Over the last several time clock software releases, we've greatly simplified the way individual employee computer workstations get set up as personal time clocks by adding a display group interface that does all the work for you. Here are the steps for setting up an individual time clock:

Create the new display group
With admin turned on, go to Configure then Display Groups. Create a new display group called something like 'Individual', set the interface to Individual - User Status, select the users who will be logging in to the time clock individually, and change any default user action settings. For example, I usually turn off the user password requirement when using the individual interface.



Login to the new display group
You'll need to go to the time clock client on each individual workstation and log off by choosing Logout of Server from the File menu. Once you're at the client login window, you just need to pick the 'Individual' display group from the list, enter the user's password, and login.



Now every time the employee launches their time clock it will open to their individual User Status window.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

The user status window is where employees start work, stop work, start a new activity, open their mailbox, or print their timecard. Employees can open their user status window by using several different interfaces, depending on how you want to deploy your time clock system. Employees can select their name from an in & out list, enter a numeric PIN, use an alphanumeric passcode, or if they're using the individual interface with networked time clocks, their user status window is always open.

Even though the In/Out Board is the default interface, it's easy to change. Turn on admin, go to Configure, then Display Groups.



The In/Out Board is always the interface used when administration is turned on.

Jeff
Tech Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

In older versions of Virtual TimeClock, managers would need to belong to a display group in order to be a manager of a display group. This meant they'd need to have their user name listed in the in/out board list at all times, even if they didn't use the time clock software to punch in and out.

With the latest version of Virtual TimeClock, you can be a manager of a display group without being a user of the display group. This means you can view and edit timecards for employees in your group without having your name listed in the in/out board of the time clock. Another huge benefit is that you can send and receive time clock messages from your employees without having to be a member of the display group.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Virtual TimeClock Network Edition is the perfect solution for offices in different time zones needing a centralized time clock system. The time used when punching in and out is usually provided by the time clock server computer. This prevents employees from being able to change their local computer time to try and defeat the time clock. If you need to connect different office locations that are in different time zones, then you'll want to change the time source configuration setting to use an Internet time server.

Here's how to change the time source when you have time clock clients in different time zones. Turn on admin, go to Configure, then Time & Rounding, and select Use Internet TimeServer When Available.


Restart your time clock clients so they'll start getting their time from a list of impartial and accurate Internet time servers based on the time zone settings of the computer.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

We've always recommended making old employees inactive rather than deleting their user record. Deleting a user removes all of their timecard history, whereas making them inactive just removes the user name from any display groups they belong to. It's nice to have historic timecard data at your fingertips if you need it.

It's easy to view timecards for inactive employees. Turn on admin and select All Users from the display group popup menu in the bottom right corner of the Administration window. Now you can run a timecard for any past employee.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

A load balancer is responsible for directing network traffic among multiple servers hosting the same applications. By balancing requests across multiple servers, a load balancer prevents any one server from becoming a single point of failure, which improves availability and responsiveness.

We occasionally run across customers that are using load balancing to distribute the load of network traffic across their server farms. This means that Citrix users could be directed to any one of the servers based on current traffic, which may present a licensing issue with their time clock software. Because Virtual TimeClock is licensed per computer connection, you'll need a client license for each Citrix user that needs to run the time clock, and if your Citrix users are routed to the next available server in the farm, then you'll need a client license for that user for every server they could potentially connect to. This means if you have 5 time clock users and you have a 2 server farm, then you'll need 10 Virtual TimeClock client licenses.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

We occasionally get asked by our larger clients if there's an easy way to uninstall Virtual TimeClock when upgrading so they don't have to physically touch each computer. Here are some command line parameters that you may find helpful when scripting silent uninstalls.

The uninstaller program (unins000.exe) accepts the following command line parameters.

/SILENT, /VERYSILENT
The uninstaller will not ask the user for startup confirmation or display a message stating that uninstall is complete. Shared files that are no longer in use are deleted automatically without prompting. Any critical error messages will still be shown on the screen. When '/VERYSILENT' is used, the uninstallation progress window is not displayed.

/SUPPRESSMSGBOXES
Instructs the uninstaller to suppress message boxes. Only has an effect when combined with '/SILENT' and '/VERYSILENT'.

/LOG
Causes Uninstall to create a log file in the user's TEMP directory detailing file uninstallation and actions taken during the uninstallation process. The log file is created with a unique name based on the current date. It will not overwrite or append to existing files.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Some businesses pay a wage premium to employees whose shift takes them past midnight. Virtual TimeClock does allow you to set a shift differential, but it applies to the entire shift and not just part of a shift. The best way to handle this scenario is to create a new activity called something like "Midnight Rate".

There are two ways to track time with the new activity. Employees can either change activities at midnight to the "Midnight Rate" activity or else an admin user can split the entry into two separate entries later. The important thing is that the time totals will be separated on employee timecards so whoever processes your payroll will know how much time to pay at the premium rate.

Jeff
Tech Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Virtual TimeClock uses a SQL database engine that is compact, fast, and extremely reliable. The only time we ever hear of database issues is when a hard disk starts to fail. Even then, most of the time we're still able to recover the time clock software data.

Virtual TimeClock will return very specific error codes if there’s a problem reading or writing to the database. Although uncommon, the following error codes are ones you may encounter.

Error 13 – Insertion failed because database is full
This error is a result of a full database. You'll need to move Virtual TimeClock Pro or Virtual TimeClock Server to a different computer or try to free up some space on the hard disk.

Error 14 – Unable to open the database file
The most common reason this error occurs is because you've moved your time clock to a different computer and permissions have changed on the database file or the database folder. Make sure the database file and database folder have read & write permissions for everyone. Using your time clock software's built-in database backup and restore utilities will take care of all the permission settings for you.

A second reason you may see this error is because you've moved the database file to a different folder location, or you've renamed the database file itself. If you get yourself into trouble, contact us because we can help you!

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Some businesses pay a premium rate when employees work on a company designated holiday. Since the increased wage is handled by your payroll system, you just need to know how many hours to pay for the worked holiday. It's easy to set up your employee time clock software to keep track of that for you.

First, you'll want to set up a new activity. Turn administration on and choose Activities from the Configure menu. Add a new activity with a name like 'Worked Holiday' and save. Now when employees work on a recognized business holiday, they'll choose 'Worked Holiday' when starting work.



When you print employee timecards, you'll see the 'Worked Holiday' hours subtotaled separately so you know how many hours to pay at the premium rate.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

When running the Virtual TimeClock Network Edition, there are times when a client time clock may need to be moved to another computer. This could be due to a number of reasons, like the computer crashed or there's been changes in office personnel. Whatever the reason, the goal is to move the client program without disrupting business operations. Here are a few tips to make that happen.

The most common issue customers have is installing the wrong client version. If the current time clock client is still available, you can check this by selecting About Virtual TimeClock from the Help menu on a Windows PC and the Virtual Time Clock menu on Mac. This will also allow you to verify if the client program is a Pro or User Client. Now quit the time clock client and uninstall it.

Launch the Virtual TimeClock Server Manager program and click Licenses. Select and remove the computer name that corresponds to the old time clock client. This will allow the new time clock client to connect to the time clock server.

Download and install the correct Network Edition time clock client. If you need a prior version, select Prior Releases in the upper right corner. Just complete the installer and you'll be prompted to connect to your time clock server.

Follow the above steps and your new time clock client will be up and running before the next punch.

Angie
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

I had an interesting call from a new customer the other day. He was worried because they hadn't closed the payroll period yet but employees were already clocking in under the new period. I told him not to worry because the time clock software was smart enough to know what period the punch times belonged in.

Remember that closing payroll periods performs two important functions. First, it totals and saves hours and overtime for all workers using the current payroll settings. This is important because wages, overtime, and time deduction rules may have changed. Secondly, closing the period advances the 'Current Period' to the new period dates based on your payroll frequency.

If you've never closed a payroll period, verify your payroll period settings in the Configure window.


Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Flexi-time in some parts of the world usually refers to accumulated overtime hours that an employee can build up and exchange for the equivalent amount of time off. Basically, you need to keep track of time worked over a defined threshold. That’s no problem with Virtual TimeClock because you can create overtime rules to accommodate just about anything.

Some of the international customers I've chatted with recently track flexi-time monthly even though overtime is calculated on a daily or weekly basis. So when you run employee timecards for an entire month, the overtime will be calculated separately. This can then either be paid out or entered as a leave award. I recommend creating a new leave category called “Flexi”. You would just have to manually add the hours to Flexi every month for each employee and when they use the Flexi time, you would add it to their timecard as paid leave.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

Virtual TimeClock keeps a record of events caused by both system and user activity. It automatically keeps track of when administration is turned on, when modifications to employee timecards are made, when manual and leave entries are added, and when payroll periods are closed. The program audit logs will tell you when the event occurred, the user who triggered the event, and what happened. The audit logs list the before and after details of timecard entries, which allows you to compare the original and the modified information. This can help management determine if the changes were made according to your business rules. It's also easy to export your program logs directly to your desktop for further analysis. You can open them with a text editor and search for keywords, dates, or users.



If you're running Virtual TimeClock Network Edition, then you'll want to check the logs on your TimeClock Server. Launch Virtual TimeClock Server and click Logs on the toolbar. If you're running Virtual TimeClock Pro, then you can check your program logs from Configuration.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.

It's easy to set up Virtual TimeClock at multiple office locations or even connect to your time clock from home or when you're on the road. As long as you've got an Internet connection, no problem. We've got instructions for using Virtual TimeClock over the Internet in our Remote Connectivity Guide. We've had some customers who use a Motorola Netopia DSL modem have some trouble setting up remote time clocks. The trouble stems from differences in terminology and a restriction of the Netopia.

First of all, the Netopia doesn't use the common description of 'port forwarding' or 'port mapping' to describe the process of opening up the network communication port that the time clock server needs to communicate with other time clocks over the Internet. The Netopia calls it a 'pinhole'.

Secondly, the Netopia has a limit on the external port number so you won't be able to use the default port of 56777. We've had success setting the external port to 48999. You should still be able to keep the internal port at 56777 to match the default TCP port of your time clock server.

Jeff
Technical Support Team
Redcort Software, Inc.