Keep Your Time Clock Software Accurate

Since DST (Daylight Saving Time) begins this weekend, this is the perfect time to review how your Virtual TimeClock software records time. Customers sometimes ask why the time they punch in doesn't match the time that's recorded by Virtual TimeClock. So where does the timestamp come from?

Virtual TimeClock records all timestamps based on the time supplied by your computer. As long as your computer handles seasonal time changes automatically, then your time and attendance software will always record the current and correct time for you. If you have worker shifts that cross the time change, you'll need to manually adjust their hours.

Since the timestamp comes directly from your computer, you'll want to follow the same advice given to Frodo by Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, "Keep it secret. Keep it safe."

If you're using Virtual TimeClock Basic or Pro Edition, you'll want to restrict access to the date and time control panel to prevent tampering with the computer clock. On Mac, you can lock the Date & Time preference pane. On Windows, limited accounts are unable to change the computer clock. With the Network Edition, the TimeClock Server computer provides the time stamps for all TimeClock Clients. This prevents users from changing the time on their local computer to try and trick the time clock software. The time on the TimeClock Client computer has no affect on the actual time that's recorded.

This is also a good time to make sure your computer is setup to automatically sync with an Internet time server. On Mac, you can check this setting in the Date & Time preference pane. On Windows, it's in the Date and Time control panel.

Gandalf also had a pretty good idea about dealing with time when he said, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given."

Jeff Morrow

Redcort Software