Time & Attendance FAQs – Hotel Effectiveness

How do I add a new employee in Time & Attendance?

Adding a New Employee who will punch in and out (sometimes called a timeclock employee) to Employee Manager

Login to Hotel Effectiveness
Select "Employees" from the left navigation menu
--Change the hotel listed in the hotel dropdown in Employee Explorer screen if needed
Click on “Add New Employee/Contractor >>” link at the top of the list of employees
- Important: If you are a Hotel Effectiveness Time & Attendance customer and this employee should have a time card, leave the 'Add to Time & Attendance' checkbox checked at the top of the employee profile.
Complete all fields if possible
Click Save

Special Notes about Positions

You can enter up to three positions and three unique pay rates upon first hiring an employee. These positions and pay rates will flow through to the employee's time card if you are a Hotel Effectiveness Time & Attendance customer.

You can define an unlimited number of positions in the 'Extra Positions Assigned' section after you save the new hire; these position updates will be present inside of Employee Manager and used in Scheduler. However, any positions you assign in Scheduler will not flow back to your Time & Attendance or payroll system.

How to add a New Employee who will not clock in and out (called a non-timeclock employee) to Employee Manager

A non-timeclock employee is rare in Hotel Effectiveness and only used when the hotel will be typing this employee's hours worked into Night Audit Entry manually.

Login to Hotel Effectiveness
Select "Employees" from the left navigation menu
--Change the hotel listed in the hotel dropdown in Employee Explorer screen if needed
Click on “Add Non-Timeclock Employee >>” OR "Add New Employee/Contractor >>" link at the top of your employee list
- Important: If you are a Hotel Effectiveness Time & Attendance customer and this employee should not have a time card, uncheck the "Add to Time & Attendance checkbox at the top of the employee profile. If you are not a Time & Attendance customer, you will not see this option.
If you or another user will typing the employee's hours into Night Audit Entry, set their Employee Type to "Hourly Contractor".
Complete all other fields if possible.
Click Save

How to Add Multiple Positions for Employees in Time & Attendance

Many times, you have employees who work multiple positions so you need to ensure this is captured within their Time & Attendance profile. If an employee punches in on a position that's not in their profile, there are exceptions that show up on the time cards. They will still get paid and the labor will be tracked to the originally punched position unless edited by a manager. By adding additional positions to the employee profile, you will not get an position exception when those employees punch in against their different position codes.

Storing this in their profile does not prevent them from punching in on any other codes. Our clocks are designed to take whatever they enter.

Adding Multiple Positions to the Employee Profile within Time & Attendance

Click on your 'Time & Attendance' menu item at the top of the page
Click 'Employee Setup' on the left hand side of the page
Find the employee you want to add positions for and click on their name
About halfway down the page, you'll see the fields of 'Home1, Home2, Home3.' These are where you can enter the position codes for each position they work. Please only enter 1 position code number (i.e 12 = Front Desk Clerk) per field. If the employee has different pay rates for each position, please enter those in 'Alt Pay Rate 1, Alt Pay Rate 2,' etc. farther down the page
Click 'Save'

Special Notes

These changes that you make inside of Time & Attendance will flow through to the rest of the Hotel Effectiveness system. This is especially important in Scheduler. If an employee has multiple positions within Time & Attendance, they can be scheduled for those positions in Scheduler.

If you need more than 3 pay rates that you want to define, the system can accept manual pay rate overrides, but you cannot store more than three. Please contact our Support team to get this enabled.

How do I Capture if my Employee Works More than 3 Positions?

Many times, you have employees who work multiple positions so you need to ensure this is captured inside their Time & Attendance profile. If an employee punches in on a position code that's not in their T&A profile, there are exceptions (little yellow flag icons) that show up on their time cards. They will still get paid and the labor will be tracked to the originally punched position unless edited by a manager.

By adding those additional positions to the employee's T&A profile, you will not get a position exception when those employees punch in against their different position codes.

You can add up to 3 positions inside an employee's Time & Attendance profile.

* Note: Storing this in their profile does not prevent them from punching in on any other codes. Our clocks are designed to take whatever the employee enters.

However, if the employee works more than 3 positions, since the Time & Attendance system doesn't accept more than 3 positions, there are a few options you have to capture this information:

1. You can ask us to turn on the "Manual Rate Override' feature in T&A, which allows managers to go in and adjust an employee's pay rate for each position they work. This allows you to adjust an employee's pay rate for those additional (>3) positions if needed.

Most often used if the employee's pay rates are different in those 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. positions and they need to be correct before running payroll. If their pay rate is the same for all positions, you probably don't need to turn this feature on.
A potential drawback to this is that a manager can go in and simply change the rate manually on any position at any time. So if you do want this setting turned on, we suggest you significantly restrict access as to who can do this override.

2. You can ask us to remove the yellow exception flag if people punch in on a position not in their T&A profile.

Some managers don't like seeing those flags every day and don't care if someone punched in on a position not in their T&A profile (especially if it's someone who works a 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. position that can't be captured in the profile and if the pay rate is the same).
A potential drawback to this is that unless you have all of the position codes memorized for everyone, you have no indication when people are punching outside of normal positions.

3. You can add those additional positions the employee works in Scheduler or Employees so the employee can be scheduled for those positions.

In Scheduler, hover over "Employee Setup" from the blue bar and choose "Assign Employee Positions". Choose your correct hotel from the right-hand drop-down menu and click 'Edit/View' next to the appropriate employee's name and add as many positions as you need to. This will make that employee available to be scheduled for those positions.
In Employees (left navigation menu), select the desired hotel from the hotel dropdown list, click 'View/Edit' next to the appropriate employee's name, select "Extra Positions Assigned" and then with the appropriate access, you should have an 'Edit' button next to the position. You can then assign any additional positions to the employee.
Please Note: Adding those additional positions in Scheduler will sync to Employee Manager and vice versa (so you only have to add them in 1 place) but if/when you go to un-assign one of those positions, you must un-assign them in both Scheduler and Employee Manager.

If you need to make either change #1 or #2 above, please feel free to contact us at support@hoteleffectiveness.com.

How do I deactivate a Terminated Employee

If you have an employee who is no longer working at your property, you need to deactivate them from the Time & Attendance system so they don't clutter up your Employee Manager or other tools within the Hotel Effectiveness system (i.e. Scheduler, Night Audit Entry for Housekeepers).

If you deactivate them in Employee Manager, that deactivation will flow through and be valid for the entire Hotel Effectiveness system. You can always go back and reactivate them at any time if they are rehired. We will always save all of the punch history for any historical purpose you may have.

How to Deactivate an Employee in Time & Attendance

Select "Employees" from the left navigation menu
Locate the employee that needs to be terminated and select "View/Edit" from the actions column
Inside 'Employee Viewer' select "Edit" next to "Employee Profile"
Select "Terminate Employee" next to 'Term date' and enter the appropriate termination date. You can always set it to any estimated date in the past if you know exactly when they were terminated.
Click Save Employee and you are done.

Within an hour, that change will flow through to the rest of the Hotel Effectiveness tools. If you ever want to view those users you have made inactive, you can click on 'Show Inactive Employees' at the bottom of your Employee Manager page in Hotel Effectiveness. To reactivate the employee, simply clear out the Term Date and hit save and they will become an active employee again.

How do I Reactivate a Terminated Employee?

**Please note: If you have access to Employee Manager, please follow the instructions located in the Knowledge Base article, "How to Reactivate a Terminated Employee - Employee Manager."

1. Login to Hotel Effectiveness and Click on "Time & Attendance" in the left navigation menu

2. Please select the hotel that you would like to add the new user to (If you have access to multiple hotels, please select the hotel that you would like to add the new user to)

3. Click on "Employee Setup"

4. Click on the employee's name to open up their profile

5. Remove the date located in the "End Date" field

6. Click "Save"

7. You have now reactivated an employee in Time & Attendance

How do I Edit Departments for an Employee in Time & Attendance

Sometimes an employee may change positions or some employees work multiple positions. You can add or edit up to 3 positions for an employee within the Time & Attendance system.

Employee Position Edits within Time & Attendance

Click on your 'Time & Attendance' menu item at the top of the page
Click 'Employee Setup' on the left hand menu
Click on the employee you want to edit positions for and in the 'Home1,' 'Home2' and 'Home3' fields, type in the position codes (2 or 3 digit number) for the appropriate positions that person works. This number can be found in Hotel Effectiveness -> Settings -> Timeclock Position Codes
Click 'Save.'

Within an hour, the edits that you make within the Time & Attendance system will flow through and be valid for the entire Hotel Effectiveness system.

Can I add hours to several employees at the same time?

Yes, you can add hours in bulk to some or all employees at the same time by using the Quick Add Hours screen. For instance, you may want to add holiday benefit hours in bulk to multiple employees when they do punch in to work on holidays.

Below are the step-by-steps:

Log into Hotel Effectiveness
Select "Time & Attendance" in the left navigation menu
Go to "Employee Setup" and click the check boxes next to the employees that you want to add time for.
Click on "Work with selected employees" (the command button is located at the end of your active employee table"
Click the link under "Quick-Add Hours". The link is called "Click here to go to the Quick Add Hours screen."
Fill out the boxes on the Quick Add Hours screen, then click submit.

How do you fix a Missing Location ID for Employees in Time & Attendance Manager

Having a correct location id (104599, 104607, 104609, etc) entered in the employee profile in Time & Attendance Manager is an absolute requirement for every single employee in the system. This includes duplicates, old employees, quick terms, and contractors. If the location is not entered, they will not be synched across to our tools and their hours will not be shown. This can result in incorrect hours and wages.

Fixing this is very easy. If you have the proper permissions, login to Hotel Effectiveness-> Time & Attendance Manager (left navigation menu) -> Employee Setup. Find the employee that is missing the location. Click on the employee name to edit and enter the location id (left column, five rows down). You should enter the unique 6 digit number assigned to the hotel. You can always find this by going to Settings (in the Username Menu) -> Hotel List. The id's of the hotels you can access will be listed there. Once you have entered the location id, save and you are done.

You will continue to receive email alerts for this issue until these employees are updated with locations in their profiles.

How do you lock time cards to prevent edits?

The Hotel Effectiveness Time & Attendance system has the ability to lock down the punches through a set date (i.e. end of last pay period), so no one can make any additional edits to the timecards.

Why lock time cards?

This is particularly useful after the managers have finished editing punches for the period and submitted payroll. This action will ensure the time card information used for payroll is the same as what is in the source system. This is a best practice for audits and any reconciliations.

How to Lock Time Cards

Login to Hotel Effectiveness
Select "Time & Attendance" in the left navigation menu
-Select hotel if you have access to multiple
Click the Administration link in the left main menu
Click Stored Procedures
In the text box labeled "Enter Stored Procedure," type in the word: timelock (all one word, lowercase), Click the Submit Button.
Please Note: This does not say timeclock, it says timelock - no C
You will be prompted to enter the Earliest Editable Date. Most often, this would simply be the last day of the previous pay period that you want to lock.
For example, if you want to lock the pay period from Sunday 7/7/17 to Saturday 7/20/17, you would simply enter 7/20/17. All periods in the past including this one would be locked. Once you click Save, all punches up to and including that date will not be available for any changes (add, edit, delete punches).
You can verify this is activated by going to the time cards for the previous period. Instead of Edit link next to each punch, you will only see a "lock" icon indicating no changes are allowed.

How to Unlock Time Cards

You can unlock time cards at any time by returning to the same place (Admin -> Stored Procedures -> type timelock) and editing the Earliest Editable Date and saving again.

If you want to unlock all punches, you can trick the system to allow edits by entering a date in the far past like 1/1/1950. The system will not allow you to clear out the date altogether, so the "trick date" must be entered.

How do you print individual time cards without showing pay rates?

Below are the step-by-steps to print time cards without pay rates:

Log into Hotel Effectiveness
Go to "Time & Attendance"
Go to "Time Cards", select the desired pay period and click "Show Activity".
Or click on the current or previous pay period on the Main Menu
A list of your employees will populate in the left frame, scroll all the way down until you see "Show/Hide Wages"
Click on "Show/Hide Wages" and you will see a message in the right frame: Wages will now be hidden
Note: This link will only appear if your account has access to view wages
Click on one of options under"Print All Time Cards" in the left frame, including Alphabetically, By Department, or By Hotel Location
Depending on your web browse setup, either a new tab or a new window will populate with your employee time cards
Send the time cards to print on your local printer

Should you have any questions, please Contact Us.

How do you Print Time-clock Position Codes?

A Timeclock Position Codes Page customized for your hotel is available for download in Hotel Effectiveness. Your actions are required as follows:

Action No. 1: PRINT your customized Timeclock Position Codes

Log into Hotel Effectiveness
Click "Time & Attendance" from the left side menu
On the blue bar, click "View/Download Timeclock Position Codes"
In hotel dropdown, make sure that your hotel is selected
Navigate between Spanish and English options using the blue link at the top of the page
Click on the Adobe icon or the Excel icon to indicate the format of the report
Open the file directly or save it to your computer (your browser settings will dictate what choices you have)
Send the file to print in your local printer

Action No. 2: POST the new Timeclock Position Codes next to your time clock(s) or web clock computer terminal(s). Remove the old Timeclock Position Codes tape-up sheet.

Action No. 3: TELL your employees that they can only use the codes in the new sheet upon clock-in.

Action No. 4: ONLY use the codes in the new sheet for Home1, Home2, and Home3 when you set up a new hire in Time & Attendance Manager.

The new page of Timeclock Position Codes is designed to cover all the positions in your labor plan. If you need a code that is not listed in the new sheet, you may add under the Hotel Position Set-up option which is also located in the Settings section.

How do you print a Summary Report in Time & Attendance

Many customers like viewing the Payroll Summary Report before running payroll to confirm total earnings and verify no time cards are flagged for missing punches or incorrect position codes. This report is often also used after payroll is submitted to confirm the hours uploaded were properly imported. In that case, some people prefer to print the report as opposed to simply viewing it in-browser. Print instructions below.

Log In
Navigate to Time & Attendance
Select "Reports" on the left menu
Select "Summary Report"
Select desired options for the report
Click "Run Report"
Click the silver 'Print' button at the top of the page
Print

Printing the Summary Report in Internet Explorer

NOTE: Internet Explorer has a print setting that can make this report's font very small. This setting is on by default and usually turns back on if/when you update Internet Explorer. If you use Chrome or Firefox, this issue shouldn't happen.

To fix in Internet Explorer (Edge version):
Open Internet Explorer
Select the gear icon in the upper right hand corner (or select "Tools"--older versions)
Hover over Print Settings
Select "Page Setup"
Uncheck "Enable Shrink-to-Fit"
Save

Once you export the Summary Report after updating this, the font should return to a normal size.

Why are there different colors in the "Pay" field of the Summary Report?

There are 4 colors present in the Summary Report, including black, red, green and blue.

Black = Normal pay rates (i.e. Regular, Vacation, Sick Leave, Overtime, etc.)
Red = Happens when the pay rate is $0.00 (i.e. keeping track of salaried employees hours.)
Green = When there is more than one pay rate present for that period (i.e. Holiday Pay, Pay rates for different departments.)
Blue = When a punch is manually edited on the time card.

Daily Auto Email Report is a summary of the punch activities that occurred during the pay period. This report breaks the activities down and groups them by Pay Period, Week, and Daily Activity.

Because this alert is specific to activity on the time cards, the ability to manage the alert is inside of Time & Attendance, not in My Email Alerts.

You need to subscribe to the Daily Auto Email Report in order to receive this report via email. Below are the step-by-step instructions to set up a new subscription or modify an existing subscription. You can set up alerts for yourself and others.

Log into Hotel Effectiveness
Go to "Time & Attendance"
- If you can access multiple hotels: select the hotel you would like to add or remove alerts for. You must subscribe this alert for each hotel.
Go to "Reports"
Go to "Daily Auto Email Report".
Note: You may not see this option depending on your security level and company setup. Should you have any questions, please email Support@HotelEffectiveness.com.
Click on "Add New Recipient", which is located beneath the main heading "Daily Auto Email Subscriptions" in the green bar
Enter the recipient's email address
You can enter a filter if you'd like. The filter allows you to send the report just one particularly department or supervisor. If you have multiple hotels in your account, you can use the filter to enter the six character Hotel Effectiveness Location ID for that particularly property.
Note: You can only filter one department, location, or supervisor at a time. The filter box is NOT a comma separated field.
Click "Save" to activate the subscription.

Note, from the subscriptions page, you can also view or send this report on demand by selecting the "Send Or View A Report Now" link.

How do you change the Pay Period dates included in the Pay File?

When running payroll for a hotel, there may be times when you need to customize the number of days you are exporting. This may be because the hotel has joined or is leaving Hotel Effectiveness during an ongoing pay period.

Instructions on downloading the Payroll Report

Go to Time & Attendance
Select "Run Payroll Report" on the blue bar
Select your hotel (if applicable)
Update the From/To dates as desired
Select "Run Payroll Report"

The Payroll Report will download to the folder your browser sends files to, typically the Downloads folder or Desktop.

You can then import this file into your payroll system.

Instructions on downloading the webF

Go to Time & Attendance
Click ‘Reports’ on the left-hand menu
Select the ‘Web Formatteer (WebF)’ link
Check the checkbox next to your property (screen below)
Update ‘Begin Date’ and ‘End Date’ boxes on the left as desired
Click ‘Start Download’

Note: If you do not update the Begin/End dates, the file will default to the last pay period, which is displayed fourth column.

The webF file will download to the folder your browser sends files to, typically the Downloads folder or Desktop.