Dundee Group Blog

The Department of Labor's New Timekeeping App

Last week, the Department of Labor released a free app for the iPhone that allows employees to keep track of their hours independently from their employer, and determine what they should be getting paid. Called "Timesheet," the app has only simple functionality, and is neither the first nor the most complex app of its kind to be availble on the iPhone. It is, however, the first one to be endorsed by the Departement of Labor.

The offical press release

The official app page

The press release says, in part, that "This new technology is significant because, instead of relying on their employers' records, workers now can keep their own records. This information could prove invaluable during a Wage and Hour Division investigation when an employer has failed to maintain accurate employment records." One feature of the app is the ability to take the employee’s punches, figure out what their pay should be given a base wage rate and OT and let the employee send an email straight from the app with the data as an attachment.

Again, similar apps already exist, but the DOL's endorsement of this particular app will probably increase its weight in any labor dispute that uses its data. Now more than ever, it is important for employeers to make sure they record accurate records of employees' hours. "I am pleased that my department is able to leverage increasingly popular and available technology to ensure that workers receive the wages to which they are entitled," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "This app will help empower workers to understand and stand up for their rights when employers have denied their hard-earned pay."

Daylight Savings Begins March 13th

Daylight savings time is scheduled to begin on Sunday, March 13th at 2:00 AM, but you don't have to be left in the dark about how to make a seemless transition in your EmpowerTime (Unitime) system. Make sure that your system is ready with Empower's useful guide to ensure that everything goes right not only next Sunday, when DST begins, and get a refresher on how to update hours for employees who are clocked in during the time shift.

Updating Holiday Dates in EmpowerTime (Unitime)

Holidays do not automatically roll forward at the end of a year because holiday dates can vary year to year. Once a holiday has passed and the pay period in which the holiday occurred has been closed, the date of the holiday should be rolled to the next year in each holiday class.

Mass Updating Holiday Dates

If multiple holiday classes are set up within a company, it is often faster to mass update dates rather than updating the dates in each holiday class separately. Several mass update options are available in the Holiday Classes drop-down menu in the Holiday Classes notebook, or from the Processes button located at the top of the Holiday Class Detail window.

These options are described below.

 

Duplicate Holiday Class Creates a new holiday class by duplicating all holiday class rules and dates. When enabled, UNITIME prompts for the holiday class to copy as well as the code for the new holiday class.

Duplicate Holiday Dates Copies holiday dates, descriptions, and hours from one holiday class to another. When enabled, UNITIME will prompt for the holiday classes.

Mass Add Date Adds a holiday date, description, and number of hours for all holiday classes set up in the current company.

Mass Delete Date Deletes a holiday from all holiday classes in the current company that have the date.

 

Make sure to backup you date prior to making these changes.

Daylight Savings Ends November 7th

A reminder for all users of EmpowerTime (Unitime) clocks - Daylight Savings Time ends November 7th at 2:00 AM! That's this Sunday morning (or Saturday night, as most of us think of it). There are two ways that the time on your clocks can be updated:

• If the date and time is updated during polling of the clocks, the time will be updated
during the first polling event after the polling server updates it’s time.
• The clocks can be configured to update time on their own at a specific date and time.

When you configured Daylight Savings Time to begin back in March, you should have set up these parameters. If you cannot remember how to reset your clocks, or if experienced any problems with the shift to DST in March, or if you need a refresher on how to update hours for employees who are clocked in during the time shift, you can read Empower's guide here. Please note that although the guide is worded for DST to begin, the process is the same either way.

Independence Day - Holiday Class

July 4th falls on a Sunday this year. Have you checked your Holiday class in your EmpowerTime (Unitime) system to make sure you have the correct date? For our 24/7 customers the holiday might be 7/4/2010, but for many it's 7/5/2010 (Monday). Just thought it might be worth a look.

Posted by: Tim Ross

Importing Hours into Sage Abra Payroll with Time & Attendance Software

Dundee Group's customers have a number of different Time & Attendance solutions that they use with their Sage Abra Payroll systems. Some they love and some not so much. Some systems have been built from the ground up to work with Abra and others are designed to work with a variety of payroll systems.

Without an automated Time & Attendance system, payroll staff key hours into Abra using 'Create Auto Time Sheet' or 'Enter/Update Time Sheet'. Both of these processes put records in the table PrPost. The goal of a Time & Attendance system is put those records in automatically with a Payroll Import. These hours are visible in the 'Time Sheet' tab when you run 'Edit/Update Time Sheet' for your payrgroup.

If your system has table-to-table integration with Abra, then it will write your hours directly to the PrPost table. Typically your Time & Attendance software has a process that you will run to write the records directly to Abra. Since the records are added outside of the Abra User Interface, you will need to Reform Indexes when you log into Abra to see your hours in Abra. (If you don't see any hours on the 'Time Sheet' tab you've forgotten this step!)

Other systems will create an import file which can be brought into Abra using an interface which converts the text file into FoxPro records. In this case the process is to 1) create the export file in the Time & Attendance software and then 2) convert and import the hours with your interface. An interface written to run inside of Abra will do your reindexing for you.

Some earnings are paid in dollars rather than hours such as stipends or bonuses. These earnings are visible in Abra on the 'Other Earnings' tab of 'Edit/Update Time Sheet'. If you plan to track these in your Time & Attendance system then you will need to have it update the table PrEarn. If the earning doesn't exist on the employees Earnings panel your interface should create it.

If you don't have an automated Time & Attendance system, we suggest you contact us to learn how Time & Attendance systems can improve your bottom line. If you have an existing Time & Attendance system, Dundee Group can write an interface for Sage Abra Payroll.

Posted by: Tim Ross

Adding Employees and Supervisors to HandPunch Clocks

HandPunch clocks from Recognition Systems, Inc. are a popular choice with the UNITIME Automated Timekeeping System. Many of our own clients have selected these hand geometry clocks for their Unitime System. There are over 100,000 of these devices in the market today. HandPunch Biometric time clocks scan the size and shape of the employees' hands to verify their identities each time they punch.

In order for employees to punch on a HandPunch clock they must be enrolled on the clock. A clock supervisor is someone that you designate to enroll employees. Note the following instructions can be followed once you have an initial clock supervisor set up and if you haven't changed your password menu. If you're enrolling for the first time or have changed your passwords, touch base with us and we can help.

Adding Clock Supervisors (Individuals who manage the time clock)

The following steps are performed by an existing clock supervisor:

• Press CLEAR and ENTER simultaneously
• Input Badge #
• Scan hand for verification
• Input 4 when prompted for Password and press the Enter button
• Select NO when the display prompts ADD EMPLOYEE
• Select YES when the display prompts ADD SUPERVISOR

The following steps are performed by the new clock supervisor

• Input Badge # and press the Enter button
• Place the right hand in the reader and make sure no indicator lights are lit
• Remove hand when prompted
• Repeat hand scan twice more as prompted
• You will receive a successful enrollment message

Press CLEAR to exit the enrollment menu

Adding Employees

The following steps are performed by an existing clock supervisor:

• Press CLEAR and ENTER simultaneously
• Input Badge #
• Scan hand for verification
• Input 4 when prompted for Password and press the Enter button
• Select YES when the display prompts ADD EMPLOYEE

The following steps are performed by the new employee

• Input Badge # and press the Enter button
• Place the right hand in the reader and make sure no indicator lights are lit
• Remove hand when prompted
• Repeat hand scan twice more as prompted
• You will receive a successful enrollment message

Press CLEAR to exit the enrollment menu

Posted by: Tim Ross

Here's a Tip: Pay Class

Many of our customers use the integration between Sage Abra HRMS and UNITIME to keep their UNITIME system populated with employee information. We suggest making the Pay Class field a required field in your custom Abra panel. If not, you may have employees populated in UNITIME without a Pay Class. You will want to make sure that your HR department knows the proper Pay Class for each employee.

If you have employees that keep generating an Invalid Pay Class exception, be sure to change the field in Sage Abra HRMS if you have Abra to UNITIME integration. Otherwise a UNITIME only change will be overwritten by the still blank field in Abra. Because schedules can override a Pay Class you should also check the employee's schedule. If schedules were created with the blank Pay Class, they will generate an error, even if you later correct the Pay Class on the Time Attendance panel. Simply edit the schedule entries and select the correct Pay Class from the drop down.

FingerScan Biometric Time Clocks

With so many requests for an explanation of FingerScan Technology at the recent NYS SHRM conference, I thought our blog readers might also be interested in learning more about the technology.

Unitime has chosen a Capacitive Sensor from ATS as the most reliable technology when gathering employee's finger identification. The technology allows measurement of the finger's ridges and valleys without capturing the actual fingerprint. Thus employees can be assured that their actual finger prints are not being stored and compared to Law Enforcement finger print databases. (Though based on number of jokes we heard from HR Directors about that being a good idea...funny people those HR Directors.)

The sensors on the device apply a low level voltage charge to the skin. The electric field between the sensor and the finger allow the pattern of ridges and valleys to be measured. The measurement takes place at the subdermal layer. I like to compare the process to a mini-ultrasound. The advantage to the technology is that clean or undamaged epidermal skin is not a requirement for the measurement. The system also works well in areas with lower lighting, which can be an issue with optical technology.

I'll be publishing a more detailed expansion on the Dundee Group, Ltd. website.

Posted by: Tim Ross

Dundee Group sponsors New York State SHRM Conference

Dundee Group was a sponsor once again this year of the New York State Society for Human Resource Management Conference. This year the Conference was held July 22nd - 24th at Turning Stone Resort & Casino.

It was great for Julie and I to visit with many of our customers including Celie White from Liberty Enterprises, Mary Ann Bourgeois and Lori Mayer from New York State Credit Union League, Peggy Himes and Amy Pricolo-Brown from Schoharie County ARC, Lorraine Lippert and Jeffrey Rausch from Sullivan ARC, and Deb Trask from Support Services Alliance. Celie proved her luck by winning a Dell laptop from one of the vendors. Congratulations Celie!

Dundee showcased Sage Abra HRMS and UNITIME Automated Time Keeping System at the Solution Center of the Conference. Both systems were well received. It was also gratifying to have people come up to the booth and say "Oh, Abra! We use that! It's great". I had an HR Director from a supermarket chain stop by and though he was not a customer of mine, offered to be a reference for Abra and UNITIME. They use Abra HR and Payroll in conjunction with UNITIME. They use RS3000 biometric time clocks and love them. "We never have any problems with them".

The new ATS Cyber Series 2 Biometric Time Clock was very popular with attendees. With so many questions at the conference on how it works, I think a separate post on the technology is in order so watch this space for more details.

I also want to thank Annette Guido, the Conference Chairperson, and all the volunteers for their hard work on this year's conference. From our perspective, the entire experience was great. The volunteers made sure that we had everything that we needed. Thanks again!

We look forward to seeing you at the Conference next year, when it will be held closer to home in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Posted by: Tim Ross