Are You Still Evaluating?

Did your free time clock software trial expire even though you purchased a license? Chances are, you never entered your key codes. The Virtual TimeClock evaluation is a great testing tool because:

• It's fully functional, which means you can test every feature.
• There's nothing new to download or install after purchasing a license.
• You don't lose any of the employee data you collected during the trial period.

So if you purchased a Virtual TimeClock license and you're getting a message stating that your free evaluation has ended, grab the license email we sent you when you ordered and get those keys entered.

Registering Basic/Pro Edition
Go to the Tools menu and choose Enter License Key.

Registering Network Edition
Launch Server Manager, click on the Licenses toolbar button, and click the Enter Keys button.

Need another copy of your license? Contact us, we keep great records!

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Missing Overtime?

Many new users contact us right after running their first payroll because no overtime has been calculated on their employee time cards. If that's happened to you, here are the time clock software settings you need to check, starting with the most common and ending with the least used.

1. Has an overtime rule been assigned to each employee? Go to the Lists menu, choose Users, and select an employee name from the list. Click the Wages tab and pick an overtime rule from the Overtime drop-down list.
2. Have your overtime rules been configured properly? Go to the Lists menu and choose Overtime. Select the rule that's been assigned and make sure it's configured the way you want. For example, is the weekly threshold set at 40 hours?
3. Do you have salaried workers? Salaried workers are exempt from overtime calculations. Go to the Lists menu, choose Users, and select an employee name from the list. Click the Wages tab and check if the Type drop-down list is set to Salary or Hourly. Change to Hourly of you want overtime calculations to occur.
4. Did you change how many hours an employee has to be off the clock before starting a new shift? Go to the Tools menu and choose Time Calculations. How long do you have to stay clocked out before restarting daily overtime calculations? The default setting is 4 hours. If this is set too low, daily overtime won't calculate because Virtual TimeClock thinks you want to start a new shift.

If none of these seem to solve your issue, contact us. We'd love to help get your employee time cards printing just the way you want.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

Need a Static IP Address?

We occasionally chat with customers who can't get a static IP address from their Internet service provider (ISP). Usually, it's because they're in a remote area where static IP service isn't offered. Without getting too technical, a static IP address is needed if you're planning on using Virtual TimeClock over the Internet because a static IP address doesn't change. If the IP address assigned to your router changes, then your remote time clocks will no longer know where to connect to your time clock server.

Some customers that find themselves in this situation have had success with a service called DynDNS. Their service works by having you create a hostname, and then making that hostname work with your dynamic IP addresses. I won't pretend to understand how it works (I'll stick to time clock software). Let's just say that even when your ISP changes the public IP address of your router, DynDNS keeps things in sync by pointing the new IP address to a hostname that never changes.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

How To Track Late Employees

Employee tardiness can be a real source of frustration for business owners and managers. Very few employees are likely to mark themselves as late when filling out paper time sheets. That's why time clock software is such a great tool for tracking the real time arrival and departure of your employees. It holds employees accountable and gives business owners several ways to monitor late employees.

Real-Time Monitoring
With Virtual TimeClock Network Edition, it's easy to see when employees are showing up and leaving in real time. Anytime an employee clocks in, goes on break, heads out for lunch, changes activities, or clocks out at the end of the day, their status is instantly updated on every time clock on the network. This makes it convenient for managers to monitor when employees are coming and going.

Late Arrival Report
Using the new shifts feature in Virtual TimeClock '11 is a great way to track late employees. Once you've configured and assigned your shift rules, the time clock will be able to compare when employees are scheduled to start work to when they actually start work. Run the Late Arrival Report from the Reports menu to get a list of who's been late, when they actually arrived, and how many minutes they were late. You can quickly run the report daily, weekly, monthly, or even for an entire year. This is a great report to have handy when conducting employee performance evaluations.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software

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