by Mark Nemtsas | Dec 8, 2012 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
You might think that setting up a barcode time clock is expensive and complicated. If you did think that, you’d be wrong. By my estimation you could setup an old Windows computer with Time Clock MTS, a simple USB barcode scanner, and some “home made” barcode employee badges for under $275. Here’s how I’d do it. 1. Designate a Computer to be your Time Clock Computer Almost every business has computers these days, and in my experience it’s not unusual for one of these computers to either be highly under-utilized or retired and switched off all of the time. It’s one of these computers that you should use as your time clock station. Cost? In most cases $0. Total Cost to Date: $0 2. Purchase and Install Time Clock MTS Time Clock MTS can be purchased for $99 (US). This can track up to 500 employees on a single computer. Once you’ve installed Time Clock MTS, create an employee for each employee you want to track. You could also create many employees at once very easily using the method I describe here. Once you’ve created all of your required employees, print out a Badge Number Report from within Time Clock MTS. Total Cost to Date: $99 (US) 3. Create Your Employee Badges Creating barcodes is easy. And free. You can do it from within pretty much any word processor or spreadsheet these days. All you need is a barcode font. Yes, a font, just like Arial, or Times New Roman, or Trebuchet. If you do a Google search for “free barcode font” you’ll get a ton of results, and... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Dec 1, 2012 | Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
I had a good question from a user of our employee timeclock software about wanting to track the hours employees spend at lunch but still pay the employees for those hours. The solution is to make use of the job tracking features of Time Clock MTS. I thought it would be worthwhile giving a step-by-step example of how you might set this up and how employees would track their lunch hours. 1. Create a Lunch Job Log into the Time Clock MTS Administrator program and go to the Tools->Options->Job Tracking screen. On the Job Tracking screen click the button to create a new job. You’ll then be shown the Add/Edit Job screen (see Figure 1). Enter some details for the Lunch Job and give it a job code that can be easily remembered. In this case I gave it the code 9999. Click the Save Job to add the job. You’ll be taken back to the Job Tracking screen where you’ll see the new Lunch Job in the job list. See Figure 2. 2. Turn on Job Tracking The next step is to turn on job tracking for each employee that you want to track lunch hours for. This is done via the Employee Maintenance->Edit Employee->Employee Information screen (see figure 3). When on this screen make a selection from the Job Tracking dropdown. If you’re not going to be tracking other jobs then you should probably set this to Optional. Don’t forget to press the Save Employee button to save the changes. 3. Clock Onto the Lunch Job Clocking onto the Lunch Job is simple. When the employee is... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Nov 28, 2012 | How To, Using the Software
Employee time off requests in Time Clock MTS are a convenient and easy way for employees to request time off. The time clock administrator can then approve or deny these requests and automatically create time punches for the requested time off period. In previous Time Clock MTS How-To Articles I talked about setting up Time Clock MTS to allow employees to request time off, how employees place time off requests, and how the time clock administrator uses the time off request management screen. This article covers how an administrator approves a time off request. 1. The Administrator Time Off Requests Screen To approve a time off request the time clock administrator must use the Administrator Time Off Requests screen. This is accessible from within the Time Clock MTS Administrator program via the Tools->Time Off Requests menu. You can see this screen above. To approve a request click on it in the list (it must have the PENDING status) and click on the Approve Selected button. 2. The Add Times for Time Off Request Screen The Add Times for Time of Request screen (see above) is then displayed. This screen is used to create time punches for each of the days the employee has requested off. The screen allows users to select what days in the period to create punches for, and allows adjustment of the start and end time of each day in the time off period. Links are provided above the list to allow users to select different days during the period, for example, all the days, the weekdays, or the weekends. 3. Select the Times to Create... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Nov 27, 2012 | How To, Using the Software
The Administrator Time Off Requests screen (see the screenshot above) is used by the Time Clock MTS administrator to manage all employee time off requests. This Time Clock MTS How-To guide takes users through the various functions of this screen. The Administrator Time Off Requests screen can be reached via the Tools->Time Off Requests menu item from within the Time Clock MTS Administrator program. Creating a New Employee Time Off Request Under certain circumstances it could be useful for administrators to be able to create new employee time off requests. This could simply be because the method of employees placing time off requests is handled outside of your time clock software or perhaps the administrator wants to create a number of employee clock in / out pairs quickly and easily. To create an employee time off request take the following steps. Click the button. Enter the details of the time off request on the add/edit time off request screen (see Figure 2 above). Care should be taken to ensure the correct dates are selected for the first and last day and that the time classification is set appropriately. When the details of the time off request are correct click the Save Time Off Request button to save the time off request. Editing an Existing Employee Time Off Request On the Administrator Time Off Request screen (see Figure 1 above) click on the time off request to be edited and then click the button. Alternatively an existing time off request can be edited directly by double clicking on it in the time off request list. The details of the time... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Nov 22, 2012 | How To, Using the Software
Employees who are recording time and attendance data with Time Clock MTS can request time off using the software. These requests are approved or denied by the time clock administrator and employees can be automatically notified via the Time Clock MTS Employee Bulletin System. This Time Clock MTS How-To guide takes employees through the process making a time off request. Before employees can make a time off request the time clock administrator must have configured Time Clock MTS to allow employees to request time off. 1. Select the Employee Name Select the employee name from the Time Clock MTS employee list (employee time off requests can only be made if you’re using the Employee List Interface). Then click on the View My Information button and select the Time Off Requests option from the drop-down menu. 2. Click the New Time Off Request Button You’ll then be shown the Employee Time Off Request Management screen (see above). To place a new time off request click the button. 3. Enter the Time Off Request Details Above you can see the screen used to enter your time off request details. You can enter a first day and last day as well as a start time and end time. So, if for example you wanted to take time off from 2 November 2012 to 9 November 2012 you’d enter 11/2/2012 to 11/9/2012 for your first and last day. If your normal work start time and end time is 9:00AM and 5:00AM you’d enter that for your start / end times. Conversely, if you wanted to request the morning off on 2 November 2012... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Nov 22, 2012 | How To, Using the Software
Our employee timeclock software, Time Clock MTS, now allows employees to request time off. These requests are communicated to the time clock administrator who can then approve or deny the requests and (if required) automatically create time punches for approved requests. This can greatly streamline the time off request process and help reduce data entry errors. This Time Clock MTS How-To guide takes you through the process of setting up Time Clock MTS to allow employees to request time off. Note that employees can only request time off when you are using the Employee List Interface of Time clock MTS. 1. Log in as the Administrator The first step is to log into the Time Clock MTS Administrator program as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options->Interface Settings screen (see the image below). 2. Check the Enable Time Off Requests Checkbox When on the Interface Settings screen check the Enable Time Off Requests checkbox and click the Save button to save the changes. 3. Log off Administrator Account Log out of Time Clock MTS administrator mode by using the File -> Log Off Of Administrator Account menu. 4. Employees Can Request Time Off Employees can now request time off by selecting their name in the Employee List and clicking on the View My Information button and then selecting the Time Off Requests option from the drop-down menu. You can see what this looks like above. That concludes this How-To article. For more help you should take a look at the Time Off Requests help... read more
