I got a question from a Time Clock MTS user a few days ago. They wanted to upgrade from the Stand Alone Edition of Time Clock MTS to the Time Clock MTS Network Edition. They’ve been using the single computer version for a while and wanted some detailed instructions on getting their new system working with more time clock computers. It was a good question and my answer was rather detailed so I thought it was worth sharing here.
Here’s their question:
Currently we have 1 desktop computer running the old single- user version of Time Clock. We have a total of 6 desktop PC’s running Windows 7 on them. We have a network setup were by all us can access each other’s desktop to share data or access networked printers.
To access the single-user version of Time Clock, all office staff including the employee who uses the PC with Time Clock installed are required to physically walk up to this PC running Time Clock to log the start and end of our work day.
This is disruptive to the aforementioned employee as he has to move out of the way from his desk to allow other office staff access to the Time Clock app.
Therefore my objective is to install the network multi-user version of your Time Clock app on any one of our 6 desktop computers. Then have each staff user access the Time Clock app from their own desktop PC.
So with this info I hope you can tell us how to proceed to setup and start using the network multi-user version, (if that is the correct version we need)?
And here’s my response to them:
Firstly, yes, you’ve purchased the correct version of Time Clock MTS to do what you want. And here’s how I’d set things up:
1. Decide on what computer is going to be your Time Clock MTS administrator computer. This computer is where you’ll run reports, add new employees, and configure the software. Install the Time Clock MTS administrator program on this and run it once to set a default password.
2. Decide on what computer is going to hold your Time Clock MTS database file. This should be a computer that is backed up so you don’t lose your time clock data.
3. Share a folder on that computer that is accessible from all other computers on your network. All other computers should have full read/write permissions on this folder. Copy the Time Clock MTS database from the computer that already had Time Clock MTS on it to this new folder. If you can tell me what version of Windows is on the computer that already had Time Clock MTS on it then I can tell you where the database is. If you want to learn how to share a folder then this page would be helpful:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows7/share-files-with-someone
4. Once you’ve copied the file log in as the time clock administrator on the new Time Clock MTS computer you setup in step 1. Go to the
Tools->Options->System Options screen and click on the CHANGE button.
Navigate to where your database is that you moved in Step 3 and click ok.
Save the changes and you should now see your old data in Time Clock MTS.5. Go ahead and install the Time Clock MTS Client software on the computers where you want employees to clock in and out. When you first run the software you’ll be given the chance to connect to the database you setup in step 3.
Note that the Time Clock MTS Administrator program and Client program can be downloaded from our downloads page here:
