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!

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How Do I Enforce Clock Ins and Clock Outs?

TimeForge is a powerful labor management platform, and is capable of meeting all of your workforce management needs. In many businesses with hourly wage workers, staff members need to arrive at work on time. Four clock in and clock out scenarios will create problems for your business:

1. Arriving earlier than scheduled will destroy business profits, as employees will be at work before they are needed, but will need to be paid for their time.

2. Arriving later than scheduled for work will cause problems with customers, as employees may not be available to service the customer’s needs.

3. Leaving earlier than scheduled can cause similar problems as clocking in late. Customers may not be serviced properly.

4. Leaving later than scheduled will increase payroll costs for the business, decreasing profits.

TimeForge offers a number of technology enhancements that can enforce your labor schedule, ensuring that staff show up on time.

Enforcing clock in and clock out time periods can reduce your payroll expenses by 2 – 4% with the click of a button!

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options link or sub-tab (inside of the Attendance tab).

Locate the Enforcement Options for Clocking In and Out

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TimeForge includes two primary options which will enable, or disable, attendance (time card) enforcement.

1. By default, TimeForge allows employees to clock in at any time that they would like. If you are using TimeForge for scheduling, you can enforce the schedule, requiring employees to clock in on time.

2. By default, TimeForge allows employees to clock out at any time that they would like. If you are using TimeForge for scheduling, you can enforce the schedule, requiring employees to clock out on time.

TimeForge provides two configurations for clocking in or clocking out. You can require staff members to clock in or out using grace periods, or using the scheduled time. Please check your local labor regulations to see which ones are applicable (and legal) for your business.

Enforce the Schedule with Grace Periods

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To require that staff members clock in and out with a grace period, based on their scheduled shift, set the options as follows:

For clocking in:

1. Switch this option from Yes, to No, requiring that employees must clock in at a predefined time.

2. Enter an appropriate grace period in minutes. This will allow employees to clock in prior to their shift starting.

Staff members who clock in too early will need a manager to approve their clock in.

For clocking out:

3. Switch this option from Yes, to No, requiring that employees must clock out at a predefined time.

4. Enter an appropriate grace period in minutes. This will allow employees to clock out after their shift ends.

Staff members who clock out too late will need a manager to approve their clock out.

Example:

Using the above options, a staff member who is scheduled from 10:00am – 4:00pm would be allowed to clock in after 9:50am, and must clock out no later than 4:20pm. Earlier than 9:50am or later than 4:20pm will require a manager override.

Enforce the Schedule by the Scheduled Time

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To require that employees clock in and out based on the scheduled time, without providing a grace period, set the options as follows:

For clocking in:

1. Leave this option set to Yes, allowing employees to clock in at any time.

2. Switch this option from No, to Yes, requiring that staff members acknowledge that their clock in times will not show the actual clock in time, but will instead show the scheduled start time.

TimeForge will record the scheduled start time (not the real time), unless overridden by a manager.

For clocking out:

1. Leave this option set to Yes, allowing employees to clock out at any time.

2. Switch this option from No, to Yes, requiring that staff members acknowledge that their clock out times will not show the actual clock out time, but will instead show the scheduled end time.

TimeForge will record the scheduled end time (not the real time), unless overridden by a manager.

Example:

Using the above options, a staff member may be scheduled from 9:00am – 3:00pm. If the employee shows up at 8:30am, TimeForge will record a start time of 9:00am (not 8:30am). When leaving, if the staff member leaves after 3:00pm, TimeForge will record an end time of 3:00pm. A manager can override and change the behavior of TimeForge when the staff member clocks in or clocks out.

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How Do I Allow Employees to Witness Time Punches?

TimeForge is a powerful labor management tool and includes a number of features not found in other comparable software programs. For example, TimeForge allows staff members to clock in before their scheduled start time, but can require that employees show up for work within a certain grace period of the scheduled start time.

When an employee is too early to clock in, or too late to clock out, TimeForge will require that a manager become involved to allow the employee to clock in or out. More specifically, in these cases, the staff member must get permission from a manager before clocking in or out. Please note: Most of the clock in and clock out configuration settings can be enabled or disabled with a few clicks within TimeForge.

In some businesses, managers do not want to be interrupted with employees who are showing up early or late, and rely on a buddy system to allow employees to keep track of each other. To keep management from being frustrated by early and late staff members, TimeForge allows employees to work as a witness for each others early clock in and late clock out times.

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options tab inside of TimeForge.

Set Up Grace Periods for Staff Members

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Make sure to set up the correct grace periods for staff members who clock in early and clock out late.

Allow Employees to Witness Each Others Clock In and Clock Out

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Make sure that the Allow other employees to witness an employee clock in option is set to Yes.

Other Staff Members Can Override the Early Clock In

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When a staff member is too early to work, they will receive a pop-up window similar to the above image.

A manager can allow the staff member to clock in, or another employee can provide their own credentials (username and password, or fingerprint) to allow the employee to clock in.

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TimeForge University: Schedule Templates 102

Weekly Schedule Templates are 7-day (one week) periods of time that reflect your anticipated scheduling needs for a single week. A Weekly Template is a combination of TimeForge Schedule Templates, and you can have an unlimited number of schedule templates and weekly templates in your account.

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Use Weekly Templates and Schedule Templates to easily organize your labor requirements for upcoming scheduling needs, and anticipate upcoming staffing requirements.

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TimeForge University: Schedule Templates 101

Schedule Templates are 24-hour periods of time that reflect a single day. You can use a schedule template to organize your labor requirements in advance of the actual schedule, allowing you to easily anticipate upcoming staffing needs.

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Templates allow you to rapidly build staff schedules, if you will spend some time in advance thinking about your labor requirements.

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TimeForge University: Availability Requests 102

Managing staff members, and when they want to work (and do not want to work) in TimeForge is easy! This video shows some of the more advanced features of TimeForge availability requests. Review time off requests, approve and deny work availability, and maintain staffing levels.

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Using TimeForge, availability requests can be easily managed and monitored and schedules can quickly be rearranged based on the needs of staff and management.

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TimeForge University: Employees 102

Managing staff members in TimeForge is easy! This video shows some of the more advanced features of TimeForge staff management. Review employee-centric scheduling and time cards, and learn how to export employees to a CSV format.

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Using TimeForge, schedules can be reassigned based on turnover, or staffing emergencies, and employees can work at more than one location.

Working with labor in TimeForge at more than one store (or location) is easy! Staff members in TimeForge can clock in, clock out, receive schedules, send messages, and request time off or time they would like work.

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TimeForge University: Positions 101

TimeForge Positions allow you to group common job requirements into functional schedules, and this video shows you how to create schedules to quickly and easily schedule staff members.

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Use TimeForge Positions to track base pay rates, and to easily schedule staff members with similar skill sets.

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TimeForge University: Clock In and Out

Clocking in and out of TimeForge is easy! This video shows you how to clock in and out of TimeForge, to record the time that you were at work (on the clock).

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To accurately keep track of the time worked, TimeForge allows employees to clock in and out – recording the time worked, and preparing it in an easy to use format for payroll. Staff members can use our biometric (fingerprint) devices to clock in and out where necessary.

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TimeForge University: Employees 101

Managing employees in TimeForge is easy!  This video walks you through creating staff members, modifying employees, and removing employees from your account.

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The video addresses minimum and maximum weekly hours, daily shift requirements, setting up pay rates, and creating TimeForge accounts for your staff members.

Working with labor in TimeForge is easy!  Employees in TimeForge can clock in, clock out, receive schedules, send messages, and request time off.

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heartWhat some of our clients have to say ...

We are one year into it now, well past being enamored with the newness. We are married to TimeForge. It's as essential to us now as any of our management tools today, and we very happy about that.- Steve @ Hermosa Cyclery
We really like the program so far. I know that it is geared towards restaurants, but we are a real estate company and we love it because it is inexpensive and it is so easy to use.- Nicole @ Exit Premier Realty
The Timeforge scheduling system has not only increased our efficiency tremendously; decreased the errors in what is normally an error prone environment; it has also saved us ten times what it costs us each month.- Michael @ Tiara Cafe
I would highly recommend TimeForge to anyone making work schedules. ... What used to take 1-2 hours, now takes 15 minutes. The reports section is comprehensive and useful.- Lawrence Payne @ Mid Pacific Country Club
I've been really pleased with this latest version of TimeForge. I'm really getting familiar with this program and its become a great time saver! Keep up the good work!- Loren @ Fresh Produce
Before using TimeForge, creating a schedule took 2 hours. With TimeForge, it takes less than 10 minutes.- Gail @ Kerr Drug

Quick Contact

3417 73rd Street
Suite G
Lubbock, TX 79423

Phone: 1 866 684 7191
Fax: 1 866 684 7191
E-Mail: info@timeforge.com

 

About TimeForge

The best tools available for managing labor in the restaurant, retail, food-service, and hospitality industries. Includes time management, employee scheduling, and other labor management tools.

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