January 17, 2012

How to Setup Weekly Overtime


Overtime Settings Screen

When running a business with several employees, one of the things you might need to do is setup weekly overtime. Time Clock MTS allows you to do this without having to worry about calculation errors. Once you've entered the required information, the time and attendance tool will work out the rest and help you to get an accurate and reliable calculation of all your employees' wages.

This Time Clock MTS How To Article is a step-by-step guide for setting up weekly overtime for your employees using Time Clock MTS.

  1. Start off by logging in as the administrator. This can be done by selecting File -> Log In As Administrator menu.
  2. Select Tools -> Options from the menu bar at the top of the window. Once a new window has opened, have a look down the left-hand menu and choose "Overtime Settings"
  3. Check the box titled "Pay Weekly Overtime". You can then type in how many hours you want the employee(s) to work in the week before receiving overtime pay. For example, if you choose 40 hours, the employee(s) will be paid regular pay for the first 40 hours and then overtime pay for the hours worked after that.
  4. Choose the employee for whom you want to set the weekly overtime pay. Select Employee Maintenance -> Edit Selected Employee.
  5. Once the new window opens, select "Payroll Information" from the left-hand side and look for a box on the right-hand side labeled OT 1 Rate / hr. Type in the amount that you want the employee to receive for each hour worked overtime.

It's very easy to manage your employees and their payroll information using Time Clock MTS. An efficient time clock tool will come in handy for a lot of things and will help you to easily pay your employees with the assurance of having accurate calculations.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

January 8, 2012

How to Setup Daily Overtime


Overtime Settings Screen

If you've got several employees in your business who are receiving different amounts of hourly pay, it can be difficult to keep track of it all manually. Time Clock MTS is a simple and easy time clock system that helps you manage the information of all your individual employees.

Overtime is one of those things that's well-known for getting slightly confusing. However, with a effective and easy-to-use time and attendance tool, you can set the hourly overtime rate for each employee (even if it varies from one employee to another) and let the computer work out the rest!

This Time Clock MTS How To Article is a step-by-step guide for setting up daily overtime for your employees using Time Clock MTS.

  1. Log in as the Administrator. You can do this buy choosing File > Log In As Administrator. Tap in your password and you're ready to go.
  2. Once you're logged in, select Tools > Options. A new window will open and you'll see a list on the left-hand side. Choose Overtime Settings from the list.
  3. Set the amount of hours the employees must work before receiving overtime pay. You can do this by checking the box next to "Pay Daily Overtime (OT Rate 1)" and then typing in the number of hours. For example, if you type "8" in the box, this means that the employee has to work eight hours before starting to receive overtime pay. Click the Save button to save the changes and close the Options window.
  4. The final thing to do is to actually set the hourly overtime rate. To do this, start by highlighting the employee on the "Employees" list. Select Employee Maintenance > Edit Selected Employee. A new window will open and you should see a list of four different categories on the left-hand side. From this list, choose "Payroll Information". Look for "Hourly Payments" half way down the page on the right-hand side of the window.
    Type the hourly overtime rate in the box labeled "OT 1 Rate / hr" and click "Save Employee".

Posted by mnemtsas at 7:37 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2011

How to Export Payroll Reports


The Generate Payroll Reports Screen

One of the features that businesses look for when choosing an employee attendance tool is the ability to export data to other software programs. Many people that use a time clock system will often need to export data to spreadsheets, word processors and other such database packages. If this can be done easily, quickly and effectively, it will save time and hassle for the business. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers the steps to follow if you want to create a payroll report and export it to another software program.

  1. Open Time Clock MTS and log into your administrator account. Once you are logged in, go to Reporting -> Payroll Reports. This is the part of the time clock tool that allows you to control which reports are created. This is where you should go whenever you need to create any sort of report. You can create reports on employees, departments, shifts and many other things. If you don't want reports generated on all of the employees (or departments etc.), you can choose the ones you want to see reports about from a list.

  2. Once you have opened the Report Configuration screen, you can choose what report you want to create (here is a Full List of Time Clock MTS Reports). You can select different employees, departments, shifts and employment types. Additionally, you can choose a specific date range and the type of report that you would like. You can choose the type of report by using the drop-down menu on the right-hand side of the screen. There are various other options on the screen that you can choose, for example, you can choose whether you want the company header to be displayed on the report, the employee details and any other information.

  3. Now that you have chosen exactly what you want the reports to be about, you can go ahead and create it. To create the reports, simply click Create Report at the bottom of the screen. The report will appear almost instantly and will contain information such as the total hours worked, total vacation time and total earnings.

  4. Once the screen containing the report has appeared, you can now export the data by clicking any of the buttons at the bottom of the screen, e.g. Export CSV.
    You can choose either Export CSV, Export Tab or Export Excel. Exporting the data takes a few seconds and exports the report(s) onto the software of your choice. You may also choose to print the report, which can be done by clicking Print.


Time Clock MTS has many features like this that make it an ideal time and attendance tool for both large and small businesses. By following the above steps, you can create reports for whatever you want and export it in a matter of a few seconds.


Posted by mnemtsas at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2011

Comparing Time and Attendance Software - Part 2


The Vacation Accruals Screen

Many businesses that are searching for useful and easy-to-use time and attendance software don't want to spend a great deal of money. You can download a free trial of the Time Clock MTS in order to try it out and see if you like it and if it works for your business. If you have three employees or less, you can continue using the tool for free; however, if you want to use it for more than three employees, you will have to consider buying the software.

When businesses are searching for the perfect time and attendance tool, they often want to know how the software operates. This is perfectly understandable, and we aim to provide as much information as possible about Time Clock MTS so that users are able to find out everything that they need to know before purchasing it. This is the second part of a two part series about how to compare time and attendance software and will explain certain aspects of sick time and vacation accruals, exporting data and updates and support that are available.

Are there sick time & vacation accruals?

For most businesses, it is very important to have a tool that caters for sick time and vacation accruals as it will help to prevent calculation errors which often cause the company to lose of money over a period of time. Because Time Clock MTS will work out most of these calculations for you, your business will not have to pay as many people to sort out the finances of the company. The sick time and vacations that employees are allocated will be worked out automatically once you have entered the details, and each employee will be able to see how many days they are allowed to have off work. Because they will have a much better understanding of their wages, work time and the way that the business operates with employees, the work place can run more smoothly.

Yearly accruals are allowed, as well as accounts for any employees who already have existing balances for any vacation pay which they have not yet received.

Can data be exported easily?

Being able to export data easily is often a feature required by businesses. Time Clock MTS has this feature, making it even more convenient and useful for the majority of companies. Data can be easily exported to payroll software using the tool, and further analysis can be carried out for anything that you need. All reports can be exported to Microsoft Excel or text files, depending which one is easiest for the business to use. You can export data for just one employee or a number of different employees. You can add your own custom export format by simply clicking a button when using the tool. Additionally, you can edit the export formats that you have already created.

Is the software regularly updated and supported?

Time Clock MTS is updated every two months or so. Every time it is updated, the software will usually contain new features for users to make use of and benefit from. Additionally, when it is updated, any bugs are sorted out and any issues and problems that users have reported can be resolved. The Time Clock MTS website provides many articles a lot of information for anybody who wants to know more about the software. New articles are always being added to the website, so you can read about the most up-to-date features.

Furthermore, email support is offered to anybody with questions that they cannot find answers to on the website.

Conclusions

We hope that the six factors we've discussed when comparing time and attendance software prove to be useful when you're doing your own evaluation. We've designed Time Clock MTS to be strong in each of the key areas and with more than 8000 companies using the software we're sure it would be useful for you!

Posted by mnemtsas at 5:39 AM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2011

Comparing Time and Attendance Software - Part 1


Time Clock MTS with Departmental Folder View

Choosing the right time and attendance software for your business can be a difficult task. Employers and entrepreneurs are often looking for software that is easy to use, affordable and effective. As the employees will be using the software as well, it needs to be easy to understand in order that they can use it without difficulty. Affordability is another key factor, especially if the business looking to invest in the software has a low budget or is only a small business. A large number of businesses notice an immediate improvement after purchasing time and attendance software. It has a lot to offer both large and small businesses, and the tools have proven to reduce payroll errors and absences as well as motivating employees to turn up on time and work harder. Overall, quality time and attendance tools will assist the business in keeping more organized, and payroll, time and attendance data can be managed much more easily.

This two part article aims to cover six key points that must be considered when comparing time and attendance software.

Can you share data between time & attendance computers?

It is important to save data in the same place when managing employees' timetables and attendance records. This helps prevent data entry errors and stops a lot of calculation errors which could occur. Time Clock MTS enables employers to record and share their employees' time and attendance data easily and effectively between computers. Additionally, individual employees are able to clock in and out using their own computers rather than all of the employees using the same one. Nobody in the workplace will have to keep returning to one main computer or workstation in order to record, alter and share time and attendance data. As a result, it will save time and money for the business and will be easy to manage and hassle-free.

Do you need extra hardware?

Although time and attendance software is fairly modern and is being used worldwide each day by businesses of all different sizes, it is by no means technical and difficult to manage. While it is advanced software that has proven to be extremely useful to thousands of companies, it does not require extra components in order to work. The only thing you will need is an ordinary computer; there is no need for additional mechanical and electronic devices such as punch clocks. However, good computer time clocks are often compatible with bar code readers, magnetic card readers and fingerprints scanners.

If you want to set up Time Clock MTS with a bar code reader, you will need to find one that will plug into either the USB port or keyboard port of your computer. Once it is set up, you can give each of the employees an ID card with the bar codes printed onto them. This will enable each employee to access the software by scanning the bar codes.

Is Biometric Security an option?

In order to prevent employee fraud, many employers choose various methods of security. One of the most popular types of security which can be used in conjunction with time and attendance tools is biometric security. There is a biometric security option for anybody using Time Clock MTS. Fingerprint scanning hardware such as biometric scanners can be purchased fairly cheaply and can be used with Time Clock MTS to make it more secure and to avoid payroll fraud and other forms of employee fraud.
If you choose biometric security, employees will be required to scan their fingerprints each time they clock in or out. This means that each employee will only be able to clock themselves in and out (rather than other employees doing it for their colleagues). Biometric security and fingerprint scanning is the ultimate way to prevent employee fraud in the workplace and keep the business as safe as possible.

This article is continued in Comparing Time and Attendance Software - Part 2.

Posted by mnemtsas at 1:16 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2011

How to Pay a Given Weekday as Overtime


The Overtime Settings Screen

This Time Clock MTS How To Article will show you the four simple steps that you will need to follow in order to pay a given weekday as overtime using the Time Clock MTS tool. Using the tool, you can change the settings to pay your chosen employees overtime on certain days of the week. This is particularly useful if your employee's employment agreement, pay scale, or union agreement requires a certain weekday (typically Sunday) to be paid as overtime.

Here's the steps to follow to pay all time on a given weekday as overtime:

1). Make sure that you are logged into the administrator account, otherwise you will not have access to any of the settings and will not be able to edit employee information. If you have only just downloaded Time Clock MTS, you will need to create a password for the administrator account and log in once it has launched.

2). Next, you will need to set the overtime rates so that you are paying the correct amount per hour. This can be different for each employee. In order to set the overtime rates, select one of your employees from the list. Click Employee Maintenance->Edit Selected Employee->Payroll Information. You can then set it using the boxes labelled "OT 1 Rate/hr" and "OT 2 Rate/hr".

3). Click Tools->Options->Overtime Settings to pay a given day as overtime. To do this, select Employee Maintenance->Edit Selected Employee->Payroll Information and select the box next to the particular day that you want to pay as overtime.

Each employee can have different pay rate for overtime. You may decide to pay a small handful of your employees more overtime pay than others, and all this can be set by selecting the Payroll Information of each employee and setting it as you wish. You can also choose to pay certain days as overtime; if you choose this, the whole day will be paid as overtime and normal overtime limits do not apply. The whole day will be paid as the hourly rate that you have set for Overtime 1, regardless of how many hours during the day the employee works.

As you can see, Time Clock MTS is very useful if you have employees that are receiving various amounts of pay for the different hours that they work. Arguably the most useful feature of this tool is the fact that you can edit each employee's payroll information individually, so that you can alter the pay of one employee without it affecting the pay of any others.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)

April 30, 2011

Reporting on Employees Who Clock In Late


The Late for Shift Report

The recent release of Version 3.1.5 of Time Clock MTS included a new report that allows users to easily run a report displaying employees that have clocked in late for their shift. The output of this report can be seen above. Here's how to setup Time Clock MTS to allow you to use this report to track when your employees are clocking in late for their shifts.

  1. For each different shift start time you need to track you'll need to create a shift in Time Clock MTS. You can do this on the Manage Shifts Screen. Made sure to set the shift start time to the time that you want to track.
  2. Assign each employee to the shift that they work. You can do this on the Manage Employees Screen
  3. Have your employees clock in and out using Time Clock MTS as normal.
  4. Run the Late for Shift report on the Report Configuration Screen. The report can be run over one or many days, and run for one or many employees.
  5. You can now interpret the report. It will give you a day by day list of the employees that have clocked in late for their shift. Each employee late arrival will be displayed along with the employee name, their shift name, the scheduled shift start, their actual arrival time, and the amount of time that they were late.

Posted by mnemtsas at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2011

Barcode Attendance System

Barcode Attendance System Screenshot
The Time Clock MTS Keypad Interface

Time Clock MTS was designed to be a flexible barcode attendance system for small and medium sized businesses. Here's what you need to do so that you can use Time Clock MTS as your Barcode Attendance System.

  1. Get a suitable barcode reader. Time Clock MTS requires a barcode reader that has a 'keyboard wedge'. This means that it can be plugged into either the USB port or old style PS2 keyboard port of your computer and output characters to your computer exactly the same as a computer keyboard.
  2. Configure the barcode reader to put a return character at the end of each scanned barcode. Most readers do this by default but you might need to change the settings of the reader via the configuration software that comes with it.
  3. Install and run Time Clock MTS. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options->Interface Settings Screen.
  4. Change the Data Entry Mode setting to "Keypad".
  5. Save the changes.
  6. Log out of the administrator mode of Time Clock MTS and you should see the Keypad interface of the software (see the screenshot above).
  7. Log back into Time Clock MTS as the administrator and create your employee records in Time Clock MTS using the Employee Maintenance->Add New Employee screen. Take note of each employee's Badge ID
  8. Get your employee barcode attendance badges printed. The data encoded should be each employee's badge ID and no other data. Make sure that the barcode encoding you use is supported by your barcode reader.

Now that you've configured the software, setup your barcode reader, and printed your employee barcode badges you're ready to start using Time Clock MTS as a barcode attendance system. All you need to do is run Time Clock MTS in keypad interface mode and have it as the active Windows application. As employees scan their barcode attendance badges the employee badge id will appear in the badge number field on the screen and the clock in or out action will be triggered automatically. Note that if you've got employee PINs or employee notes activated then your employees will still need to enter this information via keyboard or touchscreen.

If you require more detailed instructions on setting up Time Clock MTS as a barcode attendance system then please take a look at this article, Time Clock MTS and Bar Code Readers.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)

April 15, 2011

Sunday School Attendance Software

At last count nearly 50 churches were registered users of Time Clock MTS and we know that many of these use Time Clock MTS to track student attendance at Sunday school. The tracking requirements for a Sunday school are not too dissimilar to that needed for regular school attendance software but it's worth some effort looking at how to use Time Clock MTS as Sunday school attendance software effectively.

Customize the User Interface

Using the Interface Settings Screen customize the main user interface to suit the Sunday school environment. Your students will likely be offended to be called employees, so change those labels to 'students', you might like to change the 'clock in' and 'clock out' to less work oriented terms too. I'd suggest 'Arrive' and 'Depart'.

Create Jobs to Track Lessons or Classes

If you want to track your student attendance to various lessons then I'd suggest making use of the job tracking features of Time Clock MTS. So, if for example, you had a series of lessons on the various books of the New Testament you could assign each a code and have your students clock in and out with this code as they attend each different lesson. At the end of the series of lessons you could offer those students who missed out catch up sessions. Determining who missed out is very simple, just run the Job Time Report.

Create Departments for Each Teacher

If you run a larger Sunday school you might find it useful to track student attendance by teacher. To do this create a department representing each teacher and assign students to each department using the Manage Employees screens. You could then easily see a class list for each teacher and report on attendance to each teachers class by simply running Time Clock MTS attendance reports on a department by department basis.

Record Sunday School Attendance

Using Time Clock MTS to record Sunday school attendance is quite simple. You could do it in two ways. The first is to provide a central computer (or computers) and to have your students check in when they arrive for a class and then check out when they depart. Alternatively if your classes are smaller you might have the teachers take attendance on a laptop or similar and check each student in when roll is called at the beginning of class.

Report on Sunday School Attendance

If you make use of the Employee Status Report you'll find that it's a super quick and easy way to check what students are attending your Sunday school classes. If you're wanting to track lesson attendance and you've made use of job tracking then the various job tracking reports will easily give you the information you need.

Conclusions

Time Clock MTS wasn't really designed to be used as Sunday School Attendance Software, but as features have been added over the years it certainly has become flexible and useful enough to be used as such. With almost 50 churches currently using it in the role it clearly has something to offer with a customizable interface, flexible tracking options, and powerful reporting. All of this at a remarkably inexpensive price.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

School Attendance Software

A quick browse through our customer database shows at the time of this post that 68 schools (not including colleges and universities) are using Time Clock MTS. It's safe to assume that some of these, at least, are using Time Clock MTS as school attendance software. I thought it would be useful to look at how you could configure Time Clock MTS to track and record the attendance of students within schools.

Configure the Time Clock MTS Interface


The Interface Settings Screen

Above you can see the Tools->Options->Interface Settings screen. You can use the 'Main Screen Labels' drop down box to change the text shown on the main screen of Time Clock MTS. We originally designed this to allow users to translate the main screen into other languages but we are aware that some users are using it to make the software more user friendly to their particular business. If you're using Time Clock MTS as school attendance software then you can easily make it more student friendly by changing these terms. The image below shows what the result can be when making the software more school friendly.


Time Clock MTS as School Attendance Software

Record Student Contact Information

The Manage Employees screens in Time Clock MTS allow you to record the student name, contact information, and alternate contact information. This is immediately useful if a school needs to contact a student, their parents, or notify someone due to an unexplained school absence.

Track Students by Class

Student attendance by class could be easily tracked using the departmental tracking features with Time Clock MTS. Simply create a department for each student class and then assign each student to the correct class using the Manage Employees screens mentioned above. You could then setup your Time Clock MTS clients to display only the students from appropriate class. Alternatively you could configure the student list to display in folder view and have an expandable list of classes and students that could be looked through very quickly and easily.

Track Daily Attendance

Time Clock MTS can be easily used to track the daily attendance of a student. Simply have them check in when they arrive for home class, or perhaps when they enter the school building.

Period Attendance

Using the Job Tracking features of Time Clock MTS you could easily configure the software to track student attendance by period. Simply create a job code for each subject and have students clock into each subject's period using the appropriate job code.

Report on Student Attendance

The Employee Status Report gives you a quick and easy way of reporting on student attendance. It's a simple matter to run this report and see what students are not at school for the day and then make contact with their parents to notify them of their absence. For more comprehensive reporting the Simple Attendance Report could be used to print off attendances by class or period and then distributed to teachers via noticeboard or email.

Conclusions

While Time Clock MTS wasn't specifically designed as school attendance software many of the features allow it to be used as such. The customizations available will make it easy to use for your students, while configuration options will easily allow you to track student attendance by class or period as well as allowing to store their contact details. Comprehensive and flexible reporting then allows for simple attendance tracking of your student population.


Posted by mnemtsas at 7:09 AM | Comments (0)

March 7, 2011

How to Report on Employee Tips in Time Clock MTS


The Employee Time Clock Screen

This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to report on Employee Tip Tracking in Time Clock MTS.

Reporting on Employee Tips as an Employee or as the Time Clock MTS Administrator

An employee can report on their own tips from the employee time clock screen (shown in the screenshot above) by selecting their name from the employee list and clicking the Tips button. Note that employees may need to enter their PIN or scan a fingerprint to access their own tip diary. Employees being able to report on and print their tip diaries is a key requirement of the IRS who state explicitly that:

You can use an electronic system provided by your employer to record your daily tips. If you do, you must receive and keep a paper copy of this record.

The Time Clock MTS Administrator can report on any employees tips by logging into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. They can then select any employee from the employee list and click the Tips button to report on that employee.


The Employee Tip Tracking Screen

Running a Report

Reports are run from the Employee Tip Tracking screen shown above. The Employee Tip Diary Report is run by clicking the Print Diary button. The Employee Tip Diary Summary Report is run by clicking the Print Summary button. It is important to note that the period that is reported on is the same as that selected on this screen. So if you're viewing the tip diary for the current month to date then any reports run will be for the same period.


Employee Tip Diary Report

The Employee Tip Diary Report

Seen above, the Employee Tip Diary report may be of a suitable format to constitute an employee tip diary and when this blog article was published contained all the information displayed on the IRS Form 4070A Employee's Daily Record of Tips. Note that regardless of other settings within the software (such as those not allowing employees to view or print their timecards) that employees can always print or export their tip diaries as per IRS requirements.


Employee Tip Diary Report

The Employee Tip Diary Summary Report

Seen above, the Employee Tip Diary Summary report may be of a suitable format to constitute a summary of tips received by an employee. When this blog article was published it contained all the information displayed on the IRS Form 4070 Employee's Report of Tips to Employer. Note that regardless of other settings within the software (such as those not allowing employees to view or print their timecards) that employees can always print or export their tip diaries as per IRS requirements.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:41 AM | Comments (0)

How to Record and Edit Employee Tips in Time Clock MTS


The Employee Time Clock Screen

This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to to use Time Clock MTS to record new tips received and edit existing recorded tips. Note that because of the critical need for employees to manage their own tip diary that both employees and the Time Clock MTS administrator can add, edit, and delete tips.

Enable Tip Tracking

Before anyone can add, edit, or delete tips the Time Clock MTS administrator must enable tip tracking. The process to do this is described in the Enabling Tip Tracking How-To article.

Tip Tracking as an Employee vs Tip Tracking as the Time Clock MTS Administrator

Employees and the Time Clock MTS administrator have access to exactly the same tools for adding, editing, and deleting employee tips. However, if you've got the Employee PIN feature or Employee Fingerprint Security turned on then these security features are applied when employees try to access the tip tracking features. The security features are not applied when Time Clock MTS is in Administrator Mode.


The Employee Tip Tracking Screen

The Employee Tip Tracking Screen

Employee tips are managed from the Employee Tip Tracking screen which can be seen above. This screen is accessed from the Tips button on the employee time clock, a screenshot of which is shown at the top of this article. The employee tip tracking screen is basically an interactive tip diary. The time range that tips are displayed from can be selected from the time period drop down box. A tip can be edited or deleted by clicking the Edit or Delete link next to that tip. A new tip can be added by clicking the Add Tip button. The functions of the Print Diary and the Print Summary buttons will be covered in a subsequent How-To article.

Employees could use this screen to record their tips in a couple of ways. They could record each and every tip received individually, in which case their tip diary would contain a lot of entries but these would of course be summarized at reporting time. The alternate way is for employees to total up tips received during their shift and to just enter one summary tip that covers everything they received.


The Add/Edit Employee Tip Screen

Adding or Editing an Employee Tip

When you add a tip or edit a tip you'll be shown the screen above. As with most Time Clock MTS screens users must fill in the details and click the Save Tip button to save the changes. The employee tip screen allows employees to record direct tips received from customers or other employees, tips received from credit or debit cards, and tips paid out to other employees as well as who those tips were paid out to. Numeric values can be entered in the value fields on this screen with either a keyboard or via the keypad buttons on the right of the screen. Things to note on this screen include the requirement for the employee to select the date the tip recorded was received, and that they must select who tips are paid out to if a value has been entered into that field. Note that Time Clock MTS automatically records the date that a tip was recorded and this cannot be changed.

Any tips added or edited while the Time Clock MTS Administrator is logged in will be flagged as such by the system. These tips will be marked with a "##" symbol on the Employee Tip Diary Report.

Posted by mnemtsas at 6:04 AM | Comments (0)

March 6, 2011

How to Setup Employee Tip Tracking in Time Clock MTS


Interface Settings Screen

This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to configure Time Clock MTS to allow your employees to record, track, and report on any tips they receive while working.

To enable employee tip tracking in Time Clock MTS just follow the steps below..

  1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
  2. Go to the Tools->Options->Interface Settings screen and you'll be shown the screen at the top of this article.
  3. Check the Enable Tip Tracking checkbox.
  4. Select the Employee List Interface option from the Data Entry dropdown. Note that tip tracking does not curently work if you're using the keypad interface.
  5. When you're happy with your selection press the Save button to save the changes.

    6. The Employee Time Clock Screen
  6. Logout of the Time Clock MTS administrator account and you should see the employee time clock screen looking like it does above. Note that the Tips button is now visible. Your employees can now start recording tips received by clicking this button.

We'll cover how to record and report on employee tips in subsequent how to articles.

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2011

Setting up a Second Administrator Computer - Updated

I wrote about setting up a second Time Clock MTS Administrator computer some time ago. Advances in the software means that the process is now a lot easier (actually its now just a matter of a couple of mouse clicks). The process of setting up a second administrator computer is shown below. Please note there are a couple of things to be aware of before you setup a second admin computer. Firstly, just one computer can actually be running the administrator version of Time Clock MTS at a time. Secondly, you need to purchase a license for each computer you want to install the Time Clock MTS administrator software on.

1. Make sure you know the network path to your existing Time Clock MTS database.

2. Install the administrator version of Time Clock MTS onto the computer you want to use as the second administrator computer.

3. Run the software, you'll be asked to enter a new administrator password (note that this password can be different to that used on your current Time Clock MTS system). Once you've entered the initial administrator password log into the software as the admin and you should see Time Clock MTS looking like it does in the image above.

4. Check what version of Time Clock MTS you have. You can do this on the Help->About menu (see the image above). If you're using a version of Time Clock MTS before V3.0.1 then you'll need to use the old method of setting up a second administrator computer. If you're using Version 3.0.1 or later then please proceed to step 2.

5. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options->System Options screen (shown above).

6. Click the Change button which can be found next to the Database Location text field.

7. Click the Yes button on the warning that pops up (see above).

8. In the Explorer window that appears navigate to the Time Clock MTS database that you want to use.

9. You'll now be shown the screen above confirming that you've connected to a different Time Clock MTS database.

10. Click the Save button and you'll be taken back to the main Time Clock MTS login screen. Note in the screenshot above that we're seeing some employees now that have been pulled from the existing database you connected to.

That process is a lot easier than the older method, but as always if you have any problems please Contact Us and we'll do our best to help you out!


Posted by mnemtsas at 9:46 AM | Comments (0)

Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows - Updated

This is an updated version of the Old Showing Hidden Files and Folders blog article with a new section added for Windows 7.

The default location that Time Clock MTS stores it's settings files and database is a folder that is usually hidden by Microsoft Windows. So, when we need to help you with software problems or perhaps you need to email us your database to reset your administrator password that you may not be able to find the files you need. This updated blog post aims to show you how to show hidden files and folders on your computer regardless of what version of Microsoft Windows you happen to be running.

Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 7

• Click on the Windows Start button, this is the round button on the lower left of your Windows 7 desktop.
• Select the Control Panel menu option.
• When the Control Panel opens click on the Folder Options link under the "Appearance and Personalization" link.
• Go the to View Tab of the Folder Options Window.
• In the "Advanced Settings" scroll box check the "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" radio button.
• Uncheck the box that says "Hide extensions for known file types".
• Uncheck the box that says "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)".
• Now click the Apply button and then the OK button.

Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows Vista
• Click the Start button
• Then click on Computer
• Press the ALT key
• Select the Tools->Folder Options menu
• Click the View tab
• In the Hidden files and folders frame select Show hidden files and folders
• Uncheck the Hide protected operating system files (recommended) option
• Click Yes to confirm
• Click OK

Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows XP
• Click Start
• Open My Computer
• Select the Tools ->Folder Options menu
• Click the View tab
• In the Hidden files and folders frame select Show hidden files and folders
• Uncheck the Hide protected operating system files (recommended) option
• Click Yes to confirm
• Click OK

Show Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 2000
• Open My Computer
• Select the Tools -> Folder Options menu
• Click the View tab
• In the Hidden files and folders frame select Show hidden files and folders
• Uncheck the Hide protected operating system files (recommended) option
• Click Yes to confirm
• Click OK

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:45 AM | Comments (0)

January 7, 2011

How to Allow Employees to Create New Jobs


Job Tracking Setup Screen

Generally you'd want a time clock administrator to setup new jobs for the Time Clock MTS Job Tracking System but sometimes it's useful to allow employees to create their own jobs on the fly during the work day. If you work from daily job sheets that have many small jobs that might just run to a few hours you would quite likely find this useful because of the lower administrative overheads. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to allow your employees to create new jobs.

To allow employees to create new Time Clock MTS jobs just follow follow the steps shown below.

  1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
  2. Go to the Tools->Options->Job Tracking screen and you'll be shown the screen at the top of this article.
  3. Check the Allow Employee Job Creation checkbox.
  4. When you're happy with your selection press the Save button to save the changes.

Once checked employees entering a new job code when clocking or switching jobs will automatically create new job with that job code. Of course the time clock administrator will need to then name and manage the jobs appropriately via the Tools->Options->Job Tracking screen.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:40 AM | Comments (0)

November 4, 2010

Using Time Clock MTS with MySQL

By default, Time Clock MTS uses a Microsoft Access database as a backend database to store its' data. If you purchase the Enhanced Database Support option when you buy Time Clock MTS you can have it use a more robust database management system such as Microsoft SQL Server or the open source (and free) MySQL. This blog entry takes you through the process of setting up Time Clock MTS with MySQL, which claims to be the worlds most popular open source database system.

Step 1 - Install and Configure MySQL
Install and configure MySQL and create a database for Time Clock MTS to use. This is beyond the scope of this article, all you should need is available from the MySQL Website.

Step 2 - Create the Time Clock MTS MySQL Table Structure
If you're a trial user of Time Clock MTS or a licensed user who purchased the Enhanced Database Support option then you can use Time Clock MTS to create a MySQL script to create the Time Clock MTS table structure. Here's how to do that:


The Generate MySQL Script Menu


  • Log into Time Clock MTS administrator software as the administrator and go to the Tools->Generate MySQL Script menu (seen in the image above). If you can't see this menu then you are not in the Time Clock MTS trial period or you did not purchase the Enhanced Database Support Options.


    • The Time Clock MTS MySQL Database Script

  • When you run the Generate MySQL Script menu item Time Clock MTS will create a MySQL script that can be used to create the required Time Clock MTS table structure in MySQL. You can see this script in the image above.

  • Once you've got the script you can then run it against your MySQL database in the tool of your choice. Here we use the MySQL Workbench but you could run this script using the MySQL command line or whatever your MySQL administrative tool of choice happens to be.

Step 3 - Preparing Computers to Connect to the MySQL Database

On most Microsoft Windows computers it is necessary to install some drivers to allow them to connect to and communicate with a MySQL Database. Here's what you'll need to do.




The Time Clock MTS System Options screen

Step 4 - Connecting Time Clock MTS to the MySQL Database

The next step is to connect Time Clock MTS to your MySQL database. Initially this is done from the Time Clock MTS administrator program which you should have downloaded and installed already. Once you've done that follow the steps below.



  • Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options->System Options screen (shown above). If your screen doesn't look like this then you're logged into the Time Clock MTS client and you need to install the administrator software.

  • Enter the name of your MySQL Server, the name of the MySQL database, and the name of a MySQL user and their password. Note that the MySQL user Time Clock MTS uses must have permissions to add, edit, and delete both data and database tables.


    • Testing the Connection

  • Now you need to test that Time Clock MTS can connect to the MySQL database correctly and that the structure is correct. To do this click the Test MySQL Connection button. If the settings you entered are correct and you've set up your MySQL server correctly then you'll be shown a Connection OK message (shown above).


    • Connecting to the Database

  • Once you're sure Time Clock MTS can connect to MySQL without problems it's time to select MySQL from the Database Type dropdown and click Save. Then you should get a message telling you that Time Clock MTS has connected to your database server (see above).


    • Verify Connection

  • Now you need to shut down Time Clock MTS and re-start it. Once you've done that you can verify that you're connected to the MySQL database by going to the Help->About screen and look at the bottom of the screen, you'll see that you're now connected to the correct database (see above).

  • The final step in the process is to install your Time Clock MTS clients and connect them to your MySQL Database. You'll do that with the Database Connection Wizard when you first install and run the Time Clock MTS Client


That concludes the process of connecting Time Clock MTS to a MySQL database back end. At this time it's worth noting a few things.


Notes

  1. No data is transferred from the Access backend to the new MySQL backend. None at all. So when you first move to a MySQL backend you're starting from scratch.

  2. If when you go to the System Options screen the database server fields and so on are obscured by a text box informing you that you are not licensed to use MySQL (or SQL Server for that matter) as a backend for Time Clock MTS then it's because....well... you're not licensed to use them. You'll need to Contact Us to talk about upgrade options.

  3. If you receive a hard crash or access violation when you first run Time Clock MTS after you've connected to MySQL then you should download and install the latest version of MDAC for your particular flavor of Microsoft Windows. This can be downloaded from the Microsoft MDAC Downloads page.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2010

I Haven't Forgotten My Administrator Password, I Just Want to Change It!


The System Options Screen

It's a common misconception that the only way to reset your Time Clock MTS password is to use the File->Reset Administrator Password menu. But this menu is for resetting forgotten administrator passwords. If you still know your password and just want to set it to something different here's what to do.

  1. Log into the Time Clock MTS Administrator program as the administrator using your password.
  2. Go to the Tools->Options Menu.
  3. Go to the System Options Screen (shown in the image above).
  4. Enter your new password into the Admin Password field.
  5. Confirm your new password by typing it again into the Re-Type Password field.
  6. Save the password by clicking the Save button.

Once you've done that your Time Clock MTS administrator password will be set to the new value and you'll have to use the new password to log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator.

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2010

Setting up Time Clock MTS in Multi User Mode - MS Access

Time Clock MTS can be run on a single PC, allowing one PC to be used for all collection of time and attendance information plus all reporting and software configuration. It can also be used in multiple client mode which allows you to administer the software from one PC and collect time and attendance information from one or more other computers on your network. This blog entry gives detailed instructions on how to setup Time Clock MTS to run in multiple client mode when you're using the standard back-end database.

  1. Choose a computer on your network that you want to administer Time Clock MTS from and generate and print reports from.
  2. Install the normal Time Clock MTS program (download from here) on the chosen computer.
  3. Using the System Options page of Time Clock MTS move the Time Clock MTS database somewhere on your network. This network location must be visible to each computer you wish to use as a clock in / out station. You must also make sure that any computer that is going to use Time Clock MTS has full read/write/execute/delete permissions for the network location.
  4. Choose the computers that you want to use as clock in / out stations.
  5. Install the Time Clock MTS Client (download from here) on each of these client computers.
  6. Run the Time Clock MTS client on the chosen client computers. The first time you do so you will be asked to locate the Time Clock MTS database you moved in Step 3 above.
  7. Use the computer with the main Time Clock MTS program on it to configure the software with your employees and payroll rules.
  8. Get your employees to start using the Time Clock MTS Client program to clock in and out of the software.

    9. Posted by mnemtsas at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)

    Moving the Time Clock MTS Datafile to a New Computer

    You may find that you need to move the Time Clock MTS data file manually to a new computer. This could happen because your computer has crashed or because you've setup the software temporarily on one PC and then want to move it to a production computer for actual use. This blog entry describes a couple of ways that you can do this.

    First some terminology.

    Source PC: The computer you want to move the data from.
    Destination PC: The computer you want to move the data to.

    Method 1 : Using Time Clock MTS to move your Database

    1. Share a directory on the Destination PC you can access from the Source PC. You will need to allow full read/write permissions on this directory because you're going to be copying a file there.
    2. Run Time Clock MTS on the Source PC and log in as the administrator. Go to the Tools->Options-> System Options Menu.
    3. Move the database to the shared directory on the Destination PC, you can find more information on how to do this in the System Options Help Topic.
    4. Install Time Clock MTS on the Destination PC.
    5. On the destination PC open the file timeclock.ini in Windows Notepad. If you've got Windows Vista or Windows 7 this file will be in the directory c:\ProgramData\Time Clock MTS\, on Windows XP it will be in the directory C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Time Clock MTS\. Note that you may need to Show Hidden Files and Folders to see this directory whatever version of Windows you happen to be using.
    6. Once you've got the file timeclock.ini open in Windows Notepad look for an entry called DatabaseLoc and enter the path to the timeclock.mdb file you placed in the shared directory you setup in Step 1 above.
    7. Run Time Clock MTS on the Destination PC, you should now be connected to the database you setup on the source PC.
    Method 2 : Manually Moving the Database
    1. Install Time Clock MTS on the Destination PC.
    2. Copy the file timeclock.mdb from the Source PC. If you've got Windows Vista or Windows 7 this file will be in the directory c:\ProgramData\Time Clock MTS\Database\, on Windows XP it will be in the directory C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Time Clock MTS\Database\. Note that you may need to Show Hidden Files and Folders to see this directory regardless of what version of Windows you happen to be using.
    3. Paste the file copied above into the appropriate directory on the Destination PC replacing the file that is there. If you've got Windows Vista or Windows 7 this directory will be c:\ProgramData\Time Clock MTS\Database\, on Windows XP it will be c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Time Clock MTS\Database\. Note that you may need to Show Hidden Files and Folders to see this directory whatever version of Windows you happen to be using.
    4. Run Time Clock MTS on the Destination PC, you should now be connected to the database you setup on the source PC.

    Posted by mnemtsas at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

    November 17, 2009

    Showing Department Folders on Employee List Interface


    Employee List with Department Folders

    Version 2.5.0 of Time Clock MTS included an interesting new feature that allows you to split the Employee List Interface into departmental folders. This can be extremely useful if you have a lot of employees or if you have separate Time Clock MTS client stations located around your business on a department by department basis. In the screenshot above you can see how the employees are split up by department and that the department groups can be expanded or collapsed as required. Time Clock MTS will remember which departments you have expanded or collapsed when you restart the software so you can setup (for example) a single Time Clock MTS Client to just display the employees from a single department.

    Turning on the department folder view of Time Clock MTS is very easy. Just login as the Administrator and then go to the Tools->Options->Interface Settings page. When you're on this screen check the Dept. Folders on Employee List checkbox and then click the Save button to commit the changes. When you return to the employee list you should see that it is now split up by departments. Of course you'll need to have some departments defined and have assigned your employees to the departments.

    Posted by mnemtsas at 6:11 AM | Comments (0)

    September 15, 2009

    Tracking Jobs in Time Clock MTS

    A lot of businesses either want to track employee costs based on what tasks they're working on, or perhaps on a customer based project by project basis. In Time Clock MTS we call this 'job tracking'. This Time Clock MTS How To Article describes how to easily setup Time Clock MTS to track jobs and then leads you briefly through the process of how an employee would log their time against a job as they use Time Clock MTS.


    Creating and Editing Jobs

    Step 1 : Defining Jobs

    Firstly log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article. Once you've done this go to the Tools->Options->Job Tracking screen, where you'll see the screen above. To create a new job just click the new job button and you'll be shown the screen below.


    Creating a Job

    To create a job give it a unique numerical job code, give the job a name, and if you like a description. If you do not have your own job numbering system Time Clock MTS will automatically assign each new job a unique job code. You can also disable a job to prevent employees booking time to that job. This might be useful if you're just setting your system up, or your customer isn't paying you for that job anymore, or perhaps your internal budget for a project has been exceeded.


    Employee Details

    Step 2 : Deciding Which Employees will Use Job Tracking

    The next step is to decide which employees will have to use job tracking and how they will use it. Select an employee on the employee list and go to the Employee Maintenance->Edit Selected Employee screen (which you can see above). On the employee information screen use the job tracking drop down box to define how an employee will use job tracking. They can either not use it, use it optionally (they can choose not to enter a job code when they clock in) or must use it (they must enter a job code when they clock in).


    Entering a Job Code

    Step 3 : Employees Entering Job Codes

    Entering job codes for employees couldn't be any easier. When employees clock in they'll be shown the enter job code screen above. Employees need to enter the job code for the job they want to book the time to either via keyboard or via the numeric buttons on the screen (with a mouse click or via a touchscreen). Time Clock MTS will try to auto complete the job code for the employee and show the job details so that the employee is sure he or she is booking their time to the correct job. It would be very useful to have printed out the Active Job Report and have this next to your Time Clock MTS computers so that the employees have a readily available list of the jobs they can book time to.


    Switching Jobs

    Employees can quickly switch jobs by clocking out of Time Clock MTS (via either the employee list or keypad screens of Time Clock MTS). The screen above will be shown to employees where they can either clock out or switch jobs. If they switch jobs the enter job code screen will be shown again and the employee can enter a new job code and switch to a new job.

    Step 4 : Reporting on Jobs

    The Job Time Report provides the Time Clock Administrator with all the information they'll need to understand how time is being booked to jobs. It shows a break down of each job defined in Time Clock MTS, and how much time each employee has logged against each job.

    Posted by mnemtsas at 2:59 PM | Comments (0)

    August 26, 2009

    How to Prevent Employees from Stopping and Starting Time Clock MTS


    Preventing Employees from Stopping and Starting Time Clock MTS

    A fairly common method of defrauding computer time clocks is to stop the time clock software running, change the computers' system clock, and then restart the software and record a fraudulent clock in or out. To prevent this Time Clock MTS includes a feature to prevent employees from stopping and restarting Time Clock MTS without the intervention of the Time Clock MTS administrator. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to prevent employees from stopping and re-starting Time Clock MTS.

    To prevent employyes from stopping and re-starting Time Clock MTS just follow the steps shown below.

    1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
    2. Go to the Tools->Options->Security screen and you'll be shown the screen at the top of this article. Select the require password setting from the dropdown. The options are to require password on program start, program end, or both. The most secure options are program start or program start AND program end. Just selecting program end is not particularly secure because Time Clock MTS could just be stopped using the Windows Task Manager.
    3. When you're happy with your Require Administrator Password setting press the Save button to save the changes. Now, depending on what setting you've selected the Time Clock MTS administrator password will need to be entered on program start, stop, or both.

    It is worth noting that this setting is most effective at preventing employee time clock fraud when used in conjunction with the Prevent System Clock Changes feature.

    Posted by mnemtsas at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)

    Preventing System Clock Changes


    Preventing System Clock Changes

    There are several features in Time Clock MTS designed to prevent employee fraud. One of these allows you to prevent system clock changes while Time Clock MTS is running, and thus prevent employees from simply changing the system clock to tamper with their clock in and clock out times. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to prevent system clock changes while Time Clock MTS is running.

    To dis-allow system clock changes in Time Clock MTS while it is running just follow the steps shown below.

    1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
    2. Go to the Tools->Options->Security Settings screen and you'll be shown the screen at the top of this article. To get Time Clock MTS to prevent system clock changes while it is running just check the Do Not Allow System Clock Changes checkbox.
    3. When you're happy the change press the Save button to save the changes and Time Clock MTS will now monitor the system clock for any changes.

    It is worth noting that Time Clock MTS does not actually prevent the system clock being changed, it will however prevent any employee clocking in or out if it detects that the system clock has been changed by more than a few seconds. It is also worth noting that this feature is only really useful if it is teamed up with the 'Require Admin Password' setting. This means the admin password will need to be entered on software startup, software shutdown, or both.

    Posted by mnemtsas at 2:28 PM | Comments (0)

    August 25, 2009

    Setting Up Automatic Employee Breaks


    Setting Up Automatic Employee Breaks

    In some cases it may be more efficient to automatically assign a break period to an employees' payroll information rather than getting them to clock in and out at lunch break for example. Time Clock MTS can account for this by allowing you to allocate an automatic break period to your employees. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to setup automatic employee breaks.

    To setup automatic employee breaks in Time Clock MTS just follow the steps shown below.

    1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
    2. Go to the Tools->Options->Payroll Settings screen and you'll be shown the screen at the top of this article. To setup automatic breaks you must determine how long an employee must work before a break is applied and how long the automatic break will be. You can apply breaks after 1 to 8 of consecutive hours worked (in half hour increments). The length of the break applied can range from 5 minutes to 90 minutes (in 5 minute increments). To apply an automatic break check the Automatically Apply Breaks checkbox and select the appropriate break length and work period from the drop down boxes.
    3. When you're happy with your automatic break setup press the Save button to save the changes and the next time you run a report the times will be rounded.

    It is worth noting that Time Clock MTS does not create a clock in / out pair for the automatic break, it is simply applied at report time.

    Posted by mnemtsas at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)

    How to Round Report Times


    Setting Up Report Rounding

    While Time Clock MTS records all clock in and out times to the nearest second it can be useful to round the times for reporting purposes. There are several reasons why you might like to do this, but the primary reason is that your overtime policy may require overtime to be of a certain length before it can apply. Rounding could therefore be used to exclude overtime from payroll calculations if an employee was to clock in just a few minutes early or just a few minutes late every day. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how setup report time rounding.

    To setup report time rounding in Time Clock MTS just follow the steps shown below.

    1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
    2. Go to the Tools->Options->Payroll Settings screen and you'll be shown the screen at the top of this article. There are 4 different rounding options, the nearest minute, nearest 1/10th of an hour (6 minutes), nearest 15 minutes and nearest 30 minutes. To select one just choose it from the Report Time Rounding dropdown box.
    3. Check the least quantity box if required. When this option is selected all clock in times will be rounded up and clock out times will be rounded down to the nearest time increment selected from the rounding drop down box.
    4. When you're happy with your selection press the Save button to save the changes and the next time you run a report the times will be rounded.

    It is worth noting that Time Clock MTS uses standard rounding to round report times. So, if for example, you've got rounding set to 15 minutes the following case would apply. Any clock in from 8:00:01am to 8:07:29AM would be rounded down to 8:00AM. Any time between 8:07:30AM and 8:14:59AM would be rounded up to 8:15:00AM. Of course this does not apply if the Least Quantity setting is checked.

    Another thing to note is that report rounding occurs at the time of reporting only, the actual clock in and clock out times are maintained at their original accurate to the nearest second value that was recorded originally.

    Posted by mnemtsas at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)

    August 20, 2009

    Re-Enabling an Employee in Time Clock MTS

    As I've mentioned previously it is possible to disable an employee in Time Clock MTS to prevent them from clocking in or out. However, you may find that you need to re-enable these employees so they can start using the software again. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to re-enable a Time Clock MTS employee who has been disabled.

    To re-enable an employee in Time Clock MTS just follow the steps shown below.

    1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article. You can easily see which employees are disabled on the employee list when you're logged in as the administrator, they have a gray status icon next to their names in the employee list.

      2. Re-Enabling an Employee
    2. Go to the Employee Maintenance->Re-Enable Employee Menu.

      3. Re-Enabling an Employee
    3. You'll be asked to confirm your action, once you've done so the employee will be re-enabled.

      4. Posted by mnemtsas at 9:31 AM | Comments (0)

      August 19, 2009

      Checking Who is Currently Clocked In

      It is is important that a supervisor be able to see at a glance who is currently clocked in for work and who is not. Time Clock MTS provides this information visually via the Employee List (people clocked in have green status icon, people clocked out a red). However, if your employee list is long or you need a paper print out there is a better way of viewing this information. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to quickly and easily generate a report to see who is currently clocked in or out of Time Clock MTS.

      To view a report showing who is clocked in or out of Time Clock MTS just follow the steps below.

      1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.

        2. Checking Who is Currently Clocked In Step 1
      2. Go to the Reporting->Current Status Report Menu

        3. Checking Who is Currently Clocked In Step 2
      3. You'll now be shown the Current Status Report. This report is simple to understand, it is split into two main areas, employees clocked in at the top, and employees clocked out at the bottom. The time of the last action for each employee is displayed next to their name. The report can be exported or printed easily by just clicking the appropriate buttons at the bottom of the reporting screen.

      That's all there is to it, if you require more information you may like to take a look at the Current Status Report Help Topic.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

      August 18, 2009

      Printing a List of Time Clock MTS Employees

      As a Time Clock MTS administrator it can be useful to have a printed list of all the employees currently in the system. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to quickly and easily generate a report showing a list of all employees and their pin numbers.

      To view a report showing all employees currently stored in Time Clock MTS just follow the simple steps below.

      1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.

        2. Print an Employee List Step 1
      2. Go to the Reporting->Employee ID Report Menu

        3. Print an Employee List Step 2
      3. You'll now be shown the Employee ID / Badge Number report. This report is simple to understand, it just shows a list of all employees in Time Clock MTS sorted alphabetically along with their badge numbers and PINs. The report can be exported or printed easily by just clicking the appropriate buttons at the bottom of the reporting screen.

      That's all there is to it, if you require more information you may like to take a look at the Badge Number Report Help Topic.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

      June 15, 2009

      Deleting an Employee from Time Clock MTS

      From time to time it may be necessary to delete an employees' Time Clock MTS account. Most likely this would be be because the employee has left the company and you no longer have any need for their time and attendance records to be reported on in Time Clock MTS. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to delete a Time Clock MTS employee.

      To delete an employee in Time Clock MTS just follow the steps shown below.

      1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
      2. Click on the employee in the employee list that you want to delete.

        3. Deleting an Employee
      3. Once you've selected the employee go to the Employee Maintenance->Delete Selected Employee menu. This is shown in the image above.

        4. Deleting an Employee
      4. You'll now be shown the Delete Employee screen. Deletion of an employee can only be reversed by our support staff so a confirmation procedure is required to delete an employee. On this screen to confirm the deletion of the employee just type DELETE into the text are in capitals.
      5. Once you've entered the confirming DELETE into the text box just click the Delete Employee button to delete the selected employee.

      Once deleted an employee will not be able to clock in or out. Their time records will no longer be available for reporting purposes and the employees name will no longer appear on any lists within the software. Note that an employee can be un-deleted by Time Clock MTS support staff, just contact us for more information.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)

      June 11, 2009

      Disabling an Employee in Time Clock MTS

      From time to time it may be necessary to temporarily disable an employees' Time Clock MTS account. This could be because the employee has left the company and you want to maintain their payroll records in the short term for reporting purposes. Or it could be to stop an employee clocking in and out for administrative reasons. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to temporarily disable a Time Clock MTS employee.

      To disable an employee in Time Clock MTS just follow the steps shown below.

      1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.
      2. Click on the employee in the employee list that you want to disable.

        3. Disabling an Employee
      3. Once you've selected the employee go to the Employee Maintenance->Disable Selected Employee menu. This is shown in the image above.

        4. Disabling an Employee
      4. You'll now be shown the Disable Employee screen. Despite the fact that you can easily re-enable an employee you still need to go through a confirmation process to disable an employee to stop it happening by accident. On this screen to confirm the disabling of the employee just type DISABLE into the text are in capitals.
      5. Once you've entered the confirming DISABLE into the text box just click the Disable Employee button to disable the selected employee.

      Once disabled an employee will not show in the employee list nor will they be able to clock in or out using the keypad interface. Note that disabled employees will be displayed in the employee list when you're logged in as the administrator. Their attendance data will also still be available to payroll reports.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 3:26 PM | Comments (0)

      Copying an Employee in Time Clock MTS

      Typically in most companies there will be groups of employees for whom the same payroll and overtime rules apply. To speed up the creation of such employees in Time Clock MTS it is possible to copy an existing employee record to easily create a new one. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to copy a Time Clock MTS employee.

      To create a new employee by copying a existing employee just follow the steps below.


      1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.

      2. Click on the employee in the employee list that you want to copy.


        3. Copying an Employee

      3. Once you've selected the employee you want to copy go to the Employee Maintenance->Copy Selected Employee menu. This is shown in the image above.


        4. Copying an Employee

      4. You'll now be shown the Add Employee screen with all the details from the copied employee filled in already. The only differences will be the name and the employee ID / badge number. All you need to do is set the name to the correct name for the employee and assign them a PIN.

      5. Once you've done these couple of things to your satisfaction just click the Save Employee button to create the new employee record.

      That's all there is to it. To get more detailed help on what each field on each employee sub page does consult the online help file.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 2:20 PM | Comments (0)

      Adding an Employee to Time Clock MTS

      For an employee to be able to clock in and out of Time Clock MTS you must create an employee account that they can use. This Time Clock MTS How To Article very briefly covers how to create a Time Clock MTS employee.

      To create a new employee in Time Clock MTS just follow the steps show below.

      1. Log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator. How you log in as the administrator was covered in this Time Clock MTS How To Article.

        2. Adding an Employee
      2. Once you're logged in go to the Employee Maintenance->Add an Employee menu. This is shown in the image above.

        3. Adding an Employee
      3. You'll now be shown the Add Employee screen. This screen is split into 4 sub pages, the Employee Information page, the Payroll Information page, the Contact Information page, and the Tax Information page. The only things you must enter to create a new employee is the employee's full name, a unique badge ID, and a PIN (or password) for the new employee.
      4. Once you've setup the employee to your satisfaction just click the Save Employee button to create the new employee record.

      That's all there is to it. To get more detailed help on what each field on each employee sub page does consult the online help file or click on the links show in Step 3 above.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)

      June 9, 2009

      What is the Keypad Interface?


      Keypad Interface

      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 or input device such as a bar code read or magnetic card reader. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers the keypad interface.

      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). 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 real advantage of the Keypad interface is that it can be used with data readers such as bar code readers or magnetic card readers. All you need to do is encode your barcode badges or magnetic cards with the Time Clock MTS employee badge ID's and scan in the data. The data reader will populate the entry text box with the employee Badge ID and at the end of the data read (usually) a data reader sends the return code (the same as pressing the return key on the keyboard). This will press the Enter button on the Keypad interface and clock the employee in or out.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 1:56 PM | Comments (0)

      What is the Employee List Interface?



      Employee List Interface

      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 or input device such as a bar code read or magnetic card reader. This Time Clock MTS How To 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 able to clock out and vice versa. The status of the employee will also be updated showing the time and date (and any note) for the last action performed by the selected employee. At the bottom of the employee list is a light blue search box that allows you to enter a few letters and be quickly taken to that employee in the employee list. This is a quick way of finding employees if you have a very long employee list.

      On the right hand side of the screen the employee selected in the employee list can clock in or out using the Clock In or Out buttons. The current date and time is shown below the Clock In / Out buttons. If the Time Clock MTS administrator has enabled it, the employee may also be able to view their own time cards by clicking the View My Information button. Note that on the Time Clock MTS Client there is an additional button entitled 'Refresh' that will update the status icons in the employee list. The status area shows the name of the currently selected employee and the details of the last action that employee performed.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 1:11 PM | Comments (0)

      Logging in as the Administrator

      To access payroll reports and to be able to configure Time Clock MTS you must be using the software in Administrator mode. This Time Clock MTS How To Article covers how to log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator and thus access the Administrator mode.


      Logging in as Administrator

      When Time Clock MTS is operating in Normal mode and you want to log in as the administrator you must use the File->Log in as Administrator menu as shown in the image above. Once you've selected this menu item you'll be shown the Enter Administrator Password screen as shown below.


      Administrator Login Screen

      Your administrator password was set by you when you first installed Time Clock MTS. Remember that is is cASe SenSITive and that you (or someone else with administrator access to Time Clock MTS) may have changed it. Once you've entered the password correctly and clicked the Login button you'll be logged in correctly and Time Clock MTS will be operating in Administrator mode. If you've forgotten your password then you'll need to reset your administrator password.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

      What is Administrator Mode?


      Time Clock MTS in Administrator Mode

      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 (this will be covered by an up-coming How To 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 menu.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

      What is Normal Mode?

      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.


      Employee List Interface in 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.


      Keypad Interface in Normal Mode

      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 disabled.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

      June 4, 2009

      Time Clock MTS How To Guides

      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 weblog. 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 guide.

      Posted by mnemtsas at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)