New Feature: Manage Edit Event Reasons

We have recently implemented a new feature focused towards your quality of life: the ability to add your own reasons for making edits to punches.

To set this up, go to the Administration tab and select Manage Edit Event Reasons from the Staff section:

Click on "Add New" on the next screen:

Type your customized reason and click on "Add New":

Your newly added reason will be shown in the previous screen:

So next time you are making edits on the "Edit User Events" section, you will see all of your customized reasons in the dropdown menu:

We hope you like this new feature and that it gives you even more control in managing your organization with our system.

--Econz Team

New Feature: Timecard Checker

There may come the time when you need to collect timesheets and punches from a group of people but only have one device for them to share. Our new Timecard Checker feature will help you with that!

First make sure to setup one Checker user per device, this is the person that will do the initial setup and aid the crew members in setting up their profiles on the device. To do this go to the Field Workers tab and click on Add New:

Then make sure that the Device Type is set to "Timecard Checker" to enable these features:

The rest should be setup as normal:

• Device ID: the user's phone number.
• Name: Employee's name.
• User Type: set it to Field Worker.
• TimeZone: use the correct time zone for the employee.
• Security Question and Answer can be left blank.
• New/Confirm Password: set the password to something secure of your choosing.

Finally, click on Add New at the bottom. This is only required for the Checker user, any other users that will be added to punch in with the same device have to be added as a "Timecard" user instead of "Timecard Checker" on the Device Type field.

Next, we will cover how set this up in the application. Download the Full Version of the app and enter the Device ID and Password when you first launch it. The phone will start authenticating with the server and once it does, it will download all the information for the user's profile. You will know it's ready when you see the green thumbs up.

When you tap on your name, you will be asked to enter the password and to setup your own PIN number to be used from then on once you wish to interact with the app through your profile:

To add a new user (and all subsequent users, tap on the plus icon on the top right of the screen. Then, enter that person's Device ID and Password (make sure to check with Management or our Customer Support team if you don't have this information):

A Search textbox will appear on the top of the screen the moment you have added at least 15 users. This will help everyone find themselves without the need to scroll through the whole list. Once the profile finishes authenticating with the server, the app will request the user to enter a PIN number, too.

This process will always happen when setting up new users and this PIN number will be used every time an employee taps on their name to add punches. Once the PIN is verified, they will see the Clock In screen. Please keep in mind the following images will show how it works for users other than the Checker. The Checker user will have full access to the standard four icons (Clock-in/out, Start/End Break, Change Task, View History), all tasks and settings.

Once the employee taps on "Clock In", the Photo app will be launched for them to take a picture. This will happen for any of the punches entered through the app (Clock in and out, starting and ending breaks).

When you are ready, tap on "EXIT" to leave back to the main employee list so someone else can interact with Timecard. Use the icon #2 to start a break, and at the end of the day, tap on the icon #1 to clock out!

That's it for now! Let us know in the comments section if you have any questions or thoughts.

-Econz Team

Updated Feature: Enhancements to Clock-in Lock

Hello everyone!

We had covered the Clock-in Lock feature in full detail on a previous post. For those of you who might not remember or are not familiar with this, Clock-in Lock enables companies to set a fence around a specific area and if employees attempt to punch in to a task outside of if, the application will notify them of this and will not allow them to enter that task.

We have recently added a new enhancement that allows this lock to be optionally bypassed (i.e. it becomes a warning to the field worker, rather than a hard lock out), which can be useful in case you needed to setup an email alert for when it happens, but still allow employees to select the task even outside of the specified area.

For more information, make sure to follow the link on top (here it is again, just in case), which includes the new step with the "Lock Phone" checkbox.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave us a comment!

--Econz Team

Desk Time Report

Hi everyone,

We are back with some exciting new features!

We have created a new report that will show you how much "Desk Time" a user has had. By this, we mean the time with the phone showing zero acceleration from the accelerometer, or pretty much no movement detected, just like when the phone is left on top of a desk.

You are able to setup how much time should be considered as Desk Time, for this, go to the Administration tab and select the option "Tolerance for Desk Time report":

Once inside this screen, you can set the amount of seconds, just like on this example where we set 900 seconds, which equals to 15 minutes:

What this will do is that as soon as the device hasn't detected any movement after the 900 seconds, desk time will start being accumulated until the app detects movement.

To view the data generated by this feature, go to the Reports tab and select the "Desk Time Report":

Here is a sample of the report:

It will show you the start and stop times and a total for each "Desk Time" period, according to the limit of seconds you setup in the previous step.

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions!


--Econz Team

Timecard GPS: Uploading Tasks with Default GeoFences

Our system has the power feature that allows you to use smart fences for each specific task. You can use it to enable Entering/Leaving Area rules or even enabling Clock-In Lock using a default smart fence.

The great thing about adding a rule to the default smart fence is that you can use the same one for each task and the application will automatically recognize the address and apply the rules to it.

We have just made a change that will make your life even easier, now you don't need to enable the default smart fence to each task individually, if you have a long list of jobs with addresses and need to add some rules, you can apply the default fence right from the CSV file!

Here is how you do it, first go to the Administration tab and select "Maintain Task/Customer List:

Then click on the checkbox to the left of the team (or teams) you are going to upload tasks to:

Open the dropdown menu and select the option "Load tasks/customers from Comma Delimited File to selected teams".

You will be taken to the upload screen, notice how all of the steps are pretty much the same way we have been doing it for a while, but the example image shows what has changed: (notice columns N and O):

The External ID can be used for internal purposes, in case you have additional codes attached to your tasks or need it for an integration, but the last column "Smart Fence" is where you can define if you want to use the default fence by using the word "default", or if you won't use any smart fence rules, leave it at "none".

Keep in mind that you will need to have created at least a default rule so you can take advantage of this feature. If you aren't sure that you have one, go the Administration tab and select "Rules, Action and Fences", select the "Manage SmartFences" options and the Default rule will be the first one on the list, click on Edit to view its contents:

This example has a "Clock in Lock" rule created:

If there are no rules, make sure to add one so you can add it as a default rule to all the tasks within your CSV file.

Let us know if you have any questions in the comments section!

--Econz Team

Quick Announcement: Custom Field Character Limit

Hi everyone,

Today we have just a quick announcement, the character limit for the Custom Fields (both the default ones and the ones you can add to Forms) has been raised from 25 to 50. This was done in order to make it easier to add forms with longer field descriptions.

We hope you can benefit out of this improvement, which is just one of the many to come.

--Econz Team

Timecard GPS: Clock In and Clock Out Reminders

For those companies that want to enable a reminder so their employees don't forget to clock in or out, we have come up with a very easy solution.

To enable this feature go to the Administration tab and select the option "Manage Clock In/Out By Times" in the Staff section.

Once inside, tick the checkbox to Enable Clock In/Out By Times and set your times for Clock In and Clock Out. Here is an example:

Employees on this company are supposed to clock in by 9 AM and clock out by 5 PM, so if someone hasn't clocked in by 9, they will get a message like this:

And if it's already 5 PM and they haven't clocked out, they will see this:

Nice and simple, right? Let us know your thoughts in the comments sections or if you need more information.

--Econz Team

Timecard GPS: Taking Multiple Pictures

A few months ago we added a highly requested feature to capture images from the app and tie them to the tasks, projects or activities the employees are working on.

We have made an improvement to this feature in which you are now able to capture multiple photos for the same job.

Once clocked in, open the Menu (dotted icon on the top right) and select "Add Task Info".

There will be an option called "Photo Capture".

When you select "Photo Capture", the app will launch the Camera app to allow you to take a picture. When you are happy with the results, tap on Submit and then type the Picture Description. Select Submit again.

The Photo Capture field will now list the newly taken picture. To add a new one, tap on "Add". Take the new picture, the process is the same as with the first photo.

Repeat the process until you have taken all the photos you need, they will all be listed in the Photo Capture custom field. All the listed pictures will be attached to the task you are currently clocked in to. If you are going to work on another project and need to take more pictures, make sure you have changed the task.

For questions or comments, make sure to use the comments section below.

--Econz Team

Timecard GPS: Daily Mileage Report

Hi everyone!

Here is a heads up for those of you that need to do payroll and at the same time calculate travel and gas costs.

We already have a Mileage Report, but that one is focused on total miles traveled per task. If you need to have information to calculate payroll with the sum of worked hours per day, just like on the Timecard Detail Report, but at the same time need to calculate gasoline costs or monitor travel distance, then the Daily Mileage Report is for you.

To access it, go to the Reports tab and then to the GPS Location Reports section:

From then on, it's pretty straightforward. Make sure to select the appropriate teams or the user that you wish to focus on (or leave unfiltered to view the whole company), select your Start and End dates and click on Generate Report or Produce as CSV file if you prefer to download it to your computer as a spreadsheet.

With this report, you will have the clock in and clock out times, total hours and traveled distance all conveniently shown in one line per day.

We hope you get the best out of this report, make sure to let us know your thoughts or questions in the comments section below.

--Econz Team

Timecard GPS: Premium Pay Configuration

The new Premium Pay Configuration will enable companies to keep track of their employees' meals. There are different things this feature will allow your company to do:

1. You can assign meal time for specific periods of times.
2. You can also setup a default time for this meal time, which will be used to determine if employees had to finish their breaks before time due to work requirements.
3. By setting up these rules, the system will provide a number of automatic alerts, such as break reminders or if the taken break has been too long.

To enable this, go to the Administration tab and click on "Manage Premium Pay Configuration". These are the options that you will see. Make sure to click on "Enable Premium Pay" to activate it:

The following list explains what each of the configurable fields means:

• First Meal Entitlement Duration: minimum shift duration that entitles an employee to a first break.
• Second Meal Entitlement Duration: minimum shift duration that entitles an employee to a second break.
• First Meal Within Duration: maximum time where the first break must be taken.
• Second Meal Within Duration: maximum time where the second break must be taken.
• First Reminder After Duration: time after shift start when the worker will be reminded to take the first meal break.
• Second Reminder After Duration: time after shift start when the worker will be reminded to take the second meal break.
• Reminder Frequency: how often the system will remind an employee to take a break if it hasn't been done after the specified time.
• Duration of the Meal Break: how much time the employee is expected to take as a meal break.

In this example account, we have configured a 30 minute meal break. Employees will be entitled to take a first break if they work at least 4 hours and a second one if they work 8 hours at a minimum. If the staff hasn't taken the break once the maximum worked time is reached, a notification will be shown every 15 minutes.

The following are examples of events that employees will visualize in the application related to Premium Pay.

- The user is approaching the 4th worked hour and hasn't taken the meal break yet, so the system reminds him to take it:

- Once the employee has passed the 4 hour mark, they will get the following reminder:

- If the meal was taken after the first or second period (according to the order the breaks are setup), the user will be prompted to confirm that it was either at their election or due to work requirements. Completing this step will require a signature.

- If the Meal was finished before the duration set (in this example, 30 minutes), the field worker will be prompted to confirm it was at their own election and if it was because of work requirements. A signature is also needed to proceed. This step will be the same for both the first and second meals:

- At the end of the day when the employee clocks out, a series of questions will be shown as follows:

Please keep in mind that the questions will be shown depending on the answers the employees provide, the above images with Yes/No buttons illustrate all the possible questions your staff will get.

The Premium Pay will only be recorded once in one of the following scenarios, which will be the first one that happens. This is using the same example of a first period of 4 hours and second period of 8 hours setup with a meal time of 30 minutes, so feel free to substitute these values with what your organisation uses:

1. If the first meal was taken after the 4 hour period due to work requirements.
2. If the second meal was taken after the 8 hour period due to work requirements.
3. If the meal had to be finished in less than 30 minutes also due to work requirements.

If you wished to review the information generated with this functionality such as the answers to the questions and the signatures, you can use the "Premium Pay Raw Data Report", found of course, in the Reports section.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments, or contact us for more information.

--Econz Team

Timecard GPS: New Administrator Settings (August 23, 2017 Update)

We have made a couple of changes to provide Managers and Administrators more control over what functionality they want to enable for their staff, specifically:

• Timesheet Signoff
• Task Search on Device
• Tracking During Breaks
• Clock-in Photo
• Editing Events through the mobile app

To enable or disable these features, please go to the Administration tab and select "Preferences" on the Basic section.

Scroll to the bottom of the settings and you will find the following options:

Make sure to enable or disable these features according to your company's needs and only if you need them!

Here is a brief description of each feature (click on the links to read the full article):

• Timesheet Signoff: give employees the ability to sign and approve their hours and have a Manager approve or decline, edit and resubmit these timesheets for re-approval.
• Task Search on Device: enable a search functionality within the Tasks List, so employees can punch in to tasks that have been uploaded to teams they don't belong to.
• Track During Breaks: when it's active, the app will continue to track the GPS location of the staff. If disabled, they won't be tracked during breaks.
• Clock In Photo: if checked, employees must take a picture to be able to clock in for the day.
• Event Edit on Phone: allow field workers to edit their punches.

If you need help understanding these features or you would like us to enable them for you, or if you just have some questions, please feel free to contact our support team here.

-- Econz Team

Timecard GPS Supervisor App

The Timecard Supervisor Application is the newest addition to our Econz lineup. This version will enable field employees to have features that were previously only available to web users, such as viewing company users' timesheet and GPS location activity.

To be able to use these features, a special type of user needs to be created. On the web portal, go to the Field Workers tab and click on Add New on the top left of the screen.

Make sure to follow these settings below. The Device ID is the user's phone number and the Name is of course, the employee's name. Device Type must be "TimeCard" and User Type has to be "Field Worker Administrator". Use the time zone according to your location and and set the password to something secure of your choosing.

Let's check out the new functionality the Timecard Supervisor app has! It can pretty much do everything the Full Version of Timecard GPS does, you will be greeted with the familiar home screen:

Here is where the good stuff begins. Swipe from the right border of the screen to the left and you will see the map. If you do the same while in the map view, you will be able to see the Employee List. This is the equivalent of the Home Lists screen on the web portal.

You will have three filters that can aid you to view a specific individual's last activity and location. The first one is the Status filter, which you can use to filter users according to their current clock in status.

Then, you will see the Time filter, useful to focus on a specific date or one of the other options shown below:

Finally, the user filter can be used to focus on just one person at a time. You can even type the name of the employee you are looking for and tap on Filter, if you want to do a search instead of looking for names in the list.

Below is what it will look like when you do a search with a name. You can tap on the Send button to send messages to employees through the application.

Entering a name in the User filter, will of course allow you to focus on that person's last location, for example, here  is Juanita's last location:

We hope you can get the best out of the newly added functionality of the Timecard Supervisor app. If you had any questions, feel free to contact our support team or leave us a comment in the comments section.

--Econz Team