How do I Import Sales Thresholds?

TimeForge’s sales thresholds are a powerful tool to allow you to budget and monitor your labor costs. Using the sales thresholds, you can set up a target budget based on labor costs, labor hours, or labor shifts. To easily import the sales threshold information, follow these steps.

Start with a CSV file

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Start by creating a CSV file with the necessary information, such as the sales category, position or department, the start date and end date, the threshold, and minimums and maximums.

Note: Each threshold should be on its own line.

Go to Import Data

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Navigate to the Import Data screen.

Choose Your CSV File

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Click on Browse and navigate to the CSV file, and then click on Upload Data.

Map the Fields and Import

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You can choose to import a number of fields in the thresholds. For example:

  • Sales Type / Sales Category – Enter the sales category, such as Gross Sales, or Total Skiers
  • Position Name – Enter the TimeForge Position Name (you can use positions or department thresholds)
  • Department Name – Enter the TimeForge Department Name (you can use positions or department thresholds)
  • Threshold Start Date – Enter the date the threshold begins
  • Threshold End Date – Enter the date the threshold should end
  • Threshold Min Value – Enter the minimum value for the threshold
  • Threshold Max Value – Enter the maximum value for the threshold

When you’re done, click on Import Data, and TimeForge will load your data, and show you any warnings or errors when it’s done.

Posted in Sales Tab / No Comments.

How Do I Import Sales in a CSV?

iSometimes, typing sales information into each day or hour of your week can be a tedious process. TimeForge includes a CSV importer to make bulk data entry much easier. Follow these steps to import your sales with a CSV file.

Navigate to the Sales Categories

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To import sales, first navigate to the Sale Categories list.

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Select the Import Sales for the sales category you would like to import.

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A pop-up will appear to allow you to import your sales data. Sales data should follow the format specified – and should be in a CSV (not Excel) format. The columns should be:

Date
Start Time
End Time
Amount
Department (if applicable)

Choose if the sales are Manager Projections or Actual Figures.

A few hints for using the software import:
1. You cannot currently import data on top of data that already exists. The import tool cannot be used for updating information at this time.
2. Make sure that your number formatting for the Amount column doesn’t include commas. For example, “1234″ is a valid number to import, but “1,234″ is not a valid number.
3. If you are importing data for the whole day, set the start time and end time to be your open and closing times for your location or business.
4. If you are using departments, make sure to the names match the TimeForge names exactly – otherwise, those sales will not be imported.

If using Departments, Set the Import Data

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If you are using departments within TimeForge, make sure check the sales import check box for the departments you want to import. If the import check box is not selected, your import will fail for those departments.

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Updating Productivity Thresholds by Position

Measuring and monitoring productivity is very important in many businesses, and is a critical part for scheduling employees for many businesses. With TimeForge, there are several ways to budget – including straight one-to-one budgets, comparing labor to sales (or some other metric), and productivity analysis. In most cases, the budget process can be broken down by location, department, or position – providing a lot of power for the financial experts in your organization.

Navigate to the Employee Positions

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After logging in, navigate to Employee->Positions

Locate the Positions

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Locate the position that needs to have the sales thresholds modified, and click Edit.

Click on Threshold

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All of the sales thresholds are stored within the Threshold sub tab. Choose this tab.

Select a Sales Category, and Enter Thresholds

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At this point, choose an applicable sales category for the position, and then modify or update the start date, end date, desired ratio, the minimum, and the maximum. Make sure to click on Save before you finish.

Thresholds, What do they Mean?

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Defining Thresholds can be somewhat confusing, because there are a number of ways to budget for your business, location, department, or position. Here’s a guide to some of these values:

1. Each Sales Category can be tied to different metrics for comparison. For example, you can compare labor costs, hours, or shifts in a day to your sales numbers. In this case, Paid Skier Visits is being compared to an “H”, or hours.

Additionally, sales can be categorized by department or by location. For example, a single department may have sales, and the location may have some additional sales. In this case, Paid Skier Visits is a “L”, or Location level sales category.

2. Sales Thresholds can be established by day, week, month, quarter, year, or whatever other date range you would like. Enter a start date range here.

3. End the end date of your sales threshold.

4. Enter the desired ratio you would like to have, when comparing this particular position to your sales for the day or week. This number can be either a “large” number (such as 20, representing 20%), or a “small” number (such as 0.0135, representing an actual number).

5. Enter the minimum number for your staffing requirements. In this case, we are comparing the threshold to hours, so this field represents 8 hours as a minimum (per day).

6. Enter the maximum number for your staffing requirements. In this case, we are comparing the threshold to hours, so this field represents 32 hours as a maximum (per day).

Posted in Employees Tab / No Comments.

Adding a User to the TF100 Time Clock

This lesson will demonstrate how to add a user (or admin user) to the TF100 biometric time clock for use with TimeForge.

Step 1: Press the Menu Button.

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If it asks for admin affirmation, have an admin put their fingerprint on the fingerprint scanner.

Step 2: Go to the User Management Screen

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Make sure the arrow is pointing to “User Manage” and Press OK.

Step 3: Choose User or Admin

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Choose how you would like to enroll. You may select either “Enroll User” or “Enroll Admin”. Both of these steps follow the same process, the only difference is the User’s access level.

Step 4: Enroll the fingerprint

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In the enroll menu, select “Enroll FP”. A screen will pop up asking you to select OK or press ESC.

Step 5: Enroll the fingerprint

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Press the OK button to enroll a new fingerprint for your user.

Step 6: Enter an enrollment number or PIN

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Enter a UserID / pin for the user, assign to the user you are registering and then press OK. No other user can have the same UserID / pin.

Remember the UserID (you’ll need it to link their TimeForge account).

Step 7a: Place the employee’s fingerprint on the scanner

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You must place your finger 3 times to verify.

Step 7b: Continue enrolling your fingerprints

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If an error occurs while reading the staff member’s fingerprint, it will prompt you to place your finger three times again.

Once it is complete you will see an option to Save the fingerprint. Hit OK.

Step 8: The next screen should ask if you want to Continue.

Press ESC on this screen.

Step 9: Enroll backup fingerprints

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Now we will enroll up to 3 additional ‘backup’ fingerprints for this user.

Press OK.

Step 10: Repeat Steps 7 – 9

Follow Step 7, 8, and 9 again with a different finger. You can do this up to 4 times, for 4 fingers.

When you are finished with all of the fingers, then press ESC 2 times at the Backup Enroll screen to go back to the Enroll User screen.

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Linking Employees to Fingerprints on the Standalone Time Clock

This lesson will demonstrate how to link your employees’ fingerprints to the TF100 biometric time clock.

Step 1: Start the Software

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Start the Standalone Time Clock Software.

Step 2: Choose Fingerprint Sync

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Select Fingerprint Sync from the File Menu. Another screen will pop-up.

Step 3: Choose an Employee

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Use the drop down box to select employees that have not been linked to a pin/User ID on the TF100 Time Clock.

Step 4: Enter a PIN

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Once an employee has been chosen, select the Pin/UserID on the TF100 Time Clock that corresponds to that employee.

(Note: Employees that are not linked in TimeForge will not be recognized for tracking time and attendance.)

Step 5: Link The Employee and PIN

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Once the pin has been selected, click the Link button.

Step 6: Verify

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You can verify that the employee was linked properly by checking the drop down box under “Employees with linked pin”.

Step 7: Repeat for other Employees

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Repeat steps 3-6 for all employees that have fingerprints and IDs on the Time Clock. If you make a mistake and need to reset the Pin/UserID that an employee is linked to, simply select them from the “Employees With Linked Pin” drop down box and click Reset. They should appear back in the “Employees Without Linked Pin” list again.

When you are finished, just click the X at the top right of the screen to close out the Fingerprint Mapping tool.

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Adding TimeClock IPs to the Back Office Standalone

This lesson will demonstrate how to add TF100 time clocks to the TimeForge Standalone Timeclock software, allowing users to clock in and out using their fingerprints.

Step 1: Start the Software

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Start the TimeForge Attendance Standalone Timeclock.

Step 2: Sync Time Cards

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Select Time Clock Sync Settings from the File Menu.

Step 3: Enter IP Addresses

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Enter each Time Clock IP in the TimeClock IP box and click the Add IP button. It will process the IP and check to see that it is in the network.

Once the IP address has been added successfully, the IP Address you just entered will disappear allowing you to enter another one.

Step 3a: Invalid IP

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If you input a TimeClock that has an invalid IP, or is not configured to connect to the network properly, a message box will pop up.

Step 4: Set Sync Frequency

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If you’d like to update how often TimeForge pulls attendance data off of the TimeClock, you can change it from the Update Sync Frequency drop down box.

Simply select a time period and click Update. If you do not update the sync frequency, it will default to syncing every minute.

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Getting an IP for the TF100 TimeClock

This lesson will describe how to set up network access for your TF100 timeclock, an Internet-enabled biometric timeclock.

Step 1: Press the Menu Button.

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If there is an Admin fingerprint registered, you might be required to use that to log into the menu screen.

If no admin users have been added, you won’t need to validate an Admin fingerprint.

Step 2: Go To Options

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Press the down arrow and highlight “Options”

Step 3: Press OK

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After going to the “Options” screen, press the “OK” button.

Step 3: Add an IP Address

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Press the down arrow and highlight “IP Addr” and then press OK.

Step 5: Enter the IP address

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You should be at the IP Address entry screen.

If there is no IP Address listed, you will need to input one yourself using the number pad. Please enter an IP address that is not currently used on your network.

If there is an IP address already listed, that the device found (for example, using DHCP), write it down for reference.

You will need to remember the IP address for entry into the time clock software.

Step 6: Set the Gateway Option

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Next, scroll down to the Gateway option and press OK.

This should show you the gateway this device is trying to talk to. Make sure its the same gateway the back office servers are connected to.

When done, press OK. Your timeclock is completely configured.

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How do I use the TimeForge Facebook application?

Want to get your schedule for the upcoming week? Need to see who’s clocked in … right now? Want to see your sales totals for the day while you’re at home? You can perform all of these labor management tasks, and more, on our TimeForge website.

However, you can also do these tasks (and others) using Facebook – from anywhere you can access Facebook applications.

This lesson discusses using the TimeForge Facebook app.

Search for TimeForge on Facebook

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From your facebook account search for TimeForge Employee Scheduling, or go straight to http://apps.facebook.com/timeforge

TimeForge Application

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From the TimeForge application page click on the Go to Application button.

Login to Facebook Application

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Using your TimeForge username and password, log in to the TimeForge Facebook application.

View your TimeForge Account Inside of Facebook

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Using the TimeForge Facebook application, you can view schedules and time cards, review and send messages, and perform many other TimeForge functions, without ever leaving Facebook!

Posted in Setup Tab / No Comments.

How Do I Archive Reports (Schedules and Payroll)?

In some cases, it’s important to export and save time sheet or schedule information from TimeForge to something like Excel, for a backup, or if you sell your business, or need to further manipulate or crunch the data.

In this lesson, you’ll see how to export payroll information to an Excel spreadsheet, and save it for future use.

Tip: These steps will work for any TimeForge report, including the ability to export data from schedules, absentee reports, or any other TimeForge report.

Go To The Reports Section

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Navigate to the Reports section in either Attendance, Schedules, or Sales (if configured).

Identify the Report to Run

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Identify which report you want to run to export the time sheets, payroll hours, schedule, or other data.

While there are many different reports available in TimeForge, the Payroll Detail reports are going to be most helpful for archiving and filing time cards.

Enter Your Own Dates

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1. Choose “Enter your own Dates” if given the option.

2. Enter the date range (begin date and end date) that you’d like to export

Export to Excel

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1. Make sure to export to Microsoft Excel for easy copy / paste and manipulation if needed at a later date for analysis.

Save the File for Your Records

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Finally, save the resulting spreadsheet on to your computer, or archive the file for use later.

Posted in Attendance Tab / No Comments.

How do I Add New Log Entries to the Daily Log?

The TimeForge Daily Log is a great way to communicate with staff members and other management staff.

The Daily Log consists of 3 different logs:
- A Manager Log, which is only viewable by Managers and Supervisors (if configured).
- A Staff Log, which contains notes from management to staff members.
- An Audit Log, which contains important tracking information from within TimeForge

Adding New Daily Log entries allows other staff members or managers to view the messages, sent from management.

Navigate to the Daily Log

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To add a new log entry navigate to the Daily Log tab.
- Click on the Daily Log sub-tab.
- Choose a appropriate log (Manager Log, Staff Log).
- Choose the date to add the entry.

Add A New Entry

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After making a category go to Add a New Log Entry.

Select the Category, and Employee if Applicable

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Complete the log entry. If it is an important note, and you would like it to be immediately viewable by staff members, then mark the notes as ‘Important‘ to appear in the Important Notes section for staff members and managers.

Upload a Document

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If you would like to upload a supporting document (such as an HR manual, staff document, picture, or scan), click on upload and select a file. Follow the easy instructions to upload the document from your computer to the TimeForge servers.

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