Procare Blog

Prevent Unauthorized Overtime

Get a handle on staff overtime at your child care, daycare or preschool, with Employee Data and Check In Solutions from Procare Software®. The built-in schedule adherence feature lets you limit employee check in and out times to the hours for which you have scheduled each person.

Restrict Times to Schedule: Schedule Adherence

You may limit staff check in/out times so they are within a certain number of minutes of each employee’s scheduled work hours.  First you’ll turn on the “restrict to schedule” option then choose the number of minutes grace allowed.

1. From the Procare Home screen go to Configuration > System >  Locations & Users > dbl-click Regions & Schools.
2. To set this for all locations within the region, click once on the Region to be sure it is selected then click the Set Options button.
3. At the Region Options screen choose Employee Data on the left.
4. Scroll down to Time Card Options and set Restrict Check In/Out to Schedule to “True”.
5. Next set the Checkin/Checkout Minutes limit to the amount of leeway (grace period) you’d like to allow, such as 10.  This would allow staff member to check in up to 10 minutes before, or check out up to 10 minutes after, their scheduled hours.

Note: To prevent any overtime you may wish to schedule each person for a bit less than 8 hours, to account for your grace period. Another option would be to schedule them for exactly 8 hours with zero minutes grace (set it to “none”). Then use the option for “rounding” the clock in and out times to allow a person to check in slightly ahead of time, but record their time at the hour. For example, if a person were a few minutes early it could round their time to the closest 15 minute increment, say from 7:53 to exactly 8:00.

How Employee Check In/Out Works

Follow these steps for a teacher, or other staff member, to check themselves in.

1)     First they authenticate themselves using their Fingerprint, Magnetic Swipe Card, or personal ID and password.  If they are an employee only they’ll immediately jump to the next step. If they are also an authorized pickup person for any children, they’ll choose from either Employee check in or Authorized Pickup of children. In our example they would choose Employee.

2)      During check in they will verify (or change) the Work Area and Pay Code to which they are checking in.  The default settings are based on their schedule.  They will not see this screen when checking out, since this information is already known from when they checked in.

3)      Once the position and work area are verified, they click Select (image above), then choose their name and click Finish (image below) to complete the process.

If the “restrict to schedule” option is turned on and their time is outside the allowed grace period, they’ll see a red screen with a Schedule Adherence notification, which prevents them from checking in or out.

Of course, the center director or other authorized staff could manually make an entry on the Employee Time Card, or change the Employee Schedule to allow them to check in or out, if the time is authorized. Either way, with the schedule adherence feature, you now have a mechanism to help keep your employees working the hours you have planned for them, thereby reducing unnecessary, or unapproved, overtime hours.

Until next time, enjoy reduced overtime and more efficient employee schedules!

-Doug

If you have questions or comments about this article (or suggestions for another article) I’d be happy to hear from you. Drop a note to doug@procaresoftware.com

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