System Configuration

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This topic is for advanced users

The system configuration is a combination of system wide and feature specific settings.

General

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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.

Effective Date Determination - determines what information to display on the Main tab using the information from the employee's history tab. If the date of a change occurs on or before the date that is selected in this setting, then that change would be considered to be the employee's current setting and displays on the Main tab.

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). Limiting the amount of data loaded for each employee decreases the load time as you navigate from employee to employee.

Pay Holidays – enables you to stop the calculation of all holidays for all employees without modifying the Holidays configuration.

Use Non Zero Shift Count for Holiday Seniority - when calculating holiday seniority, the employee's hire date is used for determining seniority unless this is selected. Once selected, the first non-zero shift count entry in the employee's work pattern tab is used.

Use Non Zero Shift Count for Worked Holiday Seniority - as above but for the worked holiday calculation.

Enforce Reasons – users must select a reason when they make changes to the punches, hours or schedules.

DST Calculation (Spring - minus 1 hour) - hours that pass through the daylight savings time change will calculate one hour less because the employee is not working the one hour between 2am and 3am.

DST Calculation (Fall - plus 1 hour) - hours that pass through the daylight savings time change will calculate one hour more because the employee is working the one hour between 1am and 2am twice.

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 the 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.

Do Not Highlight / Underline Punch Edits - added or edited punches will display identically to punches that were made at the time clock.

Use Cumulative Break Calculator - punched breaks and lunches are generally required to be taken per schedule worked. An employee cannot "double up" and take no lunch in their first schedule and then take a long lunch in their second schedule. This setting overrides this behavior allowing an employee to punch out for multiple lunches in either the first or second shift.

Use Pay Period Approval - users can approve the employee's time cards for the pay period. This stops any further calculation from occurring unless another user makes a change to the time card. Any change to the time card automatically removes the approval. A user can therefore be assured that the time card that they approved is unchanged if it still shows them as the approver.

Defaults

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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.

Latest Active Status is considered Hire Date - If having multiple Active Statuses on a single employee, the software will assume that the hire date is the last Active Status. By default the software assumes that the hire date is the earliest Active Status. (An employee can have only one real Hire Date even if they get rehired multiple times). As soon as an Is Hire Date check box gets selected on the Shift History it overrides any software assumptions and forces the software to use that as the hire date.

Time Clocks

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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). (As an example, if this is set to 1, then the 2nd punch that has the same time as the first punch will be hidden. If the 2nd punch is 1 minute later then it will not be considered duplicate and will be displayed). 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 – the number of days that you have to enter an employee into the software before the enrolled clock ID is considered unused and is removed from the clock. This stops the clock from getting filled up with incorrect numbers.

Unassigned Clock IDs Expiration Date – any clock ID that was last used prior to this date and does not belong to an employee entered into the software will be removed.

Hourly Tasks Minute - clock tasks that run hourly will run when they start in the same minute as this setting.

Allow Multiple Clock IDs - used if it's required for an employee to punch with 2 clock ID's for the same time card. The 2nd clock ID can be used to automatically assign those hours with a different department or other labor level. On the Clock Info tab it will show a number on the top right corner which indicates 1st clock ID or 2nd Clock ID.

Allow Multi Facility All Time Clocks - used if it's required for an employee to punch in another facility which is not their home-facility. On the Clock Info tab it will show a check-box which can be used to display time clocks from other facilities. Please note that the software will not check for duplicate clock ID's accrues facilities. You will need to keep track on your own to make sure that these multi-facility employees have unique Clock ID's which no one else is using.

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 designation of In, Out, Back from Break or Back from Lunch. This setting forces users to designate the punch type in the same manner as is required at the HandPunch.

Using Punching Zones – available when using the HandPunch 3000 and 4000 models, this enables punching restrictions using either schedule based restrictions or the punching zone drop-down on the employee's Clock Info tab.

Remove Unlicensed Employee - will check the License 1 if the expire date is older then today or empty. It will ignore the expire date if the license is set to Not Applicable. This setting only works for a Hand Punch.

Use Multiple Threads – HandPunch communication occurs in a serial manner, in that the software communicates to one HandPunch followed by the next HandPunch and so on. This setting allows the software to communicate to all HandPunches at the same time. However, multiple copies of the RSI communication DLL are required.

No Communication Error Emails - when the software has an error communicating to a time clock, an automatic email is sent out. This setting turns this email notifications off.

Hourly Communication Error Emails - if the clock task gets an error and started in the same minute as the Hourly Tasks Minute, then an email will be sent.

Show Lunch Taken Exceptions - calculates exceptions on out punches for the Lunch questions asked at the HandPunch.

Lunch Not taken Exception When No Lunch Deduction - Generates the Lunch-Not-Taken exception anytime the employee answered at the clock Lunch-Not-Taken even if the software didn't deduct lunch automatically, (the grace minutes below will also be ignored). This is useful if the software is customized to not deduct lunch automatically depending on the employee's answer at the clock.

Lunch Unknown Exception - gets generated if the employee didn't answer at the clock the lunch question.

Lunch Not Taken Exception - gets generated only if both are true, the employee answered at the clock Lunch-Not-Taken AND the software deducted lunch automatically.

Lunch Taken exception - gets generated if the employee answered at the clock Lunch-Taken.

Lunch Not Required Exception - gets generated only if a software user manually sets Lunch-Not-Required on the Punch.

Labor Levels

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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

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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

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Labor level assignments represent a relationship between a labor level combination and other objects in the software such as a base schedule group, a scheduler period 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 length 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

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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

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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

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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

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

Payroll

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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

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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 drop down 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 drop down.

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

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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.

Census

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Prior Scheduler

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Accruals

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Projected Months - How far in advance the software should display projected accruals on the employee's Accrual Detail tab automatically. This affects the software speed when making time card edits, as for every edit all these future accrual months have to be recalculated. To speed up the software, lower the months and instead use the Recalculate-Accruals + Shift button to project a year in advance when needed.

Days In Accrual Year
  • Accrual Periods in Accrual Period Group - This option will take all accrual periods associated with a specific accrual year and then count up the number of days in each period and then sums the total to get the number of days in the accrual year. Using this option will cause your weekly entitlements to potentially change from year to year since it is possible to have an extra period every few years. (Most years will be 52-weeks/26-biweeks or 364 days, but once in a while a year will be 53-weeks/27-biweeks or 371/378 days).
  • Actual days In Calendar Year - This option will count the number of days in that specific calendar year and divide your annual entitlement by that number. Most years will be 365, however a leap year will have 366. Selecting this option will mean that the period entitlement can change from year to year even though the annual entitlement is the same for each year.
  • 364 Days - This option will take your annual entitlement and divide it by 364 days every year. Your period entitlement will never change with this method.
  • 365 1/4 Days - This option will take your annual entitlement and divide it by 365.25 days every year. Your period entitlement will never change with this method.
  • Employee's Accrual Year (Anniv. to Anniv.) - This option is used if you want to see the full entitlement earned as of the employee anniversary (an employee who used no time, will have their exact annual entitlement on the day of the anniversary). When selecting this, the software will release each period's earnings in the next period. The accrual year is obtained by counting the number of accrual periods that are in the employee anniversary year and then dividing the annual entitlement by that number to get the amount earned per period. Using this option will cause your weekly entitlements to potentially change from anniversary-year to anniversary-year since it is possible to have an extra period every few anniversary-years. (Most anniversary-years will be 52-weeks/26-biweeks or 364 days, but once in a while an anniversary-year will be 53-weeks/27-biweeks or 371/378 days). If you are using this method you can never switch between bi-weekly and weekly periods at any point in time.

Do Not Project Current accrual Period - Displays the actual balance for the current accrual period according to what the employee already worked so far in the period even though the period has not ended yet so we don't know what it will actually be on the end of the period. Unlike future periods which show a projected balance. This is useful to be able to see how much the employee accrued so far in the period.

Scheduled Tasks

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Text Messaging

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Remote Server

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See also