Q. We recently updated our TimePilot software and I have noticed that it is rounding everyone's time to the nearest 15 minutes (for instance, when an employee clocks out at 5:08, it is rounded to 5:15). I have tried looking through all the shift schedules, etc., and I cannot seem to figure out where or how to change this.

A. The rounding option can be found within your Company setup. Within TimePilot Central go to Setup > Company Setup > Edit Company. Click the tab labeled "Rounding" to make adjustments.

Q. While setting up a new employee, I didn’t capture his iButton number, and when I downloaded the transactions from our Extreme clock this morning it said I had three orphan records. I now have assigned the profile to the iButton he used yesterday but do not know how to capture the orphan records.

A. Now that you have the iButton properly assigned, you will need to re-download the transactions from your clock. (One of the lesser-known features of TimePilot Extreme is that it has a long memory: The clock keeps the last 12,000 clock-ins or clock-outs in its memory, even though you’ve already downloaded them to your USB Drive.) Here's how to reacquire the transactions:

  1. Open the Extreme Data Manager on your PC.
  2. Within the Extreme Data Manager, right-click the clock you want to retrieve the previous transactions from and go to Station Properties > Advanced.
  3. Insert the number of transactions you would like the clock to grab and select Get Transactions. How many should you ask for? Since the problem occurred yesterday, estimate how many transactions there should have been yesterday and add 10% or 20% more as a safety margin. Don’t worry—duplicate transactions won’t be a problem.
  4. Insert your USB drive in your clock and tap the management button on the IN probe. Once that operation is complete you can bring the USB drive to your computer and import the transactions as you normally would. The orphan transactions will be discarded.

Q. How long will the battery in my Tap+ clock last after it’s unplugged from the USB cable?

A. That depends, of course, on how often it’s used, but our testing indicates it should last about a year before it needs to be recharged. However, you'll probably never reach that point: The battery automatically recharges while you download your clock-ins and clock-outs into the TimePilot database on your computer.

Q. Is there a way to track punches in and out for breaks?

A. Absolutely. Our software gives you all kinds of flexibility, from simply seeing the actual amount of time employees are taking for breaks to penalizing them for abusing your break policy. This article from the May 2013 newsletter gives you all the facts and sample setups.

 

Frozen in Time, Part 1: Ever wonder why the time displayed on all of Apple's ads for iPhones and iPads is 9:41? It's because Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at a Jan. 9, 2007, conference at 9:41 a.m. Apple's marketing experts wanted to have the time shown on the onstage photo of the iPhone to be as close as possible to the actual time at the moment it was announced. They calculated that the unveiling would be roughly 40 minutes into Jobs' speech, which started at 9 a.m. They've kept 9:41 as an homage to Jobs' announcement.

Source

Frozen in Time, Part 2: Why do most ads for analog watches (the kind with a minute hand and an hour hand) show the time at 10:10? There are two main reasons: first, the hands don't block the watchmaker's logo, which is usually at 12 o'clock; and second, the hands form a "smile," which subliminally makes the watch more attractive to the viewer (and increases the chances of a purchase).

Source

Welcome!
TimePilot newsletter No. 33

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: Rounding and orphan transactions.
  • TimePilot Best Practices: 7 top articles from past newsletters.
  • Cool Stuff: Beverage Cup Carrier Bag.
  • The Deal: 25% off iButtons.

TimePilot Best Practices

7 Top Articles from Past Newsletters

We're well into our third year of TimePilot Times Newsletters, and thanks to you we've built our subscriber base to more than 4,000. We thought it's time to take a look back at some of our past lead stories that you might have missed:

All about extraction

Everyone running a TimePilot system should read this one—it's that important. Having thousands of transactions in the database slows down the TimePilot software, as well as making it extremely unwieldy for supervisors to use. That’s why we strongly recommend extracting your transactions at the end of your pay period. (It's so important that if you don't extract, you'll get a reminder at the bottom of the TimePilot Central screen!) Read more.

Combining TimePilot systems

Many of our first-time customers aren’t aware that you can add other TimePilot products to your current TimePilot system. All of our TimePilot timeclocks are designed to be used together, in any combination. This article shows how it works, with examples. Read more.

What is an iButton, anyway?

Ever wonder what was inside that little metal part of your iButton? And how it knows who you are? You can learn all about that here. Read more.

All about Buffer Zones

If you have shifts covering 24 hours a day and seven days a week, this one is for you. When do you start and end your Pay Period? The choice is more difficult than it sounds, because some of the employees in the last shift of the Pay Period will clock out after midnight, putting their clock-outs into the next Pay Period. And some of the employees in the first shift of the Pay Period will clock in early, putting their clock-ins into the previous Pay Period. Here's the solution.

Job Costing: Keeping track of individual tasks

Your TimePilot system can also be used for keeping track of the time taken by particular jobs. Commonly known as “job costing,” this feature can be used to determine the amount of time an individual project takes during the workday or how long an employee takes to complete a particular project. All you need to start “job costing” is iButtons in different colors. Read more.

Multiple companies in the TimePilot software? Why?

If you only have one business, why do need more than one company in the TimePilot software? You don’t need more than one company if everyone at your organization gets paid on the same schedule. But what if you have two groups of employees, one that gets paid on a bi-weekly basis and one paid monthly? Or if your organization uses temp employees? That’s when you need to set up another company in the software. In TimePilot's Professional and Enterprise software versions, you can have as many companies as you want. Read more.

All about alerts

When you’re looking at TimePilot Central, there’s a lot of data to wade through. Wouldn’t it be nice if the software could flag you when any employee worked overtime or if an employee’s total number of hours was approaching overtime territory? It can. And it can do even more.

 

This month’s special offer
to TimePilot newsletter readers:

25% off iButtons!


Choose your color, choose your quantity!

5 iButtons: $30 (regularly $39.50)
10 iButtons: $44 (reg. $59)
30 iButtons: $119 (reg. $159)
50 iButtons: $187 (reg. $249)
100 iButtons: $337 (reg. $449)
200 iButtons: $536 (reg. $715)

These prices are available for a limited time. 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.

Beverage Cup Carrier Bag

This isn't the most "techy" of products, but it's one of those "slap-to-the-forehead, why-didn't-I-think-of-that" things.

Let's say you're at the local fast-foot restaurant, picking up lunch for you and a co-worker. You've got two drinks, two bags and there aren't any cardboard drink carriers. Then you see the solution. It's a simple plastic bag with a handle, divided into two slots, each just the right size to securely hold a cup as large as 32 ounces.

We spotted a package of them attached to the side of a fast food restaurant's soft drink station.

They're recyclable and reusable.

Beverage Cup Carrier Bag