A location is a specific destination (such as a building or address) where employees work. Each account can have many different locations, and staff members can work at more than one location. TimeForge automatically handles collisions / conflicts between the various locations so that staff members are not scheduled to work at more than one location at the same time.

To quickly build employee schedules, many TimeForge managers rely on the TimeForge AutoScheduler and schedule forecasts, or build schedules by hand (one shift at a time). Other managers pre-build days on the schedule using collections of shifts, called templates.

Each TimeForge template contains one or more shifts, and can be used to quickly generate schedules for staff members. Each location (or store) can have many different templates (as many as are needed), and templates can be used to build new schedules.

Some examples of templates:
- Friday server / waiter template
- Monday night football template
- Summer weekend lifeguard template
- Christmas retail template

Templates can be grouped together to create Weekly Templates, for one-click schedule creation.

TimeForge schedules are a collection of many shifts, and each shift is assigned a corresponding start and end time, as well as position (or job), and employee. Other information can be included with each shift, including whether the shift is for an “extra” staff member, the section or station being worked, and other pertinent information.

Shifts can easily be created for a specific day on the schedule or copied to other days on the schedule. Shifts can be grouped together into days on the schedule, and then can be used to create a template for future schedules. Additionally, shifts can be reassigned to other staff members, and are used by the TimeForge AutoScheduler to estimate anticipated needs for schedules in the future.

Accurate and correct employee scheduling is a powerful labor cost control measure. With TimeForge, supervisors and managers can quickly and accurately build labor schedules while considering the needs of their business, as well as the desires of other staff members.

Each TimeForge schedule is a collection of many shifts, and each shift is assigned a corresponding start and end time, as well as position (or job), and employee. Other information can be included with each shift, including whether the shift is for an “extra” staff member, the section or station being worked, and other pertinent information.

TimeForge schedules can be of any usable business length – some businesses prefer one-week, two-week, or one-month schedules. Other businesses prefer a mix of schedules, and may have differing schedules based on departments or store requirements. Don’t worry … TimeForge automatically notifies managers and supervisors responsible for creating the schedule of any conflicts!

TimeForge departments provide larger organizations with the ability to partition, or assign, groups of employees to individual managers.

Each department can have a number of positions (positions can even overlap departments, if necessary), employees, supervisors, and managers. Employees may belong to more than one department, if necessary.

Examples of departments include:
- A restaurant could have a front of house, back of house, and bar department.
- A grocery store might have many departments, including cashier, meat counter, bakery, and other departments.
- A cinema or movie complex might have departments for the ticket counter, concessions, and floor.

Departments are created at the Corporate Level – all locations (or stores) within a single corporation share departments.

Please note: Enabling departments within TimeForge will change the TimeForge interface to accommodate the many new department features. For example, schedule forecasts, sales, and positions are all linked to departments.

Skill levels in TimeForge allow managers and supervisors to rank staff members based on experience at each position. Skill levels can be used to differentiate experienced employees from inexperienced staffers or newly hired employees. The higher the skill level, the more experienced the staff member.

Employees who work more than one position or job can have multiple skill levels. For example, a staff member may be an excellent cashier (with a skill level of 5), but may be a manager in training (with a skill level of 2).

TimeForge Positions are similar to Job Codes, Position Codes, or Job Descriptions that are available in many Point of Sale solutions. Employees can work one or more positions in the TimeForge system. Employees can work as many positions as necessary.

Each position can have its own name / description, pay rate (and pay scale), color (for drawing on graphs), and overtime calculation. In addition, positions can have Payroll Identifiers (for use in some payroll programs), stations / sections (useful when assigning shifts to employees), and multi-level pay rates.

- Stations / sections are used to identify areas of work for a specific position or job code. For example, a “Waiter” or “Server” Position might have several sections that correspond to tables at a restaurant, such as “Section 1“, “Section 2“, etc…
- Multi-level Pay Rates can be used to pay staff members at varied rates throughout the work day. For example, a “Waiter” or “Server” Position might receive a normal hourly rate of $2.13 from the hours of 10am and 11pm. However, prior to 10am, employees working as a Server may receive $7.35

When used at the Corporation Level within TimeForge, Positions are available at every location – however, each location / site / unit can have individual base pay rates, multi-level pay rates, sections / stations, overtime calculations, and colors. This functionality enables multi-unit concepts to easily perform labor management with a single, simple tool – TimeForge!

TimeForge has 3 different security levels which determine what each staff member can do within the TimeForge labor management system.

Manager – A TimeForge Manager is able to do anything inside of the TimeForge system, including adding staff members, adding/editing employee schedules, changing sales forecasts, modifying the daily log, and running payroll reports.

Supervisor – A TimeForge Supervisor is directly in between a TimeForge Employee and a TimeForge Manager. Many aspects of the supervisor are able to be customized, on a location-by-location basis, to fit your business’s needs. By default, supervisors are able to perform every TimeForge function that a TimeForge Manager can – however, Supervisors cannot view the pay rates / salaries of other Supervisors or of any Manager.

Employee – A TimeForge Employee is the base security level for all staff members inside of the TimeForge system. Employee’s can clock in / out and view their time card (if enabled), view their own schedule, request time off, change availability, swap shifts, and set up text messaging and email notifications.

Employee security settings can be changed by editing the employee, and changing the Employee Type.

TimeForge employees are staff members (employee or manager) that use the TimeForge system. More specifically, if a staff member can log in to TimeForge, can be scheduled inside of TimeForge, or can clock in on TimeForge (or with a 3rd party plug in), then that staff member is an “employee“.

You can add, edit, and delete employees in TimeForge from the Employee List page.

TimeForge is a sophisticated labor management and employee scheduling system, and works well for both independently owned and operated businesses, as well as chain concepts.

TimeForge has two separate operating “levels” depending on the desired usage within your organization.

The “location” level of TimeForge is used when examining the labor or employee schedules at a single location, store, or unit.

The “corporate” level of TimeForge is used when multiple locations are being used.

When operated by a business with more than one location / store / unit, some of the functionality of TimeForge is moved to the corporate level to ensure consistent labor reports and employee schedules among all of the business locations.