Software of the Month Club 1996 November

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Asc2Com (MorganSoft) | 1996-03-30 | 21.3 KB | 348 lines

TimeCapture, version 3.1 Information and Quick Start Guide W E L C O M E ! Thank you for using TimeCapture. It is designed to save you time and eliminate the hassle of collecting and totaling employee hours information. Instead of spending your time totaling work hours from time cards, you can have printed totals in seconds, and in the format you choose. TimeCapture eliminates the guesswork of employee "honor" systems, while still allowing those employees who are trustworthy to record times that they forget to record. TimeCapture provides the combination of time clock accuracy with the convenience of having employee hours information at your fingertips. The time clock part of the program functions as more than just a time clock; it ensures that employees don't forget to record all their work times by "reminding" them when they forget. Using the file management program, you control whether the employees have the ability to record these "forgotten" times, or they must notify you when it happens. If you allow employees to record their times, each time this happens a note of it will be made in the files, and that time will be marked when the management reports are printed. This allows you to monitor the frequency of an employee's self-recorded times. TimeCapture can also be used to record hours worked by consultants or by those who work on a project basis; salaried persons could use TimeCapture to track the number of hours spent on various tasks. This is done by assigning different codes to each project, and using the different codes to record times for different activities. A "consultant's version is in the planning stages as this is being written. Contact us if you are inter- ested in this version. Also, a network version is available. The cost is $159.00 for an unlimited number of users for any single server. Shipping is $1.00 within the U.S., $3.00 outside the U.S. Just specify the network version when you order. Please read warranty and license information on page 5 of this file before using TimeCapture. One of the advantages to TimeCapture is you can get up and running with the program very quickly, then take time to check out all of the "bells and whistles" at your convenience. (Press Alt-P to print this file. Press Alt-W to export to a text file.) TimeCapture 3.1 README.COM Page 2 Installation instructions for Windows 3.1 and 3.11: 1. In the Windows Program Manager, click on File, then New. 2. Click on the Program Group radio button, then click OK. 3. Type in the Group Name (TimeCapture, by suggestion), and click OK. 4. Click File, New. 5. Click the Program Item radio button, then click OK. 6. In the first field, type in Time Clock. Press Tab. 7. In the second field, type in the drive and directory information followed by the program name. Example: C:\CLOCK3\TC.EXE. Press Tab. 8. For Working Directory, type in the directory you entered for the previous step. In the example above, it would be C:\CLOCK3. Click OK. 9. Repeat steps 4 through 8, substituting CLOCK.EXE for the program name and File Management Program for Time Clock. Windows 95 installation: 1. From the desktop, right-click on a blank area. 2. Highlight New, then Shortcut, and right-click on Shortcut. 3. For Command Line, type in the drive, directory, and program name, (example: C:\CLOCK3\TC.EXE) or use Browse to locate the file 4. Click Next. 5. Select a name for the shortcut. TimeCapture Time Clock, for example. 6. Click Next. 7. Select an icon, then click Finish. 8. Right-click on the shortcut, then highlight and click Properties. 9. Click the Program tab, then put a check in the Close on Exit box. 10. Click the Screen tab, then click on the Full Screen radio button. 11. If you want to change the icon to the TimeCapture icon, you can do this by clicking the Program tab again, then the Change Icon button at the bottom. Click Browse to find the TimeCapture directory, then click on the icon. Click on OK. 12. To add the file management program as a shortcut, follow steps 1 - 11 and substitute CLOCK.EXE for TC.EXE and name the shortcut with an appropriate name, such as TimeCapture File Management Program. TimeCapture may also be added to the Start menu or to a program folder, but is more complex and requires more steps than this. See your Windows 95 Help files or documentation for instructions. Make sure that the Close on Exit and Full Screen options are selected. TimeCapture 3.1 README.COM Page 3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: 720k floppy or hard drive (hard drive HIGHLY recommended), DOS 3.3 or above, 512k RAM Make sure you have the following files: CLOCK.EXE File Management program TC.EXE Time Clock program HELPFILE.DBF Help File HELPFILE.DBT Help File MANUAL.COM User Manual README.COM This file VENDOR.DOC Vendor, BBS, and general distribution information SYSOP.DOC BBS Sysop information Key conventions used: in any menu in the TimeCapture program, you can press the first letter of the menu choice to select that option. (You can also highlight that option using the cursor keys and press Enter.) F1 pressed from anywhere in the CLOCK file management program will invoke a context- sensitive help screen. Pressing the Escape key in any screen except the main menu will either "back you up" one menu or screen, or return you to the main menu. Here are the steps to get up and running quickly: Run the CLOCK program first to ensure that the proper data files are created. The time clock part of the program WILL NOT run without these files. The CLOCK program also sets certain parameters that are essential to the programs' running properly. Type CLOCK and press enter to activate the program. Next, to be able to use the time clock, you must add your employee names to the employee file. This is done from the EDIT, VIEW, OR ADD TO EMPLOYEE LIST option from the main menu. Choose this option, and press F2 to add an employee name. You must choose a personal code for each employee. Any code up to ten characters in length can be used, but you may want to make it a point to choose something that can be easily remembered by the employees and also entered quickly. Unless the employee codes must be true passwords for security's sake, you might consider using the employees' initials. After pressing F2, type the employee's personal code and press Enter. You'll then be prompted to enter the employee's department. While not mandatory, having a department name allows you to put employees into groups when you print hours and so forth, which may be absolutely necessary, or may just come in handy - depends on your business; if you don't enter this now, you can always enter it later. Type the employee's first name (and middle initial if desired) and press Enter. Finally, type the employee's last name and press Enter. This completes the entry for the first employee. Repeat until all the names of the employees who will be using the time clock are entered. You will now be ready to use the time clock part of the program. TimeCapture 3.1 README.COM Page 4 To activate the time clock program, type TC (from the DOS prompt) and press Enter. The first thing that will happen when the time clock program is activated is that a window will appear for the employee's personal code. Type the code and press Enter. Four "buttons" will appear on the screen. They are for Time In and Time Out, shown both for Regular times and Break times. The reason these are separated is that you may have employees that start on the even hour or half hour. Using the CLOCK file management program, you can set the time clock up to round times to the nearest half hour or nearest 15 minutes. This way, an employee who is supposed to start at 9:00 AM can clock in at 8:50, and the time clock will automatically round the time to 9:00. However, if the employee takes a 15 minute break starting at 10:10 until 10:25, and rounding is "on", it could round the times so that the true break times are not recorded. Using the "buttons" for Breaks instead of the ones for Regular time will record the times "as is", regardless of how you have the rounding set up. Press the appropriate function key, and the employee's name and recorded time are displayed. Press any key, and the program continues. Using the CLOCK file management program, you can set the time clock to run until the Escape key is pressed, or to exit to DOS after each employee clocks in or out. Initally it is set to run until the escape key is pressed. BE SURE TO READ THE MANUAL SECTIONS ON SETTING THE INTERNAL CLOCK ON THE COMPUTER AND ENTERING TIMES IN THE PROGRAM. IF THE INTERNAL CLOCK IS NOT SET ACCURATELY AND WORK TIMES ARE NOT ENTERED CORRECTLY, THE HOURS TOTALS WILL NOT CALCULATE CORRECTLY. ************************************* * Thank you for using TimeCapture * ************************************* TimeCapture is shareware. This means that it is "try-before-you-buy" software, and is not free. If you find TimeCapture useful, and continue to use it beyond the 30-day evaluation period, you must pay a registration fee as indicated below. ORDERING INFORMATION AND SUPPORT FOR REGISTERED SOFTWARE REGISTRATION BONUSES: A printed users guide. All registration request screens and reminders are turned off. A feature will be "turned on" that allows you to insert your name or company name as a banner on employee hours reports. When you register, you will receive a utility that you can load into your computer's memory that won't let the date and time get changed. This will effectively lock out attempts by employees to change the date and time, yet allows YOU to change it if you need to. TimeCapture 3.1 README.COM Page 5 You will also receive a pop-up calculator that you can use within the CLOCK program; handy for calculations you might need to do while putting payroll information together. In addition, registered users will receive the latest version of the TimeCapture program, 1 year of technical support, and discounts on future upgrades. Technical support is available by Compuserve, mail, or phone. You can order by sending check or money order to the address shown below, but you may find it much easier to register by using the TimeCapture file management program. You can do this by pressing F2 at the main menu which will give you instructions for registering, and you can fill out the order form and print it from the registration screen. You can order using Mastercard, VISA, American Express, or Discover from the Public (software) Library by calling 1-800-242-4775 or (713)524-6394 or by FAX to (713)524-6398; you can also order from the PsL by CompuServe Email to 71355,470. These numbers are for orders only. To insure that you get the latest version, PsL will notify us the day of your order and we will ship the product directly to you. Any questions about the status of the shipment of the order, refunds, registration options, product details, technical support, volume discounts, dealer pricing, site licenses, etc, must be directed to the address and phone number shown below. You can also mail credit card orders to PsL at P.O. Box 35705, Houston, TX 77235-5705. PsL hours for phone orders are 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM Central Standard Time (U.S.) Monday-Thursday, 7:00 AM to 12:30 PM CST on Fridays. Fax orders may be sent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you fax a credit card order, please be sure to provide your name exactly as it appears on the card, and show the billing address for the card. If the billing address is different than the "send to" address, please indicate that. You can order direct from us using Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover by calling 513-878-0315. This number is good 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for our automated order system. You can also order direct from us using e-mail: 71155,614 on CompuServe, VersatileS on America On Line. Last but not least, you can order by visiting our Home Page on the World Wide Web: http://users.aol.com/versatiles/files/vssi.html. Please remember to include the card number, expiration date, cardholder's name, the "send to" name (if different than cardholder's name; and shipping address. Also, please specify the product being ordered, and include a phone number in case we need to contact you regarding your order. You can also register using Compuserve's registration service by typeing GO SWREG at any command prompt. Look for Registration ID 1193. Versatile Software Solutions, Inc. Post Office Box 147 Fairborn, Ohio 45234 (513) 878-0315 Compuserve: GO VERSATILE, Section 19 71155,614 TimeCapture 3.1 README.COM Page 6 TimeCapture has been developed to make employee work hours data collection and retrieval as easy as possible, and we will continue to update it and improve it. However, in view of the various hardware, software, and general environments TimeCapture may be used in, we cannot guarantee that it will work in all cases. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO VERIFY THAT THE DATA AND CALCULATIONS GATHERED AND PRESENTED BY TimeCapture ARE CORRECT BEFORE USING THE INFORMATION. In order to install and use TimeCapture, you must read and agree with our warranty disclaimer. Installing and using the TimeCapture program constitutes acceptance of the warranty disclaimer, which follows: W A R R A N T Y D I S C L A I M E R TIMECAPTURE AND ALL ASSOCIATED PROGRAMS AND DOCUMENTATION ARE PROVIDED "AS IS". VERSATILE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THESE PROGRAMS AND DOCUMENTATION, THEIR QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. IN PARTICULAR, TIMECAPTURE IS NOT GUARANTEED AGAINST ERRORS IN THE COLLECTION, STORAGE, AND RETRIEVAL OF EMPLOYEE HOURS OR ANY OTHER DATA. IN NO EVENT SHALL VERSATILE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC. BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIMS FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY DAMAGE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGE. IF YOU USE TIMECAPTURE, YOU ASSUME EXCLUSIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND LIABILITY FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE PROGRAM. IN NO CASE SHALL VERSATILE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INC.'S LIABILITY EXCEED THE LICENSE FEES PAID FOR THE RIGHT TO USE THE LICENSED SOFTWARE. THE LICENSE AGREEMENT AND WARRANTY DISCLAIMER SHALL BE CONSTRUED, INTERPRETED, AND GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF OHIO. L I C E N S E T E R M S This copy of TimeCapture is "Shareware". This means that you have a limited license to to use this program in order to evaluate it. You may use it for up to 30 days without obligation. If you decide you wish to continue using TimeCapture, you must pay for the licensed (registered) version. You can order from the random registration screens, or by pressing F2 at the main menu. We encourage you to upload this program to bulletin board systems (BBS) or pass it along to others who can use it. However, you may only charge money for distributing this program according to the rules in VENDOR.DOC. If you distribute this program, you must pass along the complete set of files. You may not modify, delete, or change any of the files or documentation included with TimeCapture. You must be willing to discontinue distribution of this program at our request.