News from Timesheets MTS Software Archive
May 20, 2013
Time Clock MTS Version 4.1.3 Released
On Saturday just gone I uploaded version 4.1.3 of Time Clock MTS. This new version includes a couple of bug fixes and adds a new report.
The new report is the Job Details Report. This gives a day by day and punch by punch breakdown of time spent by employees during the reporting period. If the time is spent on a job then the job code is displayed. Each punch is shown with the elapsed time in hours.
The first bug fix was to the recently added setting that allows employee list status refreshes on the Time Clock MTS Client Software. When the list refreshed the selected employee was de-selected. Now, when the list refreshes the employee remains selected. The second fix was to some of the background processing that enables employees to switch jobs rather than clocking out. One user was getting an "Already Clocked In" error. This is now fixed and the new code should result in less database accesses and will speed up the operation.
Posted by at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2013
Time Clock MTS Review - Go Kart World
Christian Garin of Go Kart World, California was kind enough to email in a great review of Time Clock MTS. They've been using the software for three years and are saving a lot of money doing so. Here's what Christian had to say.
We're Go Kart World in Carson, California. An amusement/entertainment business offering Go Kart rides for 20 years now. We have about 76 employed. About 3 years ago we've used manual print time recording machines that used up ink and paper time cards. Since switching to your system, we've cut down costs of ink and paper down by around $750+ a year. A month ago we've been trialing biometic fingerprint readers and by far this is the best method to keep track of our employee's time. No employee can cheat this way of clocking in/out! We also love the camera feature which snapshots their face after clock-in. Thank you Mark for creating an effective timeclock program!
Posted by at 8:13 AM | Comments (0)
April 29, 2013
Free Weekly Timesheet With Breaks
If you're still using pen and paper to collect your employees timesheet information then you should take a look at one of the several free options listed below that will allow you to record a free weekly timesheet with breaks. Each of them is suitable for the new or small business and can become a part of your timesheet system. Choosing to use one of these free timesheet tools will help reduce the time you waste collecting and collating your employee attendance data.
Time Clock MTS
Our time clock software, Time Clock MTS is currently used by more than 10,000 companies worldwide and will allow your employees to record a weekly timesheet with as many daily breaks as you require. It's free to use for 3 or fewer employees on a single computer for as long as you like, It will allow you to print weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly timesheets with time taken off for breaks automatically accounted for. Time Clock MTS does a lot more than just record timesheets, you can also track time spent on jobs, work out overtime owing, and do payroll calculations. And, as mentioned earlier, it's free if you want to track 3 employees on a single computer.
Time Clock MTS - Free for Less than 4 Employees |  Click Image to Enlarge |
Free Online Weekly Timesheet Calculator
We've also built a free weekly timesheet calculator that is available online and free to use. This calculator allows you to enter the start and end times for each day of a week and also the time taken off for breaks. The timesheet calculator will automatically tally up the hours worked for the week and deduct the time taken for breaks. Your weekly timesheet can then be output to a PDF file which could be printed, emailed, or saved for later reference.
Free Weekly Timesheet Template With Breaks
Our final free weekly timesheet resource is a free Excel weekly timesheet with breaks template. This free Excel timesheet template allows your employees to record a week of timesheet information including start time, end time, break time, and can be used to break down worked hours into regular and overtime. It includes all calculations and is formatted neatly for easy printing and distribution.
Download Weekly Excel Timesheet Template - Excel (xlsx) Format
Posted by at 1:52 PM | Comments (0)
April 1, 2013
Free Printable Timecard and Timesheet Templates for Excel
Download free timesheet and timecard templates for Microsoft Excel
We're happy to provide a number of employee timesheet, time card, and project time tracking templates for Microsoft Excel. These Excel templates can also be opened (and will work in) other spreadsheet programs such as Google Docs and Open Office. For the very small business with limited employee time tracking needs these timesheet templates might be all that is needed to meet their requirements. Here's a complete list of the free Excel timesheet templates that we have available right now:
Download Time Card Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatDownload Excel Time Tracking Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatDownload Weekly Excel Timecard Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatDownload BiWeekly Excel Timesheet Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatDownload Excel Timesheet Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatDon't forget that if you're looking for something far more powerful than an Excel employee time tracker then you should take a look at our time clock software, Time Clock MTS. There's a free 30 day trial available and we've got a no questions asked money back guarantee so there's nothing to stop you giving it a try!
Posted by at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)
Time Card Template for Excel
If you're looking for a simple project time card template for Excel then you've come to the right place. We've got a free weekly timecard built in Microsoft Excel that allows an employee to record the time spent in hours against a project and breaks the employee's time down by week day. Time can be further classified as normal or overtime hours for employee payroll purposes. While this time card template was designed in Microsoft Excel it can also be opened in other spreadsheet programs (such as Google Docs). If you don't want a weekly project tracker you might want to have a look at our other free weekly employee timesheet template.
If you want something more than a simple Excel time card then you should take a look at our employee timecard software, Time Clock MTS. Time Clock MTS is used by more than 10,000 companies in over 70 countries to record employee time card data for thousands of employees each and every day. There's an obligation free 30 day trial version available for download which is not restricted in any way. Time Clock MTS not only tracks employee time for payroll purposes but it can also record employee time spent working on projects and produce dozens of different timecard reports. There's also a completely free version of Time Clock MTS available for anyone who needs to track timesheets for less than 4 employees.
Try Time Clock MTS Free for 30 Days | Click Image to Enlarge |
Free Project Timecard Template for Excel
Can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and OpenOffice.
Download Project Time Card Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatPosted by at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)
Free Time Tracking Template for Excel
Typically time tracking software allows you to clock in and out and track your hours worked against projects. If you're not interested in trying out fully featured time tracking software then you might find that our free time tracking template for Microsoft Excel could be all you need. Our time tracker allows you to define a list of projects which you can then record activity against. Project times are entered with a start and end time and a break period (in minutes) can be included. The Excel time tracker also includes fields to enter dates and will report on the time spent on projects for the current day and for a selectable date range. If a project time tracker isn't exactly what you're looking for then head over to our free timesheet templates page to see if one of our other templates suits your needs.
A simple Excel time tracking template like ours is fine if you only need to track times occasionally and don't want to worry too much about historical data. If, however, you want to track multiple employee times across many projects and must have instant access to historical time information then you're going to need real employee time tracking software. Time Clock MTS will allow your employees to clock in and out dozens of times per day against an unlimited number of jobs (read more about job tracking in Time Clock MTS here) and report quickly and easily against some or all of your historical information. If you're a contractor or sole trader you could even use Time Clock MTS for free on a single computer to track your time spent working on jobs for your clients. You can read more about using our time clock software for free.
Try Time Clock MTS Free for 30 Days | Click Image to Enlarge |
Free Time Tracking Template
Can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and OpenOffice.
Download Excel Time Tracking Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatPosted by at 3:12 PM | Comments (0)
Free Weekly Time Card Template
Our free Weekly Excel timecard template is very similar to our free bi weekly timesheet template but allows recording of employee timesheet attendance data across a period of just one week. The weekly timecard Excel template will allow you to set the first day of the work week and then record one timecard entry per work day. Each time card entry can be broken into regular, break, and overtime hours and these will then be totalled for the work week. This weekly timesheet can be used in a number of spreadsheet programs (primarly Microsoft Excel) but if you need to print out an employee time card in some other program please take a look at some of our other timesheet templates.
While an Excel time card template is an improvement over paper timecards it's certainly never going to be as easy to use, as comprehensive, or save you as much money as our easy to use time card software, Time Clock MTS. Anyone can try out Time Clock MTS for a period of 30 days without charge or restriction on use of the software. You'll be able to record and report on employee time cards for 30 days as well as make use of other powerful tracking features such as tracking time spent on jobs, tracking employee time off and time off requests, and tracking employee tips and gratuities. Once the trial period is up you can either purchase the software or if you're tracking 3 or fewer employees then you'll find that you can keep using our timecard software for free.
Try Time Clock MTS Free for 30 Days | Click Image to Enlarge |
Free Weekly Timecard Template
Can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and OpenOffice.
Download Weekly Excel Timecard Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatPosted by at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
BiWeekly Timesheet Template
Our free bi weekly Excel timesheet template is very similar to our free Excel timesheet template but allows recording of employee timesheet attendance data across a period of two weeks. You'll be able to record one timesheet entry per day over the period and split the day's time into regular hours, breaks, and overtime. The time that employees arrive and leave work can also be recorded. This template can be opened in Microsoft Excel and various other spreadsheet programs but if you need a timesheet template in some other format we have other free timesheet templates available.
If you need easy time punch software instead of a simple Excel timesheet then download and install Time Clock MTS. It can be used for free and without restriction for 30 days. If you're a small business or a large one then you can save yourself real money by replacing paper or Excel biweekly timesheets with our computer punch clock software. If you're a very small business or just need to track the timesheet information of 3 employees then you can keep using our time card software for free after the 30 day trial period is up.
Try Time Clock MTS Free for 30 Days | Click Image to Enlarge |
Bi Weekly Timesheet Template
Can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and OpenOffice.
Download BiWeekly Excel Timesheet Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatPosted by at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
Excel Timesheet Template
We're happy to be able to provide a free Microsoft Excel timesheet template that is ideal for the small or new business. It allows you to record employee time sheet data by date, the time they started work, and the time they left work. The free timesheet template also allows you to record the time the employee spent on breaks, how many of the hours are to be paid as overtime, and how many are to be paid as regular hours. If you don't need an Excel employee timesheet template then you should take a look at some of our other timesheet templates that can be downloaded in various other formats such as Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF.
If you need a easy employee time clock system then you should take a look at Time Clock MTS. You can try it out free of charge for 30 days. It will save your business, whether large or small, real time and money compared with recording your employee timesheet data whether you're using manual timesheets or an Excel timesheet. If you've got less than 4 employees then you can use our employee timesheet software for free.
Try Time Clock MTS Free for 30 Days | Click Image to Enlarge |
Excel Timesheet Template
Can be opened in Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, and OpenOffice.
Download Excel Timesheet Template - Excel (xlsx) FormatPosted by at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2013
Time Clock MTS Version 4.1.1 Released
Version 4.1.1 of our employee punch clock software has been released. The changes made in this release are primarily aimed at the employee time off requests area of Time Clock MTS but there's a few changes made to other things too. Here's a list of the changes made:
- No Finger Scan setting added to the employee information screen. When checked for an employee that employee will not need to scan their fingerprint to clock in and out. Useful for employees whose fingers will not scan reliably. Of course you must have the biometric time card features switched on for this setting to have any effect.
- When an employee bulletin that requires acceptance is marked as read by an employee it will no longer be displayed to that employee.
- A different icon is shown for employees that are clocked into a job on the employee list interface.
- Changed the date formats on the employee and administrator time off request screens to allow for proper date sorting when the column headers are clicked.
- Adjusted some of the text and tooltip popups on the import employees screen.
- Made several changes to the administrator manage time off requests screen. The changes include adding a time filter, relocating the time off request status filter check boxes, and adding the view time off request report button.
- Added the time off request report.
- The value of the checkbox that creates an employee bulletin on the Approve/Deny time off request screen is now remembered.
- Fixed up the import employees process to bring in employee display color and do no pay overtime settings correctly.
Posted by at 3:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2013
Online Punch Clock
You may or may not be aware but we also offer an online punch clock system which is a replacement for both mechanical time card machines and desktop punch clock software. Online Time Clock MTS can be run from pretty much any browser on any computer anywhere in the world to track your employee attendance data. It can also be run on many mobile devices such as iPods, iPhones, and iPads.
Free Online Punch Clock Trial
Online Time Clock MTS offers an obligation free 30 day trial in which you can use the time clock system on as many computers as you like to track as many employees as you like. It is not restricted in anyway and runs for long enough to trial the system for at least one full payroll period. Signing up for a free Online Punch Card Trial just takes a few seconds and you can be punching in or out within just a few minutes of signing up! It really doesn't get much easier than that.
Why an Online Punch Clock?
Online Time Clock MTS requires no installation, has no third party software requirements, and an account can be registered and put to work in just a minute or two by a non-technical person. The time punches that Online Time Clock MTS records are completely secure and cannot be falsified by employees. Your time punch data is regularly backed up so no more worries if your power goes off, no more having to keep track of software registration keys, and no headaches if your punch clock PC fries itself. Just fire up an Internet browser on another computer or mobile device and your employees will be punching in and out within minutes.
Who Uses Online Time Clock MTS
Right now several hundred different companies are using Online Time Clock MTS every day to record their employee attendance. They range in size from small stores with just 2 or 3 staff right up to large companies with hundreds of employees who are using Online Time Clock MTS across multiple time zones. The real strength of Online Time Clock MTS is for users who have several different locations in the same city or state with just a few staff in each. Online Time Clock MTS gives them an online punch card system to record employee time punches across a wide area and then gather and report on that information from head office. And all they need in each location is a web browser and an internet connection.
Posted by at 1:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2013
Two Week Time Card Calculator Available!
You may or may not be aware that we've had a free online weekly timecard calculator available for a while. It's been pretty popular with several hundred people a week using it to create a simple weekly timesheet. Due to popular demand I've created a new time card calculator for two weeks. This new calculator allows users to enter 14 days of time card data and includes provision for time taken off as breaks. Once all time card data is entered the calculator can print the results to a PDF file which can be saved or emailed. It pretty easy to use and gives instantaneous feedback as you enter your work time. Even better it's completely free to use as much as you like. So if you're in need of a BiWeekly Time Card Calculator please check it out!
Posted by at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)
February 7, 2013
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.8 Released
I've just uploaded a new version of ur employee time card software, Time Clock MTS. Version 4.0.8 will be the last minor release before Version 4.1 is released sometime in March. Here's a summary of the changes made in this release:
- Various fixes to the job cost report and daily job time reports to account properly for times forced to overtime or forced to be neglected from overtime calculations.
- A fix to the active job report when using the MySQL backend database option.
- I spent a lot of time working on the log on the Edit Times screen. A completely new method of matching clock in/outs has been developed. This should result in a much faster screen not to mention a LOT less database access.
- Fixed daily and weekly OT calculations to stop forced OT and neglect OT punches from effecting the OT limits.
- The Edit Times screen now displays a (F) or an (I) next to a punch if that punch has been forced to overtime or is ignored for overtime calculations.
- Punches on the Edit Times screen now display a slightly different icon if there is an employee note associated with the punch.
Posted by at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
February 6, 2013
Time Clock Reviews
I've never actually paid to have Time Clock MTS reviewed but over the years several websites have done so anyway. I don't actually put that much stock in time clock software reviews because I believe you should "live" with the software for at least one payroll cycle to see how it will work day-to-day in your business. That being said, a review can be useful as a starting point when you're just starting out looking for a time clock system for your business. Here's some reviews of Time Clock MTS that I am aware of.
Time Clock MTS Review on Top Ten Reviews
Three Time Clock Programs Reviewed on Yahoo.com
Tracking Billable Time with Time Clock MTS
A Detailed Review on iSoftwareReviews
A Review of Ten Time Clock Programs on CEO World
Don't forget that many of our users have provided time clock user reviews over on our testimonials pages. In addition, we've had some more comprehensive user reviews over the years too, including from a lawyer, a Church, and a consultant.
Finally, I'm also aware of non-English reviews of Time Clock MTS. Here's a Portuguese Time Clock Review and a Video Review in Spanish. I don't pretend to speak either of those languages so I hope they are positive. In any event. as Oscar Wilde said, The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
Posted by at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2013
The Time Clock MTS 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
I want you to be happy with Time Clock MTS, and when you purchase Time Clock MTS I want you to feel that you've spent your money well. Because of this Time Clock MTS comes with a no questions asked, 30 day money back guarantee. If at any stage during the 30 days after purchasing Time Clock MTS you find you're unhappy with Time Clock MTS, or you feel like it doesn't meet your needs, or it's not giving you value for your money then just:
- Contact me and let me know what it is you're unhappy about with Time Clock MTS.
- Let me know your Time Clock MTS registration name and purchase reference number.
Once you've done that I'll give you a refund. It really couldn't be any easier.
Posted by at 7:09 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2013
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.7 Released
Late yesterday I uploaded Version 4.0.7 of Time Clock MTS. Changes made in this version were:
- When a job is deleted or disabled the code can no longer be used to book time against.
- The default display color for employees has been set to white rather than the rather silly black that it was set to before.
- A new setting has been added to the Payroll Settings screen. When checked the Accrue Only for Normal Time means that only normal time will be used for calculating sick or vacation time accruals. Time recorded as sick, vacation or other will not be used. Of course you must actually have vacation or sick time accruals setup for this setting to have any effect.
- Fixed up the employee background color and do not pay overtime settings which were not saving correctly when a new employee was created.
- Fixed up the display of various deleted or disabled items on various screens that were not displaying correctly when the backend database was set to MySQL or SQL Server.
Posted by at 2:01 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2013
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.6 Released
A new release of staff clock in system today, taking Time Clock MTS to version 4.0.6. There's really only two changes made to this version. The first fixes up a problem with calculation of Californian Seventh Day Overtime. The second has added the Job Cost Report.
Posted by at 5:49 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2013
Time Card Software Review - Time Clock MTS in a Lawyers Office
Michael Satterwhite of Cohen & Associates P.C. sent me an email recently explaining how their office uses our time card software and his personal history with the product. Here's what he had to say:
I have used Time Clock MTS over the past 3 years. I used Time Clock MTS at my previous firm and when I took the position at my new firm I joined forces once again with Time Clock MTS to track our employees' hours. At both firms, we went from paper tracking of employee hours (what a mess that was) to Time Clock MTS (best decision). The time it took to train our employees on this new software took all of 5 minutes.
Just using the basic features Time Clock MTS is a simple and secure solution to tracking payroll. Then when you get into the additional tools Time Clock MTS has to offer, you wonder how they keep their prices so low. This tool saves money, time and resources for our company and I believe it will do the same for yours. Mark Nemtsas has responded to all of my emails within 24 hours and has a solution to each problem (i.e. moving the time clock to another computer, adding employees). Great investment. Great software. Great people.
Posted by at 5:57 AM | Comments (0)
January 6, 2013
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.5 Released
The first release of Time Clock MTS for 2013! Version 4.0.5 includes a minor fix to the layout of the Daily Job Time Report. It also fixes up a situation where a negative balance could result when least quantity rounding was turned on. This issue could only really arise when job tracking was being used and clock in / out times were less than 6 minutes.
Posted by at 2:11 PM | Comments (0)
January 3, 2013
Time Clock User Review - First Church in Cambridge
The First Church in Cambridge has been using Time Clock MTS since 2010. Karen McArthur, a minister at the Church was kind enough to do a user time clock review of Time Clock MTS and let me know what sort of benefits they've seen from using it.
Our church employs about 30 people -- 6 full-time and the remainder part-time ministers, administrators, musicians, sextons, and child-care providers. While some are here 3-4 days per week, others are here for a few hours a couple of times each month.
The time clock software works very well for us because it's so easy to explain to new employees, and very easy for an employee to clock in and out, even if they're not particularly computer literate.
For the administrator, the reports work very well for generating payroll and overtime, as well as tracking vacation and sick time. It's easy to make a correction if an employee forgets to clock in or out.
It's also an easy way to see who is in the building -- even from off site.
Posted by at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
December 30, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.4 Released
Yesterday I released version 4.0.4 of Time Clock MTS. This released included a fix to the job totals for the new Daily Job Time Report and fixed up a couple of minor typos on the Vacation / Sick Time accrual screens. I also added a new button to the first run screen to allow new users to view our time clock video demonstration and added a link to the same video on the Help menu.
Posted by at 9:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.3 Released
Our computerized employee time clock software, Time Clock MTS has just had a new version released. This new version adds a new report, some new report section template fields, and includes some debugging code for a crash one user is seeing on one computer. Here's the changes in more detail.
- The Daily Job Time Report has been added. This report breaks down time spent day by day, job by job, and clock in by clock in for each employee. Interestingly it also classifies the pay rate (normal, overtime 1, and overtime 2) for each clock in and clock out during the report period. This is the first Time Clock MTS report to do this.
- Rates of pay have been (<NORMAL_RATE>,<OT_RATE>, and <OT2_RATE>) have been added to the Employee Header and Employee Details report section templates.
- One user has been experiencing a hard crash on Windows 7 somewhere around a Windows repaint API call. I've added some debugging code in this region to try to get to the bottom of what's going on.
The new report was added at the suggestion of one of our time clock users. I'm always looking for suggestions from our users, especially for new reports. Please, if you've got any suggestions contact me with your ideas.
Posted by at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2012
A User of our Free Timeclock Software Speaks
A user of our free timeclock software sent through a nice email this morning explaining how she is using our software.
Thank you for your response and for allowing us to continue to use your time clock software for our one employee. We have been using the free version of TimeClock MTS for a few years now. Our employee has flexible hours, and your software eliminates the need to keep paper records or rely on memory. It very simple to use and your customer support for the few questions I have had has been great, even with this free arrangement. Thank you Time Clock MTS!
The freeware version of Time Clock MTS really is free if you're using it on one computer and have less than four employees. Unlike many other "free" programs we don't want to know your email, we don't need a credit card number, and you don't even need to tell us you're using it. Just download it and install it and start tracking your employee timeclock data. Even better we'll give you technical support just as if you were a paying customer. What's not to like about that?!
Posted by at 9:31 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.2 Released
A new version of our Time and Attendance Software has just been released. Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.2 contains the following (fairly minor) changes:
- A fix for an error that fired when an employee entered a job number when no jobs had been created.
- The Edit Times screen now will display a clock out as the first time in period. Previously if a clock out was the first time it wouldn't be displayed which meant that it was possible to create an invalid time set for an employee.
- The software version number is now displayed on the Registration Details screen.
- A minor re-layout done to the Add/Edit Shift screen to correct some display issues on 125/150% DPI displays.
- Fixed up some minor typos and grammatical errors in the help file.
Posted by at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2012
Time Clock MTS and Robert Holt Farms
Randall Holt, vice president of Robert Holt Farms has been communicating with me from time to time over the last few years. His company has been making use of Time Clock MTS in this time to track their employee time card information. I wasn't really aware of how they were using the software until Randall mentioned something about using it over a wide area (20+ miles) on a wireless network. I asked for a few more details and here's what Randall had to say:
You can use any of my comments. I tried to put together a few for you. You have been really great to work with.We are spread out over a 25 mile radius and we don't always start and end work at the same location. We have a wireless network set up, and are running Timeclock MTS. It has saved many hours of time and miles on company vehicles for employees to clock in and out near the location they start or end work.
The support for this product has been stellar. We needed some help for the first few weeks (most problems were our own), but after that this product has been running rock-solid for three years.
It's always great to hear about how Time Clock MTS is being used out in the "wild"! If you've got a story to tell please contact us so we can put your company's story here on the blog.
Posted by at 6:20 AM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2012
New Website Pages Added!
One of the new Time Clock MTS screenshots
We've been working hard creating some useful pages for the Time Clock MTS website over the last couple of days. The Time Clock Software screenshot page was too long and didn't include a number of screens so we've split it into several different pages, tried to categorize the screenshots better than we have previously, and added some missing screen images. Head over to the Time Clock MTS Screenshots page to check it out.
We've also created step-by-step guides for downloading Time Clock MTS and installing Time Clock MTS. Because the method for downloading files can vary based on what internet browser you're using we've used a bit of trickery to change the download guide dependent on what browser you happen to be viewing the page in. It's been tested on as many browsers as we have here but if you see something weird with the page please let us know what browser/version you're using so we can check it out.
Posted by at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.1 Released
I'm happy to say that Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.1 has been released today. This is the first major version update we've had since October 2010. That might sound like we've been sitting idle for a while but there's been 40 minor releases during that two year period, an average of one release every 2.5 weeks. There's been a lot of changes to our employee time clock software, with 50 separate items listed in the Release Notes.
Rather than talk about all of the changes in one blog entry I thought I'd cover them in several entries. This first entry will discuss the major new features, the second will cover the minor tweaks and improvements, and the final will cover the bug fixes. If you can't wait then take a look at the Release Notes for a full list of the changes.
Key New Features
- Employee Time Off Requests - employees can now request time off. These requests can be approved and denied by the time clock administrator. When approved Time Clock MTS can automatically create the clock in / out pairs for the time off period. Employees can only make time off requests when using the Employee List Interface. For more information see the Time Off Requests help topic.
- Importing and Exporting Employees - the time clock administrator can now import employee data from an Excel spreadsheet. This is a very fast way of building your employee database. Employee data can also be exported to an Excel spreadsheet for use in other systems or to be used as a template for importing new employees. For more information see the Importing Employees and Exporting Employees help topics.
- Wildcard Employee Searches - the employee search box at the bottom of the Employee List Interface can now include a wildcard character to find employees by part of their name. For example, to find the first employee who has "smith" somewhere in their name type *smith in the search box.
- Restore Deleted Jobs - deleted jobs can now be restored. This is useful if you want to re-use a job code or need to report on the data for a job. For more information see the Job tracking help topic.
- Adding Times for Clocked In Users - for the first time Time Clock MTS now allows you to add future times for clocked in employees. The one proviso is that the times being added do not fall within 24 hours of the employee's current clock in time. For more information see the Editing and Managing Employee Times help topic.
- Help File Revisions - we've had a third party completely proof read, correct, and where necessary re-write the Time Clock MTS documentation. They also suggested a different approach to our documentation which we've taken on-board and started implementing with the documentation for the new features. As the next few months go by we'll re-write the existing sections of the documentation to match this new style. You can view the Time Clock MTS help files from the Help menu from within the software or View it Online.
- Other Changes - other new features include (and are not limited to) a setting to stop department folders being closed, a setting for a background color for employees on the employee list, an employee "do not pay overtime" setting, and some settings to hide previous employee actions on the Employee List screen.
As I've said previously consult the Release Notes if you want more information.
Read Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.1 Released Part 2
Read Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.1 Released Part 3
Posted by at 2:00 AM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.1 Released - Part 2
This second blog entry about the release of Time Clock MTS Version 4 will cover the minor tweaks and improvements that we included in the timeclock software. In most cases you probably won't notice a lot of these changes but it's worth listing them off anyway.
- The Display Settings screen has been re-laid out.
- The Interface Settings screen has been re-designed and laid out differently.
- The control used for several different lists in the software has been changed to a new one. Should help improve the memory usage and performance of the software.
- The sort order of times on the Edit Times screen is now remembered.
- The Edit Times screen now displays the weekday name alongside of times.
- The Help menu now includes a link to take users directly to our Contact Us page.
- Some changes made to the Internet time servers, including getting rid of a couple of dead servers and replacing them with servers that work. When checking a custom time server on the Security Options screen a more sensible error is now displayed when no actual server details are entered.
- A few reports have been re-named for reasons of consistency. This includes changing the the Employee Notes report to the Employee Comments Report and the Detailed Punchcard Report with Full Notes to the Detailed Punchcard Report with Full Comments.
- The Time Log screen has been renamed to the Time Audit Log screen, as have all associated settings and help files.
- Various parts of the program code have had extra debugging added to them or have been optimized heavily to reduce database load and program speed. The primary areas of improvement were time validity checking and the license registration system.
- The Registration Key structure has been changed. Keys from earlier versions will no longer work in Version 4. Those eligible will receive a free upgrade to the new version.
- The Registration screen has been improved with the addition of better labels, better popup tool tips, and better data-typing.
- Cleaned up the first run experience for users. This includes better management of what windows they'll see and allowing them to configure a few basic program settings (such as overtime and employee PIN entry) when they first run Time Clock MTS.
- The Log File now has a limit of 5000 entries,
I'll post up the final entry covering the latest release of Time Clock MTS shortly. This will cover the bug fixes included in the new version.
Read Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.1 Released Part 3
Posted by at 1:00 AM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 4.0.1 - Part 3
This is the final entry about the release of version 4 of our Time Clock Software. This entry will cover the bugs that were found and squashed for this release.
- Employees no longer receive credit for public holidays before their hire date. Problem only happened if a report was run for a period before the employee hire date.
- The Edit Employee / Edit Times double click popup window now only pops up when the administrator is logged into the admin software. Would popup in the client software and not take the administrator anywhere.
- The Time Clock MTS window can now (finally) be re-sized properly.
- Fixed a situation where the Time Clock MTS process could still be running even though the program had been exited.
- When the number of employee licenses is exceeded the software now takes users to the correct URL to buy an employee database expansion.
- Fixed a fairly obscure error in overtime calculations where the OT2 rate was not applied correctly when an employee exceeded the weekly overtime limit on the seventh day of a week.
- Fixed some problems with various numeric fields on the Employee Maintenance screen .
- Ran and tested the software at a Windows DPI setting of 125% and fixed up several labels and captions that were not displaying correctly. The background images on the Splash screen and Help->About Time Clock MTS screen now display correctly at 125% DPI.
- The employee comment box no longer insists on an employee comment when employee comments are optional.
- Fixed up connection time calculation problems on the Tools->Manage Connections screen.
- Fixed up an issue with the First Run screen not functioning correctly after a user had viewed the in-program tutorial.
- Fixed a problem with the Insert Missing Punch screen. The screen threw an error if the job associated with the inserted time had been deleted.
- Fixed a problem with the Edit Time screen. The screen displayed the wrong job if the job associated with the time originally had been deleted.
- Fixed a problem with time validation when using the SQL Server backend.
That concludes the entries about the release of Time Clock MTS Version 4. In the coming days and weeks we'll be posting up a series of Time Clock MTS How To articles covering (funnily enough) how to do things with the new features of the software. Stay tuned.
Posted by at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)
November 5, 2012
Getting Time Clock MTS Support for Free
Purchasers of Time Clock MTS get a year of email support and access to software updates for a year. After the year is up support costs $20 or 25% of your original purchase amount, whichever is higher. BUT you can get that year of support for free if you like. Just mention Time Clock MTS on your web page, your Facebook timeline, or like our Facebook Page. Then tell us where you've mentioned Time Clock MTS so we can check it out and we'll credit you with a year of support. You can read more about getting Time Clock MTS support for free on this page.
While we're on the subject of free, don't forget that under some circumstances you can use Time Clock MTS for free giving youfree timeclock software
Posted by at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)
Price Rises Soon
When Time Clock MTS Version 4 is released next weekend (10 November 2012) we'll be increasing the price of the software. This will be the first price increase for our pc time clock software since 2008. The basic single computer license will increase to US$79 (up from $69) and the single client license will become $114 (up from $98). Prices for licenses with more clients will increase by a similar percentage across the board. As with our last price increase we'll be providing anyone who asks with a 15% discount coupon code that will work for 30 days after the price rises to get Time Clock MTS at almost the old prices.
Posted by at 6:50 AM | Comments (0)
November 1, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 4 Feature Preview - Time Off Requests Part 2
Development of the new Time Off Request features is now complete and I've got to say they are pretty awesome! It's an easy way for employees to request time off from within your time card software and then administrator approving and denying these requests. When approved the administrator can automatically create clock in / out pairs for the time off period AND automatically send the employee a note informing them that their request has been approved or denied. Here's some more screenshot previews:
Time Off Creation Screen - Used by the administrator to create punches for a time off request
Employee Manage Time Off Requests Screen - used by the employee to manage their time off requests
Employee Time Off Request Screen - used by the employee to add a new time off request or edit an existing one
Posted by at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 4 Feature Preview - Time Off Requests
Manage Time Off Requests Preview
Add / Edit Time Off Request
One of the major new features in Time Clock MTS Version 4 is the ability for employees to be able to request time off directly from your employee timeclock system. These requests can then be processed by the time clock administrator to automatically create time card entries of the correct type for the employee. The time off request system is integrated with the Employee Bulletin System so that employees will be automatically notified of the leave request approval status.
Posted by at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2012
Time Clock MTS is on Facebook!
Well, as they say, "resistance is futile"! I've given in and finally created a Facebook page for Time Clock MTS. This page will cover all my other products and may also include interesting tips and tricks that I come up with over time. So, if you're a happy Time Clock MTS user why not head on over and like our shiny new Facebook page! Feel free to post on it and ask any questions you might have too!
Posted by at 8:37 AM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 4 Feature Preview - Reports User
The Reports User Login Screen
Over the last year or two a lot of Time Clock MTS users have asked for some more flexibility with regards to who can and cannot run Time Clock MTS reports. We're happy to say that Time Clock MTS version 4 is going to include a "reports user" (see the login screen above). The reports user will be able to log into any Time Clock MTS Client or the Time Clock MTS administrator program and run any employee timecard report. If they log into the Time Clock MTS administrator program they can only run reports, they will not have access to any other administrative functions.
The Time Clock MTS administrator will be able to turn the reports user functionality on or off and set the password for this user on the re-designed Interface Settings screen.
Posted by at 6:33 AM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 4 Feature Preview - Importing Employees
The Import Employees Screen
One of the interesting new features in Time Clock MTS Version 4 is the ability to do a bulk import of employees from an Excel spreadsheet. Above you can see what the import employee screen is going to look like. Creating a spreadsheet for importing is going to be simple. Users can click on the Open XLS Template button on the screen above which will open up Excel with a template worksheet including all column headers and helper text showing how to fill in column values. Alternatively we've also included the ability to export all the employees in your Time Clock MTS database to Excel. This file could then be used as a basis to import a new batch of employees into your timeclock software system.
Posted by at 6:21 AM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2012
Time Clock MTS News
There's a couple of news items for today. Firstly, we've just posted up a nice new testimonial over on the Time Clock Software Testimonials page. Secondly, we've been compiling a list of features, enhancements, and fixes to be included in Version 4 of Time Clock MTS. We're getting pretty close to finalizing this and starting development of this major release. The release is expected in the next 4 weeks or so. Stay tuned for more news about this release here as I'll try to add more information as work progresses on the release.
Posted by at 9:26 AM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2012
Time Clock Software in the Philippines
As I mentioned in a recent post on this blog Time Clock MTS is designed to be simple to use and setup. However, it contains a range of features and settings "under the hood" that allows it to be configured to suit businesses with more complex needs. It's interesting that these sorts of features, such as biometric employee tracking, payroll calculations, and attendance tracking. It appears (not surprisingly) are the same sort of features that are required of time clock software in the Philippines.
The article I've linked to above is on the Philippine Star website and discusses a group of innovative businesses who reached the finals of a "start-up tech search and business plan competition". It's interesting that one of these finalist has developed a time and attendance solution whose key innovations are primarily the same as those that Time Clock MTS has been offering for quite a while. Given this it's no real surprise that there's already more than 50 companies using Time Clock MTS in the Philippines! So, if you're in the Philippines and you're looking for time clock software why not give the free 30 day trial a work-out?
Posted by at 8:36 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2012
Three Computer Time Clock Programs Reviewed
We've never actually paid to have Time Clock MTS reviewed nor submitted it for consideration in any review process. Because of this we've got to wait for reviews of the software to pop up spontaneously around the Internet. I was trolling around a little earlier today and found a decent review of three computer time clock programs, one of which was Time Clock MTS.
It's not a bad review and in some ways highlights what we believe are two of the strengths of Time Clock MTS. The first is that Time Clock MTS is easy to setup. We've tried to focus on this process and make it as painless as possible for first time users. Secondly, Time Clock MTS is deceptively simple and easy to use. It works pretty well out of the box for most companies but there's a depth of features there to make it appealing to those wanting more from their time clock software. The good thing is that these features are easily turned on or off making Time Clock MTS a flexible time clock solution.
Posted by at 1:57 PM | Comments (0)
July 31, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.8 Released
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.8 has just been uploaded. This new version of our job tracking software contains a number of enhancements, a few bug fixes and a new report. Here's a detailed list of the changes.
- While logged in as the administrator when using the Time Clock MTS administrator software you can now double click on an employee name and choose to either edit the employee or the employee's times.
- Times on the edit time screen can now be sorted by date/time by clicking on either the date or time column headers.
- A Cancel button has been added to the Enter Note screen. Allows the clock in/out to be cancelled at the enter note stage.
- Added the Long Punch Report.
- Better messages are now displayed if an employee has compulsory job tracking turned on and is trying to clock in with no jobs defined.
- Changed the default payroll report for new users to the Punchcard Report.
- Fixed a layout problem on the Time Breakdown Report
- Fixed a logic error when using the keypad interface with employees who had the Employee PIN option active and compulsory job tracking active.
Posted by at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2012
Time Clock MTS Customer Testimonial
We've just got a great testimonial email from a user of our employee in/out software. Some of it has been edited by use for obvious reasons.
I just wanted to drop a quick "thank you note" to tell you how extremely pleased I am with both your customer service & your software. Both are fabulous!Having come from "**********" (which apparently stole code & had a cease & desist lawsuit against them), I almost elected to go with a different tool. But in the end, your "employee notes" feature(s) stuck out and literally "closed the deal."
FYI: It's not that we even needed most of the features, it's a case where the features we needed were available and part of the tool! Your software covers a broad spectrum of capabilities, it's 100% reliable, and is well suited to most any business "savvy enough" to not go with a "dinosauric" mechanical clock! ~ Kudos!
PS: The only negative thing I can find with this software is the initial load time when using the MS-Access back-end. (And even that seems to have improved, unless I'm imagining things!)
Posted by at 9:21 AM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.7 Released
Version 3.3.7 of our time clock software, Time Clock MTS has just been released. This minor release includes the following changes:
- Various catches put in place to stop the main application window from disappearing when heavy processing is being done. There's some sort of inherent bug in either the development language we're using or the pretty forms controls that is causing this so this work-around is the best we can manage right now.
- Added a user activated database re-connect try if the connection is lost. Previously a single automatic re-try happened before a database connection lost message was displayed to users.
- Fixed up some security problems with the in-program tutorial. No on-screen buttons work while the tutorial is active and the correct interface (employee list or keypad) is established when the tutorial is exited.
Posted by at 9:57 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2012
More Time Clock MTS Testimonials
It's always great to hear the nice things our users have to say about Time Clock MTS. We try to put the emails we receive up on our Time Clock Testimonials page as we receive them. A couple of longer ones have gone up in the last few weeks and I thought it might be worthwhile re-producing them here.
The first is by a senior operations supervisor at an agricultural supplies company who had selected Time Clock MTS to use in their facility.
You've been great to do what you can to provide support and solutions to many different types of Time Clock demands. I really love Time Clock MTS and how it helps me as a Supervisor manage my employees. Last month we had our Corporate Vice President come and tour our facility and he was so impressed with Time Clock MTS and how we were implementing it at our facility that he want me to make a presentation of your program at an Office Best Practices meeting being held the first part of December. I'm sure after this presentation that you might have more interested people check out your website and implement Time Clock MTS.
This second one is by the service manager at an automotive service center. This one is interesting because he's detailed how they setup the software and how they are using it in their business.
FYI, we just purchased the $127 two client license for our company and I must say that we are still impressed with this software. I have figured out how to set up our PC's using the admin software and our 2 clients. We have our database located on a networked hard drive (Z drive) that all are connected to. Again, we are very impressed with it and this is what we've been looking for to track our commissioned technician's time along with our hourly full time employees. Kudos to you guys!
We always welcome what anyone has got to say about Time Clock MTS, whether it be good or bad. So if you've got an opinion, a question, or even a suggestion please do not hesitate to Contact Us.
Posted by at 9:03 AM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.6 Released
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.6 includes a fix to a couple of different reports and some re-working of the way the biometric time clock features work when using the Administrator software. Here's a detailed list of the changes that have been made.
- The Job Punchcard Report and Job Time Report could occasionally show an incorrect job total when the last clock in/out pair of the report period spanned midnight. This has now been fixed.
- The Actual vs Rounded Time Report was showing all times labelled as Clock In's. This has now been fixed.
- The Automatic Administrator Logout feature wasn't working when the employee image capture option was turned on. This has now been fixed.
- Employees are allowed to clock in or out without scanning their fingerprint if the following conditions are met. Firstly, the administrator software is being used, secondly, you're logged in as the the administrator, and finally, the actual finger scanner is not connected.
- The Time Clock administrator can allow employees to clock in and out on the administrator software without using the fingerscanner even if the biometric feature is turned on. To allow this the following conditions must be met. Firstly, this will only work for the administrator software and not the client. Secondly, the fingerscanner must be disconnected. The administrator will be given the option they first time they log into the software and the administrator and the fingerscanner is disconnected. Note that the next time the fingerscanner is reconnected Time Clock MTS will re-enable full biometric security.
It's important to realize that none of these changes to the biometric security features will work if you're using the Time Clock MTS client software. It's also important to realize that they'll only take effect if your administrator computer doesn't have a finger scanner plugged into it. These changes are designed to allow Time Clock MTS users to have their client programs still protected by biometric security but allow the administrator computer to function without one.
Posted by at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.5 Released
While I am writing this entry Version 3.3.5 of Time Clock MTS is being uploaded. The changes made to this version of are detailed below.
- The software incorrectly displaying employees as clocked out after switching jobs has prompted a re-write of the code run when employees are selected on the employee list interface. The result is that the incorrect display is fixed, the number of database accesses has been reduced considerably and response times have improved.
- Added some new fields to the Export Data system. This includes the <HOURS_DECIMAL> field which displays times in decimal format regardless of your global time display format setting. The other two fields added are <EXPORT_START_DATE> and <EXPORT_END_DATE>.
- Added capability for pre-defined (and read only) data export formats.
- Added pre-defined data export formats to suit Sure Payroll and Union Bank Online Payroll.
- Exporting data will now group Normal and Holiday time if they have the same rate code.
- Exporting data will now group OT1 and OT2 if they have the same rate code.
Note that for the Sure Payroll and Union Bank Online Payroll export formats to work correct you must set the Time Clock MTS employee badge number to the corresponding payroll system employee ID. Also, because Time Clock MTS does not track first and last names separately employees in Time Clock MTS must be named using the form Last Name, First Name.
Posted by at 1:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2012
The Time Clock MTS Offices Have Re-Opened
Our offices are now open again and normal service has resumed. We managed to address most support emails during the period that our offices were closed and we thank all of you for your patience during this time.
Posted by at 9:25 AM | Comments (0)
April 3, 2012
Time Clock MTS Offices Closed Saturday 7th April 2012 to Friday 13th April 2012
The Time Clock MTS Offices will be closed from Saturday the 7th of April 2012 through to Friday the 13th of April 2012. During this time support emails will not be answered daily as they are normally but rather will be addressed during the week on Tuesday and Thursday only. All remaining support emails will be answered by the end of Saturday the 14th of April when our normal office service hours will resume.
Anyone purchasing Time Clock MTS during this period will still receive their license codes without delay as these processes are automated.
Posted by at 2:54 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.4 Released
Time Clock MTS version 3.3.4 has just been uploaded. This update includes two minor changes to the Reports->Export Data->Data Export Formats screen. There's a new setting called "Single Employee Entry" for Aggregate Data Exports. When checked aggregate exports will produce a single entry for each rate code for each employee over the export time period. When not checked an entry is produced for each day during the export time period. The second change allows users to have a multiple line header.
Posted by at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
March 5, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.3 Released
Some interesting requests from users of our time clock software over the last few weeks have lead to many of the changes in Version 3.3.3 of the software which has just been uploaded. Here's the details of the changes made to this version.
- Added a header setting to the Export Data system. This allows a fixed header row to be defined for exported data sets.
- Fixed a problem where the main application window disappeared after doing a large data export.
- Hours on aggregate data exports are now formatted correctly.
- Disabled employees are now displayed at the bottom of most employee lists.
- Disabling an employee no longer requires a complex confirmation process.
- The Daily Hours Report now only runs up to the actual selected report end date rather than the end of the week that the report end date is in.
- Added a new "clock out" button to the Edit Times screen. This allows the time clock administrator to either clock out the selected employee or clock out all employees that are currently clocked in.
- Changed some of the database connection settings to make the connection more reliable.
Posted by at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2012
Time Clock Software for Optometrists
As businesses strive to become more organized, a time and attendance tool is one of the things that may be introduced to the employees. Time Clock MTS is now being used by over 10,000 companies of all different types. A select few of the users of the software are optical stores and other optical-related companies such as optometrists, eyecare centers and optometric clinics. In fact, 150 stores or individual practitioners now use the software to help them track employee attendance in the work place.
One of the advantages of Time Clock MTS is that it is free forever if you only have three employees or less. This makes it the ideal time clock software for optometrists or optical stores that have a limited number of employees. For example, an optometrist who has a small practice with only one or two receptionists would be able to use the software free of charge for as long as it was needed.
It's clear to see that Time Clock MTS is useful to this industry. It just goes to show that this time clock tool can be used by any business, large or small. If you've been looking around for a good time clock system to use in an optical store, you may have just found the ideal software.
Posted by at 8:37 AM | Comments (0)
February 8, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.2 Released
Two new reports are the main changes to Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.2 which has just been uploaded. Other changes included adding the Job Description field to the Job Entry and Job Management screens and making the columns on the job management screen sortable. The two reports added are the Daily Hours Report and the Missed Days Report.
Posted by at 1:44 PM | Comments (0)
February 7, 2012
Time Clock Software for Schools
The amount of companies using Time Clock MTS is growing significantly, and a huge variety of businesses are making use of the advantages that the time clock system has to offer. Among these are schools, universities and other places of education. At the moment, 200 schools, colleges and universities are using the software. The time and attendance tool is perfect for places with a lot of employees or just a few members of staff. For example, large schools with many teachers, admin staff and other employees now have the luxury of using software that will calculate payroll, overtime and various other things accurately.
A good time clock tool is essential to help keep any business running smoothly. The more employees a company has, the more complicated things can become. Schools and colleges are purchasing quality time and attendance software in order to maintain organization and order. With so many different people and levels of staff within a place of education, it's important to keep everything running properly. The different levels within a school means that different employees will receive different pay, which is something that a time clock tool can work out accurately. If you've been searching for time clock software for schools, universities or colleges, you might have found the perfect thing when you stumbled across Time Clock MTS!
Posted by at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.3.1 Released
There's been some usability enhancements made to version 3.3.1 of our time card software as well as some small tweaks and a change to sick and vacation time accruals. The details of the changes made to this new version are shown below.
- The job selection screen now remembers the last window size when it is re-loaded.
- You can now sort the columns on the job selection screen by clicking on the column headers.
- Fixed up some minor layout issues on the vacation and sick time accrual screens.
- Added the "Apply Starting Balance Annually" setting to both sick time and vacation accruals. When checked this will start each years available sick or vacation time with the "Starts With" balance for the accrual schema. Note that this setting will only take effect if the "Carry Balance Forward Yearly" setting is not checked. Note also that the date the balance is applied depends on your "Use Hire Date Not Fiscal Year" setting.
Posted by at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.13 Released
Time Clock MTS version 3.2.13 has just been released. Detailed changes for this new version can be found below.
- Fixed the Add Employee Tip screen that could leave the bottom employee in the list scrolled off of the bottom of the screen.
- A scroll bar is now displayed on employee bulletins that are more than 5 lines long.
- A fix has been put in place to stop the main application window disappearing when a very long report is generated. The same problem seems to be happening when using the Edit Times screen but I'm trying to get to the bottom of that.
- Stopped the double expiry warning message when in the last 10 days of the trial period.
Posted by at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)
January 4, 2012
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.12 Released
The rollover to January 2012 has thrown up some reporting issues for reports run across two calendar (and I suspect two fiscal) years. I've been very keen to jump on these problems immediately and have spent the last several hours putting fixes in place and testing those fixes. Version 3.2.12 of our timecard software is the result and it's just been uploaded to our servers. Changes made in this version are:
- A fix to available vacation and sick time for annual accruals when report was run in a different annual accrual period to the reporting period.
- A fix to the
, , and fields that were using the date the report was run to determine the fiscal period rather than the report date. - Fix to weekly overtime calculations when a public holiday falls in a week and the Public Holidays Affect OT setting is not checked.
- Fix to the normal hours total on the Time Breakdown Report.
- Adjusted the holiday hours report total column width on the Time Breakdown Report.
- Adjusted some of the coordinates on the First Run Tutorial.
Posted by at 3:25 PM | Comments (0)
January 2, 2012
2011 - The Year in Review
Well another year has passed us by and I thought it might be fun to have a slightly different year in review post for 2011. So, here it goes....
Number of Time Clock MTS Releases in 2011 - 24
Best New Report Added in 2011 - The Departmental Simple Wages Report
My Favourite New Feature of 2011 - Employee Tip Tracking
My Favourite Time Clock MTS Question of 2011 - "Please add tip summary fields to reports". The result was 6 new fields that could be included in the report footer section template.
The Best Testimonial of 2011 - "hi my name is s**** and i would like to start by saying i love the fact that you made a program that can grow with my business."
Time Clock MTS Growth From 2010 to 2011 - 27%
I hope that 2012 is a prosperous and happy year for you all!
Posted by at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.11 Released
Version 3.2.11 of Time Clock MTS is uploading as a write this entry. This very minor release includes a fix to the Total Work Hours column of the Departmental Wages Report and adjusts the column widths of the same report.
Posted by at 8:21 AM | Comments (0)
December 2, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.10 Released
As I write this Time Clock MTS version 3.2.10 is being uploaded to our servers. There's a couple of bug fixes in this release and a new feature.
- The job selection list (reached by pressing the * button the job code entry screen) is now sizeable.
- When using the department folder view of the employee list interface employees who are clocked in with the time classification OTHER are now displayed with a purple status icon.
- Fixed a problem with the
report field that was causing OTHER time taken on the last day of the report period to not be included in the report. - Time with the OTHER classification is no longer included in overtime calculations if the Sick/Vac Time Affect OT setting is not checked.
Version 3.2.9 of the software was also uploaded earlier this week. This fixed up a bug that stopped existing shifts from being editable.
Posted by at 9:36 AM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2011
New User Testimonials Posted
You may or may not know that we've got a time clock user testimonials page that we use to put up nice emails we get from happy Time Clock MTS users. Other than removing the authors names and company names we put these emails up exactly as we receive them. We got a couple of good ones this week including one (completely spontaneous) email from the operations supervisor of a very large agricultural resources company. We've been working with this gentleman quite closely for several months ironing out usage problems he had with the software as well as adding some reports that he wanted to see. Clearly he's happy with the result.
Posted by at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
November 8, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.7 Released
A very minor release today that fixes up a couple of minor glitches with the biometric features of the software and adds some data logging to the fingerprint initialization process to allow us to track down the source of any problems. The complete list of changes is below.
- A fix to a spelling error on the fingerprint driver installation screen.
- You can no longer enrol fingerprints if no employee is defined.
- Added data logging to the fingerprint enrolment screen.
- Completely re-built the fingerprint_update.exe installer to be compatible with 64 bit versions of Windows. The installer now detects if the operating system is 64 bit or 32 bit and installs the correct driver set.
Posted by at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.6 Released
Another minor release of Time Clock MTS today. This one fixes up a problem with the main application window disappearing when a report that takes a long time to generate was run. The other fixes are to some report section template fields that were not displaying correctly or not aligning properly when printed on reports. If you're not sure what the report section template fields are then you should take a look at the blog entry on Customizing Time Clock MTS Reports.
Posted by at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2011
Employee Scheduling Software
It's not unusual for a time clock software package like Time Clock MTS to include a employee scheduler because in a lot of cases employee scheduling or time tabling go hand in hand. However, we've always wanted Time Clock MTS to be a low cost and easy use and maintain employee time and attendance system. Because of this we've never added an employee scheduler to it. However, we're happy to say that we've been working with a company (Sensible Software) in New York state who have been developing their own employee scheduling software called Employee Scheduling Pro. We've got a long standing relationship with Sensible Software and we were involved in the testing process for Employee Scheduling Pro and we've found it to be just like Time Clock MTS, powerful yet simple to use. It's ideal for any company wanting to develop and schedule their employee work times and we heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a employee scheduler to complement Time Clock MTS.
Posted by at 2:49 PM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.5 Released
I've posted up a very minor update to Time Clock MTS with what should be the final fix to the pesky least quantity rounding that I seem to be completely unable to get working correctly. I'm confident it's working ok now though! (fingers crossed).
Posted by at 2:04 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.4 Released
Time Clock MTS version 3.2.4 is being uploaded as I write this blog entry. It includes a fix to the Least Quantity Rounding feature that I didn't quite fix up properly with the last release of Time Clock MTS. It also includes a new setting on the Interface Settings screen called "No Client Idle". This stops the Time Clock MTS Client software from entering an idle state 60 seconds after it is started. This idle state was originally designed to stop excessive network traffic and database access but some users have requested that clients be able to update employee status every 60 seconds just like the administrator program.
Posted by at 8:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.3 Released
Just a minor release today with one fix and one change. The fix applies to the "Least Quantity" rounding option on the Payroll Settings screen. Rounding was not correct for clock ins if the time was within 60 seconds of the lower rounding limit. The second change just involves a lot more data logging around the initial database connection period when the software is starting up. This is designed to help debug problems with database connections.
Posted by at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.2 Released
As I write this entry Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.2 is being uploaded to our web-servers. This minor release includes some fixes to the employee image capturing features of the software, a fix to some MySQL database creation code, and a fix to a problem that a recent Windows update caused in many programs (not just Time Clock MTS). Details of the fixes are below:
- In cases where there was latency in database writes (especially when using SQL Server or MySQL) captured employee images could sometimes become mis-matched with the times they were associated with. This has now been resolved.
- One user was reporting a case where the image capture directory could not be opened to view captured images. I've put in some extra logging to try to work out why this is happening.
- An error was thrown by anyone upgrading to V3 of the software if they were using the MySQL backend. This has now been fixed.
- Referenced the backwards compatible ADO type library rather than the ADO 2.5 type library. This is because our main build machine is now a Windows 7 x64 machine with SP1. This problem is documented in this Microsoft KB Article. .
With direct reference to the last point this is a failing with Service Pack 1 of Windows 7 rather than anything to do with Time Clock MTS. If you install and run our software and receive the error "Error 430 : Class does not support Automation or does not support expected interface" please get in contact with us as soon as possible so we can get to the bottom of the problem.
Posted by at 3:39 PM | Comments (0)
August 4, 2011
Free Timesheet Templates
We've just posted up a new page containing 6 timesheet templates that are free to download and use by anyone. These free timesheet templates can be used to record 2 weeks worth of timesheet information for one employee and could then be printed out to give to a supervisor or your payroll department. Alternatively they could be attached to an email and sent that way. Right now we've posted up Microsoft Excel Timesheet Templates, Microsoft Word Timesheet Templates, a PDF Timesheet Template, and an Open Document Text Timesheet Template. If you'd like to see any more free timesheet templates in other formats please contact us and let us know.
We hope that these simple timesheet templates will be of some use, but you should be aware that manual timesheets like these are not an ideal time and attendance tracking system for any business. They are inefficient, prone to inaccuracy, and often lead to timesheet fraud. Time Clock MTS is a far superior system that allows any Windows based PC in your company to be used to track your employee's attendance. It's simple to use, accurate, and can generate your payroll reports in just a matter of seconds. There's a free 30 day trial available and for very small businesses it can even be used for free!
Posted by at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
Try Out our Free Time Card Hour Calculator
For those people who just need to manually record a single weeks worth of time card information we created our free time card hour calculator. This handy online timesheet can be used to enter the time you arrive for work, the time you leave, and the number of hours you take for breaks during the day. The free time card hour calculator then automagically totals up the hours you worked for each weekday and the total number of hours worked for the week (as well as the total number of break hours you took for the week). The weekly time card can then easily be printed from within your browser to give to your payroll department or even out to a PDF file for emailing.
If you need to record your time more robustly and automatically you should try out Time Clock MTS, time clock software that can be used on one or many computers inside your company to track your time and attendance information.
Posted by at 7:47 AM | Comments (0)
August 2, 2011
Free Timecard Calculator Available
We've just spent time developing a simple, and free timecard calculator that can be used online to record a single weeks time and attendance data. It's very simple to use, just enter the clock in and out time for each day along with any break time taken. The free time card calculator will take care of the calculations for you automatically giving you a total amount of time in hours and minutes worked for each day along with the total time worked for the week. You can then print the page to give to your payroll department or print the page to PDF for easy emailing. We hope you find this new tool useful and as always we welcome your feedback and comments.
Posted by at 1:54 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.2.1 Released
I've just uploaded Version 3.2.1 of Time Clock MTS. This version contains a couple of new reports, some (hopefully) helpful new features, and some minor cosmetic fix ups to several screens. Details of the changes can be found below.
- Added several tips focussed fields to the payroll information report section template.
- Added some "OTHER" time classification fields to the accruals report section template.
- Fixed up the TAB order on the bulk time entry screen, fixed some minor layout issues on the same screen too.
- The time period on the Edit Times screen is now remembered.
- Added the "Insert Missing Punch" button to the Edit Times screen. Allows you to insert a clock out and in into the middle of an existing clock in/out. That sentence is confusing enough to warrant a dedicated blog post on the topic. Stay tuned.
- Changed the status message delay on the Keypad Interface to 10 seconds.
- Fixed up some dodgy tooltip text on the Edit Employee screen.
- Added the Time Off Report and the Simple Wages - Departmental Report.
Posted by at 8:29 AM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.9 - Error while unpacking program, code LP5, Please report to author
Above you can see an error message a group of Time Clock MTS users were reporting last week when they tried to run the program. This not only included new users of the software but also some people using versions nearly 2 years old! Thanks to a top rate IT department at one company we were informed of what was causing the problem before we even really knew there was a problem! Thanks go out to them.
Anyway, the issue was due to a recent update to Windows Vista and Windows 7 conflicting with a third party component that we use in our software. We've contacted the authors of this component who have supplied us with a version that Windows appears to like a lot more and have now uploaded version 3.1.9 of Time Clock MTS. There are no other changes to the software in this release.
Posted by at 8:36 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.8 Released
I've just uploaded Version 3.1.8 of Time Clock MTS. This new version includes a couple of bug fixes, some new debug code to try to track down an issue a few users are having, and a couple of minor feature changes. The detailed changes can be found below:
- A number of modifications have been made to the logging code including adding a time stamp to all log entries and logging the windows version (and service pack).
- Users have been reporting an Error 52 (File not Found) when starting the software. Usually this is a permissions issue but it doesn't seem to be this time. I've re-ordered the initialization code to try to catch where the error is happening and also put in some better error handling to at least give a more verbose message when the error fires.
- Fixed a calculation error for salaried employees with a yearly salary period.
- Fixed a problem with the Switch Jobs screen that could sometimes result in a clock out and clock in having exactly the same event time.
- Employees clocked in with an OTHER time classification now have a purple status icon on the employee list screen (similar to those currently clocked in on vacation or sick time).
- Automatic breaks are no longer applied to sick or vacation time.
Posted by at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
May 31, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.7 Released
Time has come for another minor release of Time Clock MTS. We're up to version 3.1.7. Just three changes this time. The Simple Wages Report will now display times in HH:MM:SS format and some formatting problems with the columns on the report have also been fixed. The other problem was with the capture path for web camera captured images not setting correctly.
Posted by at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.6 Released
A minor release of Time Clock MTS has just been released taking the software to version 3.1.6. Details of the (very few) changes can be found below.
- Fixed a calculation error with the "Daily and Weekly Overtime (No Double Up)" overtime calculation method.
- Added a "More Information" link next to the First Day Starts At setting on the Tools->Options->Payroll Settings screen. Lots of users are changing this setting without understanding the consequences and hopefully this link will prevent some of them from doing so.
- Added a "No Job" section to the Job Time Report. Allows you to see what time was NOT spent working on jobs.
- Changed the "What's This" link to highlight when the mouse moves over it. This link can be found next to to the Use Fingerprint Scanner setting on the Tools->Options->Interface Settings screen.
Posted by at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2011
Time Clock MTS Review in Portuguese!
I don't read or speak Portuguese but Google translated this review of Time Clock MTS in Portuguese for me pretty well. The author seems to have some nice things to say about the software and certainly went to some effort with the review, taking the reader from software installation right through to the point of running reports. One thing the author didn't pick up on is that you can translate all the labels on the front screen of Time Clock MTS into any language you like, so he could have made it look a little more Portuguese with just a few seconds effort! You can do this on the Interface Settings Screen.
Posted by at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2011
New Article Posted
I've just posted up a new article about using Time Clock MTS as time recording software. Please head over and take a look.
Posted by at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.4 Released
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.4 has just been released. This release adds the new Tips Summary Report, cleans up the changes made when we Setup the Dedicated Internet Time Server, and the Time Breakdown Report now displays times in HH:MM:SS format properly.
As always, if you've got any questions or you find any problems with this new release please contact us for help.
Posted by at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.3 Released
Due to the problems with Boulder time servers and the setting up of a dedicated Time Clock MTS time server I've done a rush release of Time Clock MTS version 3.1.3. This new release adjusts the Time Server dropdown on the Tools->Options Security Settings Screen by removing the non-functional time servers and adds the new dedicated server as the default. Note, that I've added the new server twice, once using the IP address and once using the domain name. The IP address may need to be used until the domain name record propagates around the internet (which it should do in the next 48 hours). I'll remove the IP address entry in the next release of the software.
Posted by at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
Dedicated Time Clock MTS Time Server Now Available
Setting up the New Time ServerI am please to announce that we've just spun up a dedicated internet time server for users of Time Clock MTS. Here's the details of the time server:
Host Name: time.timeclockmts-online.com
IP Address: 97.107.133.228
You might need to use the IP address to refer to this new time server until the DNS record propagates (which it should do within 48 hours or so). To use the new dedicated time server log into Time Clock MTS as the administrator and go to the Tools->Options Security Settings Screen (see the screenshot above). Select "Custom Time Server" from the Internet Time Server dropdown and then enter either the host name or the IP Addrss for the new server. Click the Check button to make sure everything is working then click Save to save the changes.
The next release of Time Clock MTS will set this new time server as the default, and ideally this will be the end of the sporadic time server problems we've had over the last couple of years.
Posted by at 9:41 AM | Comments (0)
Problems with timefreq.bldrdoc.gov Time Servers
It appears that the first three time servers that Time Clock MTS can use to set the system time are no longer functional, this is due to extreme load on those servers. The time servers involved are:
time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
time-b.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
time-c.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
We've tested the following servers and they appear to be working just fine:
utcnist2.colorado.edu
nist1-chi.ustiming.org
nist1-lv.ustiming.org
nist1-ny.ustiming.org
nisttime.carsoncity.k12.mi.us
So for the time being we'd suggest you switch to one of these or enter the details into the custom time server field on the Security Settings Screen. We're investigating the possibility of setting up our own time server to ensure a more reliable system. Stay tuned for more information.
Posted by at 8:13 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2011
Animated Employee Tip Tracking Demonstration Posted
After a couple of days work I'm happy to say we've just posted up a new Time Clock MTS Flash Demo. This one covers the new Employee Tip Tracking features that were added in Version 3.1.1 of Time Clock MTS. If you were wondering what this is all about head of over and take a look at the Employee Tip Tracking Flash Demo.
Posted by at 1:56 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.2 Released
I've just released Version 3.1.2 of Time Clock MTS in response to a couple of requests from a new user. This user has just thrown out a highly customized time clock system that was developed for their own company but because of maintenance issues and high on-going cost of ownership they have decided to use a commercial offering. There were a couple of reports that the user thought would make Time Clock MTS a lot more useful and I agreed so these reports have now been added. Here's a list of what has changed in this new release:
- Added the missing punches report. This report lists off all instances during the reporting period that an employee has an odd number of clock in/out events in a single day. This (as it turns out) is a fairly good indicator that an employee has forgotten to clock in or out during that day.
- Added the employee notes report. This report lists off all clock in / out events during the reporting period that have a note and displays the note.
- Fixed the database modification code that adds the employee tip tracking tables for MySQL users.
- Fixed the detailed punchcard with full notes report that didn't show the full note occasionally.
- Fixed a problem with the main program window that could sometimes disappear when the edit times window was open.
Posted by at 7:07 AM | Comments (0)
March 6, 2011
New Employee Tip Tracking Quick Tour Page Posted
We've just posted up a new page to the Time Clock MTS Quick Tour. This new page, the Employee Tip Tracking Page, briefly covers the new employee tip tracking features. If you're wondering what these new parts of Time Clock MTS do then it might be worth taking a quick read!
Posted by at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
March 5, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.1.1 Released
I've just uploaded a new version of Time Clock MTS which includes a bunch of new features and a couple of important bug fixes. The biggest improvement to the system is an employee tip tracking system. This will be the subject of a couple of subsequent blog posts and probably an animated time clock demonstration. The total list of changes to V3.1.1 can be found below:
- The punchcard and job punchcard reports now display the full notes entered by employees.
- The employee accrual start date now defaults to the date that the employee record was created.
- A button with a star graphic has been added to the Enter Job Code screen. Clicking this pops up a screen listing all Job Codes allowing employees to select one easily. Not sure what I'm talking about? Try taking a look at the Job Tracking Time Clock page for more information.
- A new setting has been added to the Security Settings screen. The setting, Auto Logout Administrator (5 Minutes Idle) causes the administrator account to be automatically logged out when the computer is idle for 5 minutes.
- Employee tip tracking system added. Turned on via a the Enable Tip Tracking setting on the Interface Settings screen. This allows employees clocking in and out via the Employee List Interface to enter their tips via the Tips button. New screens have been added to manage tips, add tips, edit tips, and delete tips.
- Added the employee tip diary report. This report is a close copy of the IRS 4070A Employee Tip Diary form.
- Added the employee tip diary summary report. This is a close copy of the IRS 4070 Employee Report of Tips to Employer form.
- Added some new settings to the timeclock.ini file to allow people to manually set the driver used for MS SQL Server or MySQL database connections. To be used with caution.
- The Time Breakdown Report now has an employee total time column.
- Put a new fix/handler in place for Time Clock MTS users who experience network drop outs.
- A fix has been put in place for a very rare error on the Add/Edit Shifts screen.
- Fixed an obscure bug the employee list view when only disabled employees were defined.
- Fixed a problem with employees that were disabled still being credited with holidays.
- Fixed a problem with the report screen where sometimes the last report generated could be displayed instead of the current one.
- Fixed a layout problem on the time breakdown report for employees Full Names less than 10 characters.
Posted by at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 3, 2011
Time Clock Software for Doctors
I've been doing some digging through our Time Clock MTS customer database looking at the types of businesses that use the software. More than 8,000 companies now use Time Clock MTS and I thought that some trends may have emerged. It's clear that Time Clock MTS is a popular choice for doctors clinic and medical clinics. A quick search for medical related terms indicates that more than 400 general practitioners, health clinics, and specialists like dermatologists and radiologists use the software. This is about 5% of the Time Clock MTS user base and other than retail based businesses is the biggest industry segment that makes use of Time Clock MTS. So, if you're looking for time clock software for your doctors surgery, your medical clinic, or your specialized practise then Time Clock MTS could be just what you are looking for!
Posted by at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
Time Clock Software for Dentists
As I mentioned in the Time Clock Software for Doctors entry I've been mining through the Time Clock MTS customer database. I can't say that I'm an expert on things medical but what seems to be an allied area of business to me is that of dentistry. So, I've done some searches through our customer database and have found upwards of 200 businesses operating in this area that use Time Clock MTS. While I don't fully understand what all these different types of dentistry businesses do I see general dentistry practises, orthodontics specialists, endodontics specialists, and pediatric dentistry specialists all making use of Time Clock MTS. So, if you're looking for time clock software for your dentist surgery, or your specialized dentistry practise then Time Clock MTS could be just what you are looking for!
Posted by at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2011
New Time Clock Software Testimonials Posted
Sometimes we get emails from users of Time Clock MTS telling me they are happy with the software and I like to post these emails up on the site for everyone to see. I've just posted up a few new comments over on the Time Clock Testimonials page, I especially like the one about reducing payroll once the user started using a finger scanner. A true indication that the right time clock system will actually SAVE you money rather than cost you money.
As always we welcome any comments you might have on Time Clock MTS and invite you to contact us with your thoughts.
Posted by at 8:33 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.9 Released
I've just released a new version of the software fixing up a couple of errors that a helpful user identified for me today. The first, fixes up a hard crash seen on the Time Breakdown Report and the Simple Attendance Report when the time format was set to HH:MM:SS rather than decimal hours. The second fix was to overtime calculations where the "pay day as overtime" setting was set for a weekday AND the daily overtime limit was exceeded. The final fix was to the simple time report that could display an incorrect normal hour total when the daily overtime limit was exceeded and the times for the day were classified as OTHER.
Posted by at 8:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.8 Released
A new version of Time Clock MTS (V3.0.8) has been released today fixing up a problem with the Paid Holidays Affect OT setting that can be found on the Time Clock MTS Overtime Settings screen. The setting worked fine when it was switched on but unfortunately it didn't turn off when the box was unchecked. For those of you that were wondering what the setting does then perhaps it is best explained by an example:
Bob Smith works 9 hours a day in the four days leading up to Christmas Day. He has a paid holiday on Christmas day and is credited with 8 hours of pay for that day. Bob's workplace pays weekly overtime after 40 hours of work.
Scenario 1 - Paid Holidays Affect Overtime is OFF - in this case a payroll report for Bob for the week of Christmas Day will report 44 normal hours worked (no overtime). In fact for Bob to earn any overtime he'd need to work over 40 hours in just the 4 days leading up to Christmas, the credited holiday hours do not affect OT calculations at all.
Scenario 2 - Paid Holidays Affect Overtime is ON - in this case a payroll report for Bob for the week of Christmas Day will report 40 normal hours worked and 4 hours of overtime. When the setting is turned on the holiday hours are included in overtime calculations
Posted by at 2:37 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.7 Released
I released a new version of Time Clock MTS today that included a fix for vacation and sick time accruals that carried the balance forward yearly AND had an accrual limit set. Basically the maximum accrual limit was being tested AFTER deductions for sick or vacation time were being applied. This meant that in some cases the available sick/vacation balance would be wrong. This has now been fixed up. Thanks must go to the Time Clock MTS user who was trying to setup a particular Yearly Vacation Accrual Scheme that highlighted this problem.
Posted by at 2:57 PM | Comments (0)
January 9, 2011
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.6 Released
I've just finished uploading the first release of Time Clock MTS for the year. It includes a couple of minor fixes, tweaks to reports, and added a new report. The details of the changes are shown below.
- Total rows have been added to the Simple Wages Report and Time Breakdown Report. This is one of the first examples of cross pollination of ideas between our Web Time Clock system, Online Time Clock MTS and the desktop program Time Clock MTS. A user of the online system suggested the change to similar reports there and I've made the same change to the desktop product.
- A new report, the Detailed Punchcard with Full Notes Report has been added. This is the same as the regular Detailed Punchcard Report but shows the full text from all time notes rather than just the first 60 characters.
- The mouse cursor now turns to an hour glass when exporting reports to MS Excel to give an indication that something is happening.
- A fix has been put in place to stop Excel throwing an error when the new window is clicked while a report export process is underway.
Posted by at 1:42 PM | Comments (0)
January 7, 2011
2010 The Year in Review
At the end of the first week of 2011 it's probably about time I spent a few minutes looking back at 2010 and what's happened with Time Clock MTS during the year. We averaged one new release of Time Clock MTS during the year, as always concentrating on fixing up problems as they are found by Time Clock MTS users and adding features that are the most commonly requested. The biggest release of the year was in October with Version 3 being unleashed and containing a lot of new tweaks and enhancements to make the software easier to use while being more flexible to suit more and more businesses.
The number of companies using Time Clock MTS continued to grow during 2010 with the total number of companies growing by around 25% in total and now numbering several thousand. We're still seeing some effects of the GFC on our sales with 2010 being pretty flat compared with 2009. This is particularly apparent in our sales in the United States but 2011 has started off very well and perhaps there's a new air of confidence in business circles. Let's hope so for all our sakes, I think the lingering effects of the GFC should be put behind us and the time to move forward has come.
2011 promises to be an interesting year, we have many plans for Time Clock MTS as well as the on-going development of Online Time Clock MTS. The goal is to mirror the functionality of Time Clock MTS in the online version and to provide a good level of data interchangeability. The first step in this will allow people to move seamlessly from one version to the other. The longer term goal is to allow the two systems to operate together, so you could allow your employees to clock in and out via a web interface while running reports and configuring the software from the desktop admin software.
I'll draw this entry to a close here. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and wish you all a fruitful and happy New Year!
Posted by at 8:14 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.5 Released
Yesterday I uploaded a new version of Time Clock MTS that includes one new feature and adds some data logging to the Web Cam Image Capture areas of the software. The new feature can be found on the Interface Settings screen and allows you to password protect Microsoft Excel spreadsheets generated by employees when they are allowed to view their own timecards. This could be useful if you have remote employees submitting their timesheets via email and you want to prevent them from editing the spreadsheets before sending them. The password used to protect the spreadsheets is the current Time Clock MTS administrator password.
Posted by at 1:52 PM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.4 Released
I've just uploaded version 3.0.4 of Time Clock MTS. This new version fixes up a couple of problems with job based reports that were included with the release of Version 3 of Time Clock MTS. The new job selection drop down on the Report Configuration Screen wasn't selecting the right job, this is now correct. The second change modifies the Job Punchcard Report to include both the Clock In and Clock Out notes on the report.
Thanks to a user who is making heavy use of the time clock job tracking features of the software in his rust repair/collision repair workshop for bringing these problems to my attention.
Posted by at 9:12 AM | Comments (0)
November 4, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.3 Released
Just a minor release today, I've fixed up the code that generates the mySQL database creation script (found on the Tools->Generate mySQL Creation Script menu) to remove the double quotes around each line. Another problem fixed was with the departmental folder view on the employee list when the software was connected to mySQL or SQL Server.
Stay tuned for a detailed blog entry on setting up Time Clock MTS with mySQL, mySQL is free and provides a real improvement over the standard MS Access database backend. It's well worth the effort to get Time Clock MTS using mySQL as a backend database.
Posted by at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
November 1, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 3.0.2 Released
I've just made the first minor release of version 3 of Time Clock MTS. This release fixes up an error with vacation and sick time accrual starting balances. In some situations the employment type starting balance for both sick and vacation time was being ignored. It was a simple fix and my thanks go out to the Time Clock MTS user who pointed out the problem and kindly supplied their data so I could track it down and test the fix. As always I welcome all communication from the many users of Time Clock MTS and if you do find a problem with the software please don't hesitate to Contact Us.
Posted by at 6:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 21, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 3 Released
I'm happy to announce that Version 3 of Time Clock MTS has been released today. There's a lot of new features in the software, a number of bug fixes, and some new logging code to make any new errors easier to track down. You can find details of the changes below.
New Features
- The Tools->Interface Settings screen now allows you to select either small or large fonts for the Employee List Interface.
- The Edit Times screen now remembers column widths if you adjust them.
- The number of hours credited to an employee on a Public Holiday can now be set on an employee by employee basis. So, for example, you could set holidays to credit 8 hours and then go through and modify your part time employees to credit them with less hours. This is adjusted on the Employee Maintenance->Payroll Settings screen.
- The Daily Time Report has been added. This shows all clock in and out events in time order split up by days.
- A new Report Section Template field
has been added. This allows you to display the actual hours worked for a salaried employee who is set to always be paid their salary regardless of hours worked. - A new Report Section Template field
has been added. This shows the time worked less any accruals during the report period. - The Bulk Add Time screen has been modified to allow you to add up to 7 different times at once.
- The Export Data functionality has been completely changed. You can now define any report format you like and export it to any text format you like. This will be the subject of a later blog post.
- The Report Configuration screen now includes a Job Number selection, this allows you to run any of the job based payroll reports for all jobs or for one particular job.
- The Actual versus Rounded Time report has been added. This new report displays the actual time versus the rounded times across a report period. Obviously this report is only useful if you have report rounding turned on.
- The Time Clock MTS Client can now be set to only display the employees from one department. This is set on the Tools->Options->System Settings screen of the client software.
- Employees on Sick or Vacation time are now shown with a purple icon on the Employee List Interface.
- Employees that are out on sick time or vacation time are shown as such in the Last Action area on the employee list interface.
- The Employee Status report now shows if employees are out on sick or vacation time.
- If you want to bring employees in the Time Clock MTS system with existing accrual balances you can now set initial balances and dates.
- Comments for times are now shown on the Job Punchcard report.
- Employee contact details now include the employee email address.
- The Time Clock MTS administrator software can now be connected directly to an existing database without needing to move it. Useful if you're moving the computer your admin software is installed on or if you've installed a second admin computer.
- The job number is shown along with the job name on the sub totals area of the Job Punchcard Report.
Bug Fixes
- The Departmental Wages report is now fixed up for employees with very long badge numbers.
- Enabling the web camera on the client software no longer triggers a 401 error.
- The Force Overtime setting now works correctly if Daily Overtime is not set.
- The main screen of the software no longer disappears occasionally when running long payroll reports.
- The Job Punchcard report is now working correctly, formerly the job numbers were not changing correctly.
Other Changes
- A reminder is shown to new users of the software when they first clock someone in or out that it is possible to have employee passwords or PIN's.
- The password reset screen provides a much clearer indication that it is only to be used when you've forgotten your password.
- The client software now includes a reminder that users are running the client version and that you need to run the admin version to see all the menus and run reports an so on.
- Fingerprint support for Windows 7 has been added.
- The Windows version is now sent with all error message emails.
- Some new data logging has been added to the Add Single Time screen to try to track down an error that some people are seeing.
- Time Clock MTS will no longer allow you to move the Time Clock MTS database into a folder that already contains a database. Designed to stop people accidentally over-writing their data.
Phew! That's a lot of changes, I've been working hard on this for a while and I hope you find that it was worth all the effort. Thanks to those users who suggested a lot of these changes, I think they've really improved the useability and flexibility of the software. There's still a few things to be added in the next month or so that will round out the Version 3 upgrades. Stay tuned to the blog too because I'll be expanding on a number of these changes to explain in more detail how to use them and how they can be useful to your business.
Posted by at 7:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 3 Under Development
You're probably aware that things have been a bit quiet lately on the Time Clock MTS development front. There's a couple of reasons for this, firstly we've been concentrating pretty hard on our web based time clock system, Online Time Clock MTS. The second reason is that we're deep into the planning phase of Version 3 of Time Clock MTS. We've been taking requests from users concerning what they'd like to see in the new major release and we're still interested in hearing from anyone else. So, if you've got a suggestion for something you'd like changed or added to Time Clock MTS please let us know. We'll take all ideas and suggestions under consideration.
Posted by at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.11 Released
I've just released a very minor update of Time Clock MTS taking the software to version 2.5.11. There's just one fix in the update that corrects a rounding bug in reports that display times in the hh:mm:ss format. There were some circumstances where (for example) 1 hour and 8 minutes (01:08:00) could be displayed as 1 hour, 7 minutes and 60 seconds (01:07:60), which of course is exactly the same amount of time. Just a formatting problem and one that didn't affect any calculations, this has been resolved.
Posted by at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.10 Released
I released a new version of Time Clock MTS yesterday containing a bug fix and adding a new feature requested by one of our users. The detailed punchcard report was broken in version 2.5.9, by of all things, me fixing up a spelling error! This is now been sorted properly.
The new feature added allows you to use the keyboard shortcuts ALT-I and ALT-O to clock in and out from the employee list interface. ALT-I will clock you in and ALT-O will clock out. If you're already clocked in then ALT-I will not do anything, and similarly with ALT-O if you're already clocked out. These changes were requested by a visually impaired user who was trying to use the software with the JAWS screen reading software. The trouble is that the Clock In and Clock Out buttons on the Employee Interface screen cannot be accessed by using your TAB key. These new keyboard short-cuts ensure that the software will function happily for those using screen reading software.
Posted by at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2010
Time Clock MTS on the Kim Kommando Show
Time Clock MTS has featured on the Kim Komando show, a popular radio program that concentrates on computers, the internet, and consumer electronics. It run on over 400 radio stations in the United States and at peak times garners well over 2 million viewers. A brief review of Time Clock MTS is up on the Kim Kommando website. As a consequence of this wonderful publicity (which I must say came as a complete surprise to me) traffic on this website was around 10 times the normal levels!
Welcome to all the potential new Time Clock MTS users who have come here after hearing about us on the Kim Komando show, please feel free to Contact Us if you have any questions or need help!
Posted by at 7:15 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.9 Released
I've just released version 2.5.9 of Time Clock MTS which contains some bug fixes and a minor user interface improvement. Here's the details of what's changed:
- A fix for some users who were continually being told they were already logged in as the administrator even though they were not.
- To help users who cannot find their database file you can now press the D key on your keyboard within 5 seconds of starting up the admin software and a Windows Explorer window will popup showing the directory your database is in.
- A fix was applied to the department folder view, it wasn't displaying correctly if there were disabled employees.
- The last action message now clears after 5 seconds when using the keypad interface.
- Some people still experience problems when the software is left running for long periods and the database connection goes stale. I've included some new code to try to re-connect to the database if the connection is lost.
Apologies for the dearth of releases lately, our attention has been pretty much focussed on Online Time Clock MTS for most of this year. It's getting close to being released commercially and once that happens we'll start working hard on Version 3 of Time Clock MTS.
Posted by at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)
Another Time Clock MTS User has Nice Things to Say
Well there's a flood (can 3 different people constitute a flood?) of people who want to say nice things about Time Clock MTS today. Here's another one from the GM of a plastics manufacturing company.
I just wanted to thank your customer for the great job they do in supporting your product. Whenever I have questions they are quick to respond and their advice is right on target. Your website is easy to use and very instructive for any knowledge I may need on your product. (And the MTS Time Clock program is great too! I would recommend it to anyone.) Thanks for making my job easier.
Posted by at 7:18 AM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2010
A Time Clock MTS User Review
Donald Hill, a business consultant from Milwaukee, Wisconsin was kind enough to write some great comments about Time Clock MTS. He was also kind enough to allow me to reproduce those comments here. You can see them below.
After comparing your Timeclockmts employee time keeping solution with many other options, it was a no-brainer to go with your solution for my food service business client with 30 to 35 employees.No server or XP professional required, free unlimited 30 day trial, secure full-featured administrator area, simple clock in and out window, easy to add and delete employees, and a leading biometric device vendor already pre-selected to work with the software.
After installing, the experience only got better. Discovered it can automatically record a webcam photo of the person clocking in and out for verification, easily allows the data file to be shared from either a desktop PC or a Network Attached Storage (NAS), and has all the reports needed to run payroll.
Install was fast and employees really did not need any training because of the simple user interface. Point, click, done. The ability to have multiple administrator licenses is a plus to allow more than one manager to access and update employee wage rates, departments, and hours.
As a 'recovering' electrical engineer and former software programmer, appreciate seeing good code. Now that I am in the (non-tech) business development consulting field, I also appreciate being able to find a solid and simple to use program for the small-business multi-user environment. Your online ordering calculator also takes the guesswork out of pricing which helped a lot.
Great job - I suspect this software will only get better in the future
Posted by at 8:02 AM | Comments (0)
August 4, 2010
New Review of Time Clock MTS Posted
Matthew Smith has written a review of Time Clock MTS over at MakeUseOf.com, it's a real review of the software focussing on how to use it for job tracking. Matt takes the reader through the process of setting up the software to use job tracking and includes some pretty helpful screenshots. Here's what he says in the conclusion:
Time Clock MTS is great time tracking software to keep track of your time and the time of others working for you, in a professional manner. It has a large number of in-depth options, including the ability to export payroll reports to Excel.
If you want to read more please head over to MakeUseOf.com and read the Time Clock MTS Review that they've written.
Posted by at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2010
Online Time Clock MTS BETA Test Period Opens
I'm happy to announce that Online Time Clock MTS is now available for testing during a completely free BETA test period. This will allow you to use Online Time Clock MTS completely free of charge while we develop and test it prior to it going completely commercial in a few months. We've tried to bring the same user friendly interface and features that you, the Time Clock MTS user have helped us develop over the years to the online version of Time Clock MTS.
Time Clock MTS and Online Time Clock MTS are not compatible at the moment, but the plan is that we'll develop a data export tool to allow you to send your Time Clock MTS data to the online version. Once that happens you'll be able to transition to Online Time Clock MTS and use that instead of Time Clock MTS (you won't be able to use both at the same time with the same data).
If you're interested in learning more about the new online application then head on over and read about Online Time Clock MTS or just dive straight in and sign up for a free online time clock account and start using it.
Posted by at 1:45 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2010
Time Clock Reviews
We're lucky enough to have had Time Clock MTS reviewed a few times by independent reviewers on various sites around the internet. I wouldn't say that any of these reviews has been fully comprehensive (it's hard to test out the full capabilities of Time Clock MTS in a short period) but these time clock reviews are useful if you're considering the purchase of a time clock program. Here's a list of the time clock reviews including Time Clock MTS that we're aware of.
- Top 10 Reviews Review of Time Clock MTS
- ISoftware Review of Time Clock MTS
- CEO World Review of Time Clock Software
If you're aware of any more reviews of Time Clock MTS about the place please let me know. If you want to know what real world users have got to say about Time Clock MTS you could take a look at our user testimonials page or take a look at a recent blog entry with a user talking about his real world use of Time Clock MTS in a machine shop.
Posted by at 2:02 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2010
Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.8 Released
A new version of Time Clock MTS was released a couple of days ago that included a bug fix, some debugging for a potentially new bug, and an interesting new feature. Details of each are below.
- A fix has been added for sick time and vacation accruals where a very short accrual period was selected (such as accruing 1 hour of leave for every 1 hour of work). The bug will not have affected many users.
- Some detailed debugging code has been added to track the shift clock in time restriction. One user reported that his staff couldn't clock in until 1 minute before shift start despite the limit being set to 6 minutes. Not sure what I'm talking about? Go take a look at the entry about stopping employees clocking in too early.
- A new setting has been added to the Tools->Options->Job Tracking page. The 'allow employees to create jobs' setting will allow employees to create a new job when they enter a job code into Time Clock MTS that doesn't already exist. If you're not sure what the job tracking features of Time Clock MTS include try take a look at job tracking time clock page.
Posted by at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2010
Online Time Clock MTS
You've probably noticed that things have been a little quiet around here lately, that's because I've been working hard on the new online version of Time Clock MTS. I'm happy to say that the website for this new online time clock system has been launched today and I'm hoping that Online Time Clock MTS will be released for free BETA testing within 6 weeks. Please go take a look at the Online Time Clock MTS website for more information.
What does this mean for you as a Time Clock MTS user? Well, probably nothing. Development of the desktop version of Time Clock MTS is continuing with version 3 being worked on and a number of interesting user suggested features being added. I am still hopeful of incorporating a new and much better reporting system into version 3. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.
Posted by at 3:05 PM | Comments (0)
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 at 8:30 AM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2010
Time Clock MTS Users Speak Up!
I've never actually asked anyone to say something nice about Time Clock MTS, and in spite of this from time to time someone does tell me how useful the software is. It's always good to hear such things from people who actually use the software, it makes me realize I'm on the right track with things and that Time Clock MTS is a genuinely useful tool. All of the collected comments I've received from users over the last few years are over on the Testimonials page. I've popped them up there just the way I got them, typo's and all. You can also see little snippets of these happy comments on the right hand side of all the pages of the Time Clock MTS web site.
If you've got something to say about Time Clock MTS, good or bad, please contact me and let me know what you've got to say.
Posted by at 1:27 PM | 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 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 at 7:25 PM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2009
Problems with nist1-ny.WiTime.net Time Server
In the last week or so a number of Time Clock MTS users have reported problems with the nist1-ny.WiTime.net Time Server in New York when using it to set the internal Time Clock MTS time. Investigations have confirmed that this server is no longer responding to calls for the NTP time so I've replaced it on the list of available time servers on the Security Settings page of Time Clock MTS. One of the other servers was not working too so I've deleted that and added three new servers that are confirmed to be working.
The three new servers are:
utcnist2.colorado.edu in Colorado
nist1-dc.ustiming.org in Virginia
nist1-chi.ustiming.org in Illinois
If you don't want to upgrade Time Clock MTS then you can just use one of these server addresses in the Custom Time Server option of Time Clock MTS. If you do want to upgrade you'll need to upgrade to Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.3. If you don't know how to upgrade Time Clock MTS then take a look at our Upgrading Time Clock MTS tutorial.
Posted by at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)
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 at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2009
The Time Clock MTS Newsletter
You may or may not be aware that there's a Time Clock MTS newsletter that gets emailed to interested subscribers every month or three. It usually just contains a re-hash of the Time Clock MTS goings on in the period prior to the publishing of the newsletter. It also many contain exclusive offers to subscribers and news of upcoming developments concerning the software. It's simple to subscribe to the Time Clock MTS newsletter and given that there's only been 8 issues in 18 months it wont be clogging up your inbox! You can see a sample of the newsletter below.
Welcome to the fourth edition of the Time Clock MTS Newsletter. These newsletters are released every couple of months and will keep you up to date on what has been going on with Time Clock MTS and how it can be used to help your business run more smoothly.*Resetting Your Own Administrator Password
Version 2.1.8 of Time Clock MTS added a feature that allows you to reset your own administrator password if you happen to forget it. This new feature requires you to answer a couple of password reminder questions. Once answered correctly the Time Clock MTS software contacts the Time Clock MTS webserver for a new password, resets the password, and emails you with your new password. The password is emailed to the address used when you purchased the software. You can read more about this new feature here: http://www.timeclockmts.com/weblog/archives/2008/11/resetting-the-time-clock-mts-administrator-password.html
*Stopping Employees Clocking In Too Early
A common problem you face as an employer is employees clocking in too early in an effort to get some overtime. Time Clock MTS can restrict employees clocking in too early for a shift and help you stop this overtime manipulation from happening. All you need to do is create shifts for the employees and set the shift up to restrict clock ins before the shift start. Then using the employee maintenance screen assign employees to the appropriate shift. When an employee now tries to clock in too early they will be shown a message and will not be able to clock in. You can read more about this here: http://www.timeclockmts.com/weblog/archives/2008/11/stopping-employees-clocking-in-too-early.html
*New Report Fields Available
After reading the weblog posts about modifying Time Clock MTS reports (http://www.timeclockmts.com/weblog/archives/2008/07/customizing-time-clock-mts-reports-part-1.html) a Time Clock MTS user requested a couple of new fields that he could add to the report templates. These fields are
and . These give the amount of time owing to the employee up to the end of the period for which the report is run. In contrast the fields and give the time owing to the current date. *Integrating Time Clock MTS with Payroll Software
I am planning to add some new export reports that will allow Time Clock MTS data to be exported directly to some of the more popular payroll software packages (such as Quickbooks or Paychex). To help me decide which to do first I'd be interested in hearing back from you about what payroll software you use. Please email me at general@timeclockmts.com and let me know!
That's it for this issue of the Time Clock MTS Newsletter. As always please contact us if you need any help or advice regarding Time Clock MTS.
Till next time,
The Time Clock MTS Team
Posted by at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)
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 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 at 8:24 AM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2009
Time Clock MTS In Action - Community Service Organization
Another user of Time Clock MTS has emailed me with details of how they are using the software. While their application is slightly more conventional that the other applications I've discussed to date (timing racing cars and refitting trucks) it is still novel enough to be worth discussing. You can find the (slightly edited) email from the user in question below explaining their application.
A little more information... What I said was true, we don't care about the payroll functions and are only concerned with the time clock feature, but we actually are billing for the time. Let me give you a little more information about our organization, what we do, and what our usage entails.We are a non-profit organization dealing with people suffering from some sort of illness. We have many different programs to help these people feel confident with themselves, train them in basic job skills, and help them to obtain a job, build a resume, and eventually, lead them to independence.
As I said, we are non-profit, so a lot of our funding comes through grants and special programs. In the near future, our billing is changing and our services will be billed through a government program. When this happens, we need to track hours for all of the people that attend what we call our Clubhouse in order to bill for them.
Time Clock MTS is being used in this company at the two entrances to their 'clubhouse'. They have purchased a single client license (US$98 at the time of writing this article) and have a client installation at one door and the admin installation at the other. Let's see what the main benefits from using Time Clock MTS in this situation have been.
Currently, under the grant we are being funded through, we are tracking people as they come and go with a paper sign in sheet. When we begin billing through the government program, we would prefer a more reliable, electronic means that would also provide us with a reporting feature. Unfortunately, because our main software package doesn't allow us to import data, we then need to key in the hours tracked through your software and get them into our system for billing.This isn't vastly different than what we are doing now, but it helps us on three fronts. First, we aren't currently tracking time - just whether a person signs in or not. Second, with the reports generated from your system, we are able to eliminate the issues of trying to decipher various handwriting styles. Third, as an added bonus, because we can assign a pin number to each person, it will speed up our data entry. In our billing system, we can look up a person by name, but it is faster to look them up by their 4 digit ID number. By assigning the 4 digit ID number as a pin in your software, it makes keying in the information faster and more efficient, even though we are actually capturing additional data.
So Time Clock MTS is providing the organization in question with a much more reliable and efficient way of collecting their club's attendance data. This data can then be imported easily into their existing club accounting system for provision to the government for appropriate reimbursement. At the moment we are working with the organization to define a report suitable for direct export from Time Clock MTS into their other computer systems to eliminate the last source of errors and double data entry. All of these gains are realized without using a large portion of the software (payroll, vacation accruals, sick time, holidays and many other things). Time Clock MTS is simple enough to use to just allow it to be used as a simple time tracker without being forced to use the more advanced functionality the software offers.
Posted by at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 2.5.0 Released
Version 2.5.0 of Time Clock MTS was released today. While there isn't a large number of changes from the last release I feel that the number of new features that have been added since 2.4.0 and the large improvements in reliability justify the minor version update. Changes from the last release include:
- Added department folder view to the employee list interface along with a new setting to turn this on. More on this in a subsequent blog entry.
- Added mouseover highlights to employees on the employee list.
- A few tweaks to the way the employee list interface works to ensure it is updated correctly when editing employees or changing program settings.
- A default report is now selected on the Payroll Reports screen when first running the software.
Posted by at 6:03 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 at 7:00 AM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2009
Time Clock MTS In Action - Timing Racing Cars
Time Clock MTS Modified to Suit a Race Timing Application
It's a co-incidence that I've done two of these 'Time Clock MTS in Action' blog entries in two days. However, I got an email from a user of the software who was using it for such a novel purpose that I just had to write about it! The user in question is using the software to record lap times for a particular type of off road racing where times are only required to be recorded to the nearest second. Rather than explain it myself I'll quote the email I received directly.
As you may have realized I am using your software for a slightly different area that you may have inteneded!!!I compete in Offroad racing and we do numerous laps following a desiginated course. Each Competitior /car leaves at 1 minute intervals to complete a lap. At the end of 8 - 10 laps all the times are added together and the overall winners of each class are the shortest combined lap times.
Sorry if ive waffled on or if this is a project that you dont believe is suitable for you software, but I am confident that it has fantastic potential for other small clubs like ours, in the timekeeping area.
You'll see from the screenshot above that the user has customized the interface of Time Clock MTS to suit his particular application. Some time ago I wrote a blog entry showing you how to customize the Time Clock MTS interface by using the Interface Settings screen. He is also making use of the punchcard report with customized headers and footers to produce race reports.
Well it certainly is an application for Time Clock MTS that I had never considered. If you're using Time Clock MTS in your business and want to share your story with the rest of the companies that use the software please feel free to contact me with your story.
Posted by at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2009
Time Clock MTS In Action - Truck Body Refitter
It's not often that I get to visit a company that is making use of Time Clock MTS but today I had the pleasure of visiting a local company that does use it. They are a job based truck body refitter and track their employee's time against the particular job that they happen to be working on at the moment. It is vital that they keep track of the actual time spent on a job so that they do not under quote their customers and so they know how to value their current work in progress.
Their old system consisted of a pen/paper register with each job recorded in a notebook along with a job number and customer. When employees needed to book time to a job they manually recorded it on a job card for that job. At the end of the job the cards were tallied manually and the job billed accordingly. It is interesting to note that the employees had separate manual time cards that were used to determine wages. Let's take a quick look at the inefficiencies in this system:
- Recording time spent on jobs took up to a minute per entry and was error prone due to bad handwriting and poor time-keeping.
- There was considerable duplicated effort on behalf of the employer in tallying up job sheets and employee time cards separately.
- The manual tallying was both time consuming and prone to error.
- Referring to past records was painful at best. To find a customers job record tool several minutes of scanning through the job register finding the job reference and then locating the right job card in a filing cabinet full of job cards.
- It was impossible to know how far through a job they were without sitting down with the job cards and tallying things up manually.
So let's take a look at their setup now with Time Clock MTS and what improvements they've seen:
- There is just one time keeping system now that keeps track of both employee attendance and time spent on jobs.
- Actually recording attendance and time spent on jobs is now extremely quick and accurate.
- Manual tallying of times has been completely eliminated as have calculation errors and time keeping errors.
- The owner can determine how much time has been spent on a particular job in about 20 seconds.
- Archival data is easily obtained and referenced, saving 10-15 minutes each and every time they need to refer back to an old job. The company has also suggested a new report that will be added to the software to significantly improve this process even more!
I must thank the company in question for allowing me to take a look at their operations. They couldn't be happier with the software and the return on their (US$69) investment in Time Clock MTS is extremely impressive. There are real productivity improvements in both the production and administrative sides of the business, as well as an owner who is much better informed about the current state of his business. If you're interested in using Time Clock MTS in the same way that this company is you should take a look at the getting started with Time Clock MTS and the job tracking time clock page.
Posted by at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)
Time Clock MTS Version 2.4.7 Released
I released a very minor update of Time Clock MTS today taking it along to version 2.4.7. There were two small fixes, one to a very minor rounding problem that could sometimes make durations in reports one second too short or too long. The other was an error a few people had seen when closing down the software.
A week ago I also released version 2.4.6 of Time Clock MTS that fixed up another error that occurred when closing down the software while logged in as the administrator. This was introduced in version 2.4.2 with the new employee list interface system that stopped the dreaded error 0 that I hadn't been able to fix for a long while.
Posted by at 4:05 PM | 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 at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)
October 4, 2009
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour Available
I've written a quick tour of Time Clock MTS in an effort to help new users understand how the software works and what some of the capabilities of the software are. The tour covers the main aspects of the software and what some of the real benefits of using it are. The tour is available from the top menu bar of the website. Individual sections of the quick tour can be found below:
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour - Overview
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour - Employee Time Clock
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour - Administrator Controls
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour - Reporting
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour - Overtime
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour - Security
Time Clock MTS Quick Tour - Network Time Clock
Posted by at 2:48 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 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 at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2009
Time Clock MTS Version 2.4.0 Released
A fairly major release today fixing up some minor problems and adding a major new feature, job tracking. I'll do a detailed blog entry and static web site page on job tracking so I won't cover it in too much detail here. Stay tuned for more details on how this exciting new feature works. A brief list of the changes can be found below.
- Added job tracking. This included a new job tracking screen on the Tools->Options screen, two new reports (the active job and job time reports), a new employee setting (job tracking requirements), and two new data entry screens, the job code screen and the switch jobs screen.
- Various changes to stop Time Clock MTS grabbing the windows focus when it is not the active window.
- Fix to web cam image capturing when using the keypad interface.
- Moved the error text box on the keypad interface, it was partially hidden by another text field.
- When you're logged in as the administrator you can double click on an employee in the employee list and be shown the edit employee details screen for that employee.
In the next few hours I'll have some more information posted about the new job tracking features.
Posted by at 11:30 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 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 at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)
July 7, 2009
Problems with nist1.uccaribe.edu Time Server
For whatever reason (it's a problem with the time server and not Time Clock MTS) the Internet Time Server nist1.uccaribe.edu is taking an abnormally long time to respond to queries for the time, up to 20 seconds. This is causing Time Clock MTS to fail. In the short term if you're experiencing a problem with the Internet Time security feature of Time Clock MTS and you're using this time server then select another, the others seem to be responding properly. Note that you may need to shut down Time Clock MTS and re-start it when you change the time server.
You can of course change the Internet Time Server on the Tools->Options->Security page.
Posted by at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)
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.
- 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.
- 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.
Departmental Wages Report
Posted by 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
- 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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:
- It's only published infrequently so it wont be continually clogging up your inbox with meaningless chatter.
- 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.
- 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 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 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 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 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.
Posted by 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
- 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 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 at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2008
Microsoft Access Database Password Support
Version 1.6.2 of
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 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 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 at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
