Time Card

The following information is covered in this chapter:

• Time Card
• Other tasks

Time Card

Time Card is a feature of your payroll program that allows you to store employee work information (e.g., date worked, punch in/out times, income source) in employee time sheets. It is here that you enter your employee work information (e.g., date worked, punch in/out times, income source) into the employee time sheets. When you process payroll, simply import the Time Card data and your payroll program will automatically insert the hours into each employee's paysheet and make all the calculations for you.

You can use Time Card for entering work information (e.g., date worked, punch in/out times, income source) into the employee time sheets.

All entries remain in the employee time sheets until you close out the year.

Using Time Card

The Employee Time Sheet

To access the Employee Time Sheet window, open your payroll program, then select Activities > Time Card.

The payroll program stores your employee work information (e.g., date, punch in/out, income source) in individual time sheets. Each time sheet entry includes the following information:

• Date
• Punch In and Punch Out times.
• Number of hours and minutes worked. (The program automatically calculates the In/Out time and then displays that time in hundredths in the Hours field.)
• Name of the income item to which the hours should be applied.

Before using Time Card

Before you begin using Time Card, complete the following steps.

• Set the Time Format on your computer to the appropriate setting (e.g., 12-Hour clock or 24-Hour clock).

OS 9

Open your computer's Date & Time Control Panel and set the Time Format to the 12 or 24 Hour setting.

OS X

Open your computer's System Preferences and double-click Date & Time. If you are using a 12-Hour clock, click the Clock tab and verify that there is not a checkmark next to 24 Hour Clock.

• Set the options in the Time Card Preferences to your needs. For example, hours are entered in a 12 hour (AM/PM) or 24 (0-23) format. For more information, refer to Time Card preferences in Chapter 2.
• Make sure the option "Default to employee hours from previous period" in Payroll Preferences is NOT selected if you plan to use the Time Card hours for processing payroll. For more information, refer to Payroll preferences in Chapter 2 .

Manually entering data into time sheets

The following instruction set will guide you through the process of manually entering your employee's work information into time sheets.

Manually entering data into a time sheet

1. In your payroll program, select Activities > Time Card.

Both the Tab and Enter keys will move the cursor from field to field.

2. From the Employee List on the left, select an employee.
3. Enter the employee's work information in the appropriate fields.

A description of each field and how to enter your information is provided below.

4. Click the Save button.
5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for each employee you need to enter data for.
6. When you are ready to process payroll, refer to Importing Time Card hours into payroll .

Timesheet data fields

Date

The program always assumes you are entering hours for the current month and current year. To enter hours for the current month, enter the numerals for the date of the month such as 26, 27, or 28 in the Date field. Press the Tab key (or Enter key), and the program automatically fills in the Date field with the appropriate date format (e.g., 9/26/06).

To enter hours for a date other than the current month, enter both the month and the date by using a "separator" of your choice. Separators can be any character (e.g., a period, star, plus sign, space, or letter) except a number. For example, enter 6*30 for June 30th, press the Tab key (or Enter key), and the program fills in the Date field with 6/30/03.

In/Out

Basic time entry

To enter straight hours such as 7:00, 10:00, or 23:00, enter the digits for the hour such as 7, 10, or 23. Press the Tab key, and the program fills in the field in the appropriate format.

You can also use the Enter key located on the number pad on your keyboard.

For entries that include either minutes or hundredths (e.g., 7:22, 23:12:03), enter the hour, followed by a separator of your choosing, then enter the minutes/hundredths. For example, you could enter 7*22 (for 7:22), hit Tab or Enter, and the program would fill in the field with 7:22. Follow the entries with an "A" for AM and a "P"  for PM.

Information on 24 Hour entries

If you have the 24 Hour option selected in Time Card Preferences, you must still add the AM/PM indication just as in if you selected the 12 Hour option.

Information on 12 Hour (AM/PM) entries

For entries in the In field, the program assumes that the times entered are AM times. If the entry is a PM time, you need to place a separator after the time entry, and then type the letter "P" for PM. For example, to enter 11:15 PM in the In field, you could enter 11*15*p and the program would format it as 11:15 PM when you press the Tab key (or Enter key).

For entries in the Out field, the program calculates whether the time entry is an AM or PM entry based upon the entry in the In field.

For example, if you entered 10:00 AM in the In field and 2:15 in the Out field, the program would format the Out entry as 2:15 PM when you press the Tab or Enter key. If you entered 8:00 AM in the In field and 10:45 in the Out field, the program would format the Out field entry as 10:45 AM when you press the Tab or Enter key.

These last two examples illustrate how the program uses the noon hour in determining whether the time entry should be AM or PM

In/Out entries that involve Midnight

The program will calculate the In/Out time for entries which involve a midnight shift. The manner in which you enter a midnight value depends on which Time Format option (12 Hour or 24 Hour) you have selected in the Time Card Preferences.

Hours

The program automatically calculates each In/Out time and displays the number of hours and minutes/hundredths worked in the Hours field.

If you know the number of hours and minutes the employee has worked, you can enter this value in the Hours field and leave the In/Out fields blank. If you choose this method of time entry, the minutes value MUST be entered in hundredths.

Income Source

The information entered in the Income Source field tells the program which income item to apply specific hours to when you import hours for payroll processing.

What income source choices you have depend on whether or not the Automatic Overtime Calculation option is selected and set up in the Time Card Preferences.

If the Automatic Overtime Calculation option is set to ON in the Time Card Preferences:

When you tab to the Income Source field, the program fills in the field with the Regular Pay income type. When you import the Time Card hours for payroll processing, the program calculates the number of hours and enters these hours into the appropriate fields (regular, overtime, and double overtime) of the employee's paysheet. If you need to assign specific hours (e.g., the employee worked a holiday) to overtime or double overtime, click your mouse in the Income Source field. A pop-up menu will appear allowing you to select the appropriate income item.

If the Automatic Overtime Calculation option is set to OFF in the Time Card Preferences, the program offers the following two methods for entering an income item name:

• Method 1: When you tab to the Income Source field, enter the first letter of the name of the income item you wish to apply these specific hours to. The program will search your list of available income items and automatically fill in the field with the name of the income item that it first matches. If the program selected the wrong income item, type in the next letter of the income item name and the program will search for the next closest match, and so on.
• Method 2: Press Command-L when you tab to the Income Source field. A dialogue will appear listing your available income items. Select the income item you wish to apply these specific hours to, then click the Select button. The income item you selected will be entered into the Income Source field.

Printing employee time sheets

You can print out your employees' work hours at any time to verify the data entries and to keep a hard copy on file.

Printing an employee time sheet

1. From the Employees tab window, select Activities > Time Card.
2. In the Time Sheet window, select the employee whose time sheet you want to print from the Employee List on the left.
3. Click the Print button.
4. In the dialogue that appears, mark the radio button next to the date range of the entries you wish to print.

One month

Prints time sheets for the month you select from the popup menu.

One day

Prints time sheet for a date you enter into the entry box.

One quarter

Prints the time sheet of the selected employee for the quarter chosen from the popup.

Between

Allows you to specify a custom range of dates.

5. Click the Print button.
6. In the standard Macintosh Print dialogue that appears, click Print.

The Hours field of the printout displays the minutes converted into hundredths.

Other Tasks

This section includes the following information:

• Importing Time Card hours into payroll
• Printing time cards
• Viewing Time Card reports

Importing Time Card hours into payroll

When you process payroll, you'll find that importing the individual employee's Time Card hours is an easy process. Please read through the following instructions before you begin.

Import Time Card Hours will work ONLY in the Process Payroll tab window.It is grayed out (unavailable) otherwise.

Importing Time Card hours into payroll

The Import Time Card feature will not work correctly if the " Default to employee hours from previous period " option is selected in Payroll Preferences. Before continuing, verify that this option is not selected.

1. In the Process Payroll tab window, select an employee from your Employee List.
2. Select File > Import Time Card Hours.
3. In the dialogue that appears, select the date range for the hours you want to import.
4. Click the Import button.

The specified Time Card hours will be imported and assigned to the appropriate income items of the selected employee's paysheet. If the Time Card entries are time formatted to Minutes, the program automatically converts the minutes to fractions of hours in hundredths. This happens because the payroll program only handles fractions of hours in hundredths.

If you change the number of hours in the Process Payroll window, the hours in the employee time sheet do not change accordingly.

Printing time cards

A feature called the Time Card Printer can be used to print time cards. These time cards include your employee's names and identification numbers.

You have a choice of three different time card formats which can be printed on plain paper or card stock that is available from Aatrix Software. You can then use these time cards to either manually enter the times or for machine time clocks.

Printing a time card

1. In your payroll program, select Utilities > Time Card Printer.
2. In the Print time cards for list, select the name(s) of the employees whose time cards you wish to print.
3. From the Printer pop-up menu, select the type of printer on which you will be printing time cards.

If your printer type is not listed in the Printer pop-up menu, select the Adjust Printing option.

4. From the Time Card Format options, click the button that represents the type of time card you want to print.
5. Set up the time card Printing Options.

Date to print on time cards

Enter a date to print on the time cards.If you don't want a date printed on your time cards, leave the text box blank.

For employee number, use

Depending on which type of number you want printed on the time cards, click either the Social Security Number or ID# radio button. Select the None option if you don't want any type of employee number printed on the time cards.

6. Click the Print or Test Print button.

Print

Click the Print button if you have already tested your printing settings and your time cards print out correctly on your printer.The standard Macintosh print dialogue will appear allowing you to print out your time cards.

Test Print

Test printing allows you to print a blank sample time card to determine whether any adjustments need to be made to your printing settings.If, after printing out a sample time card, you find that some printing adjustments are needed, refer to the following section. Continue test printing until your time cards look the way you want.

Adjusting time card printing settings

If the time cards are not printing out correctly on your printer, click the Adjust Printing button.

Use the Printing Adjustments dialogue to adjust the printing settings of the top and left margins of your time cards.For example, if your printer requires you to "center" feed time card stock, you could move the left margin over by the number of appropriate pixels.

If you are printing to a page feed printer, such as a LaserWriter, click the Printing to a "Page" printer checkbox.

If you select one of the available printers in the Printer pop-up menu (e.g., Style Writer, LaserWriter Pro), and you alter the settings in the Printing Adjustments dialogue, the program will automatically change your selection in the Printer pop-up menu to the Custom Settings option.

Viewing Time Card reports

Predesigned reports have been created for your Time Card data. Refer to the Time Card Reports in Appendix A.