Time Clock MTS Pricing Changes

This weekend I’m rolling out changes to the pricing structure of Time Clock MTS. Gone will be the old (and frankly confusing) system that required you to choose from a large number of different client packages decide on the number of employees that you wanted to track. Instead there are going to be just three options when purchasing Time Clock MTS.

The Network Edition

The Time Clock MTS Network Edition will be just $199 (US) for 20 time clock client computers and 1 time clock administrator computer. You will be able to track up to 500 employees using the Time Clock MTS Network Edition. The price of $199 (US) represents about a 60% price drop over the old pricing structure.

The Network PLUS Edition

The Time Clock MTS Network PLUS Edition will be $399 (US) and allow for 1 administrator computer and up to 100 time clock client computers. To support more than 20 time clock clients it will require the use of one of the Enhanced Backend Database options. The price of $399 (US) represents a 50% price drop over the previous pricing structure.

The Stand Alone Edition

The Stand Alone Edition allows you to install Time Clock MTS on one computer and track up to 500 employees. We’ve maintained the price of the Stand Alone Edition at $99 (US) but the ability to track up to 500 employees gives a saving of around 60% versus the old cost.

If you’re an existing Time Clock MTS user and you’ve got any questions about these pricing changes or want to talk to me about a potential upgrade then please contact me.

Free Time Clock Software Trials – 5 Reasons to Try Before You Buy

There’s nothing worse than buying boxed software and getting back to your office and realizing your computers don’t have the right version of Windows, or are too old, too slow, or need more memory to run what you’ve bought. You might even find that you need a permanent Internet connection to use some software and in the case of employee timeclock software that’s not something that’s always desirable. Being able to try a prospective time clock system BEFORE you buy it will help you determine if the software will run on the old PC you’ve earmarked as a clock in computer. You’ll find out quickly if it’s compatible with the version of Windows, and if your PC hardware will cope with the software. And you’ll find all of this out before you have to spend a cent.

1. To ensure your employees can use the software

It’s important to take advantage of a free time clock software trial to ensure that the employees who use it every day will be able to understand how to clock in and out. Not all software is the same and some is most definitely harder to use than others. With this being the case if your employees don’t know one end of a computer mouse from the other it’s important that they be given the opportunity to see the software that they need to clock in and out of every day. If you’ve got a lot of employees and they are wasting time every day because the software is hard to use then you are just needlessly wasting time and money. Being able to trial your time clock software before purchasing will allow you to discover important usability issues like these before it’s too late.

2. To test the fit through an entire payroll cycle

Reading a glossy software brochure is one thing and watching an online video demonstration of a prospective time clock system is something else. But both are like a picture of a beautiful meal. They give you an appetite but it’s not until you taste that you really know whether a meal (or an employee timeclock) is what you really want. Free time clock trials should give you the opportunity to try (taste) the software through an entire payroll cycle to see if it really does meet your needs. For example, can it cope with employees who forget to clock in or out. Can it generate reports quickly and easily as payroll deadlines approach. And can it save you money while it’s doing all of this for you. Only a time clock trial that runs for at least one full payroll period will tell you if it’s going to meet your needs or not.

3. To see how you live with the time clock software day to day

We’ll indulge in another metaphor here. Downloading any old time clock software, clocking in and out a few times and making a decision in a few minutes is akin to buying a suit by pulling it off of the rack looking at the size and saying to your self that will fit! You don’t know whether it’s a GREAT suit until you get it home, wear it to work, see how it sits on your shoulders and understand what needs adjusting. Sadly you don’t get this chance with a suit, you have to buy it and get it adjusted and then live with it. If your time clock software comes with a free trial you don’t need to buy it to understand how it fits. Your company can live with it day to day and understand how it will fit in your day to day operations and decide if that fit is a good one or a poor one. Given that a good time clock program will become an integral part of your staff management processes it’s essential to ensure that the fit is a GREAT one. So take full advantage of a free time clock trial before you purchase anything.

4. To ensure ongoing reliability and data security

It’s a sad fact of life that a lot of software is shiny and beautiful on the surface but under a thin veneer doesn’t really work too well at all. Often it’s not possible to find usability problems, bugs, or data calculation issues until you’ve used the software for a while. If your prospective employee time clock program offers a free trial then this will allow you find out if any such hidden nasties are lurking just below the surface.

5. To ensure a good fit with your payroll rules and overtime requirements

Our experience suggests that the two most complex parts of any employee time clock system are coping with overtime and dealing with vacation and sick time accruals. Often a workplace has several different sets of accrual and overtime rules that are applied to different employees. It’s not until you get into the guts of a time clock trial that you’ll understand whether it will be able to cope with the way your company accrues leave or pays for vacation. You can imagine the trouble you’d be in if you purchase some software and don’t find out until later that it won’t do proper seventh day California overtime!

Questions and Answers – Time Clock MTS Client Software

It seems to be the week for new Time Clock MTS users asking great questions. Here’s a few questions I’ve just been asked about the Time Clock MTS Client software plus some great suggestions.

Question : The client version icons go blue after a short time; on the admin stations the icons next to the staff names stay green or red based on their clock in status; do you know why there is a difference?

Answer : This is the clients going idle to stop them clogging up the network. Whenever an employee clicks their name it will update their status. Look here for more information: The Time Clock MTS Client Idle State

Question : We also wonder why the client version does not allow for robust administrative privileges like the trial version (after logging in as administrator, of course).

Answer : The client does allow you to run reports and so on but not configure software options, add employees, and so on. This is a design choice in the software.

Question : Can you change it so that you can have multiple administrators logged in at the same time?

Answer : 3) No, you can only have one administrator logged in at once. But as I said above you can run reports from the client computers.

Suggestion : I would like to suggest that the administrators be given access to change the formatting of the “canned” reports without having to export into excel. For example, we have a few fields that we would like bold; it would be great to be able to go into the report settings and input some html code to make those fields format to our preferences.

Answer : Selective formatting of reports is under development right now.

Suggestion: We would also like to see the administrators have power to change certain defaults on the interface screen. Currently each staff member would have to go in to change certain settings (for example punchcard vs. job punchcard, view employee information etc.) when viewing or printing their time sheets. We would love it if we could set defaults so they have fewer things to choose.

Answer : Employees can only view three different reports. This provides them with a good amount of information without overwhelming them with the entire list of several dozen different reports.

Version 4.1.3 Released

On Saturday just gone I uploaded version 4.1.3 of Time Clock MTS. This new version includes a couple of bug fixes and adds a new report.

The new report is the Job Details Report. This gives a day by day and punch by punch breakdown of time spent by employees during the reporting period. If the time is spent on a job then the job code is displayed. Each punch is shown with the elapsed time in hours.

The first bug fix was to the recently added setting that allows employee list status refreshes on the Time Clock MTS Client Software. When the list refreshed the selected employee was de-selected. Now, when the list refreshes the employee remains selected. The second fix was to some of the background processing that enables employees to switch jobs rather than clocking out. One user was getting an “Already Clocked In” error. This is now fixed and the new code should result in less database accesses and will speed up the operation.

More Time Clock MTS Network Questions

Some more questions and answers about Time Clock MTS on a Network and some other features of the software. These questions were asked by the same user who I answered in a recent blog post.

Question: The options set on my computer when I log in as the administrator, are those options pushed to all employees client versions of the software or do I have to go and configure all the settings on all employees computers when I install the software on their computers?

Answer : The client computers will pick up most of the settings from the admin computer. Some settings, such as the web cam and fingerprint settings can be configured at the client computer.

Question: I do not have a webcam on my computer when changing the options as Administrator so I get a msg stating that this can not be enabled. If my employees have a webcam installed, do I have to change this option on their computers and if so how is this done?

Answer : The camera option can be turned on client by client from the client computers. Log into the client as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options->Camera Settings screen and you can set things up there.

Question: When setting up the holidays, I see that there is a check box for a “recurring holiday”. If this is checked will the employees automatically receive credit for this day based on the hours entered? If this is the case then I have 2 questions. What if I have a new employee that may not be entitled to the holiday yet, how do I prevent this person from getting paid for the holiday? Second question, what is the recurring holiday lands on a non working day, i.e. falls on a Saturday and we don’t work Saturdays, how does this work?

Answer : Yes, employees will get credit for that holiday. Yes, if it happens on a non working day they’ll get credit for it. There’s no way of restricting a single employee from getting a particular holiday. An employee either gets public holidays or they don’t.

Question: I can not alter any of the fields in the “Sick Leave Accrual” section under Options. How do I turn this on?

Answer : You need to create employee types before you can create accruals. Take a look at these articles:

https://www.timeclockmts.com/timeclock-articles/vacation-accruals/
https://www.timeclockmts.com/timeclock-articles/sick-time-accruals/
https://www.timeclockmts.com/timeclock-articles/recording-sick-and-vacation-time/

Question: I have the same issue as point # 4 above. How do I turn this on?

Answer : See Above.

Question: If I have an employee clocking in because they arrived early. Is it possible to prevent them from getting paid extra time? So if they are supposed to start work at 8:00 but punch in at 7:40, I don’t want them to get paid for the extra 20 min.

Answer : See here to stop employees clocking in too early:

https://www.timeclockmts.com/how-to/stopping-employees-clocking-in-too-early/