Blog Archives
14 Months of maintenance for the price of 12!
- Save time
- Save money
- Improves accuracy
- Enforces pay policies and law compliances
- Control overtime
- Eliminate unauthorized hours
- Return investments very quickly
Follow the below steps to renew your annual maintenance agreement.
- Login
- Go to My Account > My Account
- Select Contract in the Account Information section
- Locate the contract you request to renew and confirm all information in the contract
- Click Renew
Each Smart Clock’s serial number MUST match the Smart Clock’s that are currently in use. If a Smart Clock is no longer in use, uncheck the box on that line item.**Note : If you do not have an online account with SmartClock.com or do not have your login info, please contact Support@SmartClock.com for assistance.
Keeping Time – Volume 2
To Export or Not to Export…
Most businesses have separate Payroll and Time & Attendance systems. This separation allows redundancy of data and allows the company to tailor each system specifically for their needs. This also allows each provider to focus in their area of expertise – instead of a Payroll provider trying to be a Time & Attendance company, and vice versa. Everyone is good at what they focus on.
This then leaves the daunting task of making the Payroll system work with the Time & Attendance system. In almost every system, the Time and Attendance system is feeding data to the Payroll system, in that order. This puts the task of multi-system interfacing on the Time & Attendance solution.
Exporting data from Time & Attendance systems has been around for years – since computer-based systems came on the market. The most robust Time & Attendance systems have extensive reporting capabilities, for job costing, labor tracking, overtime management, and more. Although, without the ability to export the data, the value the Time & Attendance system provides is limited. By being able to export data to Payroll providers, Time & Attendance can be an integral part of a touchless, efficient and automatic Payroll process.
A good Time & Attendance solution will offer exporting to all of the popular payroll providers. The distinction between good and great often comes with new, obscure, or smaller providers. These typically have specialized formats that aren’t able to be pre-configured in any software. This requires a custom-created report. Few Time & Attendance solutions provide this level of exporting flexibility.
Smart Clock offers 20 pre-configured Payroll export interfaces, along with a custom report in ASCII format which allows a user to configure their own reports for payroll import, internal reporting needs or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system import.
Monthly Tip
Use the additional Employee Classification fields to segregate employees beyond Full Time and Part Time:
This can be used on all reports and export interfaces to group data by Employee Classification:
Monthly Trick
Use the “?” on the lower left corner of the Adjustment to Hours window to locate employees faster than scrolling.
Copyright © 2011 Desco Industries Inc. All rights reserved
Phone: (909) 664-9980 Fax: (909) 627-7449 Website: SmartClock.com EMail: Service@SmartClock.com
Keeping Time – Volume 1
Who is Smart Clock?
Originally known as Coastal Data Products since 1973, Smart Clock became the newest division of Desco Industries Inc., on October 21, 2008. Smart Clock is a manufacturer and marketer of computer based automated time and attendance systems. Smart Clock manufactures time and attendance systems out of our Miami, Florida facility.
The Smart Clock software is called Out of the Box Time and Attendance System. This system is designed to interface with the Smart Clock hardware exclusively. Smart Clock provides sales and technical support. A 90-day technical support and warranty includes software installation and database setup, software support, hardware support, manufacturer maintenance and repair should the hardware become inoperable due to factory defects. An Annual Maintenance Plan is also available which includes 1-Year maintenance agreement for a one-time fee, unlimited manufacturer maintenance and repair, unlimited software and select hardware support.
Keeping Time
The Smart Clock Newsletter is an informative newsletter for users of time and attendance systems. Each newsletter will tackle a specific time and attendance issue or subject, and include a tip and trick. Any specifications, features, benefits, or applications will be highlighted in detail. Smart Clock welcomes any questions or comments you have regarding Smart Clock products. Smart Clock has an eCatalog and FAQ available for more detailed information.
Contact Smart Clock:
Phone: (909)-664-9980
E-mail: Service@SmartClock.com
Website: SmartClock.com
…From Dumb Clocks to Smart Clock
Over many years, businesses have had “Punch clocks.” As technology and business needs change, the ways to “punch in” have changed as well. This progression of technology is reminiscent of a recent cell phone TV commercial. The commercial can be seen HERE
#1 – Computerized Data Collection and Tracking: With paper timesheets, a person needs to manually tabulate and total each employees’ hours, lunches, and breaks. This process depends entirely on the person’s own accuracy. When it comes to an employees paycheck, there are two results: accurate or inaccurate. The only option for such an important document, such as a paycheck, is to be 100% accurate. Industry standards estimate that payroll accuracy can be improved up to 3% by upgrading to a computer-based Time and Attendance System. For a business with revenues of $250,000 annually, and 30% payroll expense ($75,000 per year), the savings could be up to $2,250 per year.
#2 – Eliminate “Buddy Punching” – “Buddy Punching” is a phrase that is used to describe a situation when an employee clocks in for work, or lunch, when they aren’t physically ready for work. This can be stopping at the time clock before they park their car, to even calling ahead to another employee and asking them to “clock me in.” This situation erodes all accuracy of the company’s payroll records. The direct cost can be seen in over reported time, thus over reported payroll dollars. The other, seldom considered, effect of this is over reported Worker’s Compensation Insurance premiums. Worker’s Compensation Premiums are based on payroll dollars, usually a percentage per $100 in payroll. With over reported time, employees “pad their paychecks” and also cost the company with Workers Compensation premiums. The indirect cost of this activity is that the employee is figuring out ways to get around company policy for their own benefit. Left unchecked, this mindset can lead to taking other shortcuts in the workplace.
#3 – Ease of Data Access – There are various situations in business that require an efficient lookup of Time and Attendance records. The first situation most people think of is easy: payroll. With timecards, the employer has a responsibility to protect the timecards, since they contain important data. A distraught or disgruntled employee could destroy others timecards or modify them. Beyond payroll cycles, other situations require lookup of time data: Quarterly or Annual employee reviews often use their attendance records as a guide to promotion or raises. Worker’s compensation premiums may be contested by your insurance company, in which case, the insurance company may request the actual time data for the employees to verify the reported dollars. Finally – the various governmental requests for this information make the need for an organized system important; worker’s compensation claims, wage claim investigations, overtime investigations are only a few of the situations that can arise. By having a computerized Time and Attendance System, your company will gain better control of its Time and Attendance records, which has many advantages over the standard “Punch Clock.”
Monthly Tip
The Criteria/Set Selection Criteria section of Out of the Box Software contains powerful features. The selection criteria screen allows the user to create filters that will focus on specific data to be viewed in different areas of the program. These criteria are particularly helpful when used within the CARDS or Adjustments to Hours section of the program, where, with skillful creation of criteria, you can filter the displayed data to focus on what you want to see. For example, you can configure a criteria that will only display employees with missing punches for the previous period.
Monthly Trick
Install Out of the Box Software on a shared network resource, like a server or network hard drive, to distribute the PC Clock application to multiple computers on your LAN. Employees can clock in and out at their computers without having full access to the Smart Clock settings, only the time clock functions.
Copyright © 2011 Desco Industries Inc. All rights reserved
Phone: (909) 664-9980 Fax: (909) 627-7449 Website: SmartClock.com EMail: Service@SmartClock.com
