TimePilot iphone App Step-by-Step Guide to Basic Functions

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1 TimePilot iphone App Step-by-Step Guide to Basic Functions Table of contents Topic Page Setting up the App 1 Using the App 2 Clocking in and out 3 Viewing an employee s transactions and inserting a transaction 4 Deleting profiles and transactions 4 Linking to the TimePilot Central software 4 Sending clock-in and clock-out data to TimePilot Central via Dropbox 5 Importing the data into TimePilot Central 5 Moving Profiles from TimePilot Central to an iphone 6 iphone App case studies 7 Thanks for purchasing TimePilot s iphone App from the itunes Store. The app can be used two ways: If you use TimePilot Central, the software that comes with TimePilot s time and attendance systems, you can send the data collected by your phone to TimePilot Central for processing. TimePilot Corporation manufactures electronic timeclocks replacements for antiquated punch-clock systems that can be used indoors or outdoors and calculate employee hours in seconds. See for details on these systems. You ll also need a free account at Dropbox.com. The app s Main View. As a standalone app, for those who will not use the app with TimePilot Central. The app collects clock-ins and clock-outs by your employees, calculates the time between the in and the out transactions and keeps count of the total number of hours worked. You can export the data collected as a.csv file, which can be read by a spreadsheet program, if you have a Dropbox account. Now that you ve downloaded it, here s how to set it up and use it. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at Support@TimePilot.com. Setting up the App 1. After you install the App, you ll need to give your phone a name and enter its phone number. This is required whether or not you will be using the app with TimePilot Central software. If you use the software, the phone s name and number will be used to identify clock-ins and clock-outs in the TimePilot Central software. The name can be something like Acme iphone 1 or John s iphone. The phone number should be the iphone s 10-digit number (including area code) without dashes, spaces or other punctuation. If you re using the app on an ipod Touch or an ipad, just enter a unique 10-digit number that can be used to identify the device. The phone name and number need to be entered only once. 2. After completing this initial setup, you re ready to begin adding Employee Profiles. These are the employees whose data will be collected on the phone. Copyright TimePilot Corporation. All rights reserved. 1

2 Each profile has a name and a four-digit personal identification number (PIN). To add a new profile, tap the + button in the upper right-hand corner of the app s Main View. Enter the name, create a PIN for the profile and tap Save. (For TimePilot timeclock users: For a quick way to add all of your employee profiles to your iphone, see the section titled Moving Profiles from TimePilot Central to an iphone. ) Important: If you use another TimePilot time and attendance product (TimePilot Vetro, Extreme, etc.), make sure the name you enter exactly matches the name in the TimePilot Central software and the PIN in the iphone app matches employee s User ID in his or her profile. Need to double-check the name or ID? Start TimePilot Central and double-click the appropriate name in the list of employees on the left side of the screen. 3. You should now see the new profile listed in the app s Main View. Using the app The Main View is what you ll see when you start the app after setting it up. Here s an overview, keyed to the image at right: These are the employees you have set up. If there s a red arrow next to the person s name, that person is clocked in; If there s no arrow, that person has clocked out. Under the name are more details about their most recent clock-in or clock-out. To the right of the name is the number of hours accumulated by the employee. (When you clear an employee s records, the counter resets to 0.) Note that the only hours counted are those that have a clock-in and a clock-out. Want to see an individual employee s transactions? Tap the employee s name or the arrow on the right side of the screen. To delete an employee (and all their transactions), tap the Edit button, then the Minus button ( button appears, tap it. ). When the Delete Tap the red Minus button (left) and the Delete button (right) appears. 2

3 To add an employee profile, tap the + button at the top right corner of the Main View. Tapping the Action button gives you a choice of features: Send the clock-in and clock-out data to TimePilot Central. TimePilot Central is the software that comes with the following TimePilot time and attendance systems: TimePilot Extreme, TimePilot Vetro, TimePilot Tap or TimePilot PC. Also requires a free account at Dropbox.com. Check for employee profile updates that were created in TimePilot Central (see previous item and ). Send to Dropbox. If you don t have one of the TimePilot systems mentioned above but have a Dropbox account, you can export your employee clock-in and clock-out data in.csv format to your Dropbox folder. Most spreadsheet programs can open.csv files. Help. Opens your phone s browser and calls up this TimePilot iphone App help page. Opens the App s settings screen. Clocking in and out There are two ways to clock in or out: The first is to tap and hold on the employee s name. Doing so will bring up a menu that will let you clock in the employee, clock out the employee or clear (erase) the employee s clock-ins and clock-outs. The other way is called Fast Clock-In, which allows you to clock in or out by swiping the profile s cell on the main screen. Swiping from left to right will clock him or her in; from right to left will clock the employee out. Fast Clock-In is turned off by default and must be enabled in the app s settings. To do so, tap the Settings button in the lower right-hand corner of the Main View, then tap the switch next to Fast Clock-In to set it to ON. Tap the Done button at the top of the screen to dismiss the view. When you tap and hold a name in the main screen, you can pick from four options (left). If you turn on Fast Clock-In in Settings, you can swipe from left to right on a name to clock in and from right to left on a name to clock out. If you use Fast Clock-In, you ll know you ve successfully clocked in or out when a box like the one at right pops up. 3

4 Viewing an employee s transactions and inserting a transaction To see a list of an employee s clock-ins and clock-outs, simply tap the employee s name in the main view. A list of the employee s transactions will appear. In transactions have a red triangle next to them. At the bottom of the screen is the total accumulated hours for this employee. Want to delete a transaction? Swipe the offending transaction from left to right or right to left, then tap the Delete button that appears. You can also insert a clock-in or clock-out for the employee here. Tap the + button in the top right-hand corner of screen. Select IN or OUT (a blue background indicates it has been selected) and the date and time, and then tap Save. To cancel the entry, tap Cancel. Deleting Profiles and Transactions To delete an employee and all of his or her transactions from the app, tap the Edit button in the upper left-hand corner of the main view to enter editing mode, then the minus button ( ). When the Delete button appears, tap it. Tap Done when finished. To delete an individual transaction for a specific employee, tap the employee s name in the main view to view their records, swipe from left to right on the record you want to delete, then tap the Delete button that appears. To delete all of an employee s transactions but not the employee s profile, tap and hold on the employee s name in the main view. In the pop-up that comes up, tap the button that says Clear User Records. Then tap Clear to confirm. Tap the red Minus button and the Delete button appears. Linking to the TimePilot Central software There may come a time when you want to send the employee clock-in and clock-out data collected by your iphone to another person. For example, you might want to send the data to your home office, where a co-worker is using the TimePilot Central software to prepare employee time data for payroll. The app has been designed to work with Dropbox.com, a free service that allows you to send files easily over the Internet. You ll need three things to do this: 1. An internet connection on the PC that has TimePilot Central installed. 2. An account with Dropbox on the PC that has TimePilot Central Installed. See the Dropbox web site ( for details on creating a free account. 4

5 3. The free Dropbox App on your iphone. Once you have the Dropbox account created on your computer, here s how to set things up on your iphone: 1. Start the TimePilot iphone App and tap Settings in the lower righthand corner of the screen. Then tap the Dropbox Setup button. Tap the Link to Dropbox Account button in the view that appears. If you have the Dropbox app already installed on your iphone, you will be taken to that app and asked if you want to link the TimePilot App to your Dropbox account. Generally you ll click Yes, but if you want to use a different Dropbox account, tap the Change button to enter the info for the other account. If you don t have the Dropbox app installed, you will be taken to a web page that will ask you to sign in to your Dropbox account. If you don t have a Dropbox account there is an option to create one. Follow the screen prompts to create the account and link it. 2. Once you are successfully linked, you will be taken back to the TimePilot App and notified that the link was successful. What s Dropbox and why is TimePilot using it? Dropbox is a free service that uses the internet (commonly known as the cloud ) to move files from--in TimePilot s case--your iphone to your computer. When you send the clock-ins and clock-outs collected by your iphone to TimePIlot Central, the file moves through the cell-phone network to Dropbox s servers, and then from Dropbox s servers through the Internet to your PC. In effect, Dropbox acts as the bridge between your iphone and the TimePilot software on your computer. Sending clock-in and clock-out data to TimePilot Central via Dropbox Here s how to send your data to TimePilot Central: 1. Tap the Action button in the lower left-hand corner of the Main View to access the Upload Options menu. You will then be presented with four options: Send to TimePilot Central: This uploads your profiles and their associated data to Dropbox, which they can be imported into TimePilot Central. Check for Profile Updates: Checks to see if TimePilot Central has made changes to your employee profiles; if so, it updates them on your iphone. See Page 6 for more. Send to Dropbox: Upload all your profiles and their associated data to Dropbox (for non-timepilot Central users). Help: View this user guide on your iphone. 2. Tap the Send to TimePilot Central button. The data will be sent to Dropbox s servers, and then to the Dropbox folder on your computer. Importing the data into TimePilot Central A few seconds after the iphone transmits the data, it will be automatically downloaded to the Dropbox folder on your PC. You can check to see if it s there by looking here: Dropbox > Apps > TimePilot_iOS > XXXXXXXXXX. The X s represent the number of the phone that sent the information. All uploads and everything for this phone will be stored in this folder. Here s how to import the data into TimePilot Central: 1. Start TimePilot Central. To ensure you re running the latest version of TimePilot Central, click the Help menu and then choose Check for Updates. You ll need the latest update to complete the import process. 5

6 2. In TimePilot Central, click the File menu and then Retrieve Data from Phones. 3. The TimePilot Clock Manager will pop up, showing the phones that are linked to your computer s Dropbox account. (See screenshot at right.) If your iphone doesn t appear in the Manager, make sure the iphone is linked to the proper Dropbox account and that the Manager can find your Dropbox folder. 4. If a phone s name appears in red (as shown with Mike s iphone in the screenshot at right), that means that transactions have been sent from that iphone and are waiting to be moved into TimePilot Central. 5. To do that, right-click the phone s icon and choose Get Transactions from Phone in the menu that appears. The transactions will be downloaded to TimePilot Central. Once they re downloaded, you can delete them from your iphone, if you wish. To delete them, tap and hold on an employee s name in the Main View, then choose Clear User Records from the menu that pops up. 6. In TimePilot Central, the first time you get your transactions, you might receive a message saying that the employee s profile appears on the iphone but not in TimePilot Central, and you ll be asked if you want to add it. Click Yes. 7. The New Employee Profile box will appear. You can change anything in the profile except the Display Name and the User ID (both of those must match what s on the iphone). Moving Profiles from TimePilot Central to an iphone You can send your employee profiles from TimePilot Central straight to an iphone, so you don t have to set up each profile individually on each iphone. Here s how: 1. Start TimePilot Central. Click the File menu, then Retrieve Data from Phones to start the TimePilot Clock Manager. 2. Right-click the image of the iphone to which you want to send your profiles. Choose Send Profiles to Phone from the pop-up menu that appears. 3. On the iphone, tap the button in the lower left corner of the Main View (Item 4 in the diagram in the section above titled Using the app ). 4. Tap the Check for Profile Updates button. All of the employee profiles you have in TimePilot Central will be copied to the iphone. Any profiles that are transferred that you don t want can be deleted from the iphone. See Deleting Profiles and Transactions, above, for instructions. 5. The final step is to return to the TimePilot Clock Manager. You ll see that the name of the iphone to which you sent the profiles is now in red, meaning there are transactions to download. Right-click the iphone and choose Retrieve Data from Phones. Even though no new transactions will be downloaded to TimePilot Central, this action will complete process of the copying the profiles to the iphone from TimePilot Central. 6

7 iphone App Case Studies How can you use the TimePilot iphone App? Here are four fictional examples: Example 1 The background Joe Smith owns a small company, Riverville Software. Dana Lawson, one of his best technical support people, recently had a baby, so for the next few months she will work from home. From 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday she will answer ed questions from customers. Joe uses TimePilot Vetro at his headquarters. Dana is paid by the hour and owns an iphone. The challenge How can Joe keep track of the hours that Dana works? The solution The TimePilot iphone App. The cost $3.99. The process Dana downloads the TimePilot App from the itunes App Store and links it to Riverville Software s free Dropbox.com account. (Joe reimburses her for the $3.99 cost of the App.) She uses the App to clock in and out for the week. At the end of the week, she taps a button on the iphone screen to send her clock-in and clock-out data to TimePilot Central. Within seconds, the data appears in TimePilot Central on the PC at headquarters, joining the clock-in and clock-out data collected by Joe s other TimePilot products. Joe prepares the data for payroll and Dana gets her paycheck. Example 2 The background Andy Krawczyk owns a construction company, AXK Construction. He has crews at three locations. Two of the crews use TimePilot Extreme to clock in and out on site. His foreman at the third site, Larry Jackson, keeps track of the six workers hours in a notebook and at the end of the week copies the data into TimePilot Central at Andy s office. Andy would like to automate the process, because copying the data is time-consuming Larry has to drive an hour just to get to the office and the chances of a mistake are high. Larry owns an iphone. The challenge Moving from a paper-based, error-prone system to an all-electronic system. The solution The TimePilot iphone App. The cost $3.99 The process Larry downloads the TimePilot iphone App to his iphone from the itunes App Store and links it to AXK Construction s free account at Dropbox.com. (Andy reimburses him for the $3.99 cost of the App.) Using TimePilot Central, Andy sends the workers profiles to Larry s iphone. Within seconds all six names appear in the App. Each day, it takes just a tap for Larry to clock each worker in and out. On Thursday, after he s clocked out, a worker asks Larry how many hours he s worked for the week. Larry taps the worker s name on his iphone and the App tells him: hours. At the end of the week, Larry taps a button on the iphone screen to send the workers clock-in and clock-out data to TimePilot Central. Within seconds, the data 7

8 appears in TimePilot Central on the PC at headquarters, joining the clock-in and clock-out data collected by Andy s TimePilot Extremes. Andy prepares the data for payroll and the six workers get paid for exactly the number of hours they worked. No mistakes, and Larry is home more than an hour earlier than usual. Example 3 The background Miriam Gonzales owns a trucking company, San Antonio Freight Systems. She has 12 trucks, each of whom has a driver and a helper, both paid hourly. To keep in contact with each driver, each has been assigned a company iphone. Miriam currently tracks time and attendance with log sheets in each truck, but compiling the data at the end of the pay period takes hours and her payroll clerk makes occasional mistakes when calculating in hours and minutes. Because of the mistakes, sometimes employees are paid less than what they deserve; other times they re paid too much. Miriam doesn t have that problem with her office staff, because they use TimePilot Vetro. The challenge Make the process more efficient and eliminate math errors for the drivers and helpers. The solution The TimePilot iphone App. The cost $47.88 (the $3.99 TimePilot iphone App on all 12 iphones) The process Miriam s office manager gathers up all 12 iphones, downloads the TimePilot iphone App to each and links each to her company s free Dropbox.com account. Then she sends the workers profiles from TimePilot Central on her PC to each iphone. Finally, she prepares each iphone by deleting all the workers profiles except for those of the driver and the helper who will be using each device. She distributes each iphone (which now contains only the names of one driver and one helper) to the appropriate driver. The drivers and helpers start their shifts, tapping their names on their iphone screens to clock in. They clock out with a tap for lunch, clock back in for the afternoon and clock out at the end of the day. At the end of the week, each driver taps the Send to TimePilot Central button, and within seconds the driver s and helper s clock-ins and clock-outs appear in TimePilot Central on the office computer. Miriam s payroll clerk finishes her job in minutes instead of hours and without any calculation errors. Example 4 The background Edmund James is an attorney. At any time, he has an average of six cases. He s looking for a way to keep track of the billable time he spends on each case. He owns an iphone and his office staff clocks in and out with TimePilot Vetro. The challenge Keep track of billable hours for each of his clients. The solution The TimePilot iphone App. The cost $3.99 The process First, a little housekeeping: Edmund has his office manager create a new company called Clients in TimePilot Central. The manager creates a profile for each client and assigns them to the Clients company. (By doing this, Edmund keeps his clients segregated and avoids mixing his clients billable hours with his employees work hours.) The manager then transfers the profiles to Edmund s iphone. When Edmund begins work on a particular case, he starts the TimePilot iphone App and clocks in the client. When he s done working on that case and is starting a new one, he clocks out the first client and clocks in the second one. Every week, he sends his transactions to TimePilot Central on his office PC so that the clients can be billed. 8