Q. Our holiday hours aren't being added to our employees' hours; I always have to add them manually. What am I doing wrong?

A. Holiday hours should be applied automatically in the TimePilot system, as long as your Holiday Schedule has up-to-date holidays, the correct holiday schedule is applied to your employees and your employees are entitled to  holiday pay. Here’s what to check:

  • Verify that your Holiday Schedule has the current year’s holidays. Start TimePilot Central, then click the “Setup” menu. Choose “Holiday Setup” from the drop-down menu. The Holiday Setup box should appear. You probably have at least one Holiday Schedule listed in the left panel. Click it and then click the “Edit a Holiday Schedule” button. If the holidays listed are out of date, you can change them here.
  • If you have more than one Holiday Schedule, verify that the correct one is applied to your employees. You can check that by opening each employee’s profile (“Setup Menu” > “Profile Setup” > Click an employee’s name > “Edit a Profile”). The Holiday Schedule assigned to them is listed at the bottom of the box.
  • Are your employees entitled to holiday pay? To check, go to "Setup Menu," highlight the employees' Pay Type and click the "Edit a Pay Type" button. Make sure you've clicked "Yes" as the answer for the fourth question: "Do employees of this Pay Type qualify for holiday pay?"   

Before making any changes, however, you might want to read the article on the right side of this newsletter with tips on creating Holiday Schedules. If you’re still having problems, our tech support specialists would be happy to help. You can contact them by phone at 1-630-879-6400 or e-mail at Support@TimePilot.com.

Q. I have TimePilot Vetro, and I can’t transfer my changes to the clock. The user manual says to go to the Setup Menu in TimePilot Central and then click “Transfer Changes to Vetro Clock Using USB.” I do not have that option in my Setup Menu. What am I missing?

A. It appears you are missing the Vetro Data Manager, a small program acts as the "bridge"  between TimePilot Central and the Vetro clock. Here's how to get it: Exit TimePilot Central, then insert your TimePilot software installation CD and choose “Install TimePilot Software,” “TimePilot Installation Menu” (not the Installation Wizard) and lastly “Vetro Data Manager.” After installing the Vetro Data Manager you should now have the option to transfer your changes to your Vetro clock.

Q. How do I set the time and date on the Tap clock?

A. First, make sure the Tap Manager is running on your PC, then simply plug the clock into the computer. Three things happen automatically: Clock-in and clock-out data on the Tap clock is downloaded to the computer; the time and date is updated on the Tap clock (using the time and date on your PC or server); and the battery is recharged.

Q. We have a TimePilot Standard clock and use TimePilot software version 4.0. We want to assign an iButton to a new employee, but we can’t find our manual. Can you tell us how to do it?

A. Sure can. First, start TimePilot Central and open the employee’s profile. (Setup Menu > Profile Setup > click the employee’s name and then “Edit a Profile.”) Find the “Identification” section on the right side of the profile screen.

Now you have two options. You can:

  • Type the number directly from the iButton. It's the incredibly-hard-to-see 12‐digit number on the metal face of the iButton. Click “Save” to finish the process. This option isn’t recommended, unless you have the eyes of an eagle.
  • A much better way is to have the TimePilot Standard clock do the work for you. Click the "Get iButton number" button. The "Get iButton Number" box will pop up. Tap the new employee’s iButton to one of the iButton probes on the Standard timeclock. The clock will read the number and enter it into the software. Next, choose the color of your keyfob and click "OK" to close the "Get iButton Number" box. The employee profile should now show the employee’s iButton number and the color of their keyfob. Click “Save” to finish the process.
 

You live in the past. About 80 milliseconds in the past, to be precise. Use one hand to touch your nose and the other to touch one of your feet at exactly the same time. You will experience them as simultaneous acts, but it didn't really happen that way: It takes more time for the signal to travel up your nerves from your feet to your brain than from your nose. The explanation is simple: Your brain waits for all the relevant input before it experiences the “now.” Experiments have shown that the lag between things happening and us experiencing them is about 80 milliseconds.

Source 1 and Source 2

Flash ... Bang: Since light travels at 186,000 miles per second, you see the lightning the instant it flashes. But the sound of thunder travels about a mile in five seconds near the ground. Below is a chart showing the time span between the flash and the bang and your distance from the lightning strike. 

Time

Distance

10 seconds

2 miles

5 seconds

1 mile

2½ seconds

½ mile

1 second

1,100 feet

½ second

550 feet

Source
Welcome!
TimePilot newsletter No. 20

Whether you're a current or future TimePilot customer, we're glad to see you.

Every month we'll offer news about TimePilot products, tips on how to use them more efficiently, some of the "cool stuff" our employees have come across and a special deal available only to those who receive this newsletter!

In this issue:

  • TimePilot Q&A: Holiday schedules, transferring changes to your Vetro.
  • TimePilot Best Practices: All about holiday schedules.
  • Cool Stuff: Writing-Fonts.com.
  • The Deal: 10% off Extreme Starter Kits and additional Extreme clocks.

TimePilot Best Practices

All About
Holiday Schedules

Setting up holiday schedules in the TimePilot software is pretty straightforward, but there are some things you can do that will get the job done more quickly and efficiently.

When you installed the TimePilot Central software, you created one or more holiday schedules and then assigned one to each employee.

Now, each time you start TimePilot Central, the software looks at your holiday schedule(s) and determines if a holiday has occurred since the last time the software was started. If a holiday has occurred, the software then runs down the list of employees, looking for those with a holiday schedule that includes that holiday. When it finds one, it inserts into the employee’s record the number of hours you specified when you set up the schedule.

So how can you handle your holiday schedules more efficiently? Here are a few suggestions:

  • It’s tempting to label your holiday schedules something like “Salaried Holidays 2012” or “Hourly Holidays 2012.” That’s a very clear way to do it, but by making the schedules specific to certain years, you’re going to have to create new ones every year (“Salaried Holidays 2013,” “Salaried Holidays 2014,” “Salaried Holidays 2015,” etc.) And then you’ll have to go through every employee’s profile every year to assign them that year’s holiday schedule. That’s too much work!

    Make it easy on yourself by giving your holiday schedules generic names like “Salaried Holiday Schedule" or “Hourly Holiday Schedule.” Then all you have to do at the end of the year is return to that schedule and change the dates of the upcoming year's holidays. Handling it this way lets you avoid the drudgery of changing each employee's profile, as you would if you had created a schedule named after a year (for instance, "Salaried Holidays 2013.") Where in the software do you change the schedules? In TimePilot Central, click “Setup,” then “Holiday Setup,” then highlight the schedule you want to change and click “Edit a Holiday Schedule.”

  • Want to save even more time? When you're entering your holiday schedule in the TimePilot software, you'll see slots for 20 holidays. Most companies don’t have 20 holidays in a single year. (If your company does, please let us know!) After you fill in your holidays for the upcoming year, keep going and fill the remaining slots with the holidays for the following year, too.

  • What happens if you realize on July 10 that you've forgotten to include July 4 as a holiday on your schedule? You could insert the holiday time to every employee, but that's probably quite time-consuming. A simpler choice would be to add the missing holiday to the holiday schedules and then use TimePilot’s “Check Holiday Transactions” feature. This feature looks at your holiday schedules and at your Current Transactions and adds missing holiday transactions. Here's how to use it:

    1. First, add the missing holiday to your holiday schedule(s) and save it (TimePilot Central > “Setup” menu > “Holiday Setup” > Click the schedule you want to change > “Edit a Holiday Schedule”), make the changes and click "Save." The date will show up in red, because it's in the past.

    2. Next, start "Check Holiday Transactions" (TimePilot Central > “Edit” menu > “Check Holiday Transactions”).

    3. In the box that pops up, click the down arrow and choose a date that occurs just before the date of the holiday you just entered in Step 1. In the example above, you might choose July 1.

    4. Click OK. The software will inspect the newly changed holiday schedule, see that the July 4 holiday is missing from the appropriate employees' work hours in Current Transactions and insert the missing transactions where needed automatically.

This month’s special offer
to TimePilot newsletter readers:

10% off TimePilot Extreme Starter Kit
or additional Extreme clocks


Special price for newsletter readers:

Extreme Starter Kit:
Just $584.10!
(save $64.90 over list price)

Additional Extreme clocks:
Just $314.10!
(save $34.90 over list price)

To learn more about the deal, click here, visit www.TimePilot.com/newsletter/newsletter4.htm or call us at 1-630-879-6400.

Every once in a while, our employees come across “cool stuff.”
This is where they share their finds.

Writing-Fonts

Looking for an unusual and inexpensive gift for Christmas?

Here’s an idea: Give a person their very own font—in their own handwriting. You can use the font anywhere you’d use any font: on printed documents, e-mails, etc.

Here’s how it works: You download a form from Writing-Fonts.com and print it on your printer. The form has spaces for you to write the alphabet, numbers, various punctuation marks and your signature. Then scan the form and upload it to Writing-Fonts. They’ll convert it to a font, which you download, ready for use.

The web site offers clear instructions for the whole process, which takes about 15 minutes. Each font costs $9.95.

Also, if your handwriting is like ours—just about impossible to decipher—Writing-Fonts.com also offers 12 very legible handwritten fonts for free.

www.Writing-Fonts.com