Thursday, October 27, 2011

Are You Still Evaluating?

Did your free time clock software trial expire even though you purchased a license? Chances are, you never entered your key codes. The Virtual TimeClock evaluation is a great testing tool because:

  • It's fully functional, which means you can test every feature.
  • There's nothing new to download or install after purchasing a license.
  • You don't lose any of the employee data you collected during the trial period.

So if you purchased a Virtual TimeClock license and you're getting a message stating that your free evaluation has ended, grab the license email we sent you when you ordered and get those keys entered.

Registering Basic/Pro Edition
Go to the Tools menu and choose Enter License Key.

Registering Network Edition
Launch Server Manager, click on the Licenses toolbar button, and click the Enter Keys button.

Need another copy of your license? Contact us, we keep great records!

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Missing Overtime?

Many new users contact us right after running their first payroll because no overtime has been calculated on their employee time cards. If that's happened to you, here are the time clock software settings you need to check, starting with the most common and ending with the least used.


  1. Has an overtime rule been assigned to each employee? Go to the Lists menu, choose Users, and select an employee name from the list. Click the Wages tab and pick an overtime rule from the Overtime drop-down list.
  2. Have your overtime rules been configured properly? Go to the Lists menu and choose Overtime. Select the rule that's been assigned and make sure it's configured the way you want. For example, is the weekly threshold set at 40 hours?
  3. Do you have salaried workers? Salaried workers are exempt from overtime calculations. Go to the Lists menu, choose Users, and select an employee name from the list. Click the Wages tab and check if the Type drop-down list is set to Salary or Hourly. Change to Hourly of you want overtime calculations to occur.
  4. Did you change how many hours an employee has to be off the clock before starting a new shift? Go to the Tools menu and choose Time Calculations. How long do you have to stay clocked out before restarting daily overtime calculations? The default setting is 4 hours. If this is set too low, daily overtime won't calculate because Virtual TimeClock thinks you want to start a new shift.


If none of these seem to solve your issue, contact us. We'd love to help get your employee time cards printing just the way you want.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Need a Static IP Address?

We occasionally chat with customers who can't get a static IP address from their Internet service provider (ISP). Usually, it's because they're in a remote area where static IP service isn't offered. Without getting too technical, a static IP address is needed if you're planning on using Virtual TimeClock over the Internet because a static IP address doesn't change. If the IP address assigned to your router changes, then your remote time clocks will no longer know where to connect to your time clock server.

Some customers that find themselves in this situation have had success with a service called DynDNS. Their service works by having you create a hostname, and then making that hostname work with your dynamic IP addresses. I won't pretend to understand how it works (I'll stick to time clock software). Let's just say that even when your ISP changes the public IP address of your router, DynDNS keeps things in sync by pointing the new IP address to a hostname that never changes.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Thursday, October 6, 2011

How To Track Late Employees

Employee tardiness can be a real source of frustration for business owners and managers. Very few employees are likely to mark themselves as late when filling out paper time sheets. That's why time clock software is such a great tool for tracking the real time arrival and departure of your employees. It holds employees accountable and gives business owners several ways to monitor late employees.

Real-Time Monitoring
With Virtual TimeClock Network Edition, it's easy to see when employees are showing up and leaving in real time. Anytime an employee clocks in, goes on break, heads out for lunch, changes activities, or clocks out at the end of the day, their status is instantly updated on every time clock on the network. This makes it convenient for managers to monitor when employees are coming and going.

Late Arrival Report
Using the new shifts feature in Virtual TimeClock '11 is a great way to track late employees. Once you've configured and assigned your shift rules, the time clock will be able to compare when employees are scheduled to start work to when they actually start work. Run the Late Arrival Report from the Reports menu to get a list of who's been late, when they actually arrived, and how many minutes they were late. You can quickly run the report daily, weekly, monthly, or even for an entire year. This is a great report to have handy when conducting employee performance evaluations.



Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software