you’re an existing Time Clock MTS user and you’ve got any questions about these pricing changes or want to talk to me about a potential upgrade then please contact me.
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | May 20, 2013 | New Releases, News
On Saturday just gone I uploaded version 4.1.3 of Time Clock MTS. This new version includes a couple of bug fixes and adds a new report.
The new report is the Job Details Report. This gives a day by day and punch by punch breakdown of time spent by employees during the reporting period. If the time is spent on a job then the job code is displayed. Each punch is shown with the elapsed time in hours.
The first bug fix was to the recently added setting that allows employee list status refreshes on the Time Clock MTS Client Software. When the list refreshed the selected employee was de-selected. Now, when the list refreshes the employee remains selected. The second fix was to some of the background processing that enables employees to switch jobs rather than clocking out. One user was getting an “Already Clocked In” error. This is now fixed and the new code should result in less database accesses and will speed up the operation.
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Mar 28, 2013 | New Releases, News
Version 4.1.1 of our employee punch clock software has been released. The changes made in this release are primarily aimed at the employee time off requests area of Time Clock MTS but there’s a few changes made to other things too. Here’s a list of the changes made:
- No Finger Scan setting added to the employee information screen. When checked for an employee that employee will not need to scan their fingerprint to clock in and out. Useful for employees whose fingers will not scan reliably. Of course you must have the biometric time card features switched on for this setting to have any effect.
- When an employee bulletin that requires acceptance is marked as read by an employee it will no longer be displayed to that employee.
- A different icon is shown for employees that are clocked into a job on the employee list interface.
- Changed the date formats on the employee and administrator time off request screens to allow for proper date sorting when the column headers are clicked.
- Adjusted some of the text and tooltip popups on the import employees screen.
- Made several changes to the administrator manage time off requests screen. The changes include adding a time filter, relocating the time off request status filter check boxes, and adding the view time off request report button.
- Added the time off request report.
- The value of the checkbox that creates an employee bulletin on the Approve/Deny time off request screen is now remembered.
- Fixed up the import employees process to bring in employee display color and do no pay overtime settings correctly.
by Mark Nemtsas | Mar 25, 2013 | News
Online Time Clock MTS on Windows 8
You may or may not be aware but we also offer an online punch clock system which is a replacement for both mechanical time card machines and desktop punch clock software. Online Time Clock MTS can be run from pretty much any browser on any computer anywhere in the world to track your employee attendance data. It can also be run on many mobile devices such as iPods, iPhones, and iPads.
Free Online Punch Clock Trial
Online Time Clock MTS offers an obligation free 30 day trial in which you can use the time clock system on as many computers as you like to track as many employees as you like. It is not restricted in anyway and runs for long enough to trial the system for at least one full payroll period. Signing up for a free Online Punch Card Trial just takes a few seconds and you can be punching in or out within just a few minutes of signing up! It really doesn’t get much easier than that.
Why an Online Punch Clock?
Online Time Clock MTS requires no installation, has no third party software requirements, and an account can be registered and put to work in just a minute or two by a non-technical person. The time punches that Online Time Clock MTS records are completely secure and cannot be falsified by employees. Your time punch data is regularly backed up so no more worries if your power goes off, no more having to keep track of software registration keys, and no headaches if your punch clock PC fries itself. Just fire up an Internet browser on another computer or mobile device and your employees will be punching in and out within minutes.
Who Uses Online Time Clock MTS
Right now several hundred different companies are using Online Time Clock MTS every day to record their employee attendance. They range in size from small stores with just 2 or 3 staff right up to large companies with hundreds of employees who are using Online Time Clock MTS across multiple time zones. The real strength of Online Time Clock MTS is for users who have several different locations in the same city or state with just a few staff in each. Online Time Clock MTS gives them an online punch card system to record employee time punches across a wide area and then gather and report on that information from head office. And all they need in each location is a web browser and an internet connection.
