Three Practical Biometric Solutions for Time Tracking In the Field

Custom Time Clock Software: Mobile Solutions for the Construction Industry

Gain Added Efficiency By Customizing Your Mobile Time Clock Software

Tailoring mJobTime’s Custom Time Clock Software To Meet The Special Needs of Your Business

At mJobTime, we have focused on giving our customers a large number of configuration options to make our application as flexible as possible. However, software programs are designed to accommodate the maximum number of companies possible. We realize that there are going to be situations where mJobTime may not address certain facets of your business processes, but we ultimately strive to provide employee time clock solutions that will be unique to every business.

We look upon these situations as opportunities. This is because we love to get input from our customers about our time clocks for construction as well as our other software. Many times, this input can lead to a new feature or functionality that becomes a standard part of the program. Oftentimes, when the amount of work and time involved is not significant, we will do the work at no charge. Even in those situations where there is a substantial amount of resources required to do the work, if we feel it will improve the product, we often will share the cost of the modification with the customer. In those situations where the customization is very unique to a customer, we will provide a quote for the work and allow the customer to make their own decision.

Whatever the case, our development team has earned quite a reputation for doing outstanding work in a reasonable time period. They will work with you to get a detailed understanding of your needs, propose a solution, develop and test the solution, and follow-up to insure that our employee time clock solutions are working as intended once released. Our customers constantly rave about the amount of time we have saved them with our modifications. Usually, the ROI on our customizations is very short.

Whether it’s a special report or a very specific way to calculate travel or per diem pay, our crackerjack development staff is always ready to meet your custom modification challenges. They thrive on being able to make mJobTime (and our time clocks for construction) meet even your most stringent and unique requirements.

mJobTime Mobile Time Clock Software Customization Examples

Allow customer to clock in crews with equipment attached, but only post the equipment to one employee’s time card (not the entire crew).
Allow Supervisor user to transfer individual existing time records to a different company, verifying that all (pronoun) time record fields are valid in the “transfer-to” company, and disabling transfers for “Approved” and
“Exported” records.
Add a new labor report for commercial drivers with the following columns:
- Last Name
- First Name
- Position
- Last Day Off
- Next Mandated Day Off
- Total Hours since Last Day Off
- Hours Remaining (in the cycle)
Create a delimited file of time and material for our customer to send to their customer, and as a second customization, generate an invoice in their customer’s format.
Modify our Weekly Time Entry screen to allow for daily distribution of time by sub-job.
Create new functions to facilitate entry, tracking, and calculation of per diem and travel pay for employees on jobs:
- Allow users to enter per diem and travel rates per job
- Allow users to enter per diem and travel transactions
- Allow administrative users to export per diem and travel transactions to “Bank File” and “Timberline Export”.
Customize the mJobTime Crew feature to track:
- Day or night shift per crew
- Craft code per employee
- Alternate employee ID per employee
- Per diem code per employee
- Travel code per employee
Modify the export to accounting to create a text file export and add special calculations described below:
- Specifications
- A maximum of 40 hours per week will be exported for salaried employees
  - Salaried employees will be identified by a field in the employee table.
  - Time records beyond the 40 hour limit will remain in mJobTime and will be flagged as “exported”.
- For time records that include task codes beginning with “41” populate the “GL Exp Acct” field as follows:
  - The second segment of the task code
  - Followed by the employee’s department number (two-digit-zero-filled)
  - The employee’s dept number will be pulled from a field in the employee table Examples: “500503”, “500603”
Develop a custom version of the “Daily Time Sheet Entry by Employee” screen:
- To include a five-row header,
- Make the Job Number column header span all columns for the same job.
- As new columns are added, insert them into the grid sorted in ascending order by Job Number, then by the last five digits of the Cost Code, then by Extra.
- Remove color shading of alternate rows in grid and add a solid line between rows
- Shade “REG”, “OVT”, and “DBL” columns in White/Lt Blue/Dark Blue
- Increase allowable distribution columns to 30
- Divide the “Total” column into “REG”, “OVT”, and “DBL” sub-columns and display the appropriate totals for each row broken down into the three Pay IDs.
Replace the “Save” button acknowledgement dialog with the following custom dialog:
- “Entries will be recorded with the following Date: ##/##/####”
- Allow user to click “OK” or “Cancel”
Allow users to save selected distribution columns for multiple jobs and have them default whenever a job is selected for time entry.
Add Edit, Review, and Approve functions to the Daily Time Entry screen.

Let us provide you with a personalized demo today. As you can see, a custom time clock from mJobTime can supply your business with many helpful resources.

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Three Practical Biometric Solutions for Time Tracking In the Field

Paper Timesheets Could be Costing Your Company

One of the most common issues in tracking employee time is “buddy punching” where one employee punches the clock for another employee is who late to work, leaves early, or is absent altogether. Buddy punching is relatively easy to accomplish when a company collects its time for field or shop employees using paper timesheets, punch cards, bar code badges, or proximity cards. All that is required is for the “buddy” in attendance to fill out the paper timesheet, or to scan the other buddy’s badge or card.

The toll for buddy punching can be very high. According to a survey by the American Payroll Association, three out of four U.S.employers suffer time theft through buddy punching at a cost of 2.2% of gross payroll annually. Annually, this runs into millions of dollars for businesses. And yet, there is an excellent chance that this amount is substantially understated. The survey statistics are based upon employees who were willing to admit to buddy punching. It seems pretty likely that the number of guilty employees who did not respond is much higher.

Fortunately for employers, there are ways to overcome buddy punching. They vary in format, and the reliability of each has a direct correlation to its cost.

USB Fingerprint Scanners

USB fingerprint scanners are probably the most popular of all biometric solutions because they are small, portable, and cheap. Most meet the US Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) for Personal Identification Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors. The scanners are also certified by the FBI. They have 2 modes – one for recording fingerprints and one for scanning to compare against the recorded fingerprint. To use in the field, they are connected to a laptop or, in some cases, a tablet. They are also the least reliable because they only read a single fingerprint, sometimes making accurate readings very difficult if the glass or finger is dirty or if the finger is cut.

Biometric Time Clocks

Time clocks with biometric options are a definite upgrade from USB fingerprint scanners in terms of accuracy and reliability. These devices accept input from fingerprint readers as well as many other non-biometric options such as bar code readers, mag stripe card readers, and HID proximity readers. They can connect directly to your network or via Ethernet, and they will store multiple fingerprints for more accurate comparisons. They are also very durable and can usually last for several years. But they also have a few drawbacks. They are significantly more expensive than USB fingerprint scanners, are stationary, require an AC electrical connection, and can track a very limited amount of information (jobs, phases, cost codes, etc).

Handpunch Clocks

Handpunch clocks offer the ultimate in biometric security. Hand-geometry is highly accurate, and is generally not affected by rings, small adhesive bandages, false fingernails and the like. Employees clock in and out by entering their ID number and placing their hand on the handpunch unit. Each time the employee punches, the terminal compares a three dimensional image of the employee’s hand to a stored image from when the employee was enrolled. The hand’s size and shape are used to verify their identity with extreme accuracy. The typical verification time is only one to two seconds.

In addition to providing greater security, handpunch devices also do not require a company to maintain stocks of badges, time cards, ribbons, or other supplies. Their initial cost is significantly greater than that of biometric time clocks, but in the long run, they actually may be a cheaper option.

Three Practical Biometric Solutions for Time Tracking In the Field

Paper Timesheets Could be Costing Your Company

Related Article: Buddy Punching Issues In Mobile Time Tracking