June 30, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.2.16 Released

A new release of Time Clock MTS today that adds a new report and a new report printing setting.

  1. The new report setting can be found on the Tools->Options->Report Settings screen. Called New Employee Page Break when set reports will print out with a single page per employee. When not set reports will be printed continuously with no page breaks.

    2. Departmental Wages Report
  2. The new report is called the Departmental Wages Report and is shown above. This report shows a simple break down of hours worked by employee, employees are sorted into departments and a departmental subtotal of hours worked is shown for each department. As usual you can access this report from the Tools->Payroll Reports menu.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:30 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)

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)

May 26, 2009

New Time Clock MTS Site Design Posted

If you've visited the site before you'll have noticed that last weekend the design of the Time Clock MTS site changed completely. The new design is much cleaner and removes almost all of the clutter that made the last design hard to read and navigate. The new design moves most of the clutter into the drop down menus just under the Time Clock MTS logo. Using these menus now allows you to access many more pages of the website without having to dig through several levels of pages. The key menu is the Help & Support menu, you can now access very useful resources like how to reset your administrator password, and how to retrieve your license code in just a couple of clicks! I really hope you find this new design easier to use.

If you find any broken links or odd things on the site please email me and I'll get it all fixed up.

Posted by mnemtsas at 10:44 AM | 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

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)

Problem with NTP Time Servers

It appears that two of the time servers included in Time Clock MTS to allow you to synchronize the time with the Internet are no longer responding with the time format the software requires. The time servers in question are:

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

To get around this just log into the software as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options->Security page and select one of the other three time servers. You will need to shut down the software and restart it to connect to these other servers correctly. You will also need to shutdown and restart any Time Clock MTS clients to start using the new time servers.

I am going to remove these servers from the list and find another couple that work. This will be done shortly.

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

February 18, 2009

New Time Clock MTS Fingerprint Scanner Tutorial Available

The release of version 2.2 of Time Clock MTS included integration with Digital Persona 4000 and 4500 fingerprint scanners. You can use these scanners to authenticate employees clocking in and out and thus elminate buddy punching and time clock fraud. There's a comprehensive page in the help file covering the use of the DP fingerprint scanners but there's nothing like a series of pictures to show you how easy it is. So, I've just built a new animated flash demo covering the use of the Digital Persona fingerprint scanners with Time Clock MTS.

Take a look at it today, it really is very simple using Time Clock MTS with the excellent Digital Persona scanners.

Posted by mnemtsas at 1:31 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2009

Time Clock MTS 2.2.1 Released

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

  1. 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.
  2. Fixed up window sizing of the employee list screen when the maximize window button was clicked.
  3. Reports exported to TAB delimited files are now with a .txt extension rather than a .csv extension.
  4. 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)

February 4, 2009

Time Clock MTS goes Biometric!

Within the next few hours version 2.2 of Time Clock MTS will be released. The key feature in this new version is integration with Digital Persona fingerprint scanners that you can purchase from California PC. By using a fingerprint scanner with Time Clock MTS you'll pretty much eliminate payroll fraud and buddy punching. I bet that most companies will recoup the cost of the software and scanners in just a few weeks, with the ROI over a year likely to be in the hundreds of percent.

If you want to read more about Time Clock MTS will work with a fingerprint scanner then there's that page on the main site. Stay tuned, new release due out shortly!

Posted by mnemtsas at 4:22 PM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2009

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.12 Released

A quick release today fixing up a couple of problems introduced in the new version yesterday and fixing up another problem with reports that I have been trying to track down for a while.

  • Fix to divide by zero error that occurred when running a report that included sick/vacation accrual data. Only occurred when an employee was assigned to a sick or vacation accrual scheme with a zero 'accrues every time period' setting.
  • Fixed up an error introduced to the calculation of working hours in the last version (did not effect payment amount)
  • Fixed up a problem with the 'always pay salary' setting that was added in the last version.

Posted by mnemtsas at 6:34 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 13, 2009

Fingerprint Scanner Hardware Selected

As I mentioned some time back I've finally identified a hardware vendor that produces the quality fingerprint scanners that I was looking for. Digital Persona are one of the best known manufacturers in the industry, with their hardware and software drivers rapidly becoming the standard for the biometric software industry. Their popular U.are.U 4000 USB fingerprint scanner has recently been superseded by the newly designed U.are.U 4500 model and it is this model that I have settled on. I am in the process of integrating Time Clock MTS with this scanner, and in the short term at least, this and the 4000 model are going to be the only biometric devices that will work with Time Clock MTS.

Currently Digital Persona bundles up the fingerprint scanner with some software that you can use to manage user accounts on your Windows PC and that will also manage your web passwords and so on. You can read more about this here. They currently have this bundle available at just US$69.95 which is an insanely good price considering how much it cost me for a single scanner for development purposes! You can purchase the scanners directly from the digital persona website. Please note that I am not affiliated with Digital Persona in any way, and do not currently sell their hardware so if you have any problems with the scanner then you'll need to deal with them rather than with anyone at Timesheets MTS Software.

Stay tuned for a new version of Time Clock MTS that works with these fingerprint scanners very soon!

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:53 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 - 2008 The Year in Review

2008 is about to draw to a close and I thought it was a good time to summarize the year. Time Clock MTS has seen it's usual level of development activity, with more than 30 releases this year. Most of these releases contained new features to make the software easier to use and more flexible to suit varying business requirements. As always I rely heavily on the users of Time Clock MTS to let me know what they do and dont like about the software, and these opinions help shape the development of the software. Version 2 of the software was released in June. This included a complete revamp of the reporting system as well as a slew of usability improvements. One of the more interesting new features added later in the year was the use of a webcam to capture employee images when they clock in or out.

The number of new companies using Time Clock MTS in 2008 grew by about 25% compared with 2007. This is despite the world financial crisis which has affected all of us in the last 6 months of this year. In fact, sales of Time Clock MTS in October and November were more than 30% down on the rest of the months of the year. November was in fact the worst sales month for nearly 3 years! I can only think that caution is the catch cry of the moment, with all sensible business owners riding out the storm by managing their expenditure and controlling their expenses.

Regarding the future development of the software please watch out for the integration of a fingerprint scanner with the software in the next few weeks. It's been difficult to locate a fingerprint scanning vendor who I am happy with, one that did not have burdensome licensing requirements. I've finally located one such vendor (one who happens to have top class hardware) and I am working with them now to incorporate biometric security into Time Clock MTS. Watch out for this in late January or early February. I'm also trying (without much success) to get Time Clock MTS working better with payroll software. So if you use some payroll software that can import time and attendance information why not let me know what format it requires and I'll add an export report in Time Clock MTS to suit it.

In conclusion I'd like to thank the users of Time Clock MTS who have given me valuable feedback during the year. I'd also like to thank those people who trialed the software and took the time to let me know their opinion of it even if they didn't purchase it. There's also the helper elves at Timesheets MTS Software that I'd like to thank, you know who you are!

Seasons greetings and happy holidays to all.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

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 27, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2.1.8 Released

I've released a new version of Time Clock MTS today. All of the new features are focused on improving the usability of the software.

  • I've added two administrator password reminder questions. You can either answer these when you first install the software or on the Tools->Options->System Options screen.
  • An administrator password reset screen has been added on the File->Reset Administrator Password menu. You can use this screen if you've answered the password reminder questions mentioned above.
  • Added links to various help topics on the Time Clock MTS website on various screens. For example, added a link to the software registration tutorial on the Help->Registration page.
  • Added a link to the online help on the Help menu. This is a work-around for users who don't seem to be able to view the integrated help.
  • Expanded the contents of the tips file.
  • There is now a link to the integrated help file installed in the program shortcut menu when you install the software.

I'll be doing a more comprehensive post on the reset password feature later today. Stay tuned!

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:02 AM | 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 24, 2008

Time and Attendance Newsletter

Like most online businesses we too have a newsletter. I'd like to think that our time and attendance newsletter is worth subscribing to for a few reasons:

  1. It's only published infrequently so it wont be continually clogging up your inbox with meaningless chatter.
  2. It allows me to highlight interesting weblog topics and get people here reading, and saves you having to continually to check if I've actually written something.
  3. It may (one day) include some discounts or offers to subscribers that are generally not available to other Time Clock MTS users.

It's easy to subscribe, just go to the Time and Attendance Newsletter subscription page and enter your email address.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:19 AM | 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)

July 20, 2008

Online Time Clock MTS

The real benefit of time clock software lays in the productivity savings you gain from gathering and processing time and attendance information efficiently, and the costs savings you gain from removing employee fraud and calculation errors. Time Clock MTS gives you these benefits in one simple to use piece of software, given that you want to collect all of your information on the one network and using MS Windows based PC's. However, if you have geographically separated locations or dont run MS Windows based PC's then it's a little more difficult to use Time Clock MTS. You can use it through the use of remote desktop tools (such as Windows Terminal Services) and Windows emulators (such as WiNe) but these add a layer of complexity that is not really desireable.

The best solution to these problems is by the use of an online time clock. I'm happy to announce that the online version of Time Clock MTS is under development and will be released within the next 12 weeks. The online Time Clock MTS is a completely hosted solution (we hold all your information and host the software) meaning you dont need to install anything on your PC's. All you'll need to do is log into your online Time Clock MTS account and clock in and out, run reports, and configure the software in the same way you do now with the desktop version. And this can be done from anywhere, using any computer that has a web browser!

Stay tuned, I'll be posting screenshots here as they become available.

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:52 AM | 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)

June 8, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 2 Release Imminent

In the next few days I'll be releasing the first build of Time Clock MTS Version 2. This will contain a number of new features to make the software a lot easier to use. It will also contain a major re-vamp of the reporting area to allow you to configure all reports to suit your exact requirements. The second build of Version 2 will contain a powerful new security feature to help eliminate buddy punching. The third build will add the ability for Time Clock MTS to operate over the web, so soon you'll be able to collect data anywhere with an internet connection and process it centrally in your head office! Stay tuned for these new releases in the upcoming weeks.

On an administrative and commercial note Version 1 license keys will not function with Time Clock MTS Version 2. However, anyone who has purchased the software within 12 months of June 1 2008 or has purchased an update to their support contract will be eligible for a free upgrade. Users who do not have a valid support contract or purchased outside of this time period will be eligible for a 50% discount on purchasing Time Clock MTS Version 2 licenses. I've tried to make this upgrade process as painless as possible but of course there will be hiccups and I apologize in advance for this. You can already see if you're eligible for a free upgrade by taking a look at the Get Time Clock MTS Version 2 License Key Page. Just paste your Time Clock MTS license key into the text box on this page and click the button and you'll be told all you need to know. By the way don't try to use the Version 2 license key in Version 1 of the software, it wont work!

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:02 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 22, 2008

Problems with Maryland NTP Servers

We have been seeing problems with time synching to the Maryland NTP time servers in the last few days. If you're seeing problems with this then please select any of the three time servers in Colorado. You can choose the time servers on the Tools->Options->Security page.

Posted by mnemtsas at 12:01 AM | 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 19, 2008

Time Clock MTS Newsletter Launched

I've been resisting it for a while, but the time has come to launch a Time Clock MTS Newsletter. Hopefully this will be informative and interesting, as well as providing a more direct line of communication from myself to you, the Time Clock MTS user. I dont expect to release more than 10-15 newsletters a year, and as well as tips, tricks, news of new releases, and notification of new weblog posts there will also be exclusive upgrade offers for newsletter subscribers.

Emails have been sent out the to several thousand existing Time Clock MTS users inviting them aboard. Any new Time Clock MTS users will be invited to subscribe to the newsletter when they purchase the software. I'd also like to invite prospective Time Clock MTS users to subscribe. It's awfully easy to subscribe to the Time Clock MTS Newsletter so why dont you go ahead and do so?

Posted by mnemtsas at 8:14 AM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.7.1 Released

Three new features added to the version released today.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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)

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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)

February 28, 2008

Time Clock MTS Version 1.6.0 Released

Version 1.6.0 was released today, it contained the two most commonly asked for features. These are time synchronization with Internet Time Servers (or NTP Servers), and allowing administrators to edit employee times when employees are currently clocked in.

Internet Time Synchronization
There is no doubt that certain employees, if given the opportunity, will try to provide mis-leading time and attendance information. With some computer based time clock systems, simply changing the system clock on the computer was enough to allow fraudulent data to be collected. Time Clock MTS has had a number of measures to get around this, and with the advent of in-built Internet Time Synchronization the last loophole has been closed. Put simply, Time Clock MTS can periodically contact a computer server on the Internet and get a very accurate time from which to derive punch times for data collected. Given that you have an Internet connection on your Time Clock MTS workstations we would strongly advise enabling this feature.

If you want more information on what an Internet Time Server is try taking a look at Wikipedia's entry on Network Time Protocols and Clock Synchronization

Editing Times while Employees are Clocked In
Time Clock MTS now provides complete flexibility and allows you to edit any employees times while they are clocked in. Previously this was not allowed to prevent the Time Clock MTS data from becoming unusable. However, Time Clock MTS now provides you with the tools to make sure the data remains usable. You can now delete a single time (rather than a pair) and change a clock in to a clock out, or a clock out to a clock in. The benefit of all this is that you can now enter forward times (eg. for vacation) while the employee is at work and you don't need to mess about with clocking them out first.

Posted by mnemtsas at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2008

Time Clock MTS Weblog Launched

I've been thinking for a while about launching a weblog. The reasons for doing so are primarily to provide you with a more direct line of communications with the people behind Time Clock MTS. There's several things that I hope to be able to include in the (hopefully) weekly entries in the weblog.

  • Some brief news updates about what's going on with Timesheets MTS Software in general and Time Clock MTS in particular.
  • Extended release notes about new releases of Time Clock MTS.
  • Solutions to common questions that we are asked.
  • Tips and tricks to using the software to make your job easier.

That's probably enough for a first entry, please feel free to comment let me know what you'd like to see here.

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