by Mark Nemtsas | Dec 24, 2008 | News
2008 is about to draw to a close and I thought it was a good time to summarize the year. Time Clock MTS has seen it’s usual level of development activity, with more than 30 releases this year. Most of these releases contained new features to make the software easier to use and more flexible to suit varying business requirements. As always I rely heavily on the users of Time Clock MTS to let me know what they do and dont like about the software, and these opinions help shape the development of the software. Version 2 of the software was released in June. This included a complete revamp of the reporting system as well as a slew of usability improvements. One of the more interesting new features added later in the year was the use of a webcam to capture employee images when they clock in or out.
The number of new companies using Time Clock MTS in 2008 grew by about 25% compared with 2007. This is despite the world financial crisis which has affected all of us in the last 6 months of this year. In fact, sales of Time Clock MTS in October and November were more than 30% down on the rest of the months of the year. November was in fact the worst sales month for nearly 3 years! I can only think that caution is the catch cry of the moment, with all sensible business owners riding out the storm by managing their expenditure and controlling their expenses.
Regarding the future development of the software please watch out for the integration of a fingerprint scanner with the software in the next few weeks. It’s been difficult to locate a fingerprint scanning vendor who I am happy with, one that did not have burdensome licensing requirements. I’ve finally located one such vendor (one who happens to have top class hardware) and I am working with them now to incorporate biometric security into Time Clock MTS. Watch out for this in late January or early February. I’m also trying (without much success) to get Time Clock MTS working better with payroll software. So if you use some payroll software that can import time and attendance information why not let me know what format it requires and I’ll add an export report in Time Clock MTS to suit it.
In conclusion I’d like to thank the users of Time Clock MTS who have given me valuable feedback during the year. I’d also like to thank those people who trialed the software and took the time to let me know their opinion of it even if they didn’t purchase it. There’s also the helper elves at Timesheets MTS Software that I’d like to thank, you know who you are!
Seasons greetings and happy holidays to all.
by Mark Nemtsas | Nov 27, 2008 | News
We’ve released a new version of Time Clock MTS today. All of the new features are focused on improving the usability of the software.
- I’ve added two administrator password reminder questions. You can either answer these when you first install the software or on the Tools->Options->System Options screen.
- An administrator password reset screen has been added on the File->Reset Administrator Password menu. You can use this screen if you’ve answered the password reminder questions mentioned above.
- Added links to various help topics on the Time Clock MTS website on various screens. For example, added a link to the software registration tutorial on the Help->Registration page.
- Added a link to the online help on the Help menu. This is a work-around for users who don’t seem to be able to view the integrated help.
- Expanded the contents of the tips file.
- There is now a link to the integrated help file installed in the program shortcut menu when you install the software.
I’ll be doing a more comprehensive post on the reset password feature later today. Stay tuned!
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Nov 7, 2008 | New Releases, News
Just one small change today. A new setting has been added to shifts allowing you to restrict when employees can start clocking in for that shift. It’s a change that is worthy of it’s own post. You can read more about stopping employees clocking too early for their shifts.
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Oct 20, 2008 | New Releases, News
A minor release today fixing up a few problems and improving the way that paid holidays function.
- Payroll report total hours are now calculated from rounded daily values rather than raw daily values. This fixes up some rounding errors that could lead to the weekly total being slightly different to the amount if you totaled up the daily amounts. The difference was small (usually only 0.01 of an hour).
- A ‘last week’ time selection has been added to the Edit Times period drop down.
- The punchcard report now shows time notes. If the clock in time has a note, that will be shown, if there is no clock in time note and there is a clock out time note, that will be shown.
- Holidays can now be set to a specific date in a given year or can be set as recurring. Recurring holidays are those that occur on the same date every year (such as Christmas), non recurring holidays would happen on a different date every year (such as Thanksgiving or Labor Day).
- The holidays list displays some extra info, such as whether the holiday is recurring and what year it is set for.
- The holidays add/edit screen will now display non latin characters (such as cyrillic or Japanese) properly.
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Oct 13, 2008 | New Releases, News
A new release today containing some improvements to the new error reporting started in version 2.1.4. The release also contains some fixes and improvements to reports and some other minor changes.
- If an error is raised on the keypad interface (such as a note being invalid, or an invalid clock in/out) then the employee badge number is cleared from the text box.
- The new error text message is now cleared when a new employee is selected or a new badge number is entered.
- The warning messages on the time note entry screen (zero length note or note equal to badge number) are now displayed in the new error status area.
- All report periods are now selected on rounded times rather than absolute times. Previously this was not the case, so while payment amounts were correct sometimes activity could be missing from a report.
- Accruals in the accrual section on reports are now to the end date of the report rather than the run date of the report.
- <SICK_TIME_OWING_PERIOD> and <VACATION_OWING_PERIOD> added to the accrual report section.
- Fix to report configuration screen where the hide employee summary section check box was not re-enabled after the payroll summary report was selected.
- Removed employee summary section entirely from the simple wages report (didn’t make sense having it there anyway).
- Enlarged the section field selection box on the report settings screen.
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Oct 9, 2008 | New Releases, News
A minor release today containing one small fix, some error checking, and improvements to the software to make it easier to use with touchscreens. The list of changes includes:
- Camera images are now captured on clock in/out via keypad interface.
- Clock in / out errors are now displayed as a status message on the screen rather than a popup box.
- A check is now made when adding time note, if the note is not added correctly then the created clock in/out is rolled back and an error raised.
