Applies to versions: 1.6

TimeIPS What's New - Version 1.6

TimeIPS is continually developed and improved with new features and enhancements. Below is an overview of the features and enhancements in TimeIPS Version 1.6.

TIP: The features and enhancements included in the most recent release of TimeIPS are indicated throughout the knowledge base with the icon.

NOTE: Features that may require an additional module or hardware device are indicated with the icon.

Minor version updates to the major version of TimeIPS you are currently running (i.e. version 1.6) are always available. Simply make sure that Automatic Updates checkbox is checked and you will receive regular automatic minor version updates. In some cases, the latest minor version releases are rolled-out in phases. If you'd like to get a minor version update before your roll-out phase, please contact TimeIPS technical support.

IMPORTANT:  The final release of this version (1.6.130) was made in 2014. This version of TimeIPS is now obsolete and is no longer supported.  Please contact TimeIPS if you need assistance upgrading from this version.

New Features in TimeIPS version 1.6

• Greatly enhanced scheduling with imports, exports, multi-week, repeating, employee view in MyTimeIPS, automatic schedule-for-the-week emails and much more.
• Support for new RF-scan based biometric readers with improved performance and reliability, particularly in dry, dusty and/or dirty environments.
• Support for offline clocking for improved reliability and usability.
• Support for work-orders (via IPSJWO module).
• Support for electronic requests and approvals for benefits and approvals for timecards ( via IPSAPP module).
• Support for advanced overtime rules, including per-day and premium time ( via IPSOTO module).
• Support for custom reports ( via IPSRPT module).
• Support for divisions ( via IPSDIV module).
• Support for customizable permissions (via IPSPRM module).
• For WAN installations, clocks can point to any port you specify. This is useful in port-forwarding setups where port 80 on the TimeIPS master is forwarded to a different port, such as 9999 on the outside.

Improvements in TimeIPS version 1.6

• Version 1.6.33-1.6.128

  • Added support for employees to view their own benefit levels with IPSBEN, but without IPSAPP approvals module.
  • Allow setting employee's Citizenship and Gender to "Unknown/Undisclosed"
  • Allow employees to be created without belonging to a site, even on systems where sites are in use.
  • Improved error reporting on mis-configured QuickBooks integrations.
  • Employees with "full access" and automatic benefit approval options no longer override the settings for other managers.
  • Added support for new biometric readers.
  • Improved speed of benefits export on systems with large numbers of benefit records and employees
  • Added pre-filter to list of employee targets for "helper" copy function
  • Improved handling of default view on benefits calendar, particularly for time zones different from the company time zone.
  • Allow Telephone Clocking devices to have custom Gateway and Subnet settings
    
  • Added support for exporting employee PIN number in custom payroll and reports.
  • Improved early clock prevention on systems without IPSIPS modue.
  • Improved benefits reporting for systems with multiple employees with identical names.
  • Improvements for timesheet approvals for employees working in varied timezones.
  • Split work on holiday boundaries to better show worked time during a holiday that crosses work-days.
  • Automatic re-sync for FTP, email and offsite backups to standard daily run time in cases where one or more are delayed due to network outage
  • Allow non full-access employees to copy schedules to other employees when permissions allow schedule editing
  • Improved Employee Reportcard handling of absences when worked time crosses or spans days
  • Payroll engine speed improvements for systems with large numbers of employees and many years of time records
  • Workweeks now calculate for employees in the time zone of the workweek, rather than the timezone of the employee. This allows consistent FLSA 168-hour workweeks even when employees are in DST time zones.
  • Added option for helper tab to copy overtime limit and overtime interval.
  • Improved work-order copy handling of empty date fields
  • Allow End Of Week emails to gather time for employees who have never had any other reports or payroll run
  • Shorten selection list for benefits use by hiding inactive employees.
  • Additional multi-hour options for approaching overtime email alerts.
  • Improved automated handling of email returned due to invalid server settings or other delivery failures.
  • Improved compatibility with Internet Explorer when remote clocking with divisions.
  • Site coverage email setting supports multiple addresses with ; separation.
  • Extended maximum duration of relay timers to 1 week to handle door lock/unlocks for many hours or multiple days.
  • Improved formatting of Sign Off Report to better accommodate very long department names.
  • Extended maximum length of per-field custom payroll/report expressions to allow extended/complex logic.
  • New rounding function and evaluation improvements in custom payroll/report expressions.
  • Improved rendering on Absentee report for days where employees have worked time and benefit time.
  • Improved processing speed for payroll and report preparation.
  • Improved handling of multi-division company logos on employee badges.
  • Allow non-managers with appropriate overall permissions to use schedule helper functions.
  • New per-user My Settings option to either show or hide released employees throughout the system.
  • Option to automatically view all managed employees in timecard approvals.
  • Option for full-access users to login as any other user without exposing their password.
  • Separate permission item for viewing Approved Benefits to allow employees to see other employee's approved time off on the benefits calendar
  • Improvements to schedules and schedule by hour report for 3rd shift employees.
  • Improved rendering and navigation on Time Sheet approvals calendar.
  • Improved audit trail rendering for telephone clocking.
  • Added sortable columns to Payroll export list.
  • Improved pre-check routine for QuickBooks integration.
  • Compensation for QuickBooks auto-deduction of time from Sick/Vacation totals.
  • Option to disable the prompt for job code on telephone clocking.
  • Extend job names to 36 characters
  • Add option to prompt for a numeric clock note when telephone clocking
  • Improved compatibility with email servers that report starttls compatibility, but don't actually support it
  • Allow fractional weekly scheduled hours
  • Improved status feedback on accrual recalculation processes
  • Better handling of employee selection groups with empty sub-entries
  • Various minor improvements in division and permissions awareness, including holidays and reporting
  • Added ability for employees with full access to create and manage global employee selection groups.
  • Added support for FTP backups in passive mode to improve compatibility with FTP servers.
  • New per-clock option to disable, warn or refuse punches when biometrics are unavailable.
  • Allow running sign-off report for users who have never worked (but have benefit time).
  • Provide port-forward/URL-aware links for remote clocking on the configuration page.
  • Allow one-button interface to change jobs in a single transaction when using remote clocking.
  • Provide on-screen view of extended employee/job report to allow direct edit of multiple employee's punches from a single page
  • Improved handling of division functionality with logos, jobs, schedules and timecard approvals.
  • Extended benefit level tracking to allow fractions of a second.
  • New comma-separated date format option added to custom report and custom export.
  • Improved handling of overlapping and changing workweeks.
  • Support for advanced formatting in the footer and header of custom reports and payroll exports.
  • Expression processing in custom reports and payroll exports for in-place arithmetic, logic, substrings, rounding, etc.
  • Improved division and permissions awareness in the Directory
  • Added ability to view and request benefits at the clock (IPSAPP module required).
  • Added ability to enroll badges at the clock.
  • Option to gather work-order completion at the clock.
  • Ability to include or exclude each type of pay from custom reports and custom payroll.
  • Improved confirmation/locking option description for completed payroll.
  • Unlimited time snaps and lunch deductions (with IPSSCH module).
  • Additional options on Work Order report configuration.
  • Preset template support in Sign-off report to make running reports with different configurations easier.
  • Improvements in clock cache updates for jobs, work orders and sites to allow clocks to get changes to these items faster and more reliably.
  • New clock option to Require Online mode when employees should not be able to clock at all if the network is down.
  • New option on Clock Configuration page to configure trigger time (previously always set to 1 minute) for employee clocks that are flagged as a possible clock error.
  • Option to have login screen remember division and username to simplify login.
  • Missing Clockout report now clearly differentiates between late clockouts and missing clockouts.
  • Improvements to schedule violation email trigger behavior with repeating schedules in weeks where schedules are static.
  • In Time/Edit report, clock location is now shown under each clock in/out to speed review of employee work location.
  • Consolidation of Divisions and Master Configuration into a single page.
  • Improvements to handling and display of division-specific logos for printing employee badges.
  • Added day-of-week fields to custom payroll and report options.
  • Better labeling and more useful totals of current and pending benefit levels on benefits request page.
  • Compatibility improvements for IE7 in sites and permissions pages.
  • Added option to delete unused shifts.
  • Improvements and consolidation of relay triggers and options.
  • Option to have clocks reboot after a period of time if unable to communicate with master due to network problems.
  • Better feedback and more graceful handling of mis-configured update locations for network clock updates.
  • Added option to disable unused work orders.
  • Improved Employee Selection Groups with additional selection items.
  • Improved consistency of reporting on audit and exception flags.
  • Added option to use an alternate port for clock connections.
  • Show exact time on logs of benefit usage and resets.
  • Added confirmation dialog to the preset delete button in custom report and custom payroll.
  • Custom payroll now remembers the date-range and selection options for multiple runs while logged in.
  • Processing speed improvements for touch biometrics.
  • Add option to disable benefit type visibility on benefit use and request pages (while still allowing accruals).
  • Behavior improvements and more informative messages in timesheet approvals, site management, badge printing, tardy report and biometrics settings.
  • Added flag on time/edit report to indicate clocks with notes attached.
  • Added support for employee clocked-in-list on large display, if connected.
  • Added eight additional time snaps to automatic time adjustments page.
  • Improved handling of workweek moves, including presenting the last workweek start as a default date and better handling when changing out of a group then back in again at a later date.
  • Improvements to offline clock processing.
  • Option to identify employees by badge number in time imports with IPSSFT module.
  • New options in custom payroll (IPSEPC) and custom report (IPSRPT) including:
    • Employee manager's name, in varied formats, added to list of available export data
    • New option to include or exclude non-paid benefit time
    • Support for paid time in columns with special pay types as Pay Code and Hours, together on the same line. This format is used by a number of payroll systems. For example, Standard Time and Overtime can be listed in their own columns, while sick, vacation, and holiday, are listed as Pay Code and Hours.
    • Support for implied decimal points in advanced formatting, as needed by some payroll systems. For example, 8.5 hours could be exported as 0850.
  • Updated Clock management interface supports sorting and shows clock software versions. This makes clock monitoring and updates easier.
  • Biometrics management split into a general settings page and an employee settings page. This provides for easier access and more flexible permissions control.
  • Improved employee biometrics page with separate listings for enrollments of different types, including progressive. This makes print and enrollment-status easier to see and manage.
  • When divisions are in use, and multiple divisions are viewable, the division name is shown by default in various tables, such as the employees table. This makes sorting by division easier for division managers.
  • Remember user's selection of columns in various tables, such as the employees table. This saves time needed to rearrange the page if you prefer to see non-default columns.
  • Added the ability to import worked-time in the simple-time-edit style with the Shifts Module (IPSSFT).
  • Rename of Schedules -> Schedules on the menu to Schedules -> Time Adjustments to better reflect the settings on the page.
  • Improvements to the clocking interface, including:
    • Better messages if configured with an invalid, non-activated, or unreachable master
    • Ability to cancel out of a clock attempt during Biometrics by pressing BS
    • Improved offline detection
    • Support for notes with spaces
    • Improved biometrics performance
    • Improved loading speed for selecting jobs and workorders from lists with large numbers of items
    • Helpful "Loading, Please Wait" messages on initial setup, when synchronizing large (1000+) employee or job sets, and on slow networks.
  • Improved employee schedule copy functionality on systems without the IPSSCH scheduling module.
  • New Enterprise Permissions module (IPSPRM) that allows detailed control and custom configuration of permissions and access levels for employees.
  • Added support for piecework exports to QuickBooks, using remote clocking fields to capture units completed.
  • Support for printing single job barcodes in addition to all jobs.
  • Addition of name-based virtual hosting for divisions. For example, division1.example.com and divison2.example.com will identify their respective divisions, if each points to the TimeIPS master.
  • Additional rounding options, including rounding on job changes.
  • Backup file extension changed to .timeips to reduce false-blocks in email spam/virus filters with previous .zip extension.
  • Changes to improve IE7 compatibility.

• Version 1.6.0-1.6.32

  • Added job code support in Paychex Preview payroll export.
  • Improvements to division support for remote clocking settings and telephone clocking.
  • Allow division to be specified when logging in. (Support the same username in multiple divisions.)
  • Added ability to total numeric data in remote clocking fields on the custom report and custom payroll export.
  • Improved support for Network Clocks including updated connection tests and user-selected port number support.
  • Adjustments and improvements for IE 7 compatibility.
  • Added support for Easy Pay V2 to IPSEPI module.
  • Preliminary shift support with manual time entry of hours per shift for employees in IPSSFT Shifts Module.
  • Improved support for Network Clocks.
  • Added division support via optional IPSDIV modules that allow for the creation of additional sub-companies where virtually all the operations in TimeIPS are available, but the lists of employees, jobs, departments, etc. are totally separate.
  • Added a weekly by-hour schedule report in the special reports section.
  • Improved off-line functionality and high-latency network performance with support for new version 5.x series clock release.
  • New options under System Administration->Master Configuration->Appearance Settings including clock color and a scaled layout style to take advantage of available space on wide-screen computers.
  • Added support for MUNIS and Priority Pay payroll to IPSEPI module.
  • New Benefit Calendar to the My Benefits Requests page to allow employees to view who will be out of the office.
  • Added tracking for "Other" activity under Employees->Employment for various employee occurrences with tracking for a summary, date and attached documents.
  • Upgraded employee selection system, including more selectable fields, exclusion lists, and saved templates to facilitate running reports with the same selection.
  • Faster load times for system pages when an Internet connection is not available.
  • Added option to merge clocks together on the Client Configuration page. This simplifies the client list view if a backup is loaded onto a system with different clocks, or if the clock used in a location changes.
  • New Hours Subtotal by Type custom report template shows hours for each type, broken down by salary and hourly employees.
  • Option to run payroll by manual selection of types (rather than automatic selection).
  • Added an option to copy settings from an existing job, when creating a new one.
  • Added the ability to create custom employee badges. (Requires IPSRPT, custom reporting module)
  • Improved employee/site view restrictions for employees and managers.
  • Added a comprehensive timecard approval system to the IPSAPP (approvals) module.
  • Added a Custom Report to the special reports area that shares templates with the custom payroll export, but adds support for user selection and date range selection and operates without payroll interaction. Requires the IPSRPT (custom reporting) module.
  • New Management Hierarchy special report shows every manager and all managed employees
  • Option to allow or disallow Smart Clocking mode on the clients
  • New option in Attendance Report to have any use of selected benefits set the day to 100%, regardless of schedule
  • Added Navision payroll format support (Requires IPSEPI module)
  • Enhanced SignOff Report with an option to export in text mode without page breaks
  • Added week totals to the Absentee Report for easy viewing of total weekly time
  • New configuration area: Master Configuration -> Directory Options. Provides options to control visibility of Company Directory and Employee List.
  • Added support for Timberline to IPSEPI payroll exports.
  • New date/time widget for Time Edit screens to make editing time faster and easier.
  • Add restriction so only site managers can see site details including name and employees.
  • Support for new IPSAPP approvals module that allows for electronic benefit requests and approvals.
  • Clock improvements for off-line mode with working, but high-latency/extremely congested networks.
  • To streamline the update process for large installations, any update installed on a server triggers all connected clients for immediate update as well.
  • Improved handling for special situations where client IP addresses wouldn't show on the TimeIPS Client List in the Client Configuration page.
  • Updated site restrictions for remote and telephone clocking modes.
  • New IPSOTO Advanced Overtime Options module that allows per-day OT/DT settings and other options.
  • Added support for alternate interpretation of CA overtime rules.
  • Improved handling of relay triggers with complex rules.
  • Added support for sealed keypads.
  • Improved handling for multiple simultaneous messages at the clock so they always clear when finished.
  • Use consistent subject line formatting for various email alerts from the clock.
  • Improved IP address/mode setting/editing commands at the clock.
  • Added support for Advantage Standard, BusinessWorks Gold, PenSoft-Standard and PenSoft-Advanced to IPSEPI payroll module.
  • Add additional information on system update pages including last attempted update, last successful update, and more diagnostic detail on the last update.
  • Provide workweek group logs in employee's time zone (rather than company time zone) for improved readability with employees in different time zones.
  • Allow all users with permission to edit time (not just managers) to see link on the Site "Clocked In" tab.
  • Updated accruals tenure level help to reflect accrual group membership duration.
  • Provide a new configuration area to set the logo image at the top of the web interface, as well as the text on the left and right sides of the screen directly below the logo area.
  • Update default biometrics settings to make enrolment quicker and to progressively reduce the false rejection rate.
  • Added ability for master to trigger a client update.
  • Improved offline clocking.
  • Added special handling for holidays with no duration.
  • Improved schedule management when IPSIPS module in installed, but not IPSSCH.
  • Add special report for Employee Report Card with details on attendance, benefits use, hours worked and more.
  • Added option to create new work orders by using an existing work order as a template
  • Improvements to time rendering after work-week group changes
  • Add option for periodic connections via dial-up for clients without always-on network connections
  • Added automatic rolling time slots for daily updates/backups to accommodate busy networks
  • Progressive enrolment option for biometrics to improve acceptance rate and accommodate growing/changing fingers
  • Indicate offline client mode with blinking "o" at top left of LCD display
  • Add a text format option to the sign-off report
  • Improved logging for FTP backups
  • Attendance report includes open punches, with hours calculated to the current time
  • Added numerous reset-to-defaults options for specific areas of TimeIPS including payroll and accruals
  • Added options to selectively prune unused data from TimeIPS if no longer needed for historical tracking
  • Allow setting an employee back to a blank username, even if a valid username has been set
  • Added a Rate Payable column type to Custom Payroll Export. This shows the hourly rate to pay for a period of work after figuring all calculations including differentials, overtime, FLSA "regular rate," etc.
  • Offline clock support that allows network clocks to gather clocks and perform biometric validation even if the network is down or the server is unavailable
  • Added option to view biometric enrollment and/or failures at the clock on a large display to improve enrollment quality and scan success
  • Added support for numbers in employee names
  • Added a new work-order module ( IPSJWO) that is used to track groups of jobs