Time Clock Software Web Log

March 3, 2010

Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.7 Released

A new version of Time Clock MTS (2.5.7) was uploaded yesterday that included some minor fixes. These were restricted to fixing up some spacing problems on the Simple Wages Report and the Time Breakdown Report. A calculation problem was also rectified on the Time Breakdown Report.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:30 AM | Comments (0)

February 2, 2010

Time Clock MTS 2.5.6 Released

I've released a new version of Time Clock MTS today that fixes up a couple of minor problems. The first fix sorts out a rounding issue on the payroll summary section of reports. The second fix addresses the feature that prevents employees from clocking in too early. I thought I'd fixed this logic in the last release but apparently not. Thanks to a couple of diligent Time Clock MTS users who spotted these errors and helped me track them down and fix them up!

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2010

Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.5 Released

It's 2010 and I've just made the first new release of Time Clock MTS for the new year. This new version contains a couple of new reports, some user interface tweaks, and a number of usability improvements and bug fixes. As usual the changes can be found below.

Added a new report, the Simple Attendance Report.
Added a new report, the Time Breakdown Report.
Employees can now view their own job punchcard report as well as the punchcard report.
If PIN entry or fingerprint security is turned on then employees must re-validate before they can view their own timecard or job punchcard.
Changed the message shown to users when Time Clock MTS cannot connect to the database due to insufficient file permissions. Turns out the same error is returned when the directory the database is in is disconnected or if the database file is opened exclusively by someone else.
Fixed up an error that one user reported when viewing the options screen in the Time Clock MTS Client.
Fixed up an error that occurred when the employee bulletin screen was open and the software was closed down.
Changed the way that restricting an employee from clocking in too early works so that limits close to midnight are handled correctly.

Posted by mnemtsas at 1:01 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.4 Released

I've released a new version of Time Clock MTS today that fixed up a small problem with the Job Time Report. Occasionally it would not show the last time from the reporting period. There's also been some detailed debugging code added to the Internet Time Server update procedure and more debugging code added to try to determine the reason for an error that one user reported yesterday.

I've also included one other fix to a problem that may not even be a problem. Some of our other products (namely Timesheets Lite and Timesheets MTS have been experiencing crashes due to broken Windows Scripting installs on Windows XP Service Pack 3. I've put in some code to catch this error if it is happening in Time Clock MTS.

Posted by mnemtsas at 7:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.3 Released

I've released a new version of Time Clock MTS today that tweaks a couple of major areas of the software, the capturing of images by camera feature and the getting the time from an internet time server security option. The details of the changes can be found below:

When Time Clock MTS contacts our web servers to check if there is a new version available it now times out the check after 5 seconds rather than 60 seconds.
Completely re-worked the way any attached cameras are accessed by Time Clock MTS when using the options page. Now the cameras are only accessed when you're on the Camera Settings page. Also, a warning message is displayed during the delay while the cameras are being connected to. This should significantly speed up the loading of the options page.
Changed the tips form so it no longer prevents access to the main application screen.
Added a button to the Welcome Screen that takes users to the employee PIN tutorial when they first run the software.
Dropped two servers (nist1-ny.WiTime.net and nist1.uccaribe.edu) from the internet time server list that were not working any longer, and added three new ones that are working.
Changed the internal frequency that Time Clock MTS checks the selected internet time server to just under 15 minutes. This means there must be at least 5 failed time checks before Time Clock MTS will prevent clock ins or outs.
If at least one successful check of an internet time server has happened since Time Clock MTS started running it will no longer lock out users if the time server cannot be contacted again.
Fixed a bug with the time server code where the previous checked time could sometimes be returned when checking the time again.
Fixed a bug within the time checking code that could result in multiple calls to the time server.
Made sure that the internal time server checking process timer started even when the checking process failed on starting up Time Clock MTS.

All of these changes should prevent some errors that some users have been seeing and will make running the software a much easier and smoother process.

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.2 Released

I've just released Version 2.5.2 of Time Clock MTS containing some reporting fixes and an enhancement to the job tracking system. Details of the changes can be found below.

Added the employee job creation setting. This allows employees to create new job when they are logging times against a job. This could be useful if your employees use pre-numbered job or service sheets and only record one or two times against a job. It will help to minimize administrative overhead and the need to have jobs pre-defined.
Fixed up the column formatting on the Simple Wages Report.
Fixed up the Job Punchcard Report, which was dropping off the last days times from the job totals.
Tried to fix up the invalid characters some users have been seeing when they export their reports to Excel.
Fixed up a problem with the departmental folder display of the employee list. When an employee was selected and the list was automatically refreshed the employee was unselected.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:51 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2009

Time Clock MTS 2.5.1 Released

A very minor release today containing a couple of fixes. The first fix solved a problem where too many rows were being displayed on the employee list when there were departments defined with no employees assigned to them. This only affected users who had the show department folders on employee list feature turned on.

The second fix has loosened up some of the licensing checks in the software to stop a number of false licensing failures that users have been experiencing. Hopefully these changes will prevent properly licensed users from being inconvenienced any further.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:24 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.4.8 Released

I released a new version of Time Clock MTS today that contained a number of minor changes designed to either fix or enable me to fix some persistent small bugs that certain users have been reporting. Changes made are detailed below.

The search for an employee label would only update to a new setting after re-starting the software. This is now fixed.
Debugging code added to try to determine reason for invalid procedure call error that one person is getting.
Fixed length of password reminder question answers text fields.
Added lots of debugging code to payroll summary report to try to figure out why some people cannot see some reports.
Fixed up a couple of reports that were still showing deleted employees as delegates.
Changed the popup message when adding an employee with an existing employee id / badge number. You cannot add an employee whose badge number is the same as a deleted employee.
Added catches for lost database connections in various parts of the software.

Posted by mnemtsas at 7:00 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2009

Time Clock MTS 2.4.5 Released

The Job Punchcard Report

There was a very minor release of Time Clock MTS made yesterday (version 2.4.4) that fixed up an error that a very few people were seeing. Today I made another release that includes a new report, the 'Job Punchcard Report' which you can see above. This report is very similar to the Punchcard Report. It shows a list of all time punches for the employee over the report period plus the job worked on for each punch. A total for each job worked on during the report period is shown at the bottom of each employee section.

If you don't know what job tracking is in Time Clock MTS you should take a look at our job tracking time clock page for more information.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)

October 6, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.4.3 Released

Just a minor release today fixing up an error introduced with the last version plus two other problems that a very few users were seeing. The refresh employee list button wasn't working correctly in the client version, employee bulletins were not being displayed correctly , and one user was getting a strange error message. All of these are now fixed up.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

October 2, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.4.2 Released

A new release today, I was tempted to move to version 2.5.0 because the changes under the bonnet of Time Clock MTS were pretty significant. However, I hope that you, the user, wont actually notice any changes other than Time Clock MTS being faster and more reliable. So, the software has just moved along to Version 2.4.2. The changes made to the software can seen below.

Added a link to the animated job tracking demo on the Tools->Options->Job Tracking screen.
Changed some of the text on the Tools->Options->System Options page to make it easier to understand.
Added a warning to the File->Reset Admin Password menu. Some people seem to think that this is the only way to reset the admin password. Actually it's only there to be used when you FORGET the admin password. You can change the admin password at any time on the Tools->Options->System Options page.
Made some sweeping changes to the software to try to fix up the 'error 0' message that more and more people are seeing. The error was not reproducible and I suspect wasn't fixable. So, we've completely replaced the list box control used on the employee list interface with a new (and hopefully more reliable) one. There were a bunch of code changes required to do this and to try to catch the error if it keeps happening.

The new list control is a good one and opens up some possibilities for a better user interface further down the track. Stay tuned for more.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:24 PM | Comments (0)

September 16, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.4.1 Released

Just one small fix in this release. The way weekly overtime was being calculated when a paid holiday was occurring in the same week wasn't quite correct. This is now fixed up. As usual if you've got any problems please contact me with your concerns.

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.3.2 Released

A new minor release of Time Clock MTS today fixing up a few problems. Details of the fixes are below:

Some fixes to the way resizing of the application window works. In some cases the bottom employee on the employee list wouldn't be visible, I think this is because of the scroll bars appearing on the list of employees. This should be fixed up now, along with the maximize window button being disabled when you're using the keypad interface.
A fix to the mySQL database creation script, for some reason LONGTEXT fields were being set to VARCHAR(255). Now all fixed.
Fix to all payroll reports where the monthly pay amount was more than $9,999.99. Wages now display and print correctly.
Employees using the 'View My Information' button can no longer view the time location report and the departmental wages report.

Additionally, Time Clock MTS Version 2.3.1 (released about a month ago) included a fix for the shift restriction feature which was working for a long time and then stopped working.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)

July 8, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.3.0 Released

I finally rolled over to version 2.3.0 of Time Clock MTS today. There's been a large number of improvements and new features since Version 2.2.0 so I guess the time had arrived! There were several changes from the last release (2.2.16) and it's worth discussing them in some detail here.

Added optional data logging to the software. This logging records all changes made to clock in and out times and stores them in an encrypted table for security reasons. You can view the log for any time on via the Edit Times screen. Take a look at the online help file to read more about the view time log screen.
Re-ordered the internet time server list to move a problem server to the bottom of the list. You can read more about the problem server here.
Fixed up a couple of problems with the software that I'd been trying to sort out for a while. The first is a fix to spontaneously re-setting administrator passwords and the second is a fix to overtime calculations when using the 'no double up' setting.

You might be interested to know that the new time data logging feature and the Departmental Wages Report added in the last version were added at the request of existing Time Clock MTS users. Is there a report you'd like to see added to the software? A feature that is missing that you simply cannot do without? Well just go ahead and contact me and I'll see how your request can be accommodated.

Posted by mnemtsas at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.2.15 Released

A minor release today fixing up two small bugs and adding an extra screen to catch database file permissions errors. Changes are detailed below.

Fixed up a situation where the 'Generate MySQL Script' menu item would be hidden despite the software being licensed for enhanced database support.
Fixed up a problem with automatic employee ID incrementing. This only occurred when the Copy Selected Employee' menu item was used.
Added some new checks on startup to determine if database connection failure is due to insufficient file or folder permissions. If this is determined to be the case a new explanatory pop up window is displayed rather than the (not very helpful) 'Cannot Connect to Database' message.

Posted by mnemtsas at 2:35 PM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.2.13 Released

A minor release today with just one fix. I've finally tracked down and fixed a bug that caused the last clock in/out details for the selected employee to not display properly. There was a reasonably complex sequence of steps you had to make to actually get the bug to show up and it's taken me a while to figure out what those steps were. Finally pinned them down and fixed up the problem. It was a display only problem and didn't effect the data being recorded, despite what the screen said!

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

May 3, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.2.12 Released

I've just released version 2.2.12 of the software. This version contains some new logging and a new report. When an employee clocks in or out Time Clock MTS now records the Network Name and the Network Card MAC address of the computer along with the time data. There's also a new payroll report (the Time Location Report) that displays this information along with each time. The idea behind this report is to allow administrators to detect any odd clocking behaviour among employees. For example, if your employees are supposed to clock in and out from their own computers and one employee consistently clocks in an out from another PC then there may be some buddy punching happening.

I'll write a more detailed entry covering the application of this new feature shortly.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:14 AM | Comments (0)

May 1, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.2.11 Released

A small release today fixing up a couple of issues and adding some formatting to a couple of reports.

Employees on a fortnightly salary period had their hours calculated incorrectly. This is now fixed up.
If you unchecked all of the employees on the report configuration screen and then tried to run a report by department or shift an incorrect warning was displayed and you could not run the report. This is now fixed.
The minimize button on the report display screen has been de-activated. If you clicked on this it caused a hard crash.
The punchard and detailed punch card reports now have blocks of data separated by weeks. This is just to make for easier reading of the report.

Posted by mnemtsas at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2009

Time Clock MTS 2.2.9 and 2.2.10 Released

A couple of minor releases in the last few days fixing up some small problems and putting in some new logging code to try to track down some errors that have started surfacing for some reason.

Version 2.2.9

Fingerprint support was re-enabled and the method used to check for correct fingerprint driver installation was changed. This is the resolution to the hard crash that was fixed up in the last release. There were also a couple of minor feature changes including adding last 14 days selection to the edit times screen and allowing administrators to setup web camera image capture on a client by client basis.

Version 2.2.10

A fix to the type 13 mismatch error that was caused by the release of Version 2.2.10. I've also added a bunch of new logging code to try to track down why people are suddenly (and mysteriously) getting Element Not found Errors. This is particularly baffling because this area of the software has not been touched in well over a year.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:18 AM | Comments (0)

April 9, 2009

Time Clock MTS Versions 2.2.7 and 2.2.8 Released

Many apologies for the two releases so close together, but it was critical to release version 2.2.8 due to a hard crash that some users were seeing.

Changes for version 2.2.8:

Fix to hard crash that some users were seeing. Root cause was the fingerprint scanner support. For the time being fingerprint support has been disabled. It will be re-instated within 24 hours.

Changes for version 2.2.7:

Added support for logging to an Excel worksheet. This can be enabled by running Time Clock MTS with the command line parameter ExcelDebug
Fixed a problem where the password was not being reset correctly during the 30 day trial period
Made various changes to allow easier recovery of forgotten or lost administrator passwords. Lots of users seem to lose them and I want to make sure this isn't a programming issue with the software.
Employee image capture can now be setup on a client by client basis. Previously it could only be setup if the administrator PC had a webcam on it.
Fix to the view information button to require a finger scan when fingerprint security is activated.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.2.6 Released

New release today that changes the way that Digital Persona Fingerprint scanner support is handled. Previously the install files for the fingerprint scanners were included in the general install file but this had beefed the install file to nearly 11 megabytes. In my opinion this was entirely too large and was probably leading to a lot of failed downloads. The fingerprint scanning feature is excellent but is currently only used by a small number of companies so I've decided to make support optional and not make the download excessively large for everyone. So, Time Clock MTS now detects if fingerprint support is installed when you try to access any of the fingerprint features within the software and prompts you to download and install the fingerprint scanner install files. Hopefully this will make things a lot easier for new users of the software and help improve download speeds and success rates.

I've been a bit remiss posting entries here when I've uploaded new versions lately so I'll just cover the changes to the last few versions quickly (because they've been very minor).

Version 2.2.5

A fix to handle non functioning time servers which I covered in detail here.

Version 2.2.4

Fix to problem with adding employees to the database for people who had installed the update file, problem was caused by release of version 2.2.3.

Version 2.2.3

Reworked all of the code that updated the Time Clock Database when upgrading to a new version of the software. Tested to make sure that MS SQL and MySQL databases were updated properly back from version 1.7.3.

Version 2.2.2

Fix to minor vacation / sick time rounding problem.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2009

NTP Time Server Problem Fixed

As I mentioned in my last post the time servers

time-a.nist.gov, MD USA
time-b.nist.gov, MD USA

appear to have stopped to responding for time requests in the format that Time Clock MTS requires. I have released a new version of the software (version 2.2.5) that swaps out these two servers for two new ones that do work. The new servers are:

nist1.uccaribe.edu in Puerto Rico
nist1-ny.WiTime.net, NY USA

If you are having troubles with your time server and dont want to bother with the fix I suggested in the last entry then just update all your admin and client version of Time Clock MTS to the latest version and you should be up and running.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2009

Time Clock MTS 2.2.1 Released

Just a minor release today that includes a few small fixes.

If fingerprint verification was being used and the first enrolled fingerprint was used to clock in or out the message 'not verified' was displayed in error when scanned correctly. This is now fixed.
Fixed up window sizing of the employee list screen when the maximize window button was clicked.
Reports exported to TAB delimited files are now with a .txt extension rather than a .csv extension.
Possible fix to rare occasion where enrolled fingerprints were not saved correctly.

Posted by mnemtsas at 2:02 PM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2009

Time Clock MTS 2.2.0 Released

A new version released today. One small fix to stop a constant slow down of the software over time and one major new feature. The major new feature is the integration of Time Clock MTS with a Fingerprint Scanner. This is the last word in employee security and along with the other security features in Time Clock MTS should help you to eliminate buddy punching and payroll fraud completely.

The software will only work with the Digital Persona U.are.U 4000 and 4500 fingerprint scanners. Currently I am not selling the hardware but Digital Persona recommended I use California PC as a supplier for the scanners. The price they offer is good and they should provide you with good after sales service. To get the software running with a Digital Persona scanner try taking a look at the using Time Clock MTS with a fingerprint scanner help topic.

As always please email me if you have any questions or problems.

Posted by mnemtsas at 7:02 AM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.11 Released

A new release of Time Clock MTS to make it fully compliant with California overtime rules and to try to fix up a few niggling problems that I've not been able to get to the bottom of until now.

A new setting on the Employee Maintenance->Payroll Information screen. Salaried employees have a new setting called 'Always Pay Wages'. With this setting turned on the wages paid to employees is calculated based on the report period rather than the hours worked. So, if a salaried employee with this setting turned on has a payroll report run across a period of a week then they will get 1 weeks wages rather than a prorated amount dependent on how many hours they worked.
A new setting on the Employee Maintenance->Payroll Information screen called 'waive automatic breaks'. When this setting is turned on the selected employee will not be allocated automatic breaks if they have been configured.
A new setting for each employee defining overtime rate 2.
A new global overtime setting for a second tier of daily overtime. When this is turned on daily overtime above the new limit is paid at overtime rate 2.
A new global overtime setting to turn on seventh day overtime. This includes a limit, under which seventh day overtime will be paid at overtime rate 1 and over which will be paid at overtime rate 2.
Three new fields added to the payroll summary report section template. These display hours worked, rate and earnings for the new overtime rate 2.
Time Clock MTS now refreshes the connection to it's database every 20 minutes.
Fix to secret question answers on Tools->Options->System Settings page.
Fix to prompt on enter note screen.
Fixed vacation and sick time starting balances not copying correctly when the copy employee command was used.

I will have a more detailed post up shortly covering the details of the new overtime settings and how these apply to California overtime rules.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)

January 8, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.10 Released

A minor bug fix release today. Two bugs fixed up plus some minor useability improvements. The bugs fixed were:

Sick time and vacation accruals now work correctly if the 'accrues every' setting is set to more than 1.
Sick time or vacation time taken on the last day of a report was not shown (but it was recorded correctly). This is now fixed up.
Various text fields on the options screens now select the entire contents when you select the text box.

Posted by mnemtsas at 2:15 PM | Comments (0)

December 24, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.9 Released

Another minor release today containing some bug fixes and some useability improvements. Changes made include:

Fixed up the tab order and text box sizes on the first login screen.
Added an adjustment to the employee starting balance for sick time and vacation accruals. This allows you to set each employee with their own starting balance. This new setting is cumulative with the accrual scheme starting balance.
The edit times time period selections were not quite working correctly. This has now been fixed up.
A new status message is displayed on the note entry screen to tell employees if they actually have to enter a note.
Fix to an error that occurred occasionally when selecting an employee from the employee list.
When editing a time on the edit times screen the matching times details are also shown. Ideally it would have been nice to be able to edit both on one screen but given that time notes are per time and not per pair this didnt really make sense.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

November 7, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.7 Released

Just one small change today. A new setting has been added to shifts allowing you to restrict when employees can start clocking in for that shift. It's a change that is worthy of it's own post. You can read more about stopping employees clocking too early for their shifts.

Posted by mnemtsas at 7:11 AM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.6 Released

A minor release today fixing up a few problems and improving the way that paid holidays function.

Payroll report total hours are now calculated from rounded daily values rather than raw daily values. This fixes up some rounding errors that could lead to the weekly total being slightly different to the amount if you totaled up the daily amounts. The difference was small (usually only 0.01 of an hour).
A 'last week' time selection has been added to the Edit Times period drop down.
The punchcard report now shows time notes. If the clock in time has a note, that will be shown, if there is no clock in time note and there is a clock out time note, that will be shown.
Holidays can now be set to a specific date in a given year or can be set as recurring. Recurring holidays are those that occur on the same date every year (such as Christmas), non recurring holidays would happen on a different date every year (such as Thanksgiving or Labor Day).
The holidays list displays some extra info, such as whether the holiday is recurring and what year it is set for.
The holidays add/edit screen will now display non latin characters (such as cyrillic or Japanese) properly.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.5 Released

A new release today containing some improvements to the new error reporting started in version 2.1.4. The release also contains some fixes and improvements to reports and some other minor changes.

If an error is raised on the keypad interface (such as a note being invalid, or an invalid clock in/out) then the employee badge number is cleared from the text box.
The new error text message is now cleared when a new employee is selected or a new badge number is entered.
The warning messages on the time note entry screen (zero length note or note equal to badge number) are now displayed in the new error status area.
All report periods are now selected on rounded times rather than absolute times. Previously this was not the case, so while payment amounts were correct sometimes activity could be missing from a report.
Accruals in the accrual section on reports are now to the end date of the report rather than the run date of the report.
<SICK_TIME_OWING_PERIOD> and <VACATION_OWING_PERIOD> added to the accrual report section.
Fix to report configuration screen where the hide employee summary section check box was not re-enabled after the payroll summary report was selected.
Removed employee summary section entirely from the simple wages report (didn't make sense having it there anyway).
Enlarged the section field selection box on the report settings screen.

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.4 Released

A minor release today containing one small fix, some error checking, and improvements to the software to make it easier to use with touchscreens. The list of changes includes:

Camera images are now captured on clock in/out via keypad interface.
Clock in / out errors are now displayed as a status message on the screen rather than a popup box.
A check is now made when adding time note, if the note is not added correctly then the created clock in/out is rolled back and an error raised.

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.3 Released

Version 2.1.3 of Time Clock MTS was released today containing fixes to several reports and some other minor fixes to rarely occurring bugs. Today's release includes the following changes:

Fixed up the simple wages report, some content was not being displayed correctly on the report.
Fix to the punchcard and detailed punchcard reports. Both of these reports were not displaying any data from the last day of the selected date range. The hourly totals and pay calculations were correct though.
Fix to sick time and vacation time report sections that were occasionally displaying the incorrect totals.
Catch for an error that very rarely happened when a text box was selected on the employee maintenance screen.
Fix to an unhandled error that happened when the main application window refreshed and the report configuration screen was open.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.2 Released

A minor release today fixing up some problems that were introduced recently by the new setting that allows you set the time of day that your work week starts. Changes made include:

Fix to the last 7 days selection and the month to date selection on the Edit Times screen. This was broken by the new setting described above.
Fix to the last month selection on the Edit Times screen. I am not sure this ever worked *oops*.
Fixed up an issue with the last action text alignment when using the keypad interface.
Change the way the display last action works when clocking in or out. There were some cases where the incorrect action could be displayed, the new method has eliminated this problem and will result in faster operation and less database access.

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.1 Released

A new release of Time Clock MTS today including some new features requested by one of our users. Features added to this new version include:

The employee list interface can now be completely customized to your local requirements via the Tools->Options->Interface Settings page. The customization will allow you to use non Latin character sets (such as Cyrillic, Korean, Japanese etc).
The last employee note is now displayed along with the last action action details for the selected employee.
If you happen to run the Time Clock MTS Client and Administrator program on the same computer you'll find that the saved window positions are now separate for each program.
The main Time Clock MTS Window can now be re-sized when you're using the employee list interface. This will allow you to fill your entire monitor with the Time Clock MTS application.

I'll cover the customization of the employee list interface in more detail in a subsequent post.

Posted by mnemtsas at 4:18 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2008

Time Clock MTS 2.1.0 Released

Some new features were added and minor bug fixes addressed in Version 2.1.0 of Time Clock MTS as released today. Changes made include:

Users can now set a first day of week start time. So for whatever reason, you can have your work week (and all calculations) start at 9:00AM on Mondays if you require.
You can now set any day of the week to be paid as overtime, so for example Sundays could be set to be paid as overtime if required. Note that clock ins or outs can be excluded from these calculations if you use the Exclude From Overtime setting on the Edit Times screen. Overtime will not be doubled up though, even if daily overtime limits are exceeded on a day paid as overtime.
Employee name field on employee maintenance page now will display double byte characters (Cyrillic, Japanese etc).
Employee badge number cannot be entered as a note. This is to prevent double scans of mag cards or barcodes while using the keypad interface.
Fix to employee note screen that gave an unhandled error after a zero length note was entered.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:31 PM | Comments (0)

August 13, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.0.6 Released

A minor release today fixing up some bugs. These include:

Report section template fields are now added correctly for MySQL database users.
Fix to allow the employee name to be displayed as double byte characters (such as Cyrillic, Chinese or Japanese) in the last action area.
A fix to an overflow error if a string longer than 9 characters was entered via the keypad interface.

You may also notice that I've split the Tools->Options->Payroll Settings page into separate Payroll Settings and Overtime Settings pages. This is to allow for some new payroll and overtime settings that will be added soon (such as being able to flag a week day as overtime and restricting employees to clocking in/out to their assigned shift times).

Posted by mnemtsas at 3:54 PM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.0.3 Released

Just a minor release today. For some reason the default settings for report section templates we not being set. This is now fixed.

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.0.2 Released

I've just released Version 2.0.2 which contains a number of fixes to problems introduced by the last release plus adds one major new feature. Changes made include:

A new security feature which allows you to use a camera attached to any Time Clock MTS computer to capture an image when users clock in or clock out. Administrators can then view the captured image associated with a clock in or out and verify that the correct person performed the action. This should allow you to stop buddy punching.
A fix to the Version 2 database updates for SQL Server and MySQL that didn't work correctly.
Fix to the last action display text to allow non English characters to be displayed.

There were a number of other minor fixes, for more information take a look at the Release Notes page. In the next day or two I'll write a longer post covering the new image capturing feature of Time Clock MTS, what it does, how it works, and how you might use it.

Posted by mnemtsas at 6:57 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.0.1 Released

Well Version 2.0.1 is out. I wont talk about it too much here right now. You can read about it on the Official Time Clock MTS Version 2 Release Page or take a look at the Release Notes. Over the course of the next week or so I'll cover one of the features of the new release in detail here each day, hopefully along with some explanatory screen shots.

A Note to Existing Time Clock MTS Users
If you're an existing Time Clock MTS user the software will not update itself to Version 2. Because a new registration key is required and not everyone is eligible for a free registration key I decided to make it a manual process. If you want to upgrade to Version 2 you'll need to download the admin program update installer and the client program update installer. Once you've downloaded these just run them on your installations of Time Clock MTS and it will update to Version 2.

Getting Version 2 Registration Keys
You can retrieve your own registration key for Version 2 of the software. You'll need to know your Version 1 registration key to get it. Don't worry too much if you cant pull your own registration key from our website, the database has a couple of holes in it that I am trying to fix up. Just send me an email with your current license details and if you're eligible I'll send you your Version 2 registration key ASAP.

Posted by mnemtsas at 7:55 PM | Comments (0)

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.4 Released

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.4 has been released. It has been released in update form only rather than as a full install. This is the last release of version 1 of Time Clock MTS. The only change to the software is a message informing users that it is the last release of Version 1 of the software and to upgrade to Version 2 you'll need to visit our website.

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.3 Released

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.3 has been released containing a number of fixes to the recent problems we've been seeing with synching the internal clock with internet time servers.

The Maryland NIST time servers have stopped supporting the older TIME protocol, and this was the cause of the recent problems Time Clock MTS had with syncing with these servers. We've changed the protocol used for these servers to the NIST format.
Time between queries to NTP Servers has changed to 30 minutes to stop flooding the servers.
Query time out has reduced to 10 seconds rather than the previous 1 minute, to stop the software locking up on startup for a minute.
Internet Time Syncing is now turned off by default to prevent this sort of problem for people who are just trialing the software.

Posted by mnemtsas at 9:15 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.2 Released

A couple of bugs fixed and some new features added today.

A setting has been added to allow Time Clock MTS to check for a newer version on software startup. This setting is off by default but can be turned on via the Tools->Options->Interface Settings page. Note that you'll still need to update the software via the Tools->Check for Updates menu.
When manually checking for updates and an update is available you'll now be able to view the release notes for the new version. In fact you'll be able to view the release notes for every version between the one you are currently running and the latest that is available from us.
When Excel is not installed and you try to export a report to Excel the software explains that you need Excel to be installed. Formerly it gave a less than explanatory error message.
Fix to both vacation accruals and sick time accruals. When the delay for an employee to start accruing set to accrue into the future the software calculated accrued sick time / vacation time incorrectly. This is now fixed.

Posted by mnemtsas at 6:05 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.1 Released

Three new features added to the version released today.

A new setting has been added to allow all reports to display time activity in hours:minutes:seconds format as well as the old decimal hours format. You can turn this new method of report output on via the Tools->Options->Display Settings->Display Times As screen.
A new setting has been added to vacation and sick time accruals. This new setting allows you to use the anniversary of an employee's hire date to reset the vacation or sick time accrual instead of the fiscal year. You can turn this new method of accrual calculation on via the Tools->Options->Sick Time/Vacation Accrual->Use Hire Date not Fiscal Year page.
A check has been put in place to prevent a second instance of either the Administrator or Client software from running on the same computer.

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.0 Released

A new version was released today containing three bug fixes.

The new NTP time code had a small bug in it where in some instances the time queried from the NTP server was not read properly and the old time was used instead leading to timing errors.
Another fix was put in for the Error 6 : Overflow that some people had seen when their systems were running for a very long time. I suspect this is a limitation with a timer in MS Windows that takes effect after your system has been running for more than 47 days.
Time Clock MTS determines your currency symbol ($ for example) and decimal symbol (. or ,) from some internal MS Windows settings. In some cases (for some reasons I've not been able to determine) these settings are not able to be read. This caused an error when saving Time Clock MTS settings. This has now been fixed up.

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

April 30, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.6.8 Released

Time Clock MTS Version 1.6.8 was released yesterday containing a few fixes and some performance updates.

The software now functions correctly with limited user accounts on Windows XP and Windows Vista. This was possible before but some directory permissions had to be set manually, the software installer now does this automatically.
The Client software would not register itself properly when the trial period had expired. Again this could be worked around with some effort but now should just happen automatically.
The method used to access internet time servers has changed. Some people were reporting that Time Clock MTS wouldn't connect to the servers properly so the changes were made in and attempt to fix this up. I should emphasize that for the best level of security for your Time Clock Software that you should use the Internet Time Server option for determining clock in and out times.
Some users were experiencing a slowdown when the employee list had more than 50 employees in it. Some time was spent speeding this up, you should see about a 30% speed increase (this same speed increase will be seen in other areas of the software that display the full employee list).

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:58 AM | Comments (0)

April 5, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.6.5 Released

Just a minor release today. The single new feature is being able to use a custom NTP server from which Time Clock MTS can set it's internal clock from. You might like to use this setting for the following reasons:

Your network is not connected to the Internet and cannot access an external NTP server so you must use a NTP server on your network somewhere.
Your network is firewalled and does not allow access to the port required for a query to an NTP server. This port is UDP port 123. If this is the case then you must use a NTP server on your network somewhere.
You prefer to use a geographically closer NTP server than the default time servers available in Time Clock MTS. For a list of available public NTP servers try taking a look at the NTP Organization Home Page.

A minor bug was fixed in this version, the report configuration screen would give an invalid property error when the next month button was pressed and then the this week button was pressed, but only when the current month had 30 days and the previous had 31. It was fairly obscure but thanks to one alert user who figured out exactly what was going on.

Versions 1.6.3/1.6.4 were released recently in an effort to try to fix an error on the Edit Times Screen. Some users were reporting that the drop down menus on the Add Time and Delete Time buttons on the Edit Times screen were not working but I could not replicate this. It turned out the error only occurred when navigating to the Edit Times screen from the View Information button on the main Time Clock MTS Screen. There's no apparent fix to this (it's a system error rather than a bug on my behalf) so I've removed the ability to navigate to the Edit Times screen from the View Information button. You'll have to get there via the Tools->Edit Times menu (which you could always do anyway).

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2008

Microsoft Access Database Password Support

Version 1.6.2 of Time Clock MTS was released today. It contained a couple of minor bug fixes and added one very important security feature, support for Microsoft Access database passwords.

Users finding and manipulating the back end database of Time Clock MTS has always been a problem. Time Clock MTS has always included a series of internal checks to try to detect this sort of manipulation, but of course no system is perfect. By including support for Access database passwords we have added one additional layer of security to ensure that your time and attendance information is accurate. Using a database password with a Microsoft Access database encrypts the data it contains and prevents non authorized access to the database when someone tries to open it with MS Access.

To setup Time Clock MTS to work with an Access database that is password protected follow these simple steps:

Password protect your Access database using MS Access. How this is done depends largely on the version of MS Access that you have. Consult your MS Access help documentation for detailed instructions.
Run the Time Clock MTS administrator program, the software will detect that the database back end is password protected and prompt you to enter the password.
Once entered click OK and re-start the software as prompted. If you entered the information correctly then you'll connect directly to the database. If you didn't enter the password correctly you'll be prompted to enter it again.
You'll need to repeat the password entry process for every client installation you have.

That's all there is to it. If you're wondering, the MS Access database password you enter into Time Clock MTS is stored locally on each computer (which is why you need to enter the password for every Time Clock MTS Client you have). The password itself is stored in an encrypted format for extra security.

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)