Labor Management. NOW Simple.

TimeForge is an easy to use workforce management solution for your business, and includes many powerful features designed to improve your business. These include:

• Go home early and stop fussing with payroll and time card mistakes with easy time tracking (electronic time sheets and time cards) and staff monitoring.
• No more worrying about break laws and meal management with easy one-click break sheets and meal management.
• Get done with payroll with a single click with our one-click payroll exports to popular provides like SurePayroll, CompuPay, QuickBooks, and more.
• Rest easy with automatic reminders when staff are late, show up early, late, or start approaching overtime.
• And much more…

Here is a brief overview of some of the features of TimeForge Attendance …

TimeForge Attendance is a powerful replacement for your traditional time clock, or the limited punch in / out included with many Point of Sale systems. Use TimeForge Attendance by itself, or combine with TimeForge Scheduling for a powerful workforce management solution.

TimeForge can also integrate with many Point of Sale systems, stopping employees from clocking in early, or leaving too late.

Use TimeForge Attendance to make your life easy! TimeForge easily manages time cards, staff attendance, and payroll exporting.

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As operations managers and HR professionals know, managing labor is much more than building staff schedules and managing time and attendance for employees.  There are many other aspects of human resources and labor management, including:

• Talent management
• Tracking staff training and continuing education credits
• Skills tracking and ranking
• Onboarding and hiring processes
• Background verification and skill assessments
• Certifications and qualification tracking
• Raise requests and workflow
• And much more …

In many of these HR areas, we recommend that our users utilize a best of breed solution to ensure the best results for our customers.  For example, Corvirtus is simply the best company around to perform skills assessments in the hospitality and restaurant industries, and we recommend our customers look at Corvirtus for any unmet assessment needs.

However, a few of the these HR areas are easily managed inside of TimeForge’s best-of-breed labor management solution.  Historical raise requests, qualifications, skill tracking and ranking, and others are already available in TimeForge, and more will become available in the near future.

Let’s review employee certifications …

Did you know that TimeForge can track certifications for staff members?  Using TimeForge, you can track any number of certifications (staffing qualifications), testing dates, renewal dates, and test scores.  Each certificate can also include a note about the staff member’s qualification.

Specifics of a Certification / Staff Qualification

TimeForge allows savvy managers to set up certifications which are required before the staff member can be scheduled.  TimeForge can then stop you and your management team from scheduling employees who are not qualified for the job position.

For example, in the state of Texas, a server (waiter) that serves alcohol needs to have taken an alcohol awareness and training course.  Serving alcohol, of any kind, without this certification can land the employee and the responsible manager in jail for the evening.  With a single click inside of TimeForge, managers can ensure that staff are only scheduled if they are qualified to be scheduled.

Add a Certificate, Restrict who can be Scheduled

As an added bonus, TimeForge will notify managers and employees 6 weeks before the certificate expires, so that managers and staff members both know that it’s time to renew the qualification.  The certification reminder also appears inside of the Daily Log.

Use certifications to make your life easy!

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Grocery management sometimes feels like juggling cats – there is a lot to do, only a few hours to do the necessary tasks, and a simple task, such as getting staff and vendors to cooperate, is tedious by itself.  Labor management is only one aspect of your day, but it’s an important – and time consuming – one.  Over-staff and you could lose a lot of money. Under-staff and your customers will go to another grocer.

TimeForge can cut the time spent doing routine but tedious tasks like building a grocery employee schedule or monitoring attendance at your grocery from hours to minutes.  And TimeForge gives you the tools you need to painlessly do the less routine, but vitally important, tasks like fine-tuning your work force and monitoring and forecasting labor costs.

If you spend hours just creating an employee schedule, you’re not alone.  It’s not easy. You have to take a huge number of factors into consideration – your employees’ specific availability, skill levels, accrued PTO, time off and shift swap requests, and the busy (and not so busy) times in that particular store.

Once the staff schedule is complete, you have to communicate the schedule to all your employees, redo it in the event of an unexpected illness or time-off requests – and find on-call employees to fill in for absent staff members.  All affected staff members need to be reminded of the schedule changes, again.  Small mistakes can result in missed shifts, unhappy employees (and increased turnover), or even labor fines.

With TimeForge you can …

• Build efficient employee schedules for one or more locations, in just a few minutes for each store.
• Export payroll to many popular payroll providers – such as ADP, SurePayroll, Paychex, Quickbooks, and others – with a single click.
• Notify employees of schedules or schedule changes by text message or email – eliminating employee confusion and missed shifts and reducing turnover.
• Record staff member availability, employee time-off requests, and other key information.
• Stop early clock ins and late clock outs or buddy punching to provide immediate labor cost controls.
• Remotely check on employees that are clocked in – using the web, Facebook, or a cell phone.
• Provide remote 24/7 access for employees to view work schedules, review timecards, request time off, change work availability, swap shifts with other staff members, and receive daily schedule alerts via email or text messages.
• And much more …

• Scheduling employees with the strongest skills during your busiest times.
• Receive notifications of potential labor shortages automatically.
• Monitoring your labor costs – in real time.
• Take advantage of nearly 3 dozen different reports to keep an eye on labor costs and scheduling trends.
• Using your existing staff more efficiently in order to avoid layoffs or unnecessary hiring.
• Trying out various “what-if” scenarios to visualize staffing or schedule changes—without losing your original schedule.

Read more about TimeForge Scheduling, TimeForge Attendance, and TimeForge Daily Log.

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TimeForge is a best-of-breed employee scheduling and online labor management system for the hospitality, restaurant and retail industries.  It works with your Dinerware POS system to stop employees from riding the clock, enforce posted labor schedules, and provides rapid communications between managers and staff members.  Decrease turnover, increase retention, and improve the profits at your business.

Read The Case Study

Ready to see the improvements that employee scheduling and a labor management solution can provide when combined with your Dinerware POS system? Read the lastest TimeForge-Dinerware Case Study here.

How it works

TimeForge is a web-based system that becomes a direct extension of your Dinerware POS software.  During the day, Dinerware and TimeForge “synchronize” information that is necessary to manage the labor at your business.  Sales data and time and attendance information is sent to TimeForge, and schedule information is sent to Dinerware to provide a seamless and easy to use workforce management solution.  Access to TimeForge data is provided for employees and managers through an easy to use web interface, Facebook, or a compatible smartphone (such as a Blackberry or iPhone).

Increase your Profits

TimeForge will increase profits at your business with improved labor cost controls.  Directly monitor and control labor costs and stop employees from riding the clock or clocking in early for scheduled shifts.  Enforce the labor schedule with the click of a button.  Indirectly control labor by reducing turnover and improving retention – stop spending money training employees!  Improve the bottom line with an instant Return On Investment.

Text Messages, Facebook, and Online Communications

Employees stay happy when kept in the loop!  Retention at your business will stay low when staff members know what is expected of them, and can schedule both their personal and their work lives.  Using TimeForge, employees can use TimeForge to swap shifts with coworkers, change availability, view their timecard, or request time off.  Employees also receive email and text messages about any schedule changes.  Staff information can be viewed using the TimeForge website, a smartphone (such as an iPhone or Blackberry), or Facebook!

Fast Employee Scheduling

Employee schedules your way!  Build schedules every week, bi-weekly, or monthly.  The back of house and front of house can use the same schedule, or separate schedules.  Use departments, add rules for scheduling minors or seniors, and input required certifications.  The TimeForge AutoScheduler™ learns how managers and supervisors build employee schedules, and automatically creates schedules that adhere to the best labor management techniques while reducing labor costs.

Employee Schedule Enforcement and Remote Monitoring

With TimeForge, management has the tools necessary to monitor when staff members are clocking in and out.  Staff members can be required to clock in and out of Dinerware within a “grace period”, providing managers with a one-click override when your business requires more staff on the clock.  Management can monitor who is clocked in with the use of RSS feeds, a compatible smartphone (such as a Blackberry or an iPhone), or through Facebook.

Compare Employee Schedules and Attendance to Sales

TimeForge synchronizes sales at your business, employee schedules, and staff member attendance.   The TimeForge sales module accurately forecasts the upcoming sales, and can predict usage needs for Dinerware menu items as well!  Use the forecasted sales figures to manage employee time off and changes to availability, order inventory items, and schedule for future needs.

Two Products, One Database

TimeForge calls and reports directly to your Dinerware system, and positions, employees, attendance, and sales are automatically synchronized between Dinerware and TimeForge – no duplications and nothing extra to back up.  Need to make a change?  Just change it in Dinerware, and the changes are automatically sent to the TimeForge website during the next synchronization!  TimeForge extends the capabilities of your Dinerware system – there is no duplicate functionality.

Instant Return On Investment

The TimeForge-Dinerware Bridge is built from the ground up to ensure a fast Return On Investment for your business. Managers keep track of labor costs through payroll reports, schedule enforcement, and fast employee schedules. Employees are always in the know, and can help build schedules by being in the loop and providing constant feedback.  When integrated with Dinerware, TimeForge improves business profits and increases retention while reducing turnover.

Read more about TimeForge Scheduling, TimeForge Attendance, and TimeForge Daily Log – all three products are included with our Dinerware integration!

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LUBBOCK, Texas – May 12, 2009 – TimeForge, a best-of-breed online labor management solution for the whospitality and retail industries announced its certification with Dinerware, a leading developer of restaurant Point Of Sale (POS) systems.

This move continues a key Dinerware objective, allowing customers to choose from many excellent products that interoperate with the Dinerware POS platform. “The Virtual Client in Dinerware version 2.8.2 enables third-party product integrations that allow restaurateurs to select specific functionalities for their business models and plans for growth,” said Jeff Riley, Dinerware CEO. “We are excited about our certification of TimeForge which enables restaurateurs to easily manage labor and scheduling.”

TimeForge’s online system is designed from the ground up to reduce labor costs by 3% – 5% and to keep staff members happy. Managers build labor schedules quickly with the TimeForge AutoScheduler™ – an automatic and learning tool that builds schedules in seconds.  Schedules are compared to actual costs and forecasts, providing a single solution to manage labor costs.

“Dinerware’s intense focus on the core POS system makes it one of the best systems available for the hospitality industry,” said Anthony Presley, co-founder of TimeForge. “We are excited about this partnership and look forward to providing customers with the best solutions available in the industry.”

Employees receive text and email messages about upcoming shifts, and access the TimeForge employee portal to swap shifts, change availability, or view timecards.  Information can also be accessed using Facebook, or a smartphone (such as an iPhone or Blackberry).

“I can make sure my labor is at 25-28% on a daily basis with the use of TimeForge. That makes a huge difference in this economy,” said Dinerware customer, Paul Friedman. “At Peli Peli, we are using a variety of integrated tools with our Dinerware POS system, and TimeForge makes communication and scheduling easy on management and the staff.”

The certification provides Dinerware customers with a complete labor management solution, including employee schedules, schedule enforcement, labor cost reductions, and real-time notifications for staff and management.  Dinerware continues to expand its best-in-class POS platform to provide restauranteurs a host of offerings via Dinerware version 2.8.2.

About Dinerware
Dinerware provides restaurant POS systems to fine dining, nightclubs, fast casual, bars, counter service, QSR (quick serve), hotels, casinos, cafes, golf courses and wineries. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington and sold worldwide, Dinerware provides intuitive systems for the hospitality industry. For a list of Dinerware certified solutions, or for a free trial download, visit http://www.dinerware.com or call (866) 346-3792.

About TimeForge
TimeForge helps businesses in the hospitality, restaurant, and retail industries manage labor and build employee schedules while reducing turnover and improving profits.  Used by businesses throughout the world, TimeForge is designed from the ground-up to simplify the complicated process of employee scheduling and labor management.  For more information, visit http://www.timeforge.com or contact us at (866) 684-7191.

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Some of the TimeForge staff will be at the upcoming International Restaurant Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This hospitality trade show is co-located with three other large events, including:

• The Nightclub & Bar Convention and Trade Show
• International Coffee & Tea Expo
• HotelWorld Expo & Conference

The trade show starts February 24, 2008 and wraps up on February 27, 2008 with more than 300 exhibiting companies in attendance. Companies serving the hospitality and food-service industries will be in attendance.

So who should attend? Independent and chain managers, owners, and operators of restaurants, hotels, casinos, resorts, and nightclubs.

Where will we be? Our team will be walking the trade show floor, looking for innovative products and outstanding partners. We intend to meet with a number of vendors at the show, but will also be sitting in several of the educational programs that are being held.

Some of the seminars you might find us in include:

• Hiring, Training, Motivating and Keeping High-Performance Employees by Terry Morey at RestaurantMarketingGroup.org
• Choosing a Restaurant Franchise: Follow Your Heart, But Don’t Lose Your Head by Ken Reimer at Baker Bros
• Ask The Expert by Chris Weinberg at The BarFly Group
• Online Ordering: Pitfalls, Obstacles & Benefits by G.R. Homa at BigHoller

If you are a vendor who will be at the show, a consultant, or an operator who would like to talk with us about our solutions to employee and labor scheduling. temperature monitoring (and HACCP systems), or our patented table management solution …. please contact us!

How long does it take to make your employee labor schedule? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your retail business, restaurant, bar, club, or hotel?

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Nation’s Restaurant News recently posted a blog worth at least $20 in immediate lost sales, and perhaps several hundred in lost future sales. The picture is reposted here for reference:

We have no idea what occurred to keep the employee away from their customers for 30 minutes. However, based on our experience one of two things happened – and both scenarios can be prevented with a good labor management system such as TimeForge.com

Possible Scenario One: Managers were too busy with other details of the operation and could not oversee the staff and customer interactions. Management could be mopping the floor, paying bills, training new staff, making the schedule, or any number of other tasks. Regardless of the job they were performing, the managers were preoccupied and could not properly manage their store to ensure that customers were being served promptly.

Solution: Regardless of which task occupied the manager’s time, they were not available to manage the store floor. If the store was using TimeForge.com to build their schedule, and manage their labor, management would spend 4 more hours on the floor, not in the back-office making a schedule. A good workforce management solution could give the management team another four (or more!) hours per week “on-the-floor”.

Possible Scenario Two: The manager responsible for the schedule was inexperienced or unable to schedule the workforce correctly. Too many employees may have been scheduled earlier in the day, and too many of those were sent home. Or, perhaps too few were scheduled all day, and those that were scheduled could not keep up with the increased customer demand.

Solution: Inexperienced and experienced managers both benefit from TimeForge.com’s graphical scheduling capabilities, more than 20 labor reports, and many schedule visualization tools. Users of TimeForge.com can quickly see employees that are scheduled or not scheduled, which staff members are “on call” or “extras”, and when employees are available to work.

Regardless of what happened at this restaurant, poor staffing and labor management led to lost sales, and a bad reputation.

Are you ready to go home early? It should take less than 5 minutes to make the employee labor schedule for your business! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor expenses through effective employee labor management at your business, bar, club, or restaurant?

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