Time Tracker User Manual

Schedule Automation

See Also: Live Schedules, Schedule Pattern

Schedule Automation is the process for automatically generating Live Schedules. The system automatically copies Schedule Pattern bookings and places them into each new Live Schedule. As a result, Live Schedules are created consistently and effortlessly.

How is this done?

Each time a Schedule Pattern is applied to a new Live Schedule, Time Tracker conceptually creates a large calendar by appending multiple copies of the Schedule Pattern side by side into the future. The bookings that cover the new Live Schedule period are then copied and stored into the new Live Schedule.

In this manner, Time Tracker is able to automate the creation of a Live Schedule based on the patterns or cycles of an organization.

More than just scheduling

With each new Live Schedule generated, the system copies the bookings for the matching days from the Schedule Pattern and assigns actual dates. As it assigns a date to each booking, it checks for any conflicts with other scheduled events (e.g. vacation, time off, employee's termination date and statutory holidays...). If there is a conflict you will be notified and the appropriate action is taken (i.e. booking will not be copied, Comp time may be assigned…).

Note: Any changes you make to the Schedule Pattern will have no effect on pre-existing Live Schedules. When you make changes to the Schedule Pattern, your changes will only be reflected in any new schedules you create from that point on.


Example:

An organization has a policy of rotating their employees to a new shift every 2 weeks. A given employee might work 2 weeks of 'Day' shifts, followed by 2 weeks of 'Afternoon' shifts, and followed by 2 weeks of 'Night' shifts. It would take 6 weeks to repeat this cycle. This organization has a 2 week pay period and they want to plan and post their schedules every 2 weeks.

In our above example the organization chose to have 2 week long live schedules to match their pay periods. They chose a 6 week Schedule Pattern to match their 6 week cycle. As each live schedule is created, the system automatically retrieves the correct 2 weeks from the Schedule Pattern. Each live schedule has the employees cycled appropriately for 2 weeks on the 'day' shift, 2 weeks on the 'evening' shift and 2 weeks on the 'night' shift as defined by the pattern in the Schedule Pattern.

Note: When your schedule contains cycles or patterns of different lengths, you may want to create separate Schedule Patterns for each cycle length. When a live schedule is created, the copy process will be done for each Schedule Pattern you have defined. The system will always retrieve the correct portions of each of the Schedule Patterns for the dates of the live schedule.

Example:

If the above organization also had administration staff that worked a constant Monday to Friday pattern, then we would add a second Schedule Pattern that was only one week long. The administration staff would be copied into the live schedule repeating every week

Organizations

An organization is separate scheduling entity with its own configuration, its own Schedule Patterns, its own Live Schedules and its own employee list. Each organization is completely independent of any other organizations defined in the system. Activity in one organization has no effect on any other organization.

Time Tracker supports multiple organizations. You may add and subtract organizations.

Example:

A nursing home might have medical staff, maintenance staff and kitchen staff. Each group of employees is independent of the others. Each group has their own locations, their own Schedule Patterns and shifts. In such an environment it would make sense to configure three separate organizations that are scheduled independent of the others.

Advanced Concepts

Advanced Concepts outlines some of the extended capabilities of Time Tracker.

Report Distribution

See Also: E-Mail Reports

Time Tracker reports may be distributed to the appropriate recipients in a variety of different ways. Reports may be printed and simply handed out to staff or posted in the hall. Reports may be saved as; HTML, PDF or Microsoft Word files. Such files may be directly e-mailed to staff, posted online or saved on a network server where all network participants can access them

The advantages of publishing your reports online are obvious. Anyone with an internet connection will be able to have access to the most recent published reports and schedules - anywhere and anytime.

You can set up your own web site. You can even do it for free and you do not have to be that tech savvy. There exist, numerous service providers that free of charge will allow you to build and design your own web site. They even provide web design tools that deliver a great deal of flexibility and sophistication.

To demonstrate online report distribution we have put together a simple site: http://sites.google.com/site/schedulingsoftwaregeneral

Unavailable Booking Times

See Also: Shift Maintenance, Location Maintenance, Options

Unavailable Booking Times are the times that employees are unavailable for work. If you book an employee for work that coincides with the times that they are unavailable, you will receive a warning message.

Be sure that you are familiar with the Availability feature in Employee Maintenance and the application of Schedule Pattern(s). They often are preferable methods.

This feature is implemented by scheduling each employee's 'unavailability'. It can be recorded in the Schedule Pattern, if it is a pattern that is expected to repeat over time (i.e. every Monday the employee will be at night school). Or, it can be recorded in the Live Schedule, if it is a more random type of event (i.e. weddings, family functions, etc.).

The best method for recording unavailable times is to define a shift and actually call it 'Unavailable'. Next, define a location and also call it 'Unavailable' (remember that locations are merely a category to help you organize your schedules). Include the new 'Unavailable' shifts and locations in your schedules. Time Tracker allows you to filter schedules based on 'shifts' and 'locations'. You may include or exclude the unavailable bookings as desired.

When booking the unavailable employee times, book them into the location and shifts called 'unavailable'. Leave the Hours Worked equal to zero (obviously, no hours are to be worked). If the system is setup to record the start and end times (see Options) - enter the appropriate times. Any bookings that conflict with 'unavailable' times, will now receive a warning message.

If your system is not setup to use start and end times (see Options), be sure that you have selected the option 'Warn when employee is booked for multiple shifts'. This way, Time Tracker will warn you when an employee is already booked for the 'unavailable' shift.

Import / Export

See Also: Export - Work Hours, Import - Employees

It can be advantageous to share information between Time Tracker and other applications. Time Tracker has the capability to Import Employee data and to Export Booking information. With the use of Microsoft Excel, Time Tracker is able to read and write to Excel spreadsheets.