Time Clock MTS and Daylight Savings

by Mark Nemtsas | Mar 17, 2018 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software

Last weekend’s change to daylight savings time highlight a potential problem with Time Clock MTS if you do not have your Windows time settings set correctly. Here’s the steps that had to be taken to see this issue show up:

1. You’re using Time Clock MTS with an internet time server.
2. You DO NOT have Windows set to adjust the time automatically for Daylight Savings Time.
3. To correct the time on the computer you manually adjust the system clock forward an hour.
4. The time display in Time Clock MTS is now 1 hour BEHIND the time shown on the system clock (see below).

Time Clock MTS clock 1 hour behind system clock

Fixing the problem is simple enough. Just take the following steps:

1. Set the system time on your computer BACK one hour. It should now be one hour behind the actual time.
2. Change your Windows settings to allow it to adjust the system clock automatically for Daylight Savings. See the image below for how this is done in Windows 10.

Setting Windows to Automatically Adjust for DST

You should find now that the clock in Time Clock MTS matches the computer system clock.

Time Clock MTS clock matches system clock

Displaying a Single Department on the Time Clock MTS Client

by Mark Nemtsas | Feb 13, 2018 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software

This Time Clock MTS How-To guide explains how to restrict the employees displayed on the Time Clock MTS Client Software to a single department. This is useful if you do not want employees from one department seeing employees from another department when punching in and out. It’s even possible to create a department per employee and restrict display to a single employee per time clock computer. Here’s the steps to follow to restrict the employees displayed on the time clock client software to one department:

Create Departments and Assign them to Employees

To learn how to create and assign employees to departments take a look at this how to guide.

Show Department Folders

The next step is to display department folders on the time clock employee list. To learn how to do this take a look at this how to guide.

Configure the Time Clock Client Software to Display a Single Department

On the computer where you want to restrict display of employees to a single department start up the Time Clock MTS Client program. You’ll see that all employees and departments are displayed as per the image below:

All Departments Visible

To select a department to display Log in as the Administrator and go to the Tools->Options->System Options screen. Toward the bottom of the screen is a drop down labelled Only Display Employees from Dept (Local PC Only). Click that and select a department to display. See the image below for a visual explanation:

The System Options Screen

Once a department is selected click the Save button and log out of the administrator account using the File->Log Off of Administrator Account menu. The list of employees will refresh and you’ll see that only the employees from the selected department are displayed. See the image below.

Only One Department Visible

Note that the parent department on the display has Filtered next to it to remind you that you’re seeing a filtered display of employees. Note also that the filtering ONLY takes place when you’re not logged into the Administrator account.

Assigning Time Clock Employees to Departments

by Mark Nemtsas | Dec 28, 2017 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software

This Time Clock MTS How-To guide was the result of this question by a Time Clock MTS User:

I have multiple companies under the same timeclock. How do I assign employees to a specific department? Employees are always in the same department. We do not mix the 2 departments at all.

So, how do you set up departments, assign them to employees and then report on those departments? This how-to-guide covers the entire process.

Managing / Creating Departments

The Tools->Options->Departments screen can be used to create and manage any number of departments in Time Clock MTS. Add, edit, or delete departments using this screen. The Manage Departments screen can be seen below in the process of adding a new department called “Manufacturing”.

Adding a New Department

Assigning an Employee to a Department

Assign your employees to the correct department once you’ve created your company department list. This is easily accomplished by selecting the employee you want to edit and going to the Employee Maintenance->Edit Selected Employee->Employee Information screen. On this screen towards the top is a dropdown box containing each of your departments. Just select the department you want your employee to work in from this drop down and click the Save Employee button. Below you can see what this screen looks like while we’re assigning an employee to the “Accounting” department.

Assigning the Employee to the Department

Running a Payroll Report for a Department

You’re going to want to report on their activity once you’ve got employees assigned to a department and they are punching in and out of Time Clock MTS every day. This is usually done by running a payroll report from the Reporting->Payroll Reports menu. Select a department from the Department drop down box at the top left of the Report Configuration screen (see image below). Making a selection from this drop down allows you to filter any report by department.

Running a Departmental Payroll Report

Some payroll reports are specifically designed to create departmental information. These include the Departmental Wages Report and the Simple Wages (Departmental) Report.

That concludes this how-to article. It should be noted that this method will only work if your employees always work in one department. If your employees split their time between departments then you’d want to use the Time Clock MTS Job Tracking System. If, for example, you’re a restaurant and your employees split their time between front-of-house and the bar then you could create a job called “front-of-house” and one for “bar” and have your employees punch in and out each job as required. But that is really the subject of another how-to article!