It is important to make sure that employees are scheduled appropriately.

Employers are looking for ways to better serve their employees. Or at least, keep out of trouble with any governmental labor board.

Here are some of the most common employee complaints about schedules:

• Employers not paying attention to high-traffic times.
• Changing the schedule without notice.
• Dropping employee shifts too close to actual work time.
• Being scheduled for more than one location at the same time.
• Employers making staying over a scheduled shift time mandatory without prior consent.
• Dismissing complaints about schedule as trivial without an investigation.
• Shifts that rotate awkwardly so employee really cannot get proper sleep.
• Needing to come into the workplace to view schedule.

It is very important to keep employees happy with their schedule. The more way employees can help you manage the schedule, the better.

Employees have 24/7 access

The terrific feature set of Time Clock Wizard make it easy for employees to check their schedule at their convenience.

When you take into consideration the time and travel costs for employees to come into the office to check their schedule, it may not directly affect your bottom line.

However, it does affect your employee’s attitude and impression of the workplace.

Viewing Pre-Scheduled Employees

Melissa Ruy, a terrific representative of Time Clock Wizard, has created the video below to help you get a quick view of your scheduled employees.

If you are looking to learn how to create the employee schedule in Time Clock Wizard, see the tutorial about our Employee Scheduler.

Hi everyone. It’s Melissa with Time Clock Support and I’m going to go over how to view your scheduled employees for the current day.

Using Schedule Tab

So I’m on our schedule page and I got here by clicking the Schedule Tab.

I’m going to go ahead and click “Show All Employees” to see who is scheduled. I can locate today and see which employee’s are scheduled for today.

Using Day View

You can also click the Day View.

You’ll see here, it’s May 26^th 2016 and these are the employees that are scheduled today.

View Pre-Scheduled employees with Ease

If you guys have any questions please feel free to contact us on our support Tab and we’ll be happy to help you. Have a great day.

Time Clock Wizard is available to try out for free. This is online software application that your employees can use to reach their information from any location with internet access.

One of the cool features of Time Clock Wizard is that you can write a note to your employees within Time Clock Wizard. This is a extremely helpful feature that allows managers to direct employees better from one location.

For example, Human Resources have paperwork for employees to sign at irregular time frames. A quick reminder to the employee to take care of their paperwork can save the energy of both managers and human resource staff.

The post How to View Who is Pre-Scheduled for Today appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

Customers will quite often request products or services to companies that they respect. The goal of any business is to be the best value for each customer. One of the ways to do this is to appropriately manage budgets to avoid cost over-runs.

In the last article, we covered how to schedule staff using Time Clock Wizard. In this article, we will cover project planning. Knowing what to do for scheduling will help your business become more organized.

What is Project Scheduling?

Project scheduling is a part of total project management. This is a detailed list of a particular project’s activities, deliverables and milestones.

It is a good idea to have a start and end date for each project; with that in mind remember that bottlenecks happen, so be flexible with date allocations.

What is a Plan Schedule Management Process?

In order to bring innovative ideas into reality, there is a process that you should follow. There are many ways to get to your end goals depending on the size, technical difficulty, resources available and willing employees for each project.

Here are different types of project management systems:

• PM Methodologies
• Agile
• Waterfall
• Scrum
• Rapid Applications Development
• New Product Introduction
• Get Things Done
• 5s Methodology
• Packaged Enable Re-Engineering
• Bullet Method
• PRINCE2
• Kanban
• Kondo Method
• Six Sigma
• DMAIC
• Outcome Mapping

A lot of managers have not taken the time to research these various kinds of systems. There are some systems that just use paper and pencil while other methods are software-driven. Find out how to create a schedule online with Time Clock Wizard.

If you want a simple system, then Kanban is the winner. If you have a lot of projects to do at once, then the Scrum method might work better for your team. When your goal is improving customer satisfaction, then six sigma is your best project plan.

What is a Project Schedule Good for?

The project schedule helps managers organize resource allocation (including having enough employees to do the tasks), budget (avoiding overages and overtime), duration of tasks, specific events (pre-launch) and all dependencies.

Another key factor for creating a project schedule is to communicate the chain of command for every given project. This ability to delegate tasks to middle management will free up time for upper management to pursue strategic partnerships.

Project Planning and Scheduling with Time Clock Wizard

One of the really nice features of Time Clock Wizard is that you can easily move employee schedules as needed for your projects. The scheduler within Time Clock Wizard allows you to email your employees about schedule changes.

Employees will be able to easily look online at their schedule the night before a shift. This will free up time for both employees and managers. Employees will also be able to switch shifts with each other so there is no confusion who is supposed to work.

Another feature is the forecasting section. This will allow you to see if your proposed schedule is under- or over-staffed. It is good to know when to avoid overtime charges.

Shift Planning for Projects

When a plan is put to a schedule, the task become manageable in sections. It is important to point out that planning for extra shifts in the beginning of the project will give wiggle-room toward the end of the project.

No matter the method of task planning and schedule management you choose, Time Clock Wizard makes shift planning changes easier than traditional workload management. In fact, workload management software is becoming as much of a staple to business as staplers.

Right now, you can try out Time Clock Wizard for free.

The post What is an Efficient Plan Schedule Management Process? appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

For our Video Friday, Melissa Ruy is giving another tutorial about a service offered with Time Clock Wizard. Melissa is a very helpful staff member who made this video for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0rMnqYu-RI&t=303s

Generating Payroll with Time Clock Wizard

Hello everyone, It’s Melissa with time clock support, and today we’re gonna go over generating payroll.

So I’m on our payroll page and I got here by clicking the payroll tab on the left sidebar.

Select Location

And the first thing you want to do is select your location. If you want to generate payroll for the different locations that you have separately, you can choose it right here [in drop down menu under “select office”].

If you only have one location, you would just keep it at “All”.

And you can generate for all your locations on one payroll or just for your one location.

Select Pay Type

The second thing you want to do is select the pay type. So depending on your business structure, you might have a weekly payroll, bi-weekly, monthly, semi-monthly and we also have a custom option.

Depending what you choose here [select dates pull down menu], these dates will change.

If for any reason you don’t find your date in the drop down here, you can always select a custom and select the date range that you want to process.

So for me, I want to process the semi-monthly payroll; and I want to do the 16th through the 29th of last month.

I click [Generate Payroll Button] but…oops…I get this message saying basically that I already generated payroll for those days which I have. You can see them down here.

How to fix minor Payroll Error

So, down here this payroll list will show you all the payroll that you’ve already generated in the past. And it will always stay here so you can always revert back to it or refer back to it or delete it and redo it  – whatever you need to do.

So since I have already generated payroll for those dates, I am going to go ahead and select the next option which is the 1st through the 15th.

And we have an issue here as well. The reason being it that today is actually March 15th, and we have some employees that are still clocked in,

So in order for you to generate payroll for today, you need to make sure all of your employees are clocked out for the day so that the system can get all the totals of the needs.

So because I’m going on vacation today when I when I leave and I will be back for another week, and I just want to you know pay my employees. And I had a time and then come back and give them the 15th when I get back in town.

And they are okay with that!

Creating Custom Dates

So I go ahead and select custom.

And then I’m put in my date range (for yesterday before), and I click generate payroll.

Payroll errors Found

So the system will automatically let me know if they feel that there may be any errors within the time sheet.

For example, this employee was clocked in for 75 hours and then this one was clocked in for 145 hours. You can go ahead and check out these dates on the timesheet tab and change them if you need to.

But if you feel that they’re correct, you can just override it and click generate payroll.

Deleting Payroll Report

And there we have it! So, we have our payroll and of course you can delete it at any time; that does not mean you’re deleting your timesheets or your employees’ records.

It is just deleting the payroll that you generated.

Printing out Payroll Report

If you want to go ahead and print the report and send it to your account or just look it over, you can select the print button [blue icon far right of row].

You can export it into these different formats [drop down “Select a format”]. I am going to select PDF and [Export].

And there we have it! So, you have all your totals. It just lets you know that overtime was calculated for each week. It also breaks down per employee per day with a total hours worked for.

And that’s it.

Payroll Trouble-shooting Option 1

Example of common Error

Set up Overtime

Customizing employee options – Global

Generate Payroll Trouble-Shoot Option 2

Payroll Conclusion

The post Use these tips to Generate Payroll Report appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

In order to keep up with Video Fridays, here is the video and transcription below fore your ease.

Hi everyone! It’s Melissa with time clock support, and today we’re gonna go over adding employees.

Adding Employees to your Time Clock

So there’s two options here on how you can add your employees:

1) Add Employee Using “Quick Add”

One option is our “quick add”.

So, let’s say you’re super busy and you just hired a new employee and you just want to get them in the system so you can start tracking their hours (and you’ll worry about their settings later.)

Or, you just signed up with us and you just want to get everybody going.

This is a great option.

So, you would just click that little guy up there in the corner with the plus sign [it brings up “Employee Quick Add” box], add the employees information, create a username and a password, enter their email address, and then you can click this box right here [check box for “Email this employee their log in credentials”].

It will automatically send them an email with the link to your time clock’s specific subdomain with their username and password (so that they can login themselves).

You can click save and add more users (if you want to have more people) OR just click save.

2) Add Employee Using Employee Tab

The other way you can do it is on the employee tab.

So, I clicked the employee tab here on the left. And now I can go to “add employee”.

This is also what it looks like after you added an employee to the “Quick Add”.

This is what their profile will look like. So, you have the option to give your employer specific color for color coding.

Adding Employee Profile Images

You can also upload an image of your employee and your employees can do this themselves on their end.

There are certain things that the employee can do on their end but, of course, they don’t have the ability to access the permissions of any kind.

Add each Employee at your Leisure

So, you just go through the process of adding each employee, and then when you’re done, you hit save the next. It’ll take you to the next tab and so on and so forth.

And you just create the settings for each employee. And that’s it; that’s how you add your employees to your time clock.

Please ask Questions if you have Them

So if you have any questions of course you can always click the question mark [?] at the top and and it’ll give you a run-through of the page.

Or you can always go to Live Chat (Monday through Friday from 9 to 5 Eastern time); we’re always here to help you.

We hope you guys are enjoying the time clock. Have a great day.

If you have not had a chance to try out Time Clock Wizard, you can sign up for free trial period. Also check out our article on how to generate payrolls.

The post Use Quick Add to Add Employee with Ease appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

TimeClockWizard.com can provide you  the best free time tracking software on the market, and here are all of the reasons why you should use it to your advantage.

Update: Time Clock Wizard has gotten so popular that we needed to hire employees extra employees for customer service. You can still test the software by using one manager and two employees; this way you can try the mechanics of the software.

The Best Free Time Tracking Software is Totally Free for Testing

You would think that something that is as useful as this software would cost you a great deal of money, yet you can get your hands on it without paying a cent. Test making schedules and creating payroll amounts.

This type of advanced web application generally comes as a free trial or with many not-so-clear conditions that need to be met.

The good thing about this online software is that you will have to pay the same amount whether you use it for five minutes or five years – nothing.

As per tradition, here is an older video for #ThrowbackThursday. Please enjoy this.

We have many tutorial videos that are current. For this Video Friday coming up, we will be featuring a tutorial on how to add employees to your personal time clock.

No Installation is Required

One problem that many people have with some of the time tracking apps that are available is that they require files to be installed on your system.

Not only does this put your system at risk if you are not very familiar with the vendor, but some of these files are quite large and may take up space that you do not have.

Once you sign up for the best free time tracking software, there will never be a need to download anything; everything you need will be immediately available to you at your customized URL.

The Site is Secure

This may not seem like such a huge deal, but the reality is that time tracking sometimes involves using sensitive employee information.

You do not want any of this to become compromised and end up in the wrong hands. Trusting any old site means that you have to trust the company that is in charge of their servers, and sometimes this can be iffy.

TimeClockWizard.com is in charge of their own servers, which means that they are the only ones with access to your information. The best free time tracking software is right here.

Self Registration Is Available

While it may seem simple enough to sign up a few people to the site, this can be quite a task if you run a company that has numerous employees.

This is the best free time tracking software since you are given the option of creating a unique password and giving it to any employee that needs to sign up.

Since this means that they will be able to register when they get a chance, it will free up plenty of time for you to get to all your other responsibilities.

There are quite a few time tracking programs available these days, but none of them have the same wide-range of features offered by TimeClockWizard.com. (Sign up by clicking that link.)

You can get the most out of the program without having to invest any money into it. This is a free, quick and simple way for you to track your employees schedules and payroll without any hassle with the best free time tracking available.

The post Try out the Best Free Time Tracking Software for Mobile Employees appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

This incredible tool does not require the installation of any software. Simply sign up online and enjoy the web application. You can manage your employees from virtually anywhere once logged into the system. This automated time clock uses 128-bit SSL encryption, the best firewalls, and hourly data backups. This company owns their servers, providing an additional layer of peace of mind for customers.

Customizable and Versatile Time Tracking

Time Clock Wizard allows you a great deal of customization, including keeping information on file for each of the users. You can also create your own login screen that has the company logo and a message you have written. If you round clock-in times to certain intervals, you can adjust the online time tracker to do this for you. You can round to the nearest tenth or quarter hour.

Use this automated system to create schedules by the day, week or month. You can also copy one and have it repeat in the next time period. If needed, you can make customizations to it such as bonus pay for working at a different office. A couple of mouse clicks allows you to send a notification to all of your employees once you have the schedule completed.

Switching Shifts Made Easy

One common issue regarding scheduling is when two employees wish to switch shifts. Taking the time to converse with two employees over the matter and making the changes yourself to the schedule uses up your valuable time. With Time Clock Wizard, employees can do this without bothering you. The person who wants the change simply sends the request to the other party. Once approved, the system automatically reflects those changes.

Simple and User-Friendly Dashboard for Employees and Managers

The dashboard is easy to understand and provides notifications such as upcoming employee birthdays and time change requests. At a glance, you can view who is currently working and other important data and information. You can set up the program to alert you via text message or email when employees clock in late or clock out early. Additionally, you can quickly see who is working, when their shift began and which location was used for clock in.

Time Clock Wizard is an Amazing Automated Time Clock

Using this time clock web application also simplifies payroll. Select the dates of the pay period and a complete report is generated for you. This will include data on overtime and employee compensation for things like mileage. You can customize the timesheet calculator according to your state’s laws regarding holiday and overtime pay. You can create detailed reports for your entire staff, simplifying your financial records even further. The amount of time you save on payroll is an incredible benefit you will gain from using Time Clock Wizard.

The post Looking for the Best Automated Time Clock? appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

Don’t let your workplace be a source of frustration or confusion for any of your workers. Create clear understanding and open the lines of communication with the simple implementation of an online time clock system such as Time Clock Wizard.

Time Management For Employees With These Features

This easy-tod-use system makes it simple to add users, even allow users to self-register into the system, making the process streamlined and smooth. Below is a list of key features from Time Clock Wizard that make business management easier than ever.

Robust Online Scheduling

Creating and customizing the employee work schedule has never been easier. Let the employees take a more active approach with the ability to submit time off request, initiate a schedule change with another employee, or even make a correction to a past time sheet. This makes it easier for workers to communicate their needs with management.

Payroll Generation

As employees use this system to clock in and out on a daily basis, all the hours worked are automatically recorded in the system. All you have to do is specify pay rates for employees and any parameters pertaining to overtime or holiday pay, etc. – that’s it. Time Clock Wizard does the rest. With a simple click of a button, payroll reports are generated.

Employee Time Tracking

Treating this system the same way you would an actual time clock, employees are responsible for logging in and clocking in for work just as they would with a time clock. To insure employees are in the correct location to work, you can designate only certain computers or IP addresses as “ClockPoints” – so they can only use these machines to log in.

Mobile Application

In our world of individuality, not every job or workplace is the same. In fact, many workers are used to working on the go or even remotely. With the Time Clock Wizard mobile app, you and your employees can access the system from any device with internet connection. You even have the freedom to allow workers to clock in and out from mobile devices when working out of a traditional office setting.

Sign up for this free time management system today and have instant access to your own, customized and secure account.

The post DIY Time Management for Employees appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

Time Clock Wizard Can Do So Much

This time tracker software has many features that allow you to easily schedule your employees, monitor their actions, and perform payroll tasks. Unlike some systems that require downloading software onto a specific computer, with Time Clock Wizard, you can access this time management application from any computer with internet access. It is compatible with all operating systems so you will never have to worry about finding and using your data.

DIY Intergration

You can manually enter the data for each of your employees if you want. However, you can provide them with a self-registration password so they can do it themselves. This password will allow them minimal access to the application. You can customize the data that the system requests and records, so that you have exactly what you need on hand.

Customized Schedules

When you are ready to create a schedule, you can customize payment rates per employee, a certain shift, certain job function or whatever your need. For instance, the pay rate may differ depending upon the job for the day. The system can also be set up so that you can copy a schedule and re-post it. Even if you do not want the exact same schedule repeated each week, having one already filled in that only requires minor adjustments can save you time.

Web Based for Easy Access

Once you have completed the schedule, you can post it online. So that your employees do not have to repeatedly check in to see if it is posted, you can alert them via email or text message. This also guarantees that they have been notified of when they are supposed to work.

What Is The Most Requested Feature in a Time Management Application?

From time to time, people want to change their schedule. Switching shifts with another employee is a common thing but, creates extra work for the person in charge of scheduling. However, the Time Clock Wizard can do it instead. The employee who wants to switch sends a message to the other person through the system. If the change is approved by all involved parties, it will automatically make the alterations to the schedule. This saves you the time and assures that employees have committed to their scheduled shifts.

Easy Payroll Requests

You can create payroll reports that include overtime and reimbursement with this online time clock. You can also use it to search for people who consistently do not clock in on time. Employees can view their own reports and you may create a report displaying an overview of all employees. Human Resources will thank you.

Maintaining smooth business operations includes making certain that your scheduling and payroll systems are up-to-date. This one allows you to perform these tasks with automated ease so you can focus on other aspects of your company.

The post Using This Time Management Application appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.

Without accurate records of employee attendance and working hours, it becomes difficult to pay them properly and harder to bill clients for their services. Even though maintaining reliable timekeeping and attendance records is supremely important, few companies can afford to devote more resources to this process than are absolutely necessary.

The Challenges of Scale and Complexity for Timekeeping and Attendance

The timekeeping challenges facing a modern workplace are twofold. One is simply a matter of scale: Companies with hundreds of employees still need to track what all of their employees were doing, and when. At large scales, it’s not so much the actual logging of time that gets difficult; it’s the organizing of the records, so they remain useful.

Companies with a wide range of employees working in different ways, at different times, for different rates, face a further challenge. Putting the burden of accuracy on the employee eats up time that they could be using productively. Leaving the entire problem up to the accounting department, though, is a sure way to lose any hope of accuracy.

The Value of an Online Solution

Modern technology offers some great tools for overcoming these challenges. Online timekeeping software can take a lot of the guesswork out of timekeeping and attendance, and the right programs are incredibly easy to use. A cloud-based Internet solution like Time Clock Wizard shows off the full potential of modern timekeeping.

Know When And Where

Accurate attendance records are easy to create, because employees can be restricted to clocking in only at approved locations. For field employees, GPS-enabled phones and mobile devices make it equally easy to record exactly where an employee clocked in, as well as, when.

Clean Interface For Recording

Where a full-featured program like Time Clock Wizard really shines is in its simplicity. The rules governing timekeeping are input once by the accounting team that handles the payroll. All employees see is what they need: A clean interface for clocking in and clocking out, and simple options to handle special cases like expenses or mileage.

Simple Communications

Built-in communications features mean that employees can help the payroll team resolve errors right inside the timekeeping software, keeping all associated data inside the system.

Saving Time by Keeping It Properly

Although it can take some time to set up a smart timekeeping like Time Clock Wizard properly, the results are well worth the effort. Generating standard payroll printouts becomes a task that takes nothing more than a mouse click once Time Clock Wizard knows all the proper rules. Managers can quickly survey their subordinates’ time records using real-time dashboards, making it easy to see who’s working on what and where they are.

With a really well-constructed implementation, Time Clock Wizard even becomes a scheduling program, forecasting future work as well as recording work that’s already been done. A standardized, fully integrated online solution takes almost all of the guesswork out of the timekeeping process.

The post Accurate Timekeeping and Attendance Records Tools appeared first on Time Clock Wizard.