TimeSimplicity & Other Product Ideas

Rich,

You made some valid points. I think its very important to offer clocks that will not hold up the lines and one of the main reasons clients switch to these fancy clocks is speed! Many employees rush and the more options or steps the clock asks for opens the door for more errors. I know these clocks are very simple but for some odd reason people forget and/or rush when they have to follow the steps (1 for in, 2 for out) then Pin then Hand.

I'm hoping for a better improvement on the GT400 as its not as user-friendly as I thought plus the screen and the buttons on each side of the screen (not labeled) makes it more confusing in a way.

I think there's a lot of value in Daniel's suggestion as it shaves seconds off of the amount of time it takes to submit a punch.  I worked with an old Kronos system developed back in the 1980s that employed this logic.  Instead of fingerprints or pins we had swipecards, though.

1. When the employee swiped the first time, the system added that punch to your card as your OUT punch.
2. When the employee swiped the second time, the system moved your first punch from OUT to IN and the second punch became the OUT time.
3. When the employee swiped the third time, the system moved their second punch from OUT to MEAL END and the third punch became the OUT time.
4. When the employee swiped the fourth time, the system moved their second punch from MEAL END to MEAL START, moved their third punch from OUT to MEAL END, and the fourth punch because the OUT time.

It would be great if there were the ability to employ this type of option on the physical clocks, especially in companies where either 2 (IN/OUT) or 4 (IN/MEAL START/MEAL END/OUT) punches per day are traditional.

Another option that may be worth considering is allowing the employee to define the punch type by the way they use the fingerprint reader.

Here is a scenario with 2 punches per day:

1. When the employee presses the fingerprint reader for the first time, it populates an OUT punch.
2. When the employee presses the fingerprint reader for the second time, they are presented with a prompt telling them if they're taking a meal break, to scan their finger again.  Since the employee is not taking a meal, the system moves their first punch from OUT to IN and the second punch becomes the OUT punch.

Here is a scenario with 4 punches per day:

1. When the employee presses the fingerprint reader for the first time, it populates an OUT punch.
2. When the employee presses the fingerprint reader for the second time, they are presented with a prompt telling them if they're punching for a meal break to scan their finger again.  Since the employee is taking a meal break, they scan their finger again.  This causes the system to move the first punch from OUT to IN and the second punch becomes the MEAL END time.
3. When the employee presses the fingerprint reader for the third time, they are presented with a prompt telling them if they're punching for a meal break to scan their finger again.  Since the employee is returning from a meal break, they scan their finger again.  This causes the system to move the second punch from MEAL END to MEAL START and the third punch becomes the MEAL END time.
4. When the employee presses the fingerprint reader for the fourth time, they are presented with a prompt telling them if they're punching for a meal break to scan their finger again.  Since the employee is not taking a meal break, they don't scan their finger again.  After a period of about 3 seconds, the system determines the lack of the second fingerprint scan means the employee is not punching for a meal break and the fourth punch becomes the OUT time.

I do foresee accounts that will be some accounts whose configuration renders them unable to enjoy this style of punching, for example clients who pay their employees for breaks they make them punch in and out for. 

The logical sequencing of punches based on the number of times an employee clocks in and out per day seems like something that would augment the features and value of Punch Logic and, acknowledging I'm not sure what your future plans are, paves the way for physical clocks that use facial recognition to automatically feed punches into the system provided no Clock Prompts are needed.