by Mark Nemtsas | Jun 9, 2009 | Tips and Tricks
Time Clock MTS operates in two main modes. Normal mode, which is used by employees to clock in and out, and Administrator mode, which is used by the administrator to configure the software and run payroll reports. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers normal mode. The normal mode of operation in Time Clock MTS is the mode in which it will operate almost all of the time. By far the most common activity that will be carried out in the normal mode of operation is employees clocking in or out. A key indicator that Time Clock MTS is currently in normal mode of operation is that all the menus at the top are disabled apart from the File menu and the Help menu. When operating in Normal mode with the employee list interface enabled Time Clock MTS will look like the image above. Note that most of the menus are disabled. Using the employee list interface employees may also be able to view their own time cards and you can see the last activity each employee carried out. When using the keypad interface employees can only clock in and out using the numeric keypad. There are no other activities available to them while operating in normal mode. You can see what the keypad interface looks like while operating in normal mode in the image above. Note again that most of the menus are... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Jun 9, 2009 | Tips and Tricks
Time Clock MTS provides two different interfaces to allow employees to clock in and out. The first of these is the Employee List interface designed to be used with a computer mouse, the second is the Keypad interface designed to be primary be used with a touchscreen. Like the Employee List Interface the keypad screen can also be used with an input device such as a bar code reader, magnetic swipe card reader, or RFID reader. This article discussed was the keypad interface and how it can be used. The Keypad interface is selected by the Time Clock MTS Administrator on the Tools->Options->Interface Settings page (read about it in the help file). To turn on the Keypad Interface select the Keypad option from the Data Entry Mode dropdown box. Note that the Keypad interface is ONLY active in normal mode, that is when the time clock administrator IS NOT logged in. The keypad interface comprises two main areas. The keypad (which can be used with a computer mouse or touch screen) on the left, and the entry text box and employee status area on the right. To use the keypad interface to clock in or out an employee simply enter their employee ID (or badge number) using the keypad and clicks Enter when they are ready to clock in or out. Time Clock MTS will clock the employee in or out depending on what their last action was. When they are successfully clocked in or out the details of the action will be displayed in the status area. The Keypad interface can be used with data readers such as... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Jun 9, 2009 | Tips and Tricks
Time Clock MTS provides two different interfaces to allow employees to clock in and out. The first of these is the Employee List interface designed to be used with a computer mouse, the second is the Keypad interface designed to be used with a touchscreen. Both interfaces allow the use of data input devices such as magnetic card readers, bar code scanners, and RFID scanners. This article covers the Employee List interface. The Employee List interface is selected by the Time Clock MTS Administrator on the Tools->Options->Interface Settings page (read about it in the help file). You can see what the employee list interface looks like above. The screen is split into two main sections, an alphabetically sorted list of the active Time Clock MTS employees on the left, and the clock in / out buttons and current employee status area on the right. The sorted employee list contains a line for each active Time Clock MTS employee along with a status icon next to each name. An employee with a green icon is clocked in and with a red icon clocked out. To save on network traffic the Time Clock MTS Client only maintains the status icons for each employee for 60 seconds before the icons all change to gray. As you select an employee in the list the status light will update automatically showing you the most up to date status for that employee. The clock in / out buttons on the right side will be enabled or disabled depending on the status of the selected employee, so an employee that is clocked in will only be... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Jun 9, 2009 | Tips and Tricks
Time Clock MTS operates in two main modes. Normal mode, which is used by employees to clock in and out, and Administrator mode, which is used by the administrator to configure the software and run payroll reports. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers administrator mode. You can get into the Time Clock MTS Administrator by logging in as the administrator via the File->Log In As Administrator menu (covered in this article). Once you’re logged in as the administrator you’ll have access to all the menus in Time Clock MTS. In the image above you can see that all menus are enabled. Note that in the Time Clock MTS Client, most of these menus are not available. While you’re operating Time Clock MTS in the Administrator mode you can perform all of the reporting and maintenance functions of the software, a short list of the sorts of things you can do follows. Please note that this is by no means a full listing of all the things you can do within Time Clock MTS! Create, edit, disable and delete employees using the Employee Maintenance page. Setup fingerprint security for employees using the Employee Maintenance page. Run payroll reports using the Report menu. Search, backup, and restore the Time Clock MTS database using the Tools menu. Setup employee bulletin notices using the Tools menu. Configure the software using the Tools->Options menu. Access help resources and register the software using the Help... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Jun 4, 2009 | Using the Software
I’ve done this a couple of times before, Time Clock MTS users sometimes ask interesting questions that are worth sharing with the rest of the user community. I got a good question this morning so I’ll post up here along with a solution. Question: I am beginning the program in the middle of the year. My employees began the year with 80 hours vacation. They each have various amounts of vacation left right now. I can’t get the program to show each employees individual vacation hours that are available. This is not on an accrual basis. Everyone starts the year with 80 hours vacation on January 1 of each year. How do I get the program to calculate properly? The answer is pretty simple. Firstly, the user needs to setup a yearly accrual scheme which I’ve spoken about previously. There’s a subtle variation here though, this yearly accrual scheme needs to start on 1 January for all employees. So rather than checking the ‘Use Hire Date, not Fiscal Year’ you’d leave this unchecked. You’ll then need to go to Tools->Options->Payroll Settings screen and set the First Day of Fiscal Year to 1 January. Adjusting the starting balance for each employee is required because the Time Clock MTS user will not be starting use of the software on 1 January. This is pretty simple again, just adjust each employees starting vacation balance using the Employee Maintenance->Edit Selected Employee->Payroll Information screen. That’s how it’s done. It’s a fairly simple thing but does require you to change settings across a few different screens in Time Clock MTS. Got any more tricky accrual... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Jun 4, 2009 | News
I’m in the process of creating a new ‘how to’ guide for Time Clock MTS. This will be very different to the current Help File that is available online and that ships with the software. The current help file is what I’d called ‘screen based’. It describes each screen and what each element on the screen does, but it doesn’t really tell you directly how to do perform a given task in Time Clock MTS. The new ‘how to guide’ will be very task based, and any new user to the software should be able to use it to learn how to perform almost any task within the software. You’ll be able to see the how to guide here in the blog. I’ve created a master index on the site that categorizes each how to guide entry so that you can find what you need to do more easily. You can view the How to Guide Master Index here. I’ll try to add one article a week to this... read more
