by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Feb 5, 2009 | New Releases, News
A new version released today. One small fix to stop a constant slow down of the software over time and one major new feature. The major new feature is the integration of Time Clock MTS with a Fingerprint Scanner. This is the last word in employee security and along with the other security features in Time Clock MTS should help you to eliminate buddy punching and payroll fraud completely. The software will only work with the Digital Persona U.are.U 4000 and 4500 fingerprint scanners. Currently I am not selling the hardware but Digital Persona recommended I use California PC as a supplier for the scanners. The price they offer is good and they should provide you with good after sales service. To get the software running with a Digital Persona scanner try taking a look at the using Time Clock MTS with a fingerprint scanner help topic. As always please email me if you have any questions or... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Feb 4, 2009 | New Features, New Releases
Within the next few hours version 2.2 of Time Clock MTS will be released. The key feature in this new version is integration with Digital Persona fingerprint scanners that you can purchase from California PC. By using a fingerprint scanner with Time Clock MTS you’ll pretty much eliminate payroll fraud and buddy punching. I bet that most companies will recoup the cost of the software and scanners in just a few weeks, with the ROI over a year likely to be in the hundreds of percent. If you want to read more about Time Clock MTS will work with a fingerprint scanner then there’s that page on the main site. Stay tuned, new release due out... read more
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Jan 21, 2009 | New Releases, News
A quick release today fixing up a couple of problems introduced in the new version yesterday and fixing up another problem with reports that I have been trying to track down for a while. Fix to divide by zero error that occurred when running a report that included sick/vacation accrual data. Only occurred when an employee was assigned to a sick or vacation accrual scheme with a zero ‘accrues every time period’ setting. Fixed up an error introduced to the calculation of working hours in the last version (did not effect payment amount) Fixed up a problem with the ‘always pay salary’ setting that was added in the last... read more
by kathryn@timeclockmts.com | Jan 20, 2009 | New Releases, News
A new release of Time Clock MTS to make it fully compliant with California overtime rules and to try to fix up a few niggling problems that I’ve not been able to get to the bottom of until now. A new setting on the Employee Maintenance->Payroll Information screen. Salaried employees have a new setting called ‘Always Pay Wages’. With this setting turned on the wages paid to employees is calculated based on the report period rather than the hours worked. So, if a salaried employee with this setting turned on has a payroll report run across a period of a week then they will get 1 weeks wages rather than a prorated amount dependent on how many hours they worked. A new setting on the Employee Maintenance->Payroll Information screen called ‘waive automatic breaks’. When this setting is turned on the selected employee will not be allocated automatic breaks if they have been configured. A new setting for each employee defining overtime rate 2. A new global overtime setting for a second tier of daily overtime. When this is turned on daily overtime above the new limit is paid at overtime rate 2. A new global overtime setting to turn on seventh day overtime. This includes a limit, under which seventh day overtime will be paid at overtime rate 1 and over which will be paid at overtime rate 2. Three new fields added to the payroll summary report section template. These display hours worked, rate and earnings for the new overtime rate 2. Time Clock MTS now refreshes the connection to it’s database every 20 minutes. Fix to secret... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Jan 20, 2009 | How To, New Features, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
In part 1 of configuring Time Clock MTS to comply with Californian Overtime Regulations I covered how to setup the software to calculate this sort of overtime automatically. In this second part I’ll cover how it is displayed in reports. Modifying Report Templates If you have only just started using Time Clock MTS then you will not need to modify your reports to display overtime rate 2 as the software will have set it up by default. You can therefore ignore this part of this article. However, if you are an existing user of Time Clock MTS upgrading an old version of the software to a newer version that supports the Californian Overtime Regulations then you will need to modify the Payroll Information report section template. In the image above you can see the relevant section that I have added to the report section template. I have added this immediately under the line that was already there that displayed the overtime rate 1 information. The line I have added is: Daily OT2 Hours: <T><DAILY_OT2_HOURS> hrs @ <OT2_RATE> /hr = <DAILY_OT2_EARNINGS> Basically this displays the heading ‘Daily OT2 Hours:’ along with the actual hours worked at overtime rate 2, the rate of pay for overtime rate 2 (which should be set to double time) and the earnings at overtime rate 2. If you don’t understand what the report section templates are then you should take a look at my posts on customizing Time Clock MTS reports in part 1, part 2, and part 3. Viewing Overtime 2 Payment Amounts in Reports If you choose to display the payroll summary section... read more
by Mark Nemtsas | Jan 20, 2009 | How To, New Features, Tips and Tricks, Using the Software
California has it’s own set of peculiar regulations for payment of overtime to employees. They are reasonably complex and are tedious when you have to apply and calculate them manually. As of Version 2.1.11 Time Clock MTS is now fully compliant with these regulations saving you a lot of time calculating your payroll and overtime pay. You can read about these regulations in detail on the Californian Department of Industrial Relations website. The relevant section of the page that applies (given that an employee is not subject to an exemption or exception) is: 1. One and one-half times the employee’s regular rate or pay for all hours worked in excess of eight hours up to and including 12 hours in any workday, and for the first eight hours worked on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek; and 2. Double the employee’s regular rate or pay for all hours worked in excess of 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked in excess of eight on the seventh consecutive day of work in a workweek. Thus overtime can be split into two parts: Daily Overtime: hours worked between 8 and 12 in a single day are subject to 1.5 times the normal rate of pay. Hours worked in excess of 12 hours in a single day are subject to 2.0 times the normal rate of pay. Seventh day overtime: If an employee works for the first 6 days of a work week then they are eligible for overtime if they work on the seventh day of the work week. The first 8 hours of work... read more
