System Configuration

The system configuration includes many different types of settings. Some settings affect the way the software works overall, while other settings may only apply to one specific feature of the software.

General

Hour Format – times are displayed either in 24-hour format (also known as military time) or in 12-hour format (AM/PM). The hour format is enforced across the complete system and is not changeable on a per user basis.

Employee Name Format – an employee's full name is a composite of the employee’s first name, initial and last name. This setting is used to specify if the full name should be in the format of Last, First or First, Last.

Employee Data Load Date – time card data before this date is not pulled from the database unless the Display Older Data button is selected (Home tab / Employees group).

Pay Holidays – if turned off, then the software does not perform any holiday-based calculations of both worked and unworked time. This setting is provided to stop the calculation of holidays for all employees if holidays are generally banked and not paid automatically.

Enforce Reasons – users can select a pre-defined reason when they make changes to the punches, hours or schedules. Enforce Reasons requires the user to select a reason and they cannot add, edit or delete punches, hours or schedules without a reason.

Using Pay Rates – pay rates will be displayed throughout the software provided that the user has the authorizations to view pay rates. This is used for gross calculation of dollars.

Close Pay Periods Past Pay Date – pay periods prior to the previous pay period are automatically closed to all users except those with the Administrator role.

Use Start Date of Earliest Open Pay Period for Effective Date – when determining an employee’s “current” information, the start of the previous pay period is used as the effective date, even when this pay period is closed. This setting will use the start date of the current pay period once the previous pay period is closed.

Defaults

Defaults for Pay Type and Shift are required because calculations cannot be assigned to an unknown pay type or to an unknown shift. The other defaults are required on an “as needed” basis. For example, Available will not be a selection in Schedule Patterns if the Available Status Type has not been set.

Time Clocks

Explicit Punching – explicit punching at the time clock and explicit punching in the software do not have to be identical. If explicit punching is turned on in the software, then punches entered in the software always require the explicit designation of In, Out and Back. This setting forces users to designate the punch type in the same manner as is required at the HandPunch.

Duplicate Punch Minutes – punches by the same employee that occur within this entered number of minutes from each other are considered to be "duplicate." The first punch of 2 or more punches that occur within this duplicate punch window is displayed, while the other punches are hidden (but not discarded). If explicit punching is being used, then the duplicate punch setting only applies to punches of the same punch type.

Unassigned Clock IDs Expiration Days – when an employee is enrolled at the time clock, and there is no employee in the software that matches the clock ID, the software does not remove the hand information from the clock for the number of days specified here. The default is 30 days. If after 30 days the clock ID is not assigned to an employee, then the software will stop sending that employee’s information to the clock.

Using Punching Zones – available when using the HP4000, punching zones are a simplified method of schedule-based restrictions. An employee is assigned to a punching zone. A punching zone consists of three allowable time zones (start time / end time).

Use Multiple Threads – HandPunch communication usually occurs in a serial manner, i.e. one HandPunch after another. This setting allows the software to communicate to all HandPunches at the same time. However, each Time Clock Group must have a unique value for its Rsidll instance setting, and a copy of the rsidll32.dll file created, for example, if the instance number is 1 then the file rsidll01.dll must exist. Multiple instances of the RSI communication DLL are required, because the manufacturer supplied DLL is not thread safe and can only be accessed by one thread at a time (within the same process). Please note that the resource that is being used for communication must be unique to use threads. For example, if there are two HandPunches communicating via modem, then threads cannot be used unless there is a dedicated outgoing modem for each HandPunch.

Labor Levels

Defines the labor levels being used in the software. If you need to add more labor levels and you wish to position them above existing labor levels, then use the Sort Order to make them appear in the desired order.

Labor Levels Used – the number of labor levels used in the software.

Labor Level ID – the short identifier or number for this labor level.

Labor Level Description – a longer description or name for this labor level.

T S R B Check boxes

Time based labor levels are the labor levels that will be used in the time cards and what the user working on time cards needs to see. Department is generally always a time based labor level.

Scheduling labor levels are the labor levels that are available in the employee's schedule pattern. The Unit or Floor labor level is generally always a scheduling labor level, and if cross-departmental scheduling is allowed, then Departmental would also be a scheduling labor level.

Restricted scheduling labor levels enforce that the choice of the available labor level items in the schedule patterns is restricted. For example, if Department is a scheduling labor level, then you most likely will have restrictions on what departments an employee can work in, based on their home department.

Budgeting labor levels are the labor levels that are visible when entering the budgets. Typically, these are a budgetary labor level, and the Floor/Unit labor level.

Labor Level Designations

These settings are similar to the Defaults except that these apply to the labor levels. The software has the expectation that certain labor levels are defined as representing, for example, the departmental level. An example of this is payroll interface. The payroll file may require placing the department ID in the file, therefore the software needs to know explicitly what labor level represents the departments.

Labor Level Assignments

Labor level assignments represent a relationship between a labor level combination and other objects in the software such as a base schedule group or another labor level.

The base schedule group assignment is used to define the base schedules that will be available to choose from, when entering an employee's schedule pattern. The labor levels selected in the schedule pattern will link to a base schedule group, and this base schedule group provides the selection of base schedules.

The scheduler period group assignment is used to link a budget group to a scheduling period to accommodate employees being scheduled for different periods.

The "allowable scheduling labor levels" are used in conjunction with the Restricted setting in the Labor Levels tab (see above). Based on the employee's home labor levels, the software can determine the allowable scheduling labor levels. For example, an RN can be scheduled to cover an LPN position.

The "one to one" assignment allows one labor level item to be linked to another labor level item (items from different labor levels). For example, a department can be linked to a budget group. If you change an employee's department, then you automatically change their budget group.

Pictures / Signatures

Display Pictures – allows pictures to be selected and displayed on the employee main tab.

Display BadgeMaker Pictures – displays the pictures that are used by the BadgeMaker software in the employee main tab.

Picture Folder – the folder where all pictures are placed so that they are visible for all users.

Display Signatures – allows signature capture from signature pads from Topaz Systems.

Shift Count Lookup

The values for the calculated or default amount of hours paid based on an employee’s shift count. This is used when there is not a proportioned sliding scale of hours paid based on the employee’s shift count.

Health

These settings allow health requirements to be required on a repeating time frame such as annually, only required one time, or not required at all.

Exceptions

Toggles exceptions on or off for Break Deductions, Under Shift and Over Shift count.

Payroll

Payroll File Path – the default path and file name that the payroll file will be created in.

Alternate Payroll File Path – if you are using two different payroll interfaces, then for one payroll interface, you will need to select the option to use the alternate payroll settings. The payroll file will then be created using this path and file name.

External Payroll Import Date – if external payroll information is being imported into the software, then this is the date that the information has been imported to.

Company / Client ID – if your payroll file requires an ID based on your company, then this is where that ID is set.

Allow Pre Paid Hours – provides an additional checkbox when adding Other Hours that can be used for filtering a payroll file. This is typically used when a manual check is issued immediately and a record is required in the software. However, these hours will not be needed in a future payroll file, because this would result in a double payment.

Allow Check Number – provides a check number field when adding Other Hours. This field can then be used to filter a payroll file, pass the check number in a payroll file, or create multiple payroll files (based on the check number). The method of utilization depends on the payroll export being used.

Scheduling

Start Date – The start date is used as the default start date for new employees that are assigned a schedule pattern type, instead of the employee’s hire date.

No Schedule Pattern Text – if an employee is not assigned to a schedule pattern, then that day will show as a blank line. This setting allows for some test to show rather than no text. After selecting the dropdown in the Shift column in schedule patterns, pressing the first letter of this text will remove the schedule pattern. This can be quicker than selecting the first line from the schedule pattern dropdown.

Sort Schedule Pattern Dropdown with Default Schedule First For Shift – when using keystrokes to select the schedule patterns, having the default schedule as the first for each shift will allow you to use a single keystroke to assign the default schedule for the shift.

Scheduler

These settings are used in the layout and display of the Scheduler screen.

The color settings dictate the colors used for the cell borders or text, based on the schedule, punch or exception information.

The Scheduler column count determines how many employee information columns the Scheduler will display, and what the column uses for its caption, width, and the information it will display. The Filter setting allows this column to be used for filtering only and not display as a column.

The column widths for the employee information and availables should match so that the date columns are aligned.