FAQ - General
The TimeTrex Administrator Guide can be accessed by clicking the Help icon, on the right side of the header bar, then click Administrator Guide.
This could be due to the designated Administrator leaving the company in which case you should Contact Support to assign another employee as Administrator
or
the "Administrator" Permission Group may have been deleted, then you would add a new "Administrator" Permission Group. See Permission Groups.
The person designated as the Billing Contact for your company will need to sign in to the customer portal and then click the My Account link.
For a step-by-step guide on clearing the cache for each web browser, please see the following link: http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache
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Employees would normally be unable to make punches from home. If employees are allowed to sign in to TimeTrex from home, they can do and see the same as when they are signed in to a computer at work.
Employees can view their TimeSheet, Schedule, Accruals and send Requests, as well as view and print Pay Stubs.
If you are receiving a message similar to this:
TimeTrex is unable to connect to its database, please make sure that the database service on your own local TimeTrex server has been started and is running. If you are unsure, try rebooting your server.
This is often caused by your computer crashing or being restarted/turned off without properly shutting down first. TimeTrex is an enterprise class application and as such is designed to be installed on a dedicated server that is always running and not turned off. If you do not have a proper server to install TimeTrex on we recommend considering our
Signing into TimeTrex with a user name and password allows an employee to view their timesheet and schedule, make requests, view their accruals and of course make a punch. The Quick Punch is a simple, straight-forward way for employees to quickly punch in or out using a web browser or a kiosk device.
- Click Employee, then click the Employees in the main menu.
- Select the employee's name from the list so that it is highlighted in blue.
- Click Edit in the button bar.
- Click the Sign In tab.
- Enter the new password in the Change Password field. (Passwords are case sensitive).
- Re-enter the new password in the Confirm Password field.
- Click Save in the button bar.
- Provide the new password to the employee
- Ensure that the employee has either a work or home email address specified in their contact record.
- Have the employee go to the TimeTrex Sign In page.
- Click the Forgot Your Password link.
- Type in the employee's email address.
- A password reset email will be sent to the employee's email address.
- The employee then follows the steps in the password reset email.
TimeTrex has the functionality to setup a secure "override" password that allows anyone with knowledge of that password to sign in as any user in the system, regardless of what their actual password is.
This is useful if a user has forgotten their password and didn't specify an email address to use the "forgot password" functionality, or for testing advanced permissions/hierarchies where you want to sign in as other users for testing purposes.
To do this, simply edit the timetrex.ini.php file, and under the [other] section near the bottom of the file, add the following line:
For example:
The way this works, is that the override prefix that you specify above is just that, a prefix, the full password depends on the user name in the following format:
For example:
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- Click on the drop-down arrow at the far right side of the header bar to open the Employee Profile Menu, then click Preferences.
- Enter the number of rows you want displayed in the Rows per page field and click Save in the button bar.
If signed in as an administrator and you want to make a change to another Employee:
- Click Employee, then click the Preferences in the main menu.
- Select an employee and then click Edit in the button bar.
- Enter the number of rows the employee wants displayed in the Rows per page field and click Save in the button bar.
TimeTrex allows each employee to display time in their own preferred format, which can be set under the Employee Profile Menu -> Preferences. Its important to understand the difference between the Time Unit formats that are supported, for a detailed explanation please see the Employee Preferences section of the Administrator Guide.
Because TimeTrex supports multiple formats, it may seem like it is adding time incorrectly, but its actually the nature of how time works when it comes to different formats and rounding. TimeTrex actually stores time to the nearest second in its database, but can display time in several formats to the employee.
For example, if the Time Units format selected under Employee Profile Menu -> Preferences is "Hours (2.25)", and if an employee works 8.01 hours on Monday and Tuesday, TimeTrex will show a total of 16.02 hours so far for the week. However if you change the time format to "hh:mm (2:15)" it will show that the same employee worked 08:00 on Monday and Tuesday for a total of 16:01 for the week. The reason for this difference is that 8.01 hours is actually 28,836 seconds, or 8 hours and 36 seconds, its not rounded to the nearest minute. Since the time format of "hh:mm (2:15)" can only display hours and minutes, TimeTrex rounds off the 36 seconds and displays just 08:00 instead. However when totaling multiple times together, only the final total is rounded, so that is why the total time for the week is displayed as 16:01, because its actually 16:01:12 (16 hours, 1 minute and 12 seconds) with the 12 seconds being rounded off.
Because of this, we recommend that you use the "hh:mm (2:15)" time format as it makes entering time to the nearest minute much easier.
For example its impossible to enter just 5 minutes using the "Hours (2.25)" format, as it would be 0.083333333... (repeated to infinity), however its easy using the "hh:mm (2:15)" time format as it would just be 00:05.
TimeTrex is able to handle employees tracking their time from an unlimited number of timezones all at once, however to be consistent all times are displayed in the timezone that the currently signed in employee has selected under Employee Profile Menu -> Preferences. This is consistent with calendar programs that display all scheduled events in your own current timezone, events are not displayed in some other timezone of the person who initiated the event, as that would cause confusion between all parties involved and no one would arrive to the event on time. In addition when displaying reports (such as the Who's In Summary report to see all employees currently working) all times are displayed in a single consistent timezone, so you can see in your own timezone when an employee arrived to work and if they are currently at work or not. It also allows for consistent filtering across timezones.
When entering time into TimeTrex, by default it is entered in the timezone that the currently signed in employee has selected in their preferences. Therefore, if a supervisor located in an Eastern timezone is viewing the timesheet of an employee located in a Pacific timezone, all the employees punches will be displayed in the Eastern timezone equivalent. As an example, if an employee punched in at 8:00AM Pacific (PST) time, the supervisor would see that as 11:00AM Eastern (EST) time and if the supervisor wanted to modify this punch to 7:30AM Pacific (PST) time, it would have to be entered as "10:30AM" (which is assumed to be 10:30AM Eastern (EST) ) or alternatively the full timezone could be specified after the time in the same field to define a timezone separate from the one set under Employee Profile Menu -> Preferences, for example "7:30AM PST".
If the Use Employees Timezone in the timesheet settings icon, is checked, the employee punch times will be displayed in the selected employees timezone. When this mode is enabled, punches can be added /modified in the employees own timezone.
Click Company, then click Company Information in the main menu. Click the Upload Image button in the Logo field. See Company Information.
- Click on the drop-down arrow at the far right side of the header bar to open the Employee Profile Menu, then click Preferences.
- Click on the Schedule Synchronization tab, change Status field to Enabled.
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We recommend that all employees be associated with a policy group and a pay period schedule regardless if they punch in/out or not.
If an employee will be recording any time on their timesheet, using a schedule or have any pay stubs in TimeTrex whatsoever, then they must be assigned to a pay period schedule and a policy group. Red warning messages will continue to appear on an employees timesheet if the employee is not assigned to a policy group or a pay period schedule.
We don't recommend deleting employee records. See Employee Termination.
For further assistance please contact our support department.
Pay periods are critical to the operation of TimeTrex, regardless if you use TimeTrex for payroll or not. TimeTrex will only total time based on the length of the pay periods, and without pay periods many salary calculations can not be performed either, so it is critical that a proper pay period schedule and pay periods exist at all times.
If you are having problems with Pay Periods, the best way to fix them is to create a new Pay Period Schedule and migrate any existing data across, this ensures that the Pay Periods are correct and haven't been manually modified which often results in TimeTrex failing to carry out its automated tasks. We recommend that you NEVER manually modify Pay Periods, because TimeTrex is a 24hr/day system, so if you modify a Pay Period and are off by even 1 second, it could cause a conflict resulting in TimeTrex not being able to create new Pay Periods on its own. Usually the only reason you would need to modify a Pay Period is if the Pay Period Schedule was incorrect in the first place, so fixing the Pay Period Schedule in this way is the proper solution.
Here are the steps to create a new Pay Period Schedule and migrate any data to it:
- Determine the Start Date of the earliest Pay Period (usually at the bottom of the list):
- Click Payroll, then click the Pay Periods in the main menu.
- From the list write down the start date of the earliest pay period (usually at the bottom of the list).
- Remove employees from the old Pay Period Schedule:
- Click Payroll, then click the Pay Period Schedule in the main menu.
- From the list of Pay Period Schedules select the Pay Period Schedule in question.
- Click Edit in the button bar.
- Click the Employees drop-down box and Move the employees from Selected items to Unselected items.
- Create a new Pay Period Schedule:
- Create a new Pay Period Schedule that matches the settings of the existing schedule as much as possible.
- Set the Create Initial Pay Periods From field, to one day earlier then the start date from the earliest Pay Period in step 3. You may also use an earlier date if you wish to enter more historical data.
- Click Save in the button bar.
- Click the Pay Periods tab, and confirm that all the necessary Pay Periods have been created starting from the date you specified, be sure that the status of each pay period is OPEN.
- Import data from your old Pay Period Schedule to the new one.
- Click Payroll, then click the Pay Periods in the main menu.
- From the list of Pay Periods select all the OPEN Pay Periods assigned to the new Pay Period Schedule so that they are highlighted.
- Click the more button and then click Import Data. (This step migrates existing punches and other data to the new pay period(s).)
TimeTrex should now continue to create new Pay Periods for you automatically without any manual intervention whatsoever.
Switching from one Pay Period Schedule type to another involves editing the End Date of the last pay period of the original pay period schedule by either shortening or extending it, in essence creating a unique transitional pay period. The End Date of this transitional pay period should be the day before the start date of the first pay period in the new pay period schedule, thereby ensuring there are no gaps or overlaps between the original and new pay period schedule.
Once you have determined the Type, Start, End and Transaction Dates of the new Pay Period Schedule follow the steps below using the example as reference. The ideal time to proceed with these steps is on the actual Start Date of the new Pay Period Schedule. If you start this process either before or after the actual start date of the new Pay Period Schedule, additional steps may be necessary.
Example: Switching from a semi-monthly pay period schedule to a bi-weekly pay period schedule. | |||||
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Semi-Monthly Pay Periods (original) | Bi-Weekly Pay Periods (new) see Step A | ||||
Start Date | End Date | Transaction Date | Start Date | End Date | Transaction Date |
01-Sep | 15-Sep | 20-Sep | |||
16-Sep | 30-Sep | 05-Oct | |||
* 01-Oct | 13-Oct | 18-Oct | |||
14-Oct | 28-Oct | 02-Nov | |||
29-Oct | 12-Nov | 17-Nov |
* Transitional Pay Period (see Step B) The last semi-monthly pay period has been shortened by changing the End Date from 15-Oct to 13-Oct, the day before the start date of the new pay period. This creates a unique transitional pay period with no gaps or overlaps between pay periods. | Future pay periods will be automatically created. |
- On the actual start date of the new pay period, create the new Pay Period Schedule:
- Click Payroll, then the Pay Period Schedules in the main menu.
- Click New in the button bar and create the Pay Period Schedule.
- Set Create Initial Pay Periods From to the start date of new Pay Period Schedule.
- Click Save in the button bar.
- Edit the Pay Period of the original Pay Period Schedule that you want to be the last one of this type, just before the new Pay Period Schedule start date which creates a transitional Pay Period:
- From the list of Pay Period Schedules select the original Pay Period Schedule.
- Click Edit in the button bar.
- Click the Pay Periods tab.
- Determine the pay period that has an end date closest to the start date of the new pay period schedule.
- Select any pay periods that exist after the above determined pay period and click Delete on the button bar. Do not use 'Delete Data'.
- Select the above determined Pay Period that will be the last one, and click Edit in the button bar.
- Edit the End Date to the day before the start date of the new pay period schedule. Also edit the Transaction Date if required.
- Click Save in the button bar.
- Click Cancel to go back to the pay period schedule list.
- Remove the employees from the original Pay Period Schedule and set to Manual:
- From the list of Pay Period Schedules select the new Pay Period Schedule.
- Click Edit in the button bar.
- Click the Employees drop-down box and Move the employees from Selected items to Unselected items.
- Set Type to Manual to disable future pay periods from being created automatically.
- Click Save in the button bar.
- Assign the employees to the new Pay Period Schedule:
- From the list of Pay Period Schedules select the new Pay Period Schedule.
- Click Edit in the button bar.
- Click the Employees drop-down box and add the employees.
- Click Save in the button bar.
- Import data from your old Pay Period Schedule to the new one.
- Click Payroll, then click the Pay Periods in the main menu.
- From the list of Pay Periods select all the OPEN Pay Periods assigned to the new Pay Period Schedule so that they are highlighted.
- Click the more button and then click Import Data. (This step migrates existing punches and other data to the new pay period(s).)
TimeTrex Enterprise, Corporate and Professional Editions using the On-Site deployment model support multiple companies within a single installation. Companies are 100% separate from one another and no data is shared between them whatsoever, so this functionality is typically designed for resellers who want to host TimeTrex for their customers.
In multiple company mode TimeTrex allows you to define a single "Master Company" that can have "Master Administrators" assigned to it, the master company would typically be the company name of the reseller. Only the company defined as the "Master Company" can enable the permissions described below, as well the company logo defined for the "Master Company" is the logo that will appear on the Sign in page and all companies utilize the licenses for the "Master Company".
- Click Company, then click Permission Groups in the main menu. Click New in the button bar to create a new permission group.
- Set the name for the permission group to "Master Administrator", use the highest level (i.e. 100), then click Save & Continue in the Save drop-down in the button bar.
- Using the Permission Wizard select Administrator from the Role drop-down box, and then click through the rest of the wizard and then the .
- Find the following additional permissions and make sure they are selected and Allowed: Company -> Add, Company -> View, Company -> Edit, Company -> Delete, Company -> Sign in as Other Employee.
- You can now assign one or more employees to this "Master Administrator" permission group either from the Permission Groups, or Employee Information.
Once employees are assigned to the "Master Administrator" permission group, the menu option Company -> Companies menu will be available to them.
When updating existing User Names or Employee Numbers you need to use a unique identifier to ensure the correct employee record is updated. The unique identifier is a field other than the one you want to update and must be one of the following three fields - User Name, Employee Number, or SIN/SSN.
For example, if you want to update the employees User Name you could use either the Employee Number, or the employees SIN/SSN as the unique identifier. Alternatively, if you want to update the Employee Number, the User Name or the SIN/SSN would be the unique identifier.
To update employee User Names or Employee Numbers en masse, use the Import wizard. At the "Map columns from the uploaded file:" step, enter "1" in Parse Hint column to specify the first priority for the field that is going to be used as the unique identifier. Then on the next "Select the import settings" step, check the "Update existing records based on User Name, Employee Number, or SIN/SSN" box. This procedure is only required if you need to change the User Name or Employee Number.
For example, if you are updating Employee Numbers and using the SIN/SSN as the identifier, then only include the Employee Number and the SIN/SNN columns in the file.