TimePilot Tips

Q. I have TimePilot Extreme, and I've lost my user manual. Where can I get another copy?

A. Manuals for all of TimePilot’s products are available at the Support Center on our web site (https://TimePilot.com/
supportcenter.htm
). You can also download copies of our products’ Quick Start Guides, sales brochures and other material there. We’ve also put together “cheat sheets” that you can post next to your clock to show your employees how to clock in and out. They're also available in the Support Center.

Q. I have the Vetro timeclock, and I’ve forgotten my clock’s password. How do I retrieve it? And while I’m at it, how do I change it?

A. To see your clock’s password, right-click the image of the clock in Vetro Data Manager. Choose “Properties” from the pop-up menu to see the password.

To change your clock's password:

  • If your Vetro is used in Network Mode (attached to your local area network), right-click the image of the clock in Vetro Data Manager, choose “Network Functions” then “Change Clock Settings” from the pop-up menu and make the change on the screen that appears.
  • If your Vetro is used in Standalone Mode (you collect the clock-ins and clock-outs with the USB drive), right-click the image of the clock in Vetro Data Manager, choose “USB Functions” and then “Change Clock Settings” from the pop-up menu and make the change on the screen that appears. Then transfer the changes to the clock with your USB drive.

Q. We have TimePilot Vetro. Once I have entered an employee into the system and he has been clocking in and out, is there a way to edit his User ID without having problems with my database?

A. Changing a user’s ID is not recommended, but can be done. The way to do it without causing chaos is first to collect the transactions from your Vetro clock. Once you have all the transactions in TimePilot Central, change the user’s ID within TimePilot Central and immediately transfer the changes to the Vetro clock.  Make sure the user whose ID you’re changing doesn’t clock in or out while you are making the changes.

If at all possible, try to avoid changing a user’s ID, because that’s what the software uses to identify transactions in the TimePilot database. If a user’s ID suddenly no longer exists, any transactions linked to that ID will become orphans and need to be corrected manually. If an employee leaves the company, it’s far better to make him or her "inactive" so they cannot clock in or out but their profile is still linked to old transactions. To do so, open the employee’s profile and clear the “Active” checkbox.


Welcome!
TimePilot newsletter No. 12

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 Tips: Replacing a manual; Vetro clock passwords; and changing User IDs. 
  • TimePilot Best Practices:  All about Snap-To.
  • Cool Stuff: IngenuiTEA.
  • The Deal:  20% off iButtons!

TimePilot Best Practices

All about Snap-To

Having hourly employees line up to clock in at the exact moment their shift starts is a very inefficient procedure. TimePilot’s Snap-To function allows employees to clock in early and not go “on the clock” until their shift starts.

It also allows them to clock out late but go “off the clock” when their shift ends. In Snap-To setup, you can designate how many minutes will be "snapped" and when that will occur.

For example, let's say your employees’ shift starts at 8 a.m., but several like to arrive a few minutes early and read the newspaper at their workstations before their shift starts. Without Snap-To (or a related function, Rounding), employees who clocked in early would get paid for their time reading the newspaper—probably not what you intended!

Snap-To allows them to clock in when they arrive and not worry about clocking in exactly when their shift starts.

To do this, you would set Snap-To to 20 minutes for clock-ins. With that setup, the newspaper-reading employees can clock in any time between 7:40 a.m. and 8 a.m. and not go "on the clock" until 8 a.m. The exact time the employee clocked in will be recorded in the TimePilot software, but for calculation purposes it will use the start or end of an employee’s shift. Snap-To is also available for lunch breaks.

To start using Snap-To, you’ll set it up in TimePilot Central and apply it to individual employees in their Employee Profile. Here’s how:

  1. Start TimePilot Central.
  2. Click the "Setup" menu item, then click "Shift Setup."
  3. Choose the appropriate action, either "Add a Shift Schedule" or "Edit a Shift Schedule." If you want to edit an existing shift schedule, click on the name of the schedule first, then the "Edit a Shift Schedule" button. When the shift schedule box appears, click the "Snap-To" tab.
  4. You can choose to snap a variety of clock-in and clock-out transactions before and after the employee's scheduled time and even set the number of minutes within which a transaction is snapped.
  5. Save your changes.
  6. Open an employee's profile and check the box next to "Snap-To." Save your changes. The employee's clock-ins and clock-outs will be snapped according to the Snap-To rules that apply to the employee's shift.  

Need a shortcut? You can also set up Snap-To for all transactions by using the editing shortcut at the top of the box.

One of our customers, a company that manufactures and recycles wooden cargo pallets, uses Snap-To in a very creative way:

The company’s workers start their shift at 8 a.m. They build pallets until 3 p.m. and are paid for piecework; from 3 p.m. until the end of the workday they break up pallets and are paid an hourly wage. The company has set Snap-To so that when the employees clock in in the morning, the clock-in is snapped to 3 p.m. When they clock out, the TimePilot software calculates the time between 3 p.m. and quitting time as paid time. This way, company supervisors can see when their employees started work in the morning and the employees don’t have to clock in for the second time that day at 3 p.m.


This month’s special offer
to TimePilot newsletter readers:

Save 20% on packs of 10 iButtons!
Just $47.20!

(save $11.80 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.

IngenuiTEA

We’re mainly coffee drinkers here at TimePilot (we like PapaNicholas Coffee, roasted a few miles from our offices in Batavia), but occasionally we like a cup of tea.

Teabags are fine in a pinch, but there’s no need for them anymore with the IngenuiTEA, which is made by Adagio Teas. All you do is put the loose tea in the IngenuiTEA cup and fill it with hot water. Let it steep, then put the cup on top of your mug. A valve opens in the bottom of the cup, filtering the tea and filling your mug.

This is a new model—no paper filters needed. It’s simple to clean, dishwasher safe and BPA-free. A pretty ingenious design and fun to use. It’s $19 from the Adagio web site.