TimeClock





Version 2.0






Copyright (c) 1992
Donald M. Crossman
INTRODUCTION

Welcome to TimeClock.
Timeclock is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, computer software program
designed specifically to help small businesses keep employee and
project time records.

TimeClock is a super-accurate alternative to spending thousands of
dollars on punch clocks, or the highly inaccurate method of having
employees write down their times.

Easy to Learn
TimeClock is simple to learn and use, both for the employee and for
supervisors. You simply assign each employee a four digit ID Number,
(such as the last four digits of their Social Security No), and that
is all the employee ever needs to know.

Network Capable or Stand-Alone
TimeClock is fully network capable, yet will run as efficiently on a
single (stand-alone) MS-DOS compatible machine.


Highly Accurate
Time records are kept to the nearest 1/10,000th of an hour (0.36
seconds) and are reported in both hh:mm:ss and decimal time (hh.xxxx)
formats, making for highly accurate, defensible, and easily calculated
payroll records.


SHAREWARE

This computer software program is NOT free! Though fully functional,
if you continue to use TimeClock after a reasonable evaluation period
of 30 days, you must remit $75 (US) to:

Donald M. Crossman
57 Albany Street
Cazenovia, NY 13035

New York State locations must add 7% sales tax.



BEFORE STARTING

A word about program conventions, primarily concerning numeric
entries. Throughout TimeClock, whenever the program is asking for an
entry that can only consist of numbers (dates, times, etc.); the
numbers will "fill" from right to left. This precludes the entering
of leading zeros. Also, at no time should "dividers" such as '/' for
dates and ':' for times be typed by the user. These will always be
supplied by the program.

All other normal text type entries, will be accepted in regular left-
to-right manner. Editing keys for text entries include: Ctrl-Home
will erase the entry and place the cursor in position #1. Ctrl-End
will erase from the current cursor position to the end of the entry.
Home, End, Delete, and Backspace will operate as expected. Insert
will toggle insert/overwrite mode.

Every attempt has been made to make this program as self-explanatory
as possible. In other words, you should not need to make great
reference to this documentation, and should be capable of getting the
program up and running after only reading this section and "First
Time Through" below. You may wish to duplicate the "Normal Operation
For Employees" page and distribute it to your employees.

There are, however, many small "hidden features" that make the
Management operations of this software much more convenient and easy
to use. Without reading this manual thoroughly, you might struggle
along for months until you stumble upon one or more of these features!
In general, if there is any question the program asks that you don't
immediately know the answer to, press ENTER without making an entry.
This will usually bring up a list of possible entries for you to
choose from. If this doesn't seem to work, try making an obviously
erroneous entry.


DISCLAIMER

The Author makes no warranties whatsoever, implied or otherwise,
concerning the usefulness, compatibility, or any other aspect of this
computer program.


COMPATIBILITY WITH EARLIER VERSIONS

Version 2.0 of TimeClock is, regrettably, not compatible with earlier
versions of this program. This is due to the addition of numerous new
features, and different methods of processing. Registered users, or
those upgrading and registering at the same time, may request, at no
additional charge, an easily implemented upgrade package.
INSTALLATION

To install TimeClock on your Hard Disk, place the distribution
diskette in your A: diskette drive, and type:

a:

Then type: install drive:\directory[\subdirectory][...]


where drive: = target drive, and \directory = directory in which to
install TimeClock. For example, to install TimeClock in C:\TC, enter
the following:

a:install c:\tc

The above may also be operated from your B: diskette drive, if necessary.

FIRST TIME THROUGH

Upon initial installation, you will see several sub-screens, or
"windows" pop up in rapid succession. This is TimeClock responding to
the fact that there are no employees, and no Supervisor, defined as
yet. You must assign an access number to the Supervisor before any
further action can be taken. If you press ESCAPE now, the program
will terminate execution.

Enter any four, or less, digit number for Supervisor access and press
ENTER. REMEMBER THIS NUMBER! It will be the ONLY way you can access
the Supervisor's Menu from now on! For security, you may change your
access number at any time. Think of it as a password or PIN.

Once you've entered your Supervisor Access No., you will see:

Supervisor ****

displayed as the first entry on the employee listing. Notice that the
Supervisor's ID Number is not displayed. Press INSERT to add another
employee, and repeat as necessary. You may add Departments while
adding employees at this time. Simply key an erroneous entry for any
employee's department, and you can add a new department "on the fly."
When you have finished entering employees, press ESCAPE to return to
the Supervisor's Menu, and ESCAPE again to return to the main screen.

Though you may do so at any later time, if you wish to enable the Job
Costing feature of TimeClock at this time, enter your Supervisor's
Access No. to return to the Supervisor's Menu. Select "Job Costing"
by moving the highlight bar or pressing 'J'. The bottom two
selections of the Supervisor's Menu will change to the Job Costing
Menu. Select "Add/Edit Jobs," and select 'Y' to answer the question,
"Enable Job Costing?"

Now you may define any jobs you wish to have active. Press ESCAPE
twice to return to the main punch-in screen.

TimeClock is now ready to go to work!

NORMAL OPERATION FOR EMPLOYEES

To punch in or out, the employee simply runs TC from the DOS prompt
(you may wish to write a batch file or add TimeClock to your menu
system).

Enter 'TC' at the DOS prompt.

The program will ask you for your ID No. The first time you punch in,
TimeClock will default to "Currently 'Out', punching 'In'."
Thereafter, TimeClock will inform you of your current status (In or
Out) and prompt accordingly. You may override this prompt by using
the left or right arrow keys. When you have highlighted the correct
action, then press ENTER. The program will then be ready for the next
employee to punch in or out. To exit the program and return to DOS
(or your menu system), you should press ESCAPE.

JOB COSTING

If your employer has enabled the Job Costing option, upon punching OUT
you will either be asked if you are going to lunch, or you will be
required to account for the time you spent on the job.

If you are not going to lunch, you will be shown how many hours you've
worked today, and asked for a Job Number. Press ENTER to pop up a
list of available jobs, select the job you worked on, and press ENTER.
Then type in how much time you spent on that job. That amount of
time will then be deducted from your total for the day. Repeat this
process as necessary to account for your entire day.

HELP

Online, context-sensitive help is available throughout TimeClock by
pressing F1. Press ESCAPE to exit the help screen and return to
normal operation.

MANAGEMENT OPERATION

By entering your Supervisor's ID No. at the "Employee" prompt, you
will proceed to the "Supervisor's Menu" which contains the following
selections:

Time Report
Edit Time Stamps
Add/Edit Employees
Note to Employee
Departments
Purge Old Time Records
Set Date & Time

Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight your selection and press
ENTER, or just type the first letter (T, E, A, P, or S).


Time Report

This will yield a report of all employee activity over whatever period
of time you specify. Dates specified as delimiters for this report
are INCLUSIVE. To use the pop-up calendar feature of TimeClock, press
ENTER while either the "From:" or "To:" prompts reads "00/00/00".
Then use the up, down, left, right, PgUp, PgDn, Ctrl-PgUp, and Ctrl-
PgDn keys to move the calendar highlight to the needed date. Then
press ENTER. Defaults for the calendar are one week ago for the
"From:" prompt and yesterday for the "To:" prompt.

After you have selected delimiters for the Time Report, use the left
and right arrow keys to select "Screen, Printer, or File." Then enter
a valid DOS filename, or select the desired printer port, LPT1, 2, or
3 as prompted. TimeClock will "remember" which printer port you
selected previously, and automatically highlight that selection.

You may then select whether you want a "Detail" or "Summary" report.
The Detail report lists all employee activity, with daily totals,
while the Summary report lists only the total hours worked for each
employee within the specified date range.

Finally, you have the option to print all employees who have shown
activity within the date range, or you may run a report for a single
employee. For instance, you may wish to find out how many hours a
certain employee has worked year-to-date. Simply use "01/01/91" for
the Starting Date, and the current date for the 'Ending Date.' Select
"Summary" and and type in the employee's ID Number. Once the report
is processed, you will have the option of running another report, or
press ESCAPE to return to the Supervisor's Menu.

If employees have been assigned to Departments, the Time Report will
automatically be sorted by Department, with unassigned employees, if
any, listed first. Depatmental totals will also be shown at the end
of the report, along with Report totals.

Edit Time Stamps

Here you can easily make corrections to any employee's "timecard."
Every employee will, at one time or another, forgetten to punch in or
out, or in some way think of a method to mess up your records!

This is also where you key in Vacation, Holidays, and Sick Time.
Keying these special entries differs slightly from adding, editing,
and deleting normal time stamps. Instead of typing in an actual time-
of-day, enter the NUMBER OF HOURS you wish to pay the employee for,
with a maximum per-entry limit of 80 hours exactly. For example, to
pay an employee for 40 hours of vacation, type in 40:00:00. These
special entries will be listed separately on the Time Report.

Time Stamps are listed in a scrolling table in date/time order, with
the latest entry highlighted initially. Use the up, down, PgUp, PgDn,
Home, and End keys to move up and down in the listing. When you find
the problem, use the INSERT key to add a new time record, ENTER to
change a record, or DELETE to erase a record. When any of these three
keys are pressed, an "edit window" will drop down below the scrolling
table. Complete the four (4) fields with the ENTER key to make your
change permanent. Pressing the ESCAPE key will return you to the
scrolling table without saving. Press ESCAPE again to return to the
Supervisor's Menu.

Add/Edit Employees

See "First Time Through" above. Note: though you have the ability to
change any employee's ID No. at any time, if you do so, that employee
will then be considered a "New Person" by the program. Here is also
where you can make any employee either "Active" or "Inactive." You
cannot delete any employee who has time records on file. You must
either purge those records (see below), or manually delete all of that
person's time records. Pressing the DELETE key on any such employee
will inform you that you cannot delete them, and prompt you to make
that person Inactive instead.

F10 toggles between Active and All employees.

This window will also show you the current status of each employee on
file (In or Out) and if that employee has had any TimeClock activity
on that day. Otherwise it will show the last date that employee
worked.

Note to Employee

You may use this option to leave a note to a part-time employee, whom
you don't see regularly, call a meeting of employees in one
department, make an announcement to every employee in your
organization, call multiple individuals to your office, or any number
of other uses.

The employee will see any note addressed to him or her the next time
they punch in or out, and only the employee can delete any note
addressed to him or her.

Departments

Define Departmental classifications within your company. Perhaps more
convenient, however, Departments may be defined "on the fly" while
adding new employees. To do this, enter an undefined department
number other than zero (0) when adding or editing and employee.

Job Costing

Select either "Add/Edit Jobs" or "Edit Job Time." The former is
explained previously in "First Time Through." Editing Job Time is
accomplished, as in other areas of the program, by inserting new
records, etc., in a scrolling table. You can set up very specific
delimiters for your table based on dates, job numbers, and/or
employees.

Once you've set up your table, you can print a report by pressing F7.

Purging Old Time Records

This selection should be used with great care! Once time records are
purged, they are gone forever.

To purge old time records, type in the date you wish to keep records
from. For example, if you want to purge all your 1990 time records,
type in "01/01/91".

Network users must ascertain, before running this procedure, that no
one else is using TimeClock. The program will be unavailable for use
by others until this procedure is completed.

Depending on both your hardware (what computer you're using) and the
size of your data files, this procedure will take anywhere from a few
seconds to several minutes to complete its task.


Set Date & Time

This option will open a window allowing you to reset your computer's
date and time. If you have chronic problems with your computer's
clock and/or calendar, or if your computer is of an older type (XT or
PC class) that has no built-in date & time keeping ability, this
should be run at the start of each working day.


SUPPORT

Support for TimeClock is available via CompuServe Electronic Mail, by
Fax, Telephone, or US Mail at the following addresses:

CompuServe Mail 73325,1127
Fax (315)655-4799
Telephone (315) 655-8400 (during business hours EST)
US Mail -- see "Shareware" above