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.

Making Time Clock Activities Inactive

You already know Virtual TimeClock is the best time and attendance system for keeping track of employee hours for payroll. But it's also a great tool for tracking time spent on different projects, jobs, or customers. We call them 'Activities'. Activities are easy to add, and you can name them whatever you want. Once a job has been completed, you'll want to remove the activity from the current selection list so it's no longer available when clocking in or starting new activities.

From the Virtual TimeClock Administration Window, click Configure and then Activities to change the status. Don't worry! Activities are still available when running historic reports and can be made active again if needed.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Tracking On Call Hours

We often get asked how to force certain hours to be overtime. In many companies, employees get paid a premium when performing duties after hours or when they're on call. That's easy to do when using activities, but first I want to discuss the difference between time clock software and payroll software.

The purpose of time clock software is to keep track of how many hours an employee has worked and then total those hours in an accurate and easy way for payroll processing. The purpose of payroll software is to assign rates to various types of hours to meet state and federal labor requirements, and employee contracts. For example, Virtual TimeClock allows you to assign overtime rules to employees, and those rules define when the time thresholds are met for premium pay. Because overtime calculations are based on minimum thresholds of hours worked, there's not a way to force hours under the threshold to calculate as overtime. That's where activities come in.

Since every punch time in Virtual TimeClock gets assigned to an activity (even if it's just the default activity of 'In'), it's easy to separate the number of hours that need to get paid at the premium rate, which is the job of your payroll software. Go to the Lists menu and choose Activities. Add a new activity called something like 'On Call' and make it available only when adding manual entries. Now when employee time cards are generated you'll know how much time to pay employees for on call duties at their premium rate.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Different Pay Rates for Different Jobs

It's not unusual for employers to pay workers a different wage based on the job they're performing. A common example occurs in the restaurant business. An employee may get paid a different wage depending on whether they're waiting on tables, hosting, or part of the catering crew. We see the same thing with some of our dental time clock users. An employee may earn one rate when acting as a dental assistant and a different rate when working as a dental hygienist. What you need to know from your time clock software is how many hours were spent performing each role. It's up to your payroll software to handle the rest.

The first thing you'll want to do is set up a different activity for each of the roles you need to pay at a different wage. In Virtual TimeClock, go to the Lists menu and choose Activities. Give each new activity a name that will be easy to recognize for workers when clocking in. The second thing you'll want to do is set up the pay rates for those same activities in your payroll software for each employee.

That's all it takes. Now your time clock software reports will have a breakdown of hours for each activity that can be quickly entered into your payroll system.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Disabling and Setting Default Activities

Since all time clock entries are recorded with an activity, employees can assign time to specific tasks, jobs, projects, functions, or locations. This makes it easy to track the status of your employees with the in/out board, or print time cards and reports sorted by different activities.

If you're using activities for job or project tracking, then you may want to disable the activity once the job or project has been completed. This helps keep your current activity list manageable while still allowing you to report on old activities. To maintain the integrity of your time clock system, activities that have been recorded against punch times cannot be deleted.

To disable activities
Go to the Lists menu and choose Activities. Select the activity you want to disable from the list of activities on the left. Now click the None button at the bottom of the Display Groups section, or selectively remove the activity from only certain display groups. Click Save when you're all done.

If you're using networked time clocks with different display groups, then you may want to set a different default activity for each time clock. This is especially helpful when tracking time spent at different office locations. You may even want to remove the default activity and force employees to pick their activity when punching in.

To set default activities
Go to the Lists menu and choose Display Groups. Select the display group you want to set the default activity for from the list of display groups on the left and click the Activities tab. Select the activity you want to set as the default when users clock in from the Default Selection drop-down list. Leave the default selection blank if you want to force users to pick an activity when clocking in, like when tracking different projects or jobs. Click Save when you're all done.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Restaurant Time Clock Software

Virtual TimeClock makes a great punch clock replacement for your restaurant or cafe because it performs vital functions beyond keeping track of hours worked for payroll purposes.

Different Rates for Different Roles

Many restaurants are looking for a way to track how much time employees are spending performing different activities. This is because each employee may receive a different rate for waiting tables, hosting, or catering. Virtual TimeClock allows you to set up and track each of these activities for each employee. From the Lists menu, choose Activities. Click the + button to add the new activity. Now, when employees start their shift, they can pick what role they're performing. If their role changes, they simply click the New Activity toolbar icon and pick what they're doing next. They can change activities as often as they need to throughout their shift. Each employee's timecard will show a break down of the hours worked for each activity that can now be easily entered into your payroll software, which should already have the appropriate rates for each employee role.

Report Employee Tips

Virtual TimeClock is also a great way for employees to report their tips. You can add a timecard note at the end of your shift with the amount of tips earned. Select your latest entry in the main time clock window, click the Entry Note toolbar icon, and enter your password. You'll be able to add a note containing total tips, report the reason for discrepancies, or explain a late or missed punch time.

This is why Virtual TimeClock is vital computer time clock software for your restaurant.

Jeff Morrow

Technical Support Team

Redcort Software

Job Tracking with Virtual TimeClock

Many business owners think of employee time clock software as a secure and impartial means of keeping employees accountable for their hours worked. They just want to make sure they're not underpaying or overpaying employees. Since you're already keeping track of employee hours for payroll purposes, why not use those same hours to perform labor cost analysis or help accurately bill your clients.

The key to job or project tracking is setting up different activities within your time clock program. Activities are used to track the current status of your employees, what they're currently working on, or where they might be working. For example, you may want to use activities to track tasks, jobs, clients, or employee location. Employees may work on several jobs or projects throughout their workday and can quickly switch from one activity to another. Activities can be paid, only paid until a maximum time threshold is reached, or unpaid depending on your business workflow needs.

Here's a brief description of the activity setup window available from the Lists menu. The activity type determines when the activity is available for use. Activities that are available for both time clock and manual entries can be selected when starting a new shift or switching to a new activity from the main window of your time clock program. They can also be used for manual timecard entries. For example, when a worker misses a normal punch time, or to give a worker credit for time worked off-site or away from regular punch clock access.

Activities that are available only for manual entries are used to record timecard entries for activities like jury duty, travel time, and off-site training. These activities aren't available from the drop-down lists in the main time clock software window since they're typically only used in special situations.

The activity calculation determines whether this is a paid activity, or an unpaid activity used for tracking purposes only. Time spent on unpaid activities will display in a separate column on your timecard reports.

Combining job tracking with the timecard notes feature built right into your employee time clock creates a great way for recording and tracking information related to jobs and projects. We've got an article about managing labor costs that you may find helpful as you start tracking jobs with your time and attendance software.

Jeff Morrow

Time Clock Software Specialist

Redcort Software