Friday, December 6, 2013

Virtual TimeClock Gets New Website

I hope you've found the information in this Virtual TimeClock support blog helpful over the years. I'm pleased to announce that Virtual TimeClock has a new and improved website so you can find future time clock support blog entries directly on our Virtual TimeClock software website.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software Inc.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Version 5 Time Clock Upgrade

We still occasionally have customers upgrading from version 5 of Virtual TimeClock. If that's you, then you'll need to download the separate version 5 time clock data converter from the website. It takes about 30 seconds to convert the average size data file and you get to maintain all of your timecard history from prior versions of Virtual TimeClock. The data converter will even locate your current version 5 data file for you. If it finds more than one, it will ask you to select the file you want to convert.

Database conversion failures are very few and far between. If you get a conversion failure notice on Windows, it's probably because you didn't quit your version 5 Virtual TimeClock program. Simply quit the time clock and run the conversion again.



Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software Inc.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Time Clock Departments

Virtual TimeClock makes it easy to assign users to departments so you can generate reports with departmental totals for hours and wages. In fact, your time clock program already has built-in reports that separate hours by people, activity, department, and shift. All time worked by employees gets credited to the department to which they're assigned. This works great until you start having employees performing work in different departments and you're trying to maintain each department as its own cost center.

The solution is to use activities to represent the different cost centers because activities get selected when clocking in. So when Jeff from the Warehouse department works in the Call Center department, his Call Center hours will be properly accounted for. Both departments and activities can be set up in the Configure control panel.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software Inc.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Importing New Time Clock Employees

You can import your new users into your employee time clock software by either creating a comma separated value (CSV) text file or exporting your employee list from QuickBooks. Let's talk about importing a CSV file. You can use a spreadsheet program like Excel and Numbers, or a text editor like Notepad and TextEdit to create and format the import file. You accounting program may also be able to export a list of employee names. Each line within the file represents a user and each comma within a line represents a field for that user. Fields are imported in the following order:

Last Name, First Name, Middle Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code, Home Telephone, Employee Number, Social Security Number, Password, Wage, Department Name

Unused fields may be empty as long as each line contains exactly 12 commas separating the 13 fields. Passwords must be unique. Virtual TimeClock will check the import file for duplicate passwords and compare passwords in the import file to the passwords for existing time clock users. If you're importing users into departments, the departments must already be set up in Virtual TimeClock with the exact department name.

Happy importing!


Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software Inc.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Setting Up Manager Security

Virtual TimeClock has a pretty sophisticated 3-tiered security system. At the top of the tier you have time clock administrators, who have unlimited access to everything in the time clock program. On the bottom tier, you have employees that can clock themselves in and out, view their hours, and send internal messages to other time clock users. Of course, you can give employees more or less access to some of the other time clock features based on your business workflow. Managers make up the middle tier. Again, there's a ton of flexibility here. Managers can quickly view and edit timecards for employees in their display groups. You can also grant managers more or less access to other time clock features. For example, you may want managers to be able to edit employee timecards but not add new timecard entries.


All this can be configured in the Display Groups Configure panel, including manager actions, access to configuration panels, and what reports managers can run. Manager settings can even be different for each display group.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software Inc.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

PIN Time Clock Entry

Virtual TimeClock has an interface that allows employees to clock in and out by using a numerical PIN. They can enter their assigned PIN using one of the following methods:

  • Use the built-in keypad on your keyboard
  • Use the mouse to click the onscreen keypad
  • Combine a touchscreen monitor with the onscreen keypad
  • Replace manual PIN entry with an RFID reader
  • Replace manual PIN entry with a barcode scanner

If you're using the PIN interface on a group time clock, you may want the program to launch in a maximized window so the rest of the desktop is hidden. Right mouse click the Virtual TimeClock desktop shortcut and click Properties. Click the Shortcut tab and change the Run popup menu to Maximized.


This will only work on Windows and the PIN window will revert back to its regular size if you turn admin on and back off.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software Inc.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Tracking Labor Costs at Different Locations

Do you use a time clock at different stores or office locations? Do you need to keep track of how much time employees spend at each of your locations? If the answer to either of these questions is "Yes" then you need to consider using activities.

Activities are used to track all time on the clock, whether paid or unpaid. Activities can be anything you want to track time for, and can be named whatever you want. Your time clock software has a default activity called ‘In’ that gets used each time you start work. As soon as you create a new activity, employees will be prompted to pick one from a list as soon as they start work for the day. They can continue to switch from one activity to another with the click of a button. If you have multiple retail locations, you'll want to create an activity representing the name of each store so you can determine your total labor costs per cost center by running the built-in activity reports.

New activities can be created and assigned to specific display groups from the Configure control panel.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

How to Import QuickBooks Time Clock Users


Rather than having to maintain two separate entry points when you hire new employees, Virtual TimeClock allows you to import QuickBooks time clock users. This means you only have to enter the new employee information one time before importing the new data into your time clock software.

First, export your QuickBooks employees. Go to the File menu of QuickBooks and select Utilities, Export, Lists to IIF Files. Check Employee List and OK. You may change the file name, but you must keep the .IIF extension.



Next, import your QuickBooks users. Choose Configure from the administrative toolbar of Virtual TimeClock and open the Users control panel. Click Add, Import Users and follow the instructions for importing a QuickBooks IIF File.



Existing Virtual TimeClock users 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. If you don’t import your QuickBooks users before performing your first time clock export, QuickBooks may create blank or duplicate employee records if it doesn’t find a name with an exact match.

All the steps needed to integrate QuickBooks with Virtual TimeClock can be found in our QuickBooks Payroll Integration Guide.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Scripted Time Clock Installations


The Virtual TimeClock installer can be run from a command line and accepts some parameters to assist in scripted installation. This is especially helpful when you need to install a large number of time clock clients. Here are the most common parameters.

/SP-
Disables the This will install... Do you wish to continue? startup prompt at the beginning of installation. The parameter includes the trailing dash ( - ).

/SILENT, /VERYSILENT
Instructs the installation to be silent or very silent. A silent install does not show the wizard or the background window. It does display the installation progress window. A very silent install doesn't show the progress window in addition to the two windows suppressed by the SILENT parameter. In either case, any error messages that occur during installation are displayed. /SILENT and /VERYSILENT do not suppress the startup prompt (above).

/SUPPRESSMSGBOXES
Suppress message boxes during installation. Only has an effect when combined with /SILENT and /VERYSILENT. Any message boxes that would have been displayed are responded to in the following fashion:

  • Keep newer file? = yes - newer files are kept
  • File exists, confirm overwrite. = no - files are not overwritten
  • Abort or Retry? = Abort - process is ended
  • Retry/Cancel? = Cancel - process is canceled
  • Warnings about low disk space, directories existing (or not), exit the setup program, confirmation of uninstallation, etc. = Yes - continue the operation
  • Setup or uninstall completed, and restart needed = Yes - restart the computer

Examples
Here are some examples of these parameters in action that you may find useful. These examples are using the Pro Client installer.

Install the program without displaying any of the standard prompts, i.e. install location, but still show the progress, and verify the user wants to perform the install: TimeClockProClientSetup.exe /silent

To avoid asking the user to confirm, but still show progress: TimeClockProClientSetup.exe /SP- /silent

Confirm that the user wants to perform the install, but show no other progress: TimeClockProClientSetup.exe /verysilent

Skip the confirmation, and don't show any other progress: TimeClockProClientSetup.exe /SP- /verysilent

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Port Forwarding


In order to use Virtual TimeClock at different locations over the Internet, there are a couple of one-time setup steps that need to be completed.

Static IP address
First, have your Internet service provider (ISP) update your Internet service to a static IP address. Make note of the static IP address they assign you and have them update the router configuration at your time clock server location to use the new static IP address.

Port forwarding
Second, open a port on the router at your time clock server location. This is commonly known as 'port forwarding' or 'port mapping'. Since every router is a little different, you'll need to consult the user's guide that came with your router for the exact steps to set up port forwarding. There's a website call Portforward.com that I've found really helpful for setting up port forwarding on different routers and modems. It's not comprehensive, but it's rare I can't find the router I'm looking for.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

In/Out Board Display Columns

If you're using the In/Out Board interface with your time clock software, there's an additional configuration setting that allows you to set what list columns get displayed. The columns you can optionally remove are Entry Date, Entry Time, New Messages, and Status. This allows you to take advantage of the real-time monitoring of whether employees are clocked in, out, at lunch, or on break without displaying some of the more personal information of when they started those activities.

I had a customer recently who removed some of the list columns so they weren't visible in user mode but then didn't want those same columns missing in admin mode. He wanted the managers to have the full in/out board when they turned on administration. Here's what we did so he could have the minimum amount of columns displaying in user mode and all of the columns displaying when the managers logged in.

We left the current display group with the columns removed alone and created a new one. We called the new display group something like "TimeClock Users - Managers", set it to the In/Out Board interface, and left all of the list columns selected. Next, we removed the managers from the original display group and added them to the new display group.



Now when managers walk up to a user time clock, the list columns are removed but when they turn on administration with their manager passwords, all of the list columns are displayed.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Does Your Time Clock Admin Need to Punch In and Out?

When you first create your time clock software company database, you're also required to create an administrative user account. This time clock administrator account is not automatically added to the time clock list for punching in and out. So if this initial admin user needs to use the time clock to punch in and out, you'll need to add them to the list. We don't recommend creating a second non-admin user with the same name to use when clocking in and out because that could be confusing. Instead, you'll want to add the admin user to a display group.

Go to Configure, then Users, select the admin user name and click Groups. Select the display groups that you'd like the admin user to be a part of, like TimeClock Users. Now the name of the admin user will appear on the In/Out Board list so they can clock in and out like everyone else.



Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Tracking HR Compliance and Employee Discipline

Employee time clock software is a great way to keep track of your employee HR compliance and discipline issues. You can centralize just about any kind of employee related information. This includes things like wage history, annual review dates and outcomes, safety and other job related training, dates and types of professional credentials or certification, and dates of disciplinary actions. And since only an administrator can access the Users Configure panel, you know this sensitive information is always electronically secure.

Launch your Virtual TimeClock software, turn administration on and go to Configure, and then Users. Select a user and click the Notes tab.


Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Registering Networked Time Clocks

Virtual TimeClock Network Edition is a client-server based time clock system that allows you to run time clocks on multiple computers. Licensing is based on the number of computers that need to run the time clock software, not the number of users. This allows you to deploy time clocks on individual computer workstations or as time clock kiosks that allow a group of employees to clock in and out from a particular computer.

When you receive your Network Edition license email from us, it will have a Program License Key and a Client License Key. You only have to enter your registration information one time. The most common place to register your employee time clock software is from the Help menu of one of your time clock clients. This will update the time clock server so you DO NOT need to enter the license information on the other time clock clients. You can also register your time clock software from the Licenses panel of the Virtual TimeClock Server Manager.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Time Clock for Second Location

Growth is a good thing, especially if it means your business is expanding. Virtual Time Clock is flexible enough to grow with your business. I often talk to business owners who are opening a second location and want to know what they need for an employee time clock. We go through several questions to come up with the best solution.

  1. Is the second location a separate business entity? A good clue is if it has a unique tax ID. If it does, you may want to run another Pro Edition that's independent of the time clock at the original location.
  2. Will employees be working at both locations? This is an important question because if employees work at both locations, you'll want a single employee time card. Otherwise, weekly overtime totals won't be correct. This means the best solution would be networked time clocks.
  3. How's the Internet access? If both locations have stable Internet then the Network Edition is the way to go. If not, it might be less frustrating to go with stand alone time clocks.

Just asking these simple questions about your business will help determine which time clock will best meet your time & attendance needs.

Jeff
Tier 2 Tech Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Rest and Meal Period Confirmation

Virtual TimeClock allows you to customize the signature line text on your employee time cards to specifically address your legal responsibilities as an employer. Here are some examples time clock software customers have shared with us in the past. Employers shouldn't use these or any other statements for their employee time cards without the advice of their legal counsel.

Rest Period Confirmation
I understand that I am entitled to rest periods each workday at the rate of 10 minutes net rest time for each four hours of work or major fraction thereof.  I hereby certify and declare that I have received all my rest periods in accordance with this requirement during each workday that occurred within the pay period covered by this time card.

Meal Period Confirmation
I understand that I am entitled to a meal period whenever I work more than five hours in a workday.  I hereby certify and declare that I have received all my meal periods in accordance with this requirement during each workday that occurred within the pay period covered by this time card.

General Time Acknowledgement
I hereby certify and declare under penalty of perjury that (1) I have received all the rest periods and meal periods that I was legally entitled to on each workday within the pay period covered by this time record, (2) this time record fully and accurately reports all the time that I have worked during the covered pay period, and (3) I am making this declaration freely and voluntarily.

To change your time card confirmation statement, go to Configure, then Report Writer, select your employee time card and click Signature Text.

Jeff
Tier 2 Technical Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Electronically Sign Time Cards with Preview

Virtual TimeClock allows you to save employee time cards as a PDF so you can store them electronically or email them as an attachment. Mac OS X Preview will even let you electronically sign PDFs. Using your Macs built-in iSight camera to capture your signature, Preview will let you create an electronic signature which can then be used to sign PDFs of your employee time cards. This works in OS X Lion and Mountain Lion. Here's how:


  1. Launch Preview, and from the Preview menu select Preferences.
  2. Click on Signatures and then Create Signature.
  3. Sign a piece of white paper and hold it up to the camera so it looks straight on the blue line and watch the Signature Preview pane until you're satisfied.
  4. Click on Accept to capture the digital signature.
  5. Open the PDF of your employee time card.
  6. Click on the Annotations button (pencil icon) followed by the Signatures button.
  7. Now click where you want the signature to appear.


Jeff
Tier 2 Technical Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Electronically Sign Time Cards with Adobe

Saving employee time cards as a PDF makes it easy to store them electronically or email as an attachment to managers or your payroll processor. Adobe Reader X will even allow you to electronically sign PDFs. You can type your name, draw your signature, or place an image of your signature on a document. The signature becomes part of the PDF. Here's how:

  1. Open the timecard you've saved as a PDF.
  2. Click the Sign icon in the toolbar to open the Sign pane.
  3. To add text, such as the date, click Add Text in the I Need To Sign panel. Click in the document where you want to add the text, and type.

  4. In the Sign pane, click Place Signature.

  5. In the Place Signature dialog box, choose how you want to place your signature. You can choose to type, draw, or import a signature. Reader uses that signature on future PDFs you sign.


  6. When you are satisfied with your signature, click Accept.
 To use an image, click Browse and locate your signature file.
  7. Click in the PDF where you want to place your signature.
  8. When the document is complete, click Done Signing in the Sign pane.

Jeff
Tier 2 Technical Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Semi-Monthly Payroll Periods

It's easy to confuse payroll period end dates with pay days. We talk to a lot of time clock software users that are doing all kinds of gymnastics because their payroll period ends on the 15th and their payroll company needs a 2-day lead time in order for employees to get paid on time. So they collect timecards on the 13th and estimate time for the 14th and 15th. Plus they have to remember to go back and check the 14th and 15th the next payroll period to make sure they didn't overpay or underpay their employees.  And heaven forbid that the end of a payroll period falls on a weekend!

There's a real simple solution for all this anxiety and guessing. It's what we do here at Redcort Software. We also use a semi-monthly payroll period, the first period runs from the 1st of the month to the 15th and the second period runs from the 16th to the end of the month (no matter what day that is). However, we get paid on the 5th and the 20th. This means the hours that get reported are the actual hours worked. The payroll company has enough time to process payroll and there's no fancy scheming with a calendar just to make sure everybody gets paid on time.

Jeff
Tier 2 Technical Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Setting Custom Time Card Dates

Most of your employee time card reports will default to the date range of the current payroll period. The only time this wouldn't be true is if you haven't been closing your payroll periods. Sometimes you may want certain of your time clock software reports to default to a date range other than the current period. For example, you may have a job production report that you want to look at monthly, or perhaps it's vacation and sick time taken by each worker for the entire year. Whatever the case, it's easy to set the default date range for each report to something other than the current payroll period. Here's how:

Turn on administration, go to Configure and then Report Writer. Select the report and set your new default date range.



Now, each time you run the report it will use the dates based on the default date range setting.

Jeff
Tier 2 Technical Support
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Individual Employee Time Clocks

Over the last several time clock software releases, we've greatly simplified the way individual employee computer workstations get set up as personal time clocks by adding a display group interface that does all the work for you. Here are the steps for setting up an individual time clock:

Create the new display group
With admin turned on, go to Configure then Display Groups. Create a new display group called something like 'Individual', set the interface to Individual - User Status, select the users who will be logging in to the time clock individually, and change any default user action settings. For example, I usually turn off the user password requirement when using the individual interface.



Login to the new display group
You'll need to go to the time clock client on each individual workstation and log off by choosing Logout of Server from the File menu. Once you're at the client login window, you just need to pick the 'Individual' display group from the list, enter the user's password, and login.



Now every time the employee launches their time clock it will open to their individual User Status window.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Assigning Time Clock Interfaces

The user status window is where employees start work, stop work, start a new activity, open their mailbox, or print their timecard. Employees can open their user status window by using several different interfaces, depending on how you want to deploy your time clock system. Employees can select their name from an in & out list, enter a numeric PIN, use an alphanumeric passcode, or if they're using the individual interface with networked time clocks, their user status window is always open.

Even though the In/Out Board is the default interface, it's easy to change. Turn on admin, go to Configure, then Display Groups.



The In/Out Board is always the interface used when administration is turned on.

Jeff
Tech Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Time Clock Software Managers

In older versions of Virtual TimeClock, managers would need to belong to a display group in order to be a manager of a display group. This meant they'd need to have their user name listed in the in/out board list at all times, even if they didn't use the time clock software to punch in and out.

With the latest version of Virtual TimeClock, you can be a manager of a display group without being a user of the display group. This means you can view and edit timecards for employees in your group without having your name listed in the in/out board of the time clock. Another huge benefit is that you can send and receive time clock messages from your employees without having to be a member of the display group.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Multiple Time Zones

Virtual TimeClock Network Edition is the perfect solution for offices in different time zones needing a centralized time clock system. The time used when punching in and out is usually provided by the time clock server computer. This prevents employees from being able to change their local computer time to try and defeat the time clock. If you need to connect different office locations that are in different time zones, then you'll want to change the time source configuration setting to use an Internet time server.

Here's how to change the time source when you have time clock clients in different time zones. Turn on admin, go to Configure, then Time & Rounding, and select Use Internet TimeServer When Available.


Restart your time clock clients so they'll start getting their time from a list of impartial and accurate Internet time servers based on the time zone settings of the computer.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Timecards for Inactive Users

We've always recommended making old employees inactive rather than deleting their user record. Deleting a user removes all of their timecard history, whereas making them inactive just removes the user name from any display groups they belong to. It's nice to have historic timecard data at your fingertips if you need it.

It's easy to view timecards for inactive employees. Turn on admin and select All Users from the display group popup menu in the bottom right corner of the Administration window. Now you can run a timecard for any past employee.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Citrix Load Balancing

A load balancer is responsible for directing network traffic among multiple servers hosting the same applications. By balancing requests across multiple servers, a load balancer prevents any one server from becoming a single point of failure, which improves availability and responsiveness.

We occasionally run across customers that are using load balancing to distribute the load of network traffic across their server farms. This means that Citrix users could be directed to any one of the servers based on current traffic, which may present a licensing issue with their time clock software. Because Virtual TimeClock is licensed per computer connection, you'll need a client license for each Citrix user that needs to run the time clock, and if your Citrix users are routed to the next available server in the farm, then you'll need a client license for that user for every server they could potentially connect to. This means if you have 5 time clock users and you have a 2 server farm, then you'll need 10 Virtual TimeClock client licenses.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Silent Uninstalls


We occasionally get asked by our larger clients if there's an easy way to uninstall Virtual TimeClock when upgrading so they don't have to physically touch each computer. Here are some command line parameters that you may find helpful when scripting silent uninstalls.

The uninstaller program (unins000.exe) accepts the following command line parameters.

/SILENT, /VERYSILENT
The uninstaller will not ask the user for startup confirmation or display a message stating that uninstall is complete. Shared files that are no longer in use are deleted automatically without prompting. Any critical error messages will still be shown on the screen. When '/VERYSILENT' is used, the uninstallation progress window is not displayed.

/SUPPRESSMSGBOXES
Instructs the uninstaller to suppress message boxes. Only has an effect when combined with '/SILENT' and '/VERYSILENT'.

/LOG
Causes Uninstall to create a log file in the user's TEMP directory detailing file uninstallation and actions taken during the uninstallation process. The log file is created with a unique name based on the current date. It will not overwrite or append to existing files.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Premium Pay After Midnight

Some businesses pay a wage premium to employees whose shift takes them past midnight. Virtual TimeClock does allow you to set a shift differential, but it applies to the entire shift and not just part of a shift. The best way to handle this scenario is to create a new activity called something like "Midnight Rate".

There are two ways to track time with the new activity. Employees can either change activities at midnight to the "Midnight Rate" activity or else an admin user can split the entry into two separate entries later. The important thing is that the time totals will be separated on employee timecards so whoever processes your payroll will know how much time to pay at the premium rate.

Jeff
Tech Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Time Clock Database Errors


Virtual TimeClock uses a SQL database engine that is compact, fast, and extremely reliable. The only time we ever hear of database issues is when a hard disk starts to fail. Even then, most of the time we're still able to recover the time clock software data.

Virtual TimeClock will return very specific error codes if there’s a problem reading or writing to the database. Although uncommon, the following error codes are ones you may encounter.

Error 13 – Insertion failed because database is full
This error is a result of a full database. You'll need to move Virtual TimeClock Pro or Virtual TimeClock Server to a different computer or try to free up some space on the hard disk.

Error 14 – Unable to open the database file
The most common reason this error occurs is because you've moved your time clock to a different computer and permissions have changed on the database file or the database folder. Make sure the database file and database folder have read & write permissions for everyone. Using your time clock software's built-in database backup and restore utilities will take care of all the permission settings for you.

A second reason you may see this error is because you've moved the database file to a different folder location, or you've renamed the database file itself. If you get yourself into trouble, contact us because we can help you!

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Overtime Rate for Worked Holidays


Some businesses pay a premium rate when employees work on a company designated holiday. Since the increased wage is handled by your payroll system, you just need to know how many hours to pay for the worked holiday. It's easy to set up your employee time clock software to keep track of that for you.

First, you'll want to set up a new activity. Turn administration on and choose Activities from the Configure menu. Add a new activity with a name like 'Worked Holiday' and save. Now when employees work on a recognized business holiday, they'll choose 'Worked Holiday' when starting work.



When you print employee timecards, you'll see the 'Worked Holiday' hours subtotaled separately so you know how many hours to pay at the premium rate.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Moving Time Clock Clients


When running the Virtual TimeClock Network Edition, there are times when a client time clock may need to be moved to another computer. This could be due to a number of reasons, like the computer crashed or there's been changes in office personnel. Whatever the reason, the goal is to move the client program without disrupting business operations. Here are a few tips to make that happen.

The most common issue customers have is installing the wrong client version. If the current time clock client is still available, you can check this by selecting About Virtual TimeClock from the Help menu on a Windows PC and the Virtual Time Clock menu on Mac. This will also allow you to verify if the client program is a Pro or User Client. Now quit the time clock client and uninstall it.

Launch the Virtual TimeClock Server Manager program and click Licenses. Select and remove the computer name that corresponds to the old time clock client. This will allow the new time clock client to connect to the time clock server.

Download and install the correct Network Edition time clock client. If you need a prior version, select Prior Releases in the upper right corner. Just complete the installer and you'll be prompted to connect to your time clock server.

Follow the above steps and your new time clock client will be up and running before the next punch.

Angie
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Clocking In Before Payroll Period Is Closed

I had an interesting call from a new customer the other day. He was worried because they hadn't closed the payroll period yet but employees were already clocking in under the new period. I told him not to worry because the time clock software was smart enough to know what period the punch times belonged in.

Remember that closing payroll periods performs two important functions. First, it totals and saves hours and overtime for all workers using the current payroll settings. This is important because wages, overtime, and time deduction rules may have changed. Secondly, closing the period advances the 'Current Period' to the new period dates based on your payroll frequency.

If you've never closed a payroll period, verify your payroll period settings in the Configure window.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Tracking Flexi-Time


Flexi-time in some parts of the world usually refers to accumulated overtime hours that an employee can build up and exchange for the equivalent amount of time off. Basically, you need to keep track of time worked over a defined threshold. That’s no problem with Virtual TimeClock because you can create overtime rules to accommodate just about anything.

Some of the international customers I've chatted with recently track flexi-time monthly even though overtime is calculated on a daily or weekly basis. So when you run employee timecards for an entire month, the overtime will be calculated separately. This can then either be paid out or entered as a leave award. I recommend creating a new leave category called “Flexi”. You would just have to manually add the hours to Flexi every month for each employee and when they use the Flexi time, you would add it to their timecard as paid leave.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Tracking Timecard Changes

Virtual TimeClock keeps a record of events caused by both system and user activity. It automatically keeps track of when administration is turned on, when modifications to employee timecards are made, when manual and leave entries are added, and when payroll periods are closed. The program audit logs will tell you when the event occurred, the user who triggered the event, and what happened. The audit logs list the before and after details of timecard entries, which allows you to compare the original and the modified information. This can help management determine if the changes were made according to your business rules. It's also easy to export your program logs directly to your desktop for further analysis. You can open them with a text editor and search for keywords, dates, or users.



If you're running Virtual TimeClock Network Edition, then you'll want to check the logs on your TimeClock Server. Launch Virtual TimeClock Server and click Logs on the toolbar. If you're running Virtual TimeClock Pro, then you can check your program logs from Configuration.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Port Forwarding on Netopia

It's easy to set up Virtual TimeClock at multiple office locations or even connect to your time clock from home or when you're on the road. As long as you've got an Internet connection, no problem. We've got instructions for using Virtual TimeClock over the Internet in our Remote Connectivity Guide. We've had some customers who use a Motorola Netopia DSL modem have some trouble setting up remote time clocks. The trouble stems from differences in terminology and a restriction of the Netopia.

First of all, the Netopia doesn't use the common description of 'port forwarding' or 'port mapping' to describe the process of opening up the network communication port that the time clock server needs to communicate with other time clocks over the Internet. The Netopia calls it a 'pinhole'.

Secondly, the Netopia has a limit on the external port number so you won't be able to use the default port of 56777. We've had success setting the external port to 48999. You should still be able to keep the internal port at 56777 to match the default TCP port of your time clock server.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Selecting Report People & Dates


One of the first changes you’ll notice when viewing reports in Virtual TimeClock ‘13 is that you’re not asked ahead of time to pick what users and dates you want to run the report for. Once you select a report, it will automatically display with all the users for the display group for the current payroll period. This saves you steps and the report runs faster. To change your report selection, just click the People & Dates icon on the new report preview toolbar.



If your timecard always runs with past dates, then you need to update your payroll period settings and remember to close those payroll periods! Go to Configure and Payroll Period to bring your payroll period current.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Port Mapping in Mountain Lion

There were some changes to the AirPort Utility in OS 10.8 Mountain Lion. Here are the steps to use when configuring your AirPort Extreme for remote time clock connectivity under Mountain Lion.


Open the Airport Utility. This is usually found in the Utilities folder in Applications.

Select your Airport Base Station.



Click the Network tab, under Port Settings click +.



Leave the description blank. Enter 56777 for both the public and private TCP ports (if the settings won't save, go ahead and enter 56778 for both the public and private UDP ports as well). Enter the IP address of the time clock server computer as the Private IP Address.



Now you're ready to connect your time clock at another location or from home to the time clock server over the Internet.


Angie
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Does Paid Leave Count Towards Weekly Overtime?

We often get asked if paid leave counts toward weekly overtime calculations. Well, that depends on whether you want it to or not. By default, any paid leave time (vacation, sick time, holidays, etc.) does not count as hours worked for the calculation of weekly overtime. We've found this to be the way most businesses want and expect their time clock software to work. For example, if someone works 35 hours in the week and also gets paid for an 8 hour holiday, their timecard would show 35 regular hours and 8 hours paid leave.

However, there is a seldom used setting that causes leave hours to count towards weekly overtime calculations. Turn on administration, click Configure and Overtime. Click Overtime Preferences in the toolbar.

Now if someone works 35 hours in the week and also gets paid for an 8 hour holiday, their timecard would show 40 regular hours and 3 hours weekly overtime.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Tracking Attendance for Salaried Employees

There are a number of reasons you may want to have your salaried employees use your time clock software. We've talked about them before in past time clock support blogs. Some businesses want salaried employees just to clock in so they have a record that they worked that day, but they don't need them to clock out for lunch or at the end of their work day. An easy way to handle this scenario is to set up a new shift with an auto clock out rule and assign it to the daily schedule for each salaried employee. That way, you'll have a record of salaried employee attendance without inconveniencing them by having to use the time clock more than once a day.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Viewing Time Clock User Passwords


The ability to view user passwords was removed in Virtual TimeClock ‘12 because we had a number of educational and governmental agencies that were failing security audits because of it. We’ve found that employees who use the time clock multiple times each day rarely forget their password. If they do, an admin user just needs to create a new one for them.

Here's a thought if you really want to store viewable user passwords in your employee time clock software. Use the Notes panel of the user record. Then if someone forgets their password, just go to Configure, then Users and look at the user notes. Although you can print the user notes if you have administrative access to user configuration, they don't appear on any program reports.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.