(Reprinted from the August 2012 issue of the TimePilot Times newsletter. All rights reserved.)
You’ve got your system set up and it’s running well. You’re extracting your pay periods, running reports and perhaps exporting your data to your payroll service or software.
Now you’d like to learn a little more. Are there any "secret" features in TimePilot that might make it even more helpful?
Yes, there are. This one isn’t too secret—it’s described in the online Help in the TimePilot software—but it can be extremely helpful. It's called "Alerts."
When you’re looking at TimePilot Central, there’s a lot of data to wade through. Wouldn’t it be nice if the software could flag you when any employee worked overtime or if an employee’s total number of hours was approaching overtime territory?
It can. And it can do even more.
You can have the software look for eight different categories, and have any instances of any of the eight flagged in a different color.
Here’s how to set up your alerts (several examples follow the instructions):
The task: You’d like to see at a glance when employees worked overtime.
The background: You pay overtime to anyone who works more than 8 hours in a day.
The setup:
Now, in the "Daily" column in TimePilot Central, anyone who worked 8 hours 1 minute or more is highlighted in yellow.
Don’t see a column marked "Daily"? No problem. Right-click on the row of column headers at the top of the Transaction List. (The row will be green if you’re in Current Transactions or yellow if you’re in a Past Pay Period.) Click the checkbox next to "Daily" to have those totals show up.
The task: You’d like to see at a glance anyone who worked overtime on a day and anyone who is approaching overtime territory for the week.
The background: You pay overtime to anyone who works more than 8 hours in a day or anyone who works more than 40 hours in a week.
The setup:
Now in the "Daily" column in TimePilot Central, anyone who worked 8 hours 1 minute or more is highlighted in yellow and anyone who exceeds 36 hours in a week is highlighted in green in the "Weekly" column.
Don’t see columns marked "Daily" or "Weekly"? No problem: Right-click on the row of column headers at the top of the Transaction List. (The row will be green if you’re in Current Transactions or yellow if you’re in a Past Pay Period.) Make sure there’s a check in the checkbox next to "Daily" or "Weekly" (or both) to have those totals show up.