Time Tracker User Manual

System Help

This chapter contains help for each system component.

The help topics in this chapter are subdivided and arranged to be the same as that of the Time Tracker main menu. There is a direct relationship between the "System Help" sections and Time Trackers menu pads. The topics within each section relate to the individual menu items.

Files Menu Pad

Change Password

This form allows the currently logged in user to change their own password.

In order to change your password you must first type in your existing password. If your existing password is correct the new password fields will be enabled. You must then type in your new password then retype it in the confirmation field.

Import / Export

Importing and Exporting enables Time Tracker to interface with other applications.

Import - Employees

See Also: Employee Maintenance

Note: This module requires that 'Microsoft Excel' be installed on the workstation executing Time Tracker.

You may be able to streamline setting up Time Tracker by taking advantage of the import capabilities. Time Tracker enables you to import directly from Microsoft Excel. Employee information that might be stored in Human Resource, Payroll or other applications can often be exported to Microsoft Excel and then imported directly into Time Tracker.

The employee import process entails 4 steps:

• 
  specifying the spreadsheet
  
• 
  setting up the spreadsheet
  
• 
  checking for errors
  
• 
  importing from the spread sheet
  

Follow the instructions on each step. At anytime during this process you can save your spreadsheet and come back to work on it at a latter time.

This import process is for adding employees into the system. Once they are imported, modify or adjust their information through Time Tracker. Do not repeatedly add the same employee. This will only replicate employee data.

Note: It is strongly advised that you backup the Time Tracker system before importing.


Specifying The Spreadsheet

You must specify the spreadsheet that you will be importing from. If you are working from a spreadsheet that already exists, then click on the 'Open…' button and select the spreadsheet. If you are creating a spreadsheet for the first time, click on the 'New…' button and specify it's name and the folder where it will reside.

Setup

Time Tracker expects the imported spreadsheet to be in a specific format. The first line in the spreadsheet is the column heading text. The column headings are automatically created by Time Tracker in this step. All columns must remain in the assigned sequence. All heading text also must be exactly as assigned. All other lines are for employee data only and must follow under the appropriate heading.

If you haven't already inserted the column heading text then, be sure that the 'Setup' tab is active, then click on the 'Setup' button. Time Tracker will automatically insert the column headings into the first line of the spreadsheet. Each column corresponds to a field in the Employee Maintenance module.

Next, populate the spreadsheet with all of the proper data. At the bare minimum there are three required columns that must have data. These columns are the employee's first and last names and the employee type. The 'Employee Type' column requires an Employee Type that has already been recorded in Time Tracker. The Employee Type column data must only contain data that is the same as the 'Code' field for existing employee type records.

Tip: All other columns - that are not required - do not have to be filled.

Tip: All date columns must be in date format.

Note: The first blank line in the spreadsheet is deemed to be the end of the import data. Do not leave any blank lines between your employees.


Check

The previous section discussed the expected format of how the employee data must be presented in the spreadsheet. Be sure that you are in compliance before proceeding.

Time Tracker will check your spreadsheet data. To invoke this process be sure that the 'Check' tab is active. Then click on the 'Check' button. Time Tracker will automatically review all data.

Any warnings or errors discovered by Time Tracker will be identified. Examine your spreadsheet for data flagged with problems. Data warnings are flagged with the color yellow. It is merely a warning and will not prevent you from importing. Critical errors are flagged with the color gray and their presence will prevent you from importing. Time Tracker comments will automatically be displayed when you place your cursor over the flagged problems cells.

Import

To import your spreadsheet into Time Tracker be sure that the 'Import' tab is active, click on the 'Import' button. Should Time Tracker discover any critical errors in your data - no employee will be imported. When the import process is successfully completed, perform all future maintenance through the employee maintenance module of Time Tracker.

Note: This import process is for adding employees into the system. Do not repeatedly add the same employee or spreadsheet data. This will only replicate employee data.

Export - Work Hours

Note: This module requires that 'Microsoft Excel' be installed on the workstation executing Time Tracker.

You can export employee hours into an Excel spreadsheet by specifying your selection criteria. The resulting spreadsheet will be comprised of column headings and rows of booking data. It can be generated in detail or summary format.

The Summary format will simply list the total employee hours for each employee and the associated employee number.

The Detail format will list comprehensive information for each employee booking. It will identify the employee, employee type, booking, shift and location data.

This resulting information can be resorted, sized, formatted and summarized in Excel in a fashion to suit your requirements. Many users will use this information to design their own custom reports or export into other applications. Macro's can be written to automate such processes.

Note: Are you using the Time Tracker export data to share with another application? Then be sure to backup the other system before importing. Examine the export data carefully. Be sure that your selection criteria are applicable and that the data selected meets your requirements.

E-Mail Generation

Note: This module requires that 'Microsoft Outlook' be installed on the workstation executing the program.

E-mail generation allows users to generate an email message that gets sent to a list of employees.

This form contains three tabs. The first tab allows you to compose the subject and text of the email that you want to send. The second tab is where you would specify what files to attach to the message. The third tab is where you specify which employees are to receive the message.

Compose E-mail

Type the subject and body of the email that you want to send.

Add Attachments

Specify what files are to be sent along with the email.

You can attach any files you like to an email. However, given that this is scheduling software, it is probably most useful to attach copies of the schedules in some readable format.

Select Recipients

Specify which employees are to receive the email.

The list of employees uses a Multi-Select Grid that allows you to select one or more employees who are to receive the e-mail.

The records listed here can be filtered with the Employee List Filter button on the upper right hand corner of the form. This form defaults to showing active employees only. To show inactive employees, alter the filter to conditions that reflect your requirements.

By using the multi-select features in combination with the filters, you can very efficiently draw on categories and subcategories of employees.

Example:

In the accompanying screen shots, we wanted to send emails to only the currently active full time employees. We simply set the filter to show only active and full time employees and then pressed the 'Select All' button. The resulting e-mail will be sent to only those employees selected.


Generate

When you press the 'Generate' button the e-mail will be generated and placed in the out box of 'MS Outlook'. To actually transmit the message you must then perform the 'Send and Receive' function from Outlook.Exit

This option lets you exit the application.

Login

This form allows the user to login into the system with their assigned user ID and password. The password is case sensitive. You must enter the password in the same upper/lower case characters in which it was originally specified.

If you are the first user to access Time Tracker your new password is 'ASGARD' and the user ID is 'asgard' (note the lower case). Be sure to change this password in the Users maintenance section. The first time you access a new organization; the system will automatically build all of the necessary files. Expect the process to take a few minutes. After that everything will behave as expected.

Logout

See Also: Login

This feature allows the currently logged in user to be logged out and a new user to be logged in with out exiting the application. The new user may have a completely different set of privileges associated with their user ID that are applied once they log in.

Open Organization

This option is only available were the system has set up more than one organization.

This option will present you with the organization pick list and the user login form. You select the organization whose data you wish to access and then login with the user ID you have for the selected organization.

If the organization was just created in Organization Maintenance your user ID is 'ASGARD' and the password is 'asgard' (note the lower case). The first time you access a new organization; the system will automatically build all of the necessary files. Expect the process to take a few minutes. You will then be presented with the login form.