Reopening Closed Payroll Periods

If a payroll period is closed early, any new time clock entries for the closed period are recorded but not totaled when employee timecards are printed. Which is great because employees can still use the time clock to record their time. So you'll still see all the punch times, but they won't be reflected in the report totals. All you have to do is reopen the payroll period and run your employee timecards again. Then everything will be right as rain.

You also can’t add or edit past timecard entries until the payroll period is reopened. All you have to do is reopen the payroll period, make your edits, and then close the period again. Most of the time, it's just the prior payroll period that needs to be reopened. If you need to reopen a payroll period that goes back a few months, give us a call so we can discuss how that may impact your time clock software.

To reopen a closed payroll period, go to the Tools menu and choose Payroll Period. In the Current Period section, enter the start date of the payroll period you want to reopen. Change the start date back when you're all done.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Employee Time Card Signatures

For those of you that print out your employee timecards and have employees sign off on them, you've probably noticed the text on top of the employee signature line. The default text says "I certify that these hours are a true and accurate record of all time worked during the pay period." Although most businesses find this wording sufficient, others would like to add their own agreements. I've had businesses add phrases like "I have taken all my mandatory daily rest and meal breaks during this pay period" or timecard reminders like "Overtime is calculated after 40 actual hours per week have been worked. Paid leave time is not included in computing hours worked for overtime calculation." It's easy to customize your time clock software timecard signature lines.

Go to the Reports menu and choose Report Writer. Select the Timecard Detail report from the list of reports on the left because this is the default employee timecard. Click the Options tab and then the Signature Text button.

Customize the signature line text to suit your business needs and save.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Understanding Time Clock Security

The key to time clock security is enabling password protection. Once password protection is turned on, you can adjust the security settings to suit your own needs. For example, you can prevent timecards from being modified or deleted. You can also decide what features you want time clock software users to be able to access, view or modify.

This can be done a lot easier than you think. The first step is to set up the time clock administrator. Go to the Lists menu and choose Users.  Select the name of the employee that will be your time clock administrator and click the Access tab.  Enter a password, check the User is an administrator of this program box, and save your changes. Next you'll want to set passwords for all your users by selecting each user name from the list on the left and entering a password. After all users have been assigned a password, it's time to enable password protection.

Click the Security Settings button in the Access panel. This will take you directly to the Security control panel. Check the Enable Password Protection box, enter your new administrator password, and save.

Now that security is turned on, you can use an often over looked feature: putting your time clock in Administrative Mode.

Putting your time clock in Administrative Mode will give you access to all program functions with only one password entry. From the Tools menu, choose Enter Administrative Mode and enter your password. To reactivate password protection, go to the Tools menu and choose Exit Administrative Mode, or just quit your time clock. Security will automatically turn on when the program starts up again.

Angie
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Silent and Unattended Time Clock Installation

Occasionally we get asked about ways to speed up the installation process on Windows. It's usually when someone has a lot of time clock clients to install because of a new license purchase or upgrade. The standard time clock software Setup Wizard requires a minimal degree of user interaction, but clicking the Next button half a dozen times on 50 computers can certainly add up! I went to one of my engineers and demanded (well, actually I asked quite politely) for some tools to help speed up the installs for our Windows network time clock users. They showed me a couple of ways.

The Virtual TimeClock installer can be run from a command line and accepts some parameters to assist in scripted installation.

Silent Install
A silent install doesn't show the standard Setup Wizard, but it does display the installation progress window. When installing the Pro Client, the command will look something like this:

Very Silent Install
A very silent install doesn't show the standard Setup Wizard or the installation progress window. The command will look something like this:

In either case, any error messages that occur during installation are still displayed.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.