Tracking Comp Time

What is comp time?
Comp (compensatory) time is an alternate way of rewarding overtime work. Instead of paying an hourly employee time-and-a-half for working extra hours, employers would give them an hour and a half of time off for each hour of overtime worked. The FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) places heavy restrictions on the use of comp time to avoid paying overtime. There are some exemptions for public sector employees like police officers and firefighters, and federal and state government employees. In most cases the practice is illegal for private employers. Each state's law can be different regarding comp time so it's best to check with the agency that handles wage and labor standards for your state.

Can I track comp time with Virtual TimeClock?
The answer is "Yes" but it does involve some manual processes. Virtual TimeClock software already segregates hours worked on employee timecards based on the overtime rules assigned to each employee. Rather than paying the employee these hours at the premium rate, you can create a new leave category called "Comp Time" and add them as an annual leave award. You do need to add the hours at the comp time rate rather than hour-for-hour. For example, for every extra hour worked the employee would earn one and one-half hours of paid time off.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Importing QuickBooks Users

We introduced time clock payroll integration with QuickBooks earlier this year with Virtual TimeClock '12. It does require a one-time setup before you export your first round of employee hours for payroll processing. Importing your users from QuickBooks into your time clock software isn't required but it's recommended. Here's why. If you don't import your QuickBooks users before performing your first time clock export, QuickBooks may create duplicate employee records if it doesn't find a name with an exact match. Trust me, it's kind of a pain to clean up.

The way to prevent this is to import your QuickBooks users first. Choose Configure from the administrator toolbar and open the Users control panel. Click Add, Import Users, and follow the instructions for importing a QuickBooks IIF File. Virtual TimeClock will be updated with the personal information from QuickBooks if a matching social security number is found. For users with no social security numbers, you’ll be prompted to merge records for those users with the same last name. This will ensure the user names are identical in both systems.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Turning On Time Clock Administration

Both time clock software managers and time clock administrators need to turn administration on in order to perform administrative functions. When you first created your time clock company file, you were asked to create a program administrator. The time clock administrator has full access to all program functions and features. You can create additional time clock administrators, but they will also have unlimited access.

Time clock Managers are able to edit employee timecards and do other administration functions when they turn administration on, select their user name, and enter their password. What functions and features managers have access to is set up within the Display Groups configure panel.

When you choose Turn Administration On from the File menu, a dialog opens that asks if you want to turn on administration features. If your name is not displayed, then click on the name that is displayed to reveal a list of time clock managers and administrators. Now select your name and enter your password to open the time clock administration window so you can perform the administrative functions that have been assigned to you.

A quick way to verify who is set as an active time clock administrator or manager is to choose Security from the Configure menu. This control panel will show who has administration access without having to check each user one by one. Only time clock administrators can open the Security control panel.

Remember to turn administration off when you're all done so your time clock security won't be compromised.

Angie
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Time Clock Software Printing Problems

A couple times a year we talk to time clock software users who are having trouble printing their employee timecards, or the timecards print but the format isn't correct, or they're just getting gibberish instead of employee hours and overtime. The common response is "They were printing just fine yesterday." Here are some questions you can ask and some things to check to help you determine what may have changed.

Here are some questions to ask:

• Did you add a new printer?
• Can you print from another program?
• Can you print employee timecards to a different printer?

Here are some things to check:

• Make sure the computer has a default printer set.
• Make sure the default printer isn't a label or receipt printer.

Here are some things to do:

• Update your printer driver. Go to the manufacturer website and see if there's an update to the printer driver.
• Delete and reinstall the printer.

If you're still having problems getting your employee timecards to print, then contact us and we'll be happy to help.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.