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

Network Time Clock Trouble?

Does the Virtual TimeClock Server got you down? Virtual TimeClock is a very stable network time clock program, but changes in the networking environment where it resides can be unpredictable. Here's a common issue we see.

The TimeClock Server computer IP address has changed
This often happens after a computer restart and your computer is configured to receive IP addresses dynamically (this is commonly referred to as using DHCP). Time clock clients will no longer be able to connect and you'll receive a message like the following when launching the Server Manager.

Don't worry, it's easy to fix. Click the Configure toolbar button in the Server Manager and select your current IP address from the Network Interface drop-down menu. Save the changes and check the Status panel. You should be seeing green checkmarks, and time clock clients should be able to connect to your time clock server once again.

Blair Crump
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Out of Time Clock Client Licenses?

When you first connect a Virtual TimeClock Pro Client to a Virtual TimeClock Server, the time clock client computer registers it's computer name and uses one of your available licenses. If you get a new computer or need to move your time clock client to a different computer, you'll need to remove the registration of the old computer time clock. Otherwise, you'll likely receive the following message.

To remove the old computer registration, launch the Virtual TimeClock Server Manager and click the Licenses toolbar button. On the right hand side you'll see a list of registered computers. Select the name of the old computer and click Remove Client.

Blair Crump
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Creating Individual Time Clocks

Virtual TimeClock Network Edition offers tremendous flexibility for deploying your time clock software. Businesses typically set up their time clocks as either group time clock stations or individual time clocks. A group time clock is used by any number of employees through out the work day, like a mechanical time clock replacement that's available to employees on a conveniently located computer. In contrast, individual time clocks are set up on each employee computer work station in one of three ways.

Full In/Out Board
This is the default installation setting. Each worker name is listed in the main time clock window, along with details from the latest punch activity. Security prevents employees from clocking each other in and out, or viewing the hours of other employees. This allows you to take advantage of the the in/out board for monitoring employees in real-time and helping to facilitate office workflow and communication.

Limited In/Out Board
Each time clock has a unique set of preferences that allows you to change your time clock display, like how names are sorted and what columns get displayed. This is a great setup option because you can remove the details from the latest punch activity but still retain the value of the in/out board because the visual status indicators let you know who's in, out, on break, or out to lunch. Security still prevents employees from clocking each other in and out, or viewing the hours of other employees.

Personal Time Clock
Personal time clocks allow you to list a single employee name on each individual time clock. You lose the in/out board, but you eliminate the risk of shared passwords and buddy punching.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software