by Mark Nemtsas | Oct 30, 2014 | How To, Tips and Tricks
To access payroll reports and to be able to configure Time Clock MTS you must be using the software in Administrator mode. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator and thus access the Administrator mode. When Time Clock MTS is operating in Normal mode and you want to log in as the administrator you must use the File->Log in as Administrator menu as shown in the image above. Once you’ve selected this menu item you’ll be shown the Enter Administrator Password screen as shown below. Your administrator password was set by you when you first installed Time Clock MTS. Remember that is is cASe SenSITive and that you (or someone else with administrator access to Time Clock MTS) may have changed it. Once you’ve entered the password correctly and clicked the Login button you’ll be logged in correctly and Time Clock MTS will be operating in Administrator mode. If you’ve forgotten your password then you’ll need to reset your administrator... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Oct 14, 2014 | New Releases
For the last two years some Time Clock MTS users have experienced a crash when starting up Time Clock MTS. The error message Windows gave was a rather unhelpful “Time Clock MTS has stopped working”. And that was it. The perplexing thing was that Time Clock MTS would work for months and years on a computer, and then one day it would just stop, and users would be presented with the mysterious message. And nothing they (or we) tried could ever get it working again. We’ve spend hundreds of hours trying to get to the bottom of the issue with no luck. Mainly because we’ve never been able to reproduce the issue on one of our own computers. But yesterday, a long time user of Time Clock MTS experienced the problem and made his computer available to us via remote connection. After spending the whole day working on his computer we identified the cause of the issue and put a fix in place. Thank goodness! Our thanks must go out to Jose Moldes of International Taxes Inc. of Florida for his time, patience, and for making his computer available to us. I don’t think the problem would have been solved otherwise. Here are all of the changes made in this release: Fix to start up crash seen on some computers. The issue was the text labels on the time clock and keypad screens. These have been replaced and the bug seems to be resolved. Fix to various screen elements not re-painting correctly. Removed an API call to repaint various window elements because it was surplus to requirements. Reworked much... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Oct 1, 2014 | Using the Software
Recently I was reading a time and attendance discussion group on LinkedIn and one member was having problems with “buddy punching”. Buddy punching, put simply, is the act of one employee using using their employer’s time clock to punch in and out for another employee. Sometimes this can be completely innocent as in “hey my hands are full can you punch my card for me” but more often it is designed to defraud in a situation like this: “hey I am going to be late today can you punch my card for me so no-one notices”. Regardless of the reasons for buddy punching it’s a real cost to business. The American Payroll Association conducted a study into it and found that 75% of businesses experienced it, that the average “buddy puncher” stole 6 hours a week from their employer, and that 2.2% of American payroll costs could be attributed to it. In the case of the discussion on the LinkedIn group the member in question ran a number of remote cleaning crews who used a time clock at each location when they started work and stopped. His issue was that cleaning crew supervisors were punching in and out for relatives who called in sick or were late to work. Another member chimed in with their experience of a remote supervisor who had “invented” employees and was punching in and out for those people and collecting the payroll for themselves. I am not sure how this is quite possible given the need for social security numbers and so-on but if true, it’s clearly a criminal activity. So how do you... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Sep 4, 2014 | New Releases
I’ve spent the last few days working on a minor release of Time Clock MTS that was uploaded this afternoon. Version 5.0.6 includes the following changes: Replacement of the temporary registration key system with a 7 day trial extension. Users who have purchased the software when the trial has expired can now extend the trial for a further 7 days while they wait for their permanent registration keys (which are usually sent within 24 hours of purchase). Simplifies the process considerably and will lead to fewer users having their hands tied because they couldn’t work out the temporary keys they were emailed. The seven day trial extension can be accessed via a popup message on the day the initial 30 day trial period expires and also via the File menu. Once the extension has been used there is no way to extend beyond that point and the software will then operate in free mode (3 employee maximum on a single computer). Fixed some typos on the program splash screen. Reworded much of the registration information throughout the program for better consistency and easier... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Aug 20, 2014 | Tips and Tricks
Time Clock MTS includes many features in it’s design to eliminate fraud and keep your data secure. These are some of the features: Only the administrator can access the administrator functions with their password. All employees have PIN numbers to prevent them clocking in or out for each other. Administrator passwords are required on program start or stop (or both) to stop employees stopping the program and changing the system clock. You can use an attached web cam to capture images on employee clock in or out, review these images or use them as a deterrent to prevent buddy punching. You can learn more about this here. Synchronize times with internet time servers to eliminate manipulation of system time. Time Clock MTS database is password protected to prevent manual editing of data. You can learn more about this here. The software monitors the PC clock to prevent the system clock being... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Aug 20, 2014 | User Testimonials
Rob Brown of the Sumter Humane Society in Georgia was kind enough to send through a great letter today about how they’ve been using Time Clock MTS for the last three years. He sent the letter through as a PDF file that you can view here. I’ve also reproduced the contents below. August 18, 2014 Timesheets MTS Software Dear Mark, We have been using the Timeclock MTS software for over 3 years and have been very satisfied with the product. When we initially consider using Timeclock, the free trial made our evaluation completely without risk as we could test drive it before we had to commit any funds. We are a small non-profit humane society and rely on donations to exist so we spend very wisely and the Timeclock software was a good value for us. Although we are small having only 8 paid employees, having time software is a real time saver come payday. Our bookkeeper works on site and at times offsite, but the program allows for easy export of date into Excel so the time reports can easily be emailed for payroll processing or other reporting. We have yet to use many of the other features, but we have talked of using the fingerprint scanner for clocking in and out, to reduce any hours fraud, that is in our near future. Overall we could not ask for a better and easier to use product and will be happy customers for years to come. Thank you, Rob Brown Sumter Humane... read more
