Pacific Timesheet Announces New SaaS Cloud Crew Timesheet Pricing for Construction and Field Services Customers

Pacific Timesheet has announced that on January 1, 2012 new SaaS Cloud Crew Timesheet pricing will be available to allow customers the option of paying for services using a variety of license options, including offline, supervisor, timekeeping licenses, time off request and timesheet signature licenses.

With this pricing schedule, only those users with direct access to the system will need to be licensed. However, if customers need field employees or other offline employees to verify and digitally “sign” their timesheets, or make time off requests for time off scheduling, these can be added with discounted licenses.

Jim Dickerson VP of Operations explains, "After testing this new pricing approach with key customer accounts, we have decided to make this pricing option generally available to all our construction and field services customers." Dickerson continued, "The advantage of this pricing is that we allow customers to pay for a variety of licenses based upon access and use rather than just headcount. This will result in significant savings for our customers."

Pacific Timesheet has held a leadership position in the web-based construction and field services time tracking market by providing crew timesheets for employee and equipment. In addition, the Company will be adding a variety of materials and activity-based tracking for crews during Q1 2012.

Any inquiries about SaaS Cloud Crew Timesheet Services and its various pricing options can be directed to 866-416-2061 ext. 1 where an application specialist can assist you with any questions or how to get started. From outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise

Pacific Timesheet is a leading provider of SaaS timesheet and SaaS time tracking, payroll time tracking, time off and absence management, time and attendance, time and labor tracking and project/job and work order time tracking software and services. Its main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, is known for its unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent and provided as a timesheet software as a service (SaaS) or on-premise timesheet software solution. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, Ceres, City of Albuquerque, FMC, Joy Mining, Openwave Technologies, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, Turner Construction, The Clinton Foundation, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, and many more. The Company has resellers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

Pacific Timesheet Announces Enhanced Time Off and Absence Management Validation Features

Las Vegas, NV — October 24, 2011 — Pacific Timesheet has announced enhanced support for its Time Off and Absence Management systems, extending its robust time off balance validation rules to prevent so-called “backdoor” time off requests and approvals.

Jim Dickerson VP of Operations explains, "A common problem in organizations with many exempt or salaried employees is a lack of employee compliance requesting time off in a timely basis." Dickerson continued, "In some cases, employees are submitting time off requests long after the fact creating significant request and time off balance validation challenges."

Pacific Timesheet now revalidates all past time off and scheduled future time off requests, essentially invalidating already approved requests when past balances are updated. "One of the issues of many organizations is time off balances get out of sync with reality almost making them irrelevant to employees and supervisors," Dickerson stated. He continued, "Bullet-proof forward validation rules change employee and supervisor behavior significantly over time." In this way, employees’ future requests are put into jeopardy by not properly requesting and submitting past time off taken. As Dickerson points out, "What employee wants to jeopardize invalidating this year’s Christmas vacation by not properly accounting for time off during the summer?" Dickerson continued, "Manual time off tracking systems are easy to game and these bad employee behaviors will continue persist. Pacific Timesheet will end these kinds of behaviors in one time off cycle."

Additional enhancements added in the last year to Pacific Timesheet Time Off and Absence management have significantly improved supervisor approvals of time off requests. One feature in particular now allows email late notices for time off request approvals to be sent every one or two days until the request is approved. The combination of these features has improved employee compliance with company time off and absence management policies and procedures dramatically.

Any inquiries about Pacific Timesheet Time Off and Absence Management can be directed to 866-416-2061 ext. 1 where an application specialist an assist you with any questions or how to get started. From outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise

Pacific Timesheet is a leading provider of Cloud timesheet, Cloud time tracking systems, SaaS (Software as a Service) for time and attendance, SaaS timesheet and on-premise timesheet software systems for payroll time tracking, time off and absence management, time and attendance, time and labor tracking. Its main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, is known for its unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent technology it is provided as a timesheet software as a service (SaaS) or on-premise timesheet software solution. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, B/E Aerospace, Ceres, City of Albuquerque, Dell Computer, FMC, Friends First Life Assurance Co., Harvard University, Joy Mining, Openwave Technologies, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, Turner Construction, The Clinton Foundation, Ultra Clean Technology, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, and many more. The Company has resellers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

R&D Engineering Percent Time Allocation Timesheets and The Failed Experiment of “The Data Hat”

As a visiting scholar at Pacific Timesheet, I recently completed a research study: “Whacky Technology Ideas That Cannot Even Be Called Silly.” Though it was not my intention, it has become a tribute to how great Steve Jobs really was, by surveying the thousands of bad ideas and new product road kill created by other lesser brains during the Age of Steve (1979 – 2011). The study included a way to watch TV with an inhaler (don’t ask), a new kind of ethanol you could manufacture from old bed sheets, and force-field furniture for people who move a lot and have no friends. However, my favorite example of a failed technology product was “The Data Hat.”

The Data Hat

The Data Hat was developed in Silicon Valley, where “prima donna engineers,” as they are called, outnumber all living things by 100:1. The product’s history began in 2002 when the senior managers of BBS LLC (Big Biolife Stuff) and RTC, Inc. (Really Tiny Chips) got stuck in an elevator in the San Jose Convention Center during the rolling blackout season. After arguing why no one thought to take the stairs when there were only two floors, they began “sharing” about their biggest business problems. Jim Parker, RTC CTO, said “I wish we knew what our best engineers were working on.” Joshua Chen, Chief Information Officer of BBS, finally admitted that “many of our engineers won’t reveal much beyond their employee ID number, like they’re a POW or something.” Staring blankly into the elevator floor buttons panel, Jim Parker interjected: “If only we could get them to fill out timesheets.” Everyone was aghast. The smallest smile started to curl at the corner of Jim’s mouth and Joshua said with a growing laugh, “You joker, you know that’ll never happen.” They laughed for an hour. All of this led to nothing for these companies, but there was a courier in the elevator car who, overhearing everything, told his neuro-engineer cousin Billy Tendra of the need to solve this problem. Tendra worked night and day and came up with “The Data Hat,” a new way to capture data from a person's brain. They would wear the "data hat" while they thought of the data they wanted to upload to the hat’s database. In effect it turned a person’s brain into a kind of keyboard. Tendra first tested the device, which looked like the little sailor hat worn by Mick Jagger briefly during the late 1980’s, with a pilot group of prima donna engineers at ten major semiconductor and biotech life science firms. These prima donnas qualified for the pilot if no one ever knew what they did at work, but yet they kept their jobs anyway. The test was simple. An engineer would place The Data Hat on his head at the end of the week when he wanted to record his time allocation by job or project. He would think about what he did and for how long and the hat would capture the data and upload it to a server on the network. At first, the hats (with an initial price point of $105,000 USD each) were defined as a shared resource similar to the early days of the mainframe time-sharing model. This caused several problems. Having only ten hats shared by 400 engineers in 25 locations led to high courier costs which within only five months more than offset the cost savings of having so few hats. If this continued, a corporate accountant argued in the cafeteria one day, the courier costs would soon be in excess of $12 million. The hats also required radioactive sterilization services because dry cleaning would damage the brim, which was a WIFI antenna, after only three cleanings. There were two classes of engineers, the OCDs , who washed their hair twice a day, and the LICEDs who had not washed their hair since Full House went off the air. The germiphobic OCDs demanded sterilization after each use and the generally left-leaning LICEDs would not put on a radiated hat. Sterilization costs zoomed. Within a month, the outcome was the same; prima donna engineers not providing information on how they were spending their time. Beside the out-of-control costs, there were operational problems. The hats unintentionally would capture so-called “negative or outlier thoughts” that were forbidden in the TDH Project Time Tracking Manual. Though many hours of required training urged the engineers to control their thoughts when wearing the hat, their timesheets became strewn with profanities, song lyrics, and sometimes complicated food recipes. On the day 1,500 employees were laid off at one company, an “18 dirty words and phrases” filter had to be configured so the payroll department would continue processing timesheets. Worse, a so-called “ghost” data effect meant that the thoughts captured from one engineer might linger in the hat and download by mistake into the mind of the next engineer. This led to engineers inadvertently using each other’s passwords, speaking in languages they did not know, and increase the already high number of them wandering around the courtyards aimlessly muttering to themselves. Finally, in 2004 “The Data Hat” project was killed, no refunds were made and the founder Tendra went into the mortgage financing business. In 2007, I ran into Tendra at a Whole Foods in San Jose. He said he just left the mortgage business and was now working full time for the Mitt Romney for President campaign. He said The Data Hat lawsuits were still dogging him, but that he was glad to see me. He knew that I was now a visiting scholar with Pacific Timesheet and had learned, all too late, that Pacific Timesheet had a web-based R & D engineering time tracking solution that allowed engineers to record their percent time allocation by project and/or phase in about 15 seconds using a web timesheet. I asked him why he was still wearing a Data Hat while shopping. He said the upload feature was buggy but that he could download grocery lists into his mind easily. I asked if I could try it on for old time’s sake. I did and a flood of his thoughts entered into my mind. Apparently, he had reviewed the feature lists of the Pacific Timesheet web site that morning. I could see the most relevant features highlighted in his mind: percent time entry, multiple billing rate options, multiple approvals, multiple timesheet templates, published APIs and import/export utilities, hundreds of locales and multiple holiday schedules worldwide, excellent client testimonials and easy-to-use web site navigation. He asked me not to blog about anything he discussed because that would be crass commercialism and be unfairly promoting Pacific Timesheet in a scholarly blog post. I agreed that I would not do that.

The Declaration of Time Tracking Independence, by Thomas Jefferson Timetrackington, Jr.

Back in 1776, with no junk mail, law firms, investment bankers, or computer viruses, life was simpler, probably better. But, as my great great great great grand uncle Thomas wrote, "when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a company to dissolve the bands connecting it with its payroll services provider..." it caused quite a stir at GBP (the Great Britain Payroll company). This of course was from an earlier draft of the Declaration and was deleted by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, as a Federalist, had a secret plan to create the Universal Payroll Company which would later buyout GBP. In a letter to Hamilton, Jefferson wrote that "such a plan to consolidate all payrolls in the universe, even on planets yet undiscovered, was the antithesis of individual freedom and the right to life, liberty and the ability to change payrolls every five years if increasingly depraved service or inflated remuneration requires it." I discovered Declaration drafts last week in my mother's basement the day of her funeral. After a huge argument with my cousin Bennie (Benedict Arnold Chinsington) who wanted to sell them on Ebay, I decided to rededicate my life to time tracking independence by starting the Payroll Time Tracking Institute. The first project of the Institute would be to put these drafts on display in a National Declaration of Time Tracking Independence archive in Iowa City, Iowa. I approached all the major payroll companies to raise money for the institute, calling extra times to those with P's in their names. After leaving 987 unreturned voice mails, a lobbyist called me at lunch to say that the 400 odd payroll companies he represented in Washington DC voted to buy me a one-way plane ticket to Columbia. He also said that their institute funding budgets were already committed to the Institute For The Advanced Study of Raising Payroll Switching Costs. While I understand that the changing colors of hemp plants are beatiful this time of year in Bogata, I told him that I would soldier on and make my great great great great grand uncle Thomas proud by continuing the fight for time tracking independence, pledging my life, limited fortune and sacred hilton honored guest points. I of course explained that payroll companies, while very good (sometimes) in their core business of processing payrolls, their only interest in automated timesheets and time tracking is to enslave customers not free them. At that point he said he was late for an appointment to get his loafers shined. Of course he warned that if I blogged about any of this he would deny we ever spoke, and made a point that I not mention that I was a visiting scholar at Pacific Timesheet. I assured him that I would not mention Pacific Timesheet's name or refer at all to Pacific Timesheet's leading payroll time tracking software and SaaS solutions, or that Pacific Timesheet integrates with more than 300 payrolls worldwide, because that would be crass commercialism at its worst.

Automating Crew Timesheets: Pre-populating Key Employee Timesheet Data

Previously we discussed how data entry must be made easier when automating crew timesheets. Manual crew timesheets are cumbersome at best. They must be set up by hand, with administrative or supervisory staff entering a lot data for the day or week. All this takes a lot of valuable time and generates data entry errors when copying pay class codes, job codes, billings codes, union codes and other key data by employee. But there is an even more important factor that makes data entry even easier: pre-populating key employee data when you can. In this way, beside hours entry, there are methods where we can completely eliminate 40, 50 or even 75% of the other data that foremen and supervisors have to enter. An enterprise class crew time tracking system should be able to pre-populate an employee’s default pay class, job code, or union code when that employee is assigned ahead of time to a crew, or when added to a crew by a foreman. In some cases, pay classes or union codes might need to be overridden by foremen or supervisors. In other cases, they might need to be fixed or “read only” to prevent “accidental” job or pay rate promotions by friendly supervisors. Whatever the requirements, the crew time tracking system should be able to pre-populate key employee data and make it easier for foremen and supervisors to do their jobs. Pre-populating this data has many benefits: 1) reducing errors 2) speeding data entry, and 3) ensuring that correct job and union codes are applied.

In sum, an additional benefit of automating crew timesheets is eliminating certain data entry altogether by pre-populating key data from third party systems when employees are assigned or added to crews.

Pacific Timesheet
http://www.pacifictimesheet.com

Automating Crew Timesheets and Data Validation

In a previous post, we discussed that replacing paper crew timesheets through automation needs to be easier, more efficient and accurate than writing it in on a paper crew timesheet.

But there is perhaps an even more important topic to address: data validation. Foremen and supervisors need a lot of administrative support. Currently, paper crew timesheets must be setup by administrative staff with job, phase and cost code options each day. In the case where foremen have no administrative support, they have to validate these items in their head, or check and re-check job numbers, phases and cost codes with back office staff to make sure they are correct. This manual process is extremely time consuming and prone to errors, creating the need for more corrections and adjustments to crew timesheets later.

What’s the answer? As we discussed before, an automated crew timesheet must allow supervisors, foremen and even back office staff to more easily setup crew timesheets for each day. Systems that have job, phase and cost code hierarchies ensure that they only have valid options from which to choose. In other cases, there might be a need to auto-populated crew timesheet data related to a job or crew. This could include location, shift, or other key information that must be tracked with crew hours to ensure proper reporting or later integration with ERP systems such as SAP or PeopleSoft.

In sum, while ease of data entry if often considered most important, the hidden benefit of automating crew timesheet data validation is far greater than any other. The true power of software is more than automating data entry screens. It’s automating everything else that goes on behind the scenes in crew time tracking.

Crew Timesheet Software Easier, Faster and More Accurate

Replacing paper crew timesheets through automation is easier said than done. It probably goes with saying, but we’ll say it anyway. Entering jobs, phases, cost codes, pay classes, billing codes, and other key information in a crew timesheet absolutely needs to be easier, more efficient and accurate than writing it in on a paper crew timesheet.

There are a few major tests that any software solution must pass in the field.

Test Number One: eliminating data entry errors. Robust crew timesheet software must significantly reduce or completely eliminate data entry errors. Critical features should allow supervisors to easily search and browse, or to start typing and have an autocomplete find what they are looking for. Automating data entry ensures that only valid jobs, phases, cost codes, etc. are entered, and that approvers and administrative staff do not have to spend time correcting errors.

Test Number Two: Finding and adding necessary resources to a crew timesheet must be easy. Search and browse features, autocomplete features, and filtered search features should make the task much easier. In some cases, the supervisor should be able to identify employees by key properties such as their default pay class, billing code or location.

Test Number Three: Automated copy previous features, and smart copy previous features, allow supervisors to carry forward key information on crew timesheets from day to day, avoiding the need to enter unchanged data again.

Pacific Timesheet Announces Enhanced Actatek 3 Time Clock Support

Las Vegas, NV — July 6, 2011 — Pacific Timesheet has announced support for Actatek 3 time clocks which includes advanced video server and employee access control features.

Jim Dickerson VP of Operations explains, "Actatek 3, the third generation of Actatek 100% web-based time clocks, provides unparalleled features for our time and attendance systems." Dickerson continued, "Buddy punching has been a major problem for smart card or proximity card time clock systems. Pacific Timesheet Actatek 3 time clocks now support video server technology that records the 10 seconds before and after an employee clock in or clock out."

The Actatek 3 time clock video server interface records streaming video from each time clock 24/7/365. Whenever a clock in or clock out occurs a video snippet ten seconds before and after the event on time clock’s video stream is tagged on the server. Supervisors and administrators can later audit employee clock ins and clock outs by drilling down into a punch in/out event to authenticate that the actual employee is punching himself in or out. Dickerson continued, "Authentication is the name of the game in time and attendance systems. And biometric time clocks are only one solution. With Pacific Timesheet Actatek 3 video server technology, managers can now authenticate employee time and attendance for smart card and proximity card solutions."

Actatek is the 2010 Frost and Sullivan “Vertical Market Biometric Penetration Award Winner.” Its proximity and biometric solutions are 100% web-based allowing for remote configuration and administration. Actatek time clocks support a variety of proximity and smart card standards including Philips Mifare, HID Prox, HID Prox II, HID iCLASS, Legic and EM. Actatek time clocks can support more than 5,000 employees per time clock and a network of clocks can be synchronized across multiple sites and locations. Actatek’s Logiprint remote registration allows administrators or supervisors to enroll employees from PC workstations. Altronix backup power ensures that time Actatek time clocks continue operating during power failures or surges.

Any inquiries about Pacific Timesheet Actatek 3 time clock features can be directed to 866-416-2061 ext. 1 where an application specialist an assist you with any questions or how to get started. From outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise

Pacific Timesheet is a leading provider of Cloud timesheet, Cloud time tracking systems, SaaS (Software as a Service) for time and attendance, SaaS timesheet and on-premise timesheet software systems for payroll time tracking, time off and absence management, time and attendance, time and labor tracking. Its main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, is known for its unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent technology it is provided as a timesheet software as a service (SaaS) or on-premise timesheet software solution. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, B/E Aerospace, Ceres, City of Albuquerque, Dell Computer, FMC, Friends First Life Assurance Co., Harvard University, Joy Mining, Openwave Technologies, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, Turner Construction, The Clinton Foundation, Ultra Clean Technology, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, and many more. The Company has resellers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

Pacific Timesheet Named to American Top Business List

Las Vegas, NV — May 19, 20011 — In recognition of the economic power of privately held businesses, DiversityBusiness.com, the nations' leading business-to-business internet site, recently named Pacific Timesheet as one of the top businesses in the United States, and one of the top 100 privately-held companies in Nevada.

Over 750,000 businesses in the United States had the opportunity to participate in DiversityBusiness.com’s 11th annual business survey. The awards are based on annual gross revenue and company business profiles.

The Top Business List is the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the United States economy - America's privately held companies. This esteemed, elite list is coveted by the most successful companies in the U.S. The list has become the most recognized and respected compilation of companies that truly differentiate themselves in the marketplace in a time when doing so has never been more important.

As an award winner, Pacific Timesheet was honored at the "11th Annual National Business Awards Ceremony and Conference." The event brought together America’s top business owners and Fortune 500 companies for promoting business opportunities. The event was held at the Gaylord National Resort in Washington, DC April 19 - April 21, 2011.

“Pacific Timesheet is honored to be recognized for the third year in a row by such a prominent organization as DiversityBusiness.com,” said Jim Dickerson, VP of Operations. “It confirms our growing technology and services leadership in timesheet software as as service for time and work tracking, time off and absence management, time and attendance and project time tracking being acknowledged by our Global 1000 customers worldwide.”

"Entrepreneurs are a growing force in the U.S. economy, and a force to be reckoned with," said Kenton Clarke, CEO of Computer Consulting Associates International, the holding company of DiversityBusiness.com. "This is a whole business segment that can carry its own, that provides jobs, products and services, and generates wealth for their communities. These are the new leaders in American business."

The American Top Business List for 2011 is a classification that represents the top small businesses in the U.S., in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, food service and professional services. Large organizational buyers throughout the country that do business with multicultural, small and women-owned businesses use the list to find outstanding suppliers and vendors.

About Pacific Timesheet
Pacific Timesheet is a leading provider of cloud timesheet or timesheet software as a services. Products and services include SaaS crew timesheets, time tracking and software, payroll time tracking, time off and absence management, time and attendance, and project time tracking. Its main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, is known for its unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent technologies, it's provided using timesheet software as a service (SaaS) or on-premise timesheet software solutions. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as B/E Aerospace, Bethel Church, Blue Nile Inc.,Ceres Inc., City of Albuquerque, Dell Select Public Accounts, Endress+Hauser Automation Inst., EnerNOC, Fiserv, FMC Corporation, Friends First Life Assurance Co, Hood Packaging, Harvard University, Horton/Wison, Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, Joy Mining, Lake Avenue Church, Michigan Tech University, Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks, NEP, New Visions for Public Schools, NOAA, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Openwave Technologies, P&H Mining Engineering, Rinchem, The Dartmouth Institute, The Florida Aquarium, The Select Group, Township of Mahwah New Jersey, Turner Construction, Tyco Thermal Controls, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, William J. Clinton Foundation and many more. The Company has resellers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

About DiversityBusiness.com
Launched in 1999, DiversityBusiness, with over 50,000 members, is the largest organization of diversity owned businesses throughout the United States that provide goods and services to Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, and colleges and universities. DiversityBusiness provides research and data collection services for diversity including the "Top 50 Organizations for Multicultural Business Opportunities", "Top 500 Diversity Owned Companies in America", and others. Its research has been recognized and published by Forbes Magazine, Business Week and thousands of other print and internet publications. The site has gained national recognition and has won numerous awards for its content and design. DiversityBusiness reaches more diverse suppliers and communicates more information to them on a more frequent basis then all other organizations combined. Its magazine reaches over 300,000 readers, a monthly e-newsletter that reaches 2.4 million, and website visitors of 1.2 million a month. It is a leading provider of Supplier Diversity management tools and has the most widely distributed Diversity magazine in the United States. DiversityBusiness.com is produced by Computer Consulting Associates International Inc. (CCAii.com) of Southport, CT. Founded in 1980.

A SaaS Timesheet System That's YOURS!

Six Principles of Customer-Centric SaaS Time and Work Tracking

You've spent decades building your company name. Why does your time tracking system promote someone else's?

Pacific Timesheet promotes the most important company in your universe -- YOURS!

Unlike most others, Pacific Timesheet's SaaS Timesheet systems are branded with YOUR company logo, and all of our web pages bear YOUR company's name, not ours. As the technology leader in SaaS time and work tracking we don't need to promote our name, we'd rather promote your company's.

But there's more to this than meets the user's eye.

Six Principles of Customer-Centric SaaS time and work tracking:

What does customer-centric mean? It means your SaaS timesheet system is centered around your company, not ours. It means that the system is clearly marked as your company's system. There's also no confusion about who owns the system, the data or that the data will only be used by your company.

1. Trust: What's this website? What's this URL? Your SaaS system URL should always contain your company name. Users will trust a website url with your company's name. This tells employees and clients that this is the official time and work tracking system of your company.

2. Clarity: the login page should be clearly marked with your company logo, any custom announcements for employees should be clearly visible, and all pages of the site should bear your company's name. For a client-facing business (like staffing or consulting) where their might be client approvals (like construction or field services), or for a business where users or approvers might come and go, you want no confusion about who's time tracking system it is. It's yours!

3. Compliance: when employees see that a SaaS time and work system is clearly marked as their company's they understand this is a critical company system to be taken seriously, a system with which they must comply as part of their job.

4. Security: when clearly marked as your system, and all communications are secure (SSL) all employee, time and work data is understood to be securely managed -- that employees' entered data will only be used by your company -- that their employee master data will never be used outside their company, sold to third parties or compromised in any way.

5. Clearly-marked reminder and notification emails: are they spam? No they are important messages from my company reminding me to submit my timesheet or to approve timesheets or a leave request, or telling me that I am late in doing so.

6. Authentic Ownership: More than a brand or web page name, a SaaS timesheet system should feel like a custom fit, not like it's off the rack. The layout of timesheets, policies, notices, workflows and security permissions should be your company's. Then employees and other stakeholders in the system feel like they own it -- that it is an authentic system for the company.

Only time tracking systems that create trust, have clearly marked interfaces and email communications, robust security, and are custom fit to your business promote employee compliance and achieve the highest levels of performance.

Pacific Timesheet Announces Enhanced SaaS Crew Timesheet Configurability

Las Vegas, NV — March 15, 2011 — Pacific Timesheet has announced new advanced crew timesheet configuration features that allow construction and field services organization to dynamically setup a variety of 100% web-based crew timesheet templates for time and work capture in the field.

Jim Dickerson, VP of Operations, explains, "Many of our customers have field services or construction operations that track time and work data in different ways across their organizations." Dickerson continued, "These enhanced configuration tools allow customers to have an unlimited number of crew timesheet and time tracking templates from which to choose when track particular jobs in for multiple jobs in many locations."

Pacific Timesheet is now the leader in field service and construction crew time tracking as its customers are able to configure crew timesheets with out-of-the-box functionality rather than requiring lengthy and expensive professional services engagements as is often the case. Easy and flexible configuration addresses several problems for field services and construction time tracking: 1) The need to consolidate data from a variety of crew timesheet formats 2) The need to make slight or major modifications over time to crew timesheets as customer or business requirements change 3) The need to allow supervisors to know what time and work data capture is required without extensive training or re-training. Dickerson stated, “With Pacific Timesheet crew timesheets field supervisors and crew managers will know what data to track by what fields are included on the crew timesheet template.

Pacific Timesheet's industry-leading SaaS integration toolsets make its construction and field services solutions complete, allowing customers to integrate time and work data and synchronize employee, job, cost code, assignment and other key data with SAP, Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, and more than 250 payroll, accounting and human resources systems.

Any inquiries about Pacific Timesheet SaaS crew timesheet of crew timesheet software and their advanced crew timesheet configuration features can be directed to 866-416-2061 ext. 1 where an application specialist an assist you with any questions or how to get started. From outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise

Pacific Timesheet is a leading provider of SaaS crew timesheet and time tracking and software, payroll time tracking, time off and absence management, time and attendance, time and labor tracking. Its main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, is known for its unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent and provided as a timesheet software as a service (SaaS) or on-premise timesheet software solution. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, Ceres, City of Albuquerque, FMC, Joy Mining, Openwave Technologies, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, Turner Construction, The Clinton Foundation, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, and many more. The Company has resellers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

Pacific Timesheet Announces New Cloud Timesheet Programs

Pacific Timesheet Announces New Cloud Timesheet Programs


“The Flexible Cloud:” Timesheet Software as a Service Made Easy.


Las Vegas, NV — January 4, 2011 — Pacific Timesheet has announced “Flexible Cloud,” an innovative approach to timesheet software as a service that allows customers a variety of service options allowing their service and features to scale up or scale down along with the demands of their business.

Jim Dickerson, VP of Operations, explains, "Many of our customers require a variety of solutions ranging from simple payroll timesheets to time off and absence management or project time tracking. Now our services offer exactly what they need, no more no less." Many of Pacific Timesheet's customers begin using one feature set, such as payroll time tracking, but later might add the accruals engine or time and attendance features. Pacific Timesheet now allows customers value pricing programs that allow them to start simply and expand over time. "The flexible cloud platform provides this capability," Dickerson continued, "so that we can take a customer from 10 to 1,000 users in seconds, or add major additional features to their configurations instantly." The flexible cloud requires no professional services, and provides the same outstanding technical support for which Pacific Timesheet is known around the world.

Any inquiries about the flexible cloud timesheet services can be directed to 866-416-2061 ext. 1 where an application specialist an assist you with any questions or how to get started. From outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise

Pacific Timesheet is a leading provider of time and attendance, time off and absence management, time and labor tracking and project/job and work order time tracking software and services. It's main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, is known for its unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent and provided as a software as a service (SaaS) or on-premise software solution. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, Ceres, City of Albuquerque, FMC, Joy Mining, Openwave Technologies, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, Turner Construction, The Clinton Foundation, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, and many more. The Company has resellers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

Creating annual reports that group data by week

With a little SQL you can group your timesheet data by week...

This blog post discusses how you can create an annual timesheet report that groups or summarizes data by week. Normally when running timesheet reports, such as Employee Hours, the data is totaled for the entire reporting period. For example, the Employee Hours by Task report looks something like this when run year-to-date:

Employee Hours by Task

You can have this report summarize the data in weekly groups by using the following SQL as a grouping:

STR_TO_DATE(CONCAT(YEARWEEK(t_timeentry.strt,0),'0'),'%x%v%w')

This SQL is only valid for MySQL, but similar constructs can be made for Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. When you group by this expression the hours data will now look like this:

Employee Hours by Task - Weekly

Here you see the same data, only summarized by the week of the year. You can contact Pacific Timesheet support or your application specialist for a more detailed solution document that describes how to do this.

Crew Timesheet Tips: Automating Cost Code and Craft Level Assignment

Many believe that the main benefit of automating field services and crew time tracking is reducing administrative costs and eliminating double data entry. While this benefit is significant, perhaps even more important is automating crew assignments.

With advanced assignment automation a system would allow supervisors to login and see a completely populated crew timesheet, including job, cost code and craft level assignments to workers. Another feature of automation would restrict the supervisor, when making or modifying assignments, to only see those cost codes or craft levels a worker is permitted to be assigned.

Distributing assignment-making ability into the field with the supervisor allows crew timesheets to be adjusted throughout the day as workers leave early or replacements show up. All of this means more accurate time tracking throughout the day and automated tabulation of hours and costs at the end of the day.

The majority of construction and field services operations use daily paper crew timesheets to track time by job, cost or craft codes. The paper timesheets need to be created, printed and distributed by administrative staff at the job site.

A difficulty of automating this process is that the crew timesheet needs to be setup with these assignments in advance, or supervisors need to easily be able to make these assignments or change them in the field.

With crew timesheet automation a field services operation has two new options:
1) have administrative staff setup crew timesheets at the beginning of the day, or even modify assignments throughout the day for supervisors tracking time. The supervisors would be go to fully populated crew timesheet screens and enter hours and details throughout or at the end of the day.
2) Where setup of a crew timesheet does not vary from day to day, a copy previous day feature can carry forward the previous day's assignments and thereby completely eliminate any administrative preparation of a new daily crew timesheet. A supervisor can make minor adjustments to the crew timesheet setup and enter hours throughout the day.


Pacific Timesheet Announces New Customers

Pacific Timesheet continues helping new customers save more money with software as a service and online time tracking solutions in time off and absence management, payroll time tracking and project time tracking.


Las Vegas, NV — September 14, 2010 — Pacific Timesheet has announced several new important customers during the last quarter, including leading government contractors, universities, and for-profit corporations. Among these are Fiserv Federal (a leading global provider of information management and electronic commerce systems for the financial services industry), Pinal County Government, Our Kids of Miami (an important non-profit in Dade County Florida), Wavsys (a leading technical staffing company), Ironhouse Sanitary District, and The Dartmouth Institute.

Jim Dickerson, VP of Operations stated, "Many of our new customers have been taking advantage of advanced features delivered by our software as a service solutions. In particular, our integration utilities are now state of the art, supporting advanced ftp and encryption features not offered by most of our direct competitors." In particular, Pacific Timesheet's leading time off and absence management solutions and payroll time tracking have shown a significant increased growth during the last three business quarters.

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise

Pacific Timesheet is a leading provider of time and attendance, time off and absence management, time and labor tracking and project/job and work order time tracking software and services. Its main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, is known for its unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability. Pacific Timesheet is platform, database, and browser-independent and provided as a software as a service (SaaS) or on-premise software solution. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, Ceres, City of Albuquerque, FMC, Joy Mining, Openwave Technologies, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, Turner Construction, The Clinton Foundation, University of Massachusetts, University of Virginia, and many more. The Company has resellers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

Pacific Timesheet Announces Partnership with Barcodes Inc.

Las Vegas, NV — April 19, 2010 — Pacific Timesheet has announced a strategic partnership with Barcodes Inc. to provide integrated time tracking solutions where employee, job and work order data are collected using barcode scanner systems, mobile computing, point of sale and RFID solutions.

BarcodesInc. is the largest provider of barcode, mobile computing, point of sales and RFID products and solutions in North America.

Pacific Timesheet VP of Operations Jim Dickerson stated, “We are very pleased to formalize our partnership with BarcodesInc. This partnership significantly enhances our product and service offerings into segments requiring important barcode, point of sale and mobile computing solutions. In particular, this helps our customers track time on jobs and work orders in manufacturing, distribution and supply chain operations.”

Raul Cepeda Jr., BarcodesInc. Business Development Manager, stated, “We are very excited to partner with Pacific Timesheet! Bringing together BarcodesInc’s customer service offering and hardware expertise along with Pacific Timesheet’s cutting edge software will provide the market with the best-in-class Time and Attendance Solution.”

Dickerson further explained that this partnership will provide additional specialty solutions tracking time, student and patient activities in various social service agencies, educational and training institutions. “Adding BarcodesInc.'s capabilities with our time and attendance, payroll time tracking, time off and absence management, and scheduling on-premise and SaaS solutions, Pacific Timesheet will now be able to provide complete end-to-end time tracking solutions in manufacturing, distribution and supply chain operations.”

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise
Pacific Timesheet is a leader provider of time and attendance, time off and absence management, time and labor tracking and project time tracking software as a service (SaaS) and on-premises time tracking software. Its main product, Pacific Timesheet Enterprise, provides unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability for time and attendance, time off and absence management, payroll timesheets and project/job time tracking. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent technologies that can be implemented as a SaaS or on-premise solution, Pacific Timesheet provides an enterprise-ready solution that is easy to use and implement for companies worldwide.

The Company is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, and has resellers throughout North America and Europe. Pacific Timesheet is an equal opportunity employer always in search of talented professionals interested in the development and application of proven software technologies. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used across more than 40 industries and by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, BCD Travel, Joy Mining, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, University of Massachusetts and many more. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to http://www.pacifictimesheet.com, or in North America call 866-416-2061 ext. 1., from outside North America call +1 650-641-2760.

About BarcodesInc.
BarcodesInc is North America's leading provider of barcode, mobile computing, and RFID solutions. Over the past fifteen years, the company has worked hard to earn a reputation for being dedicated, reliable, and customer-oriented. Additionally, they are product experts with deep experience in field mobility, inventory and point-of-sale solutions.

New release! Pacific Timesheet 6.72

A new version of Pacific Timesheet is now available, version 6.72. This version has two key features a number of customers have requested:

  • New Accrual Option - Forecasting Only
    A new accrual option is available that, if checked, will cause accruals to only be used to compute or forecast available leave for requests. The accruals will not be added to the actual balance. This is useful for situations where you are importing or setting balances from an external HR or payroll system, but would still like leave requests to show future available balances. To find out more go to the System > Policies > Balance and Accrual Rules page and click the online help link.
  • Minimum Work Hours Per Day
    There is a new time entry rule, "Minimum Work Hours Per Day", that allows you to require that employees account for each work day, Monday through Friday. This rule is run when the timesheet is submitted, and both work and leave hours are counted when totaling the number of hours worked each day.

You can see all of the changes here:

www.pacifictimesheet.com/timesheet_support/pacific_timesheet_release_notes.htm

If you are using the online service, it will be updated to this version within a few weeks. If you are self-hosting Pacific Timesheet, you should receive an email with download instructions, or you can contact support@pacifictimesheet.com.

Pacific Timesheet Announces Shift Differential Enhancements

Additional more configurable support for shift differential regular and overtime rules.

Las Vegas, NV — February 10, 2010 — Pacific Timesheet has announced significant enhancements to its time and attendance support for shift differential regular time, shift differential overtime and shift differential double time rules.

Many union contracts and more complicated work rules require, in addition to shift differential rates or payment amounts, that workers are paid certain separate regular, overtime or double time rates for shift work. In addition, shift differential rules can require configurable definitions of which shift hours are included in these calculations, such as starting before a shift, during a shift, or the entire shift. Pacific Timesheet Time and Attendance software handles this support while providing seamless integration with more than 250 payrolls, accounting and ERP systems. Pacific Timesheet Time and Attendance software also supports an unlimited number complex shifts for any day, combinations or days and hours.

Jim Dickerson, VP of Operation stated, "Many of our customers require flexibility in shift differential software to support highly complex work and pay rules. Pacific Timesheet's highly configurable shift differential support allows for multiple shift rules, shift premiums and shift schedules."

Pacific Timesheet Time and Attendance software allows customers to track time and attendance and time off by job. With a variety of rules exceptions, such as including holidays in overtime calculations, for support for meal penalties and split shift differentials, Pacific Timesheet Time and Attendance software allow employers to track any kind of work rules and policies. Dickerson continued, "Pacific Timesheet's shift differential support provides the same ease of use and administration as our other enterprise class features. As well, our customers continue to work closely with us on our product road map to ensure the product continues to meet increasingly complex labor rules while retaining its core flexibility."

About Pacific Timesheet Enterprise

Pacific Timesheet is a leader in providing time and attendance software, time and labor tracking, timesheet software as a service and time tracking software. Its flagship product, Pacific Timesheet, provides unprecedented ease-of-use, flexibility and reliability for time and attendance, time off and absence management, payroll timesheets and project/job time tracking. Built on platform, database, and browser-independent technologies that can be implemented either on-premise or on-demand, Pacific Timesheet provides an enterprise-ready solution that is easy to use and implement for companies across the globe.

The Company is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, and has offices throughout North America and Europe. Pacific Timesheet is an equal opportunity employer always in search of talented professionals interested in the development and application of proven software technologies. Pacific Timesheet's Time Management Systems are used by some of the world's leading organizations such as Applied Materials, BCD Travel, Joy Mining, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, NOAA, New Visions for Public Schools, University of Massachusetts and many more. If you need additional information about Pacific Timesheet go to www.pacifictimesheet.com, or call 866-416-2061 ext. 1.

Time and Attendance Software

Pacific Timesheet now lets you give different colors to Holiday, Vacation, Sick and other time-off pay codes. This let's employees and managers quickly see the types of leave being taken, and is one of many nice improvements in version 6.71. For more information about our time and attendance software please visit http://www.pacifictimesheet.com.