Employee Time Management - Getting started

1What Employee Time Management does #

Employee Time Management records when people come and go, and what they worked beyond their shift. It keeps every punch - from a punching device or keyed by hand - in one time log, pairs the punches into working days against each employee's shift, and keeps the claims for extra work and overtime that the punches alone can not show.

Time Management does not pay anybody by itself. Its figures become money only when they are recorded as attendance quantities, and a pay bill prices them - see Into payroll below.

2Where to find help #

Help comes in three places, and they carry the same words.

• On every screen: press Help to open the panel beside the form. It covers what the screen is for, a first record step by step, every field or column, the keys, why a list or grid may be empty, and the rules the screen and the server enforce.
• The manual: at the foot of this page, every Time Management screen's help one after another - and the shift and attendance screens it depends on.
• The help search box in the header: type "unmatched", "break hours" or "comm key" and it finds the paragraphs that mention it.

3Where things are - the Employee Time Management menu #

The shift itself - its times, grace and overtime rules - is defined under Attendance & Payroll > Shift Details, and who works which shift under Shift Assignment. Punches only make sense against a shift.

4First-day setup (administrator) #

Do these once, in this order.

1. Make sure the licence includes Employee Time Management and Payroll.
2. On the API server - not the users' computers - install the punching-device SDK: copy the standard SDK's files (zkemkeeper.dll and its companions) and register it once as administrator with regsvr32. Use the 32-bit SDK with a 32-bit application pool, the 64-bit one with a 64-bit pool. Open the device port (4370 by default) between the server and each device; a remote device needs a port-forward or a VPN. Only Device Log Processing and Test Connection need the SDK; every other screen works without it.
3. Time Devices: register each device and press Test Connection (F7).
4. Enrol the employees on each device. The device's user number must match the employee: the server looks it up as the employee's Device ID first, then as their Employee ID. The web Employee Master has no Device ID field, so either enrol staff on the device under their Employee ID, or record Device IDs from the desktop application.
5. Shift Details and Shift Assignment (Attendance & Payroll): every employee needs a shift assigned for the dates, or the Time Log Manager shows nothing for them.
6. Time Management Settings: decide whether extra work and overtime need approval, the break-hours credit, and the reason and quantity lists.
7. Give rights in User Manager, General Transactions tab: the time log, extra work and overtime assignment objects - Find to list, Create to add, Alter to change, Delete, and Approve for whoever approves, cancels punches or sets statuses. Tick the pages on Menu Definition.

5Keys that work on every Time Management screen #

An entry screen opened as a dialog from the Time Log Manager or Extra-Work Approvals has its own keys while it is open: F5 saves it, Esc closes it.

6Time Devices #

A time device record says how the server reaches one reader. Register one per gate, branch or site; local on the network or remote.

Save (F5), then Test Connection (F7) on the saved device. A green panel shows the serial number, firmware, the device's clock, how many users are enrolled and how many records it holds; a red panel names the problem. The test reads nothing from the log and clears nothing.

Two devices may not share a name, nor an address and port. A device can always be deleted; punches already downloaded keep the serial they were stamped with.

7Device Log Processing - bringing the punches in #

1. Tick the devices to read, or tick none to read every Auto read device. Optionally set From date and To date.
2. Press Read Devices (F2). Each device reports what it holds, how many records fell in the window, and how many are New, Duplicate or Unmatched - or why it could not be reached. A device that fails does not stop the others.
3. Look at the preview. New rows are ticked. Duplicate rows are greyed - they are already in the time log (same employee, same second). Unmatched rows are amber - no employee carries that device user number.
4. Untick anything you do not want - a test punch by the installer. Tick All New and Untick All help.
5. Choose whether to Clear each device's log after its punches are saved.
6. Press Save to Time Log (F5) and confirm. The banner reports what was saved and skipped, and which devices were cleared.

• Reading writes nothing. The preview is held in your browser until you save.
• Save is one transaction, and duplicates are checked again at that moment, so two people reading the same device can not save a punch twice.
• A device is cleared only after the save, and only when every punch read from it was saved or already present. An unmatched or unticked punch keeps the device's log.
• Punches carry the device's clock. If the clock is wrong, so are the punches - Test Connection shows the device's time.
• Saved punches are ordinary time-log rows, status Open, marked as device punches.

Saving needs the Create right on the time log. Reload Devices refreshes the list after changes on Time Devices.

8Manual Time Entry - a punch keyed by hand #

A manual punch is the same record a device writes, marked as manual, for an employee who forgot to punch, worked where there is no reader, or punched while the device was down.

1. Pick the Employee - type part of the name or the Employee ID.
2. Check the Date (today by default; another day needs the Change-Date permission) and type the Time.
3. Write a Remark so the punch explains itself later - "reader down, confirmed by supervisor".
4. Press Save (F5). The status reads Open. The evening punch is a second entry.

• A punch can not be in the future, and an employee can not have two punches at the same second.
• Find (F2) lists manual punches only; device punches are managed on the Time Log Manager.
• Only a manual punch can be edited or deleted here. A device punch is cancelled on the Time Log Manager instead.
• Change Status (F7) sets Cancelled, On Hold, Approved and the others your user may set; it needs the Approve right. Editing a punch does not change its status. A cancelled punch stays on file but is ignored everywhere, and can not be edited or re-statused - enter a new one.
• A punch that an attendance entry was generated from is frozen - edit, delete and status alike. The message names the attendance entry; cancel it first.
• A date inside a closed transaction period is refused.

9Time Log Manager - reviewing the days #

The Time Log Manager turns punches into days. Every row is one employee on one date, worked out against the shift that applied.

1. Pick the Employee, or switch All employees on. Set From date and To date - both required.
2. Press Load (F2). One row per day: shift, In, Out, the punches, the hours.
3. A day with an In and no Out: select it and press New Entry (F3) - Manual Time Entry opens for that employee and day. Key the missing time, save, and Refresh.
4. A wrong punch (a 03:00 glitch): select the day, press Cancel Entry, pick the punch and give the reason. It becomes Cancelled and the day is worked out without it.
5. A mistyped manual punch: select the day, Edit Entry (F4), pick the punch, correct it, save.
6. Work beyond the punches: select the day, Extra Work Entry (F6).
7. Break hours to credit: tick Extra Hours auto entry on the days concerned and press Save (F5).

The columns

The break-hours tick

Each tick saved creates one extra-work entry of reason Break Hours for that employee and day, for the hours in setting 206 - Draft when extra work needs approval, Approved when it does not. It is created only if none exists yet; clearing the tick deletes that automatic entry. The entry shows on Extra-Work Approvals with Auto (Break Hrs) ticked, and is approved there like any other.

Cancelling a punch is a status change: it needs the Approve right on the time log (and Alter). A punch an attendance entry was generated from can not be edited or cancelled.

10Extra work and its approval #

Extra Work Entry

An extra-work entry claims work the punches miss: the hour after the device failed, the field visit with no reader, the break worked through. An employee may have several entries on one day, for different reasons.

1. Set the Date (a past date needs the Change-Date permission) and pick the Employee.
2. Pick the Reason type - Break Hours, Urgent Work, Emergency Work, Device Failures and the rest of the list in setting 207.
3. Type the Quantity (more than zero; 1.5 for an hour and a half) and pick the Quantity type - Hour, Day, Month or Unit (setting 208).
4. Write a Description saying why, and press Save (F5).

• With Extra-work entries require approval (204) on, a new entry is Draft and an edited one Altered, and neither counts until Approved. With it off, entries save as Approved.
• Only an Hour entry adds to the day's Extra Hrs; Day, Month and Unit entries are summed as Extra Qty.
• Editing an approved entry sets it back to Altered, so it is approved again before it counts.
• Change Status (F7) sets Approved, Cancelled, On Hold... for one entry; Cancelled is final - enter a new one.
• An employee with extra-work entries can not be deleted from the Employee Master.

Extra-Work Approvals

1. Press Load (F2) - optionally within dates. The waiting entries appear oldest first, with the employee, date, reason, quantity, description and a Status box.
2. Pick Approved or Rejected in each row's Status box, or tick several and press Approve Selected / Reject Selected. Changed rows turn amber and are counted.
3. Press Save (F5) and confirm. Every changed row is written together, stamped with your login and the time.
4. A wrong entry is best cancelled: select it, Cancel Entry, give the reason - written at once - and re-enter it correctly with Extra Work Entry (F6).

Include decided entries lists everything in the range, to review or reopen a decision; Discard puts unsaved changes back. Saving needs the Approve right on extra work (and Alter); only the statuses your user may set are offered, and the server checks each row again. Outside the ERP edition only Cancelled is offered. An approval counts at once on the Time Log Manager; attendance already made is not recalculated.

11Overtime Assignment #

Punches before or after the shift are just early or late until an overtime assignment says they count. One assignment is for one employee on one day.

1. Set the Date and pick the Employee (by name, ledger code or Employee ID).
2. Pick the Eligibility type: Early Hrs. (first punch to shift start), Late Hrs. (shift end to last punch) or Both.
3. Write a Description - who asked for it and why - and press Save (F5).
4. With Overtime assignments require approval (205) on, the assignment is Open; the approver loads it (F2), presses Change Status (F7) and picks Approved. With the setting off it saves Approved.

• One assignment per employee per day - the message names the existing one; modify that instead.
• Editing an approved assignment sets it back to Altered; it pays only once approved again. Cancelled is final.
• The shift still decides the rest: whether the employee is OT-eligible at all, the OT window, and how hours convert (Shift Details).
• While Is Need Finger Authentication for saving Overtime Assignment (89) is on, the web refuses to save - a browser has no finger reader. Save it from the desktop, or switch the setting off.
• A back-dated assignment needs the Change-Date permission; a closed period refuses it.

Only an Approved assignment is read by the database's attendance-from-time-log view.

12Into payroll #

Time reaches pay through the Attendance/Leave/Production Entry of Attendance & Payroll. Only posted attendance entries are priced by a pay bill.

1. Review the period on the Time Log Manager and settle missing punches, extra work and overtime first.
2. On Attendance/Leave/Production Entry, pick the Shift and the date window and press Load Worked Hours. It adds one line per employee per type - the shift's full-day, half-day and overtime types - with the hours summed from the time log.
3. Check the lines, save, and make sure the entry is posted (and Approved, where the settings demand it). The pay bill does the rest.

Punches an attendance entry was generated from by the database's own procedures are frozen - the Attendance SEQs column shows which. To change such a punch, cancel that attendance entry first.

13Who sees what #

Time Devices has no permission object of its own: anyone who can open the page can save a device.

14Settings that change Time Management #

Time Management Settings is the payroll settings editor narrowed to this module. Change a card, press Save (F5); all changes save together. Screens pick up the new value when they next load.

Settings on Payroll Settings that touch time: 89 (finger-print for overtime assignment), 66 (week-off days), 59 (the Time IN/OUT columns on the attendance entry), and the shift rules 186 - 191.

15Reports and outputs #

There is no time-attendance register in the report viewer yet. The worked time reaches payroll's own outputs - the salary register and payslips - through the attendance entry.

16Moving from the desktop #

• The desktop took punches through a separate service or a linked server. On the web, the API server reads the devices itself through the SDK on Device Log Processing.
• The approval settings 204 and 205 default to on, which is how the desktop behaved.
• Punches, extra work and overtime assignments are the same tables the desktop uses, now keyed by status (Open, Approved, Cancelled...).
• The web does not generate attendance from punches on its own; the attendance-from-time-log procedures of the database remain, and the web attendance entry offers Load Worked Hours where the summary function is installed.
• The Employee Master's Device ID is not on the web page yet - enrol devices under Employee IDs, or keep Device IDs in the desktop.
• An overtime assignment that needs a finger-print (setting 89) can only be saved from the desktop.

17If something does not work #

Every screen's Help panel lists the rest, under Rules and integrity and Why is a pick-list empty?.