Q1: What is TAS2000 ?
A: TAS2000 is the software part of Time and Attendance System that works along with many different type of “Time Recording Machines (TRM)” to provide an electronic way of maintaining attendance record of employees in a company or office 

Q2: What is the advantage of TAS2000 over normal clock and card method ?
A: There are many benefits. First, it is fast, second it is accurate, third you get rid of paper cards needed every 15 days, fourth all the information that you need is available at the click of a button, fifth you can notify certain information automatically by Email, sixth…

Q3: Automatically by Email? What information can be sent by email ?
A: You can send (1) absentees and late comers list to cost-centre in-charges (and also to his /her boss). (2) Similarly in-complete attendance list for previous day can also be sent. (3) The Attendance Register can be sent to manager. (4) List of employees present can be sent.

Q4: I was told that a demo version of TAS2000 can be downloaded from your web-site. What is the difference between TAS2000 demo version and full commercial version ?
A: Nothing, all functions and reports are same. In the demo version you can also evaluate Job Hours (jobbing), Job Costing, Mini Payroll and External Payroll Interface (which in full commercial version are purchased separately as options) and view related reports. The only restriction is that in demo version you can have maximum 9 employees. This, in our opinion, is sufficient for evaluation.

Q5: Give an example of the information that we get.
A: Actually there are many reports and the best way to know more about them is to download the demo software. However some of them are:

• Attendance Register which is somewhat similar to paper register that has day 1 to 31 from left to right and employee names from top to bottom.

• Time Card that gives detailed information of a month, one page per employee; this is similar to (but far superior) cards used with time clocks.

• Daily Attendance that gives detailed information of all employees for one day

• There is a report that tells you who all are currently IN. Similarly there is also a report that tells who are at present OUT (meaning, they came to the office but have gone out).

• Late Comers reports

• On Leave and many more...

Q6: Can I get this IN or OUT information any time ?
A: Absolutely. With our machines you can transfer data from TRM to PC even once every minute.

Q7: What machines do you offer ?
A: We offer TR series (Taiwanese) and ATS series (US) as wall mountable devices. We also offer hand-held scanners. Besides we also have interface for dumb slot readers directly connected PC on serial ports. Also, we can develop an interface for any other reader of your choice.

Q8: Can you explain the difference between the ATS and TR type of readers ?
A: First, there is price. The TR4xxx machines cost less than ATSxxxx. The TR4xxx machines have built-in floppy disk too. You can store more than 12000 records of attendance in the TR4xxx machine (in ATS it varies from 1000 to 20000). IN ATS the advantage is that you can store employee database, so you can even display employee name when the card is swiped! Number of employees that can be validated in ATS varies from 75 to 2000, depending on model. IN TR4 validation is done in our TAS2000 software. Also, ATS can be programmed to ask for things like job-number, department-code when you swipe your card. ATS is US made, TR4 is Taiwanese. TR4xxxx also has built-in relays for opening door and bell ringing, while in ATS machines it is an option to be purchased separately. There are many more differences. These readers undergo constant changes, hence some of differences mentioned here may no more be valid …

Q9: I would also like to know who are the latecomers. Is that possible ?
A: Absolutely. Not just latecomers, it can also give early-goers’ list.

Q10: Can I get this report for a range of dates ?
A: Yes. Not just this, you get following “Exception Reports” that can be obtained for a range of dates, all or specified cost-centers and all or specified employees:

• Incomplete Attendance

• Absentees

• Late to come / Early to go

• Sick Leave Taken

• Leave Taken

Q11: What is Incomplete Attendance ?
A: Attendance of those who swiped just once or thrice or five times in a day. 

Q12: How is the attendance recorded ?
A: Every employee is given a badge. The badge is used to record employee ID, date and time in the TRM. The badges can be of three type: Magnetic (just like ATM cards) or Barcode or RFID (proximity). Obviously, the type of TRM and badges should be same.

Q13: Can you explain the three types of Id badge ?
A: All the three type of badges look like a plastic ATM or Credit Card. In the magnetic type, just like a credit card, one side has magnetic stripe that is encoded with employee ID. The barcode type badge has a barcode printed on the plastic card that contains employee ID. When these cards are swiped in the TRM’s slot, it reads and stores the relevant data. The proximity system also works in similar fashion, except here the badge has to be brought just 3-4 inches near the TRM and it reads employee ID without any touch.

Q14: So what happens if there is in-complete attendance for an employee ?
A: System allows rectifying it. “Daily Attendance” highlights rectification entry.

Q15: Is it possible to inform the cost-centre in-charges about in-complete attendance of their subordinates ?
A: You can configure the system to send automatically such an Email every day.

Q16: Who corrects the incomplete report ?
A: Normally there is one person designated as 'Time Keeper' who maintains the whole system, including this activity.

Q17: Is it possible for each cost-centre to correct it's own employees attendance ?
A: Yes, TAS2000 is multi-user and if you purchase multi-user license they can do it.

Q18: Will all users see all the data or only there own cost-centre ?
A: You can configure the cost-centre users to see their own data only, while the over-all timekeeper should be configured to see all the data.

Q19: I don't want cost-centre users to create new employee record or do other things that affect the system. Is it possible to allow only the over-all timekeeper to do such system-wide activities ?
A: Yes, you can enforce restrictions on users as to who can open which form or report, create, modify or delete records in a form. This way you have total control.

Q20: In our office some people work straight shift and some split shift. Can TAS2000 handle that ?
A: Yes! You can define up to 35 shifts. Each shift can have different IN and OUT times. In each shift minimum 1 IN and 1 OUT (total 2 swipes) is required, and maximum 3 INs and 3 OUTs (total 6 swipes) are possible.

Q21: Just like manual attendance register, is there a similar report in TAS2000 ?
A: Yes. A cost-center wise “Daily Attendance Report” mentioned above gives complete attendance information of each employee in that cost-center.

Q22: What all information does this report have ?
A: For each employee, it gives the shift, planned hours, IN/OUT timings, Normal hours worked, Sick hours, OT1 and OT2 given. The status displays Tardy and Absentees. It also gives other relevant information.

Q23: Can I enter Sick Hours given as attendance to an employee ?
A: Yes, very easily. It can be entered in the “Daily Attendance” form on daily basis or in a separate form called “Sick Leave Entry” as per your convenience. The choice is yours.

Q24: In our company, some employees are entitled for over-time and some are not. Can that be handled automatically ?
A: Yes, simply mark the employee as ‘Entitled for OT” in employee master record. Such an employee only will be given OT, other employees will not be given OT – even if they work extra hours.

Q25: I have another complication. Even those employees who are entitled for OT, do not get over-time just because they have been over-staying in the office. Only those employees who have been authorized by the supervisor for over-time are given OT. How can we handle that easily and without wasting time ?
A: In TAS2000 there is an “Authorized OT” option. When this is used, a form is opened where you can enter OT for the employees who have been given over-time by the supervisor. For remaining employees, any extra hours that they worked is deducted automatically as timekeeper adjustment.

Q26: At the end of the month I want to just have one report that tells me total days and OT hours for each employee.
A: Such a summarized report is available.

Q27: Can summarized report be directly taken into payroll system – without manual entry ?
A: An interface is already available, as a purchasable option, for our PPR2000 (our Personnel & Payroll System). You can test it with your Payroll system and it may be found sufficient. However, we can also develop an interface specific to your requirement for a charge.

Q28: What happens if an employee goes on leave ?
A: Employee is marked as ‘On Leave’ when he goes on leave. When he comes back and swipes his badge, system can be configured to either automatically or manually remove this ‘On Leave’ status - depending on your company policy.

Q29: Can I get a list of employees who are on leave ?
A: Yes.

Q30: Can I also get a list of employees who were on leave during the month, even if they have come back ?
A: Yes.

Q31: When employees go on leave, we do not want to see them under ‘Absent Report’. Is that possible ?
A: Yes, they are not shown as absent.

Q32: What if an employee goes on official tour? How does he get his attendance ?
A: It is very simple. Just enter 8 (or whatever hours of attendance is to be given) as TKA (timekeeper adjustment) in the ‘Daily Attendance’ form. He will get his attendance.

Q33: It is possible that an employee forgets to swipe his card. What then ?
A: There is a “Scan Maintenance” form in which you will create his attendance record manually. Actually this is an ‘Incomplete Attendance’ case.

Q34: I agree that sometimes an attendance record will have to be manually made, but while seeing the ‘Daily Attendance Register’ or the “Monthly Time Card”, can we know which one was made manually ?
A: Absolutely. These reports clearly show if a ‘scan’ was made manually.

Q35: I have another situation. Some of our employees, mainly executives and managers, get full attendance, even if they worked less than Normal hours. We don’t want the TAS2000 system to cut their attendance. How do we handle that ?
A: Simply mark them as ‘Auto Complete Attendance’ in employee master, and they will always get full attendance, if they came to the office and not marked absent.

Q36: Can a person be marked absent, even if he came to the office ?
A: Yes, you can set-up system in such a way that if an employee works less than ‘N’ hours, he is marked absent. By default N = 1 hour.

Q37: For the straight shift people, we want to deduct 30 minutes every day for lunchtime. We do not want them to swipe their card at that time. Is that possible ?
A: Yes, you can configure system to deduct a set amount of time automatically.

Q38: The start/end time during some days of the year may be different (for example Ramadan in gulf area) 
A: Not a problem!

Q39: Does TAS2000 handle half days or 5 days a week ?
A: Yes.

Q40: Some of our employees are purely ‘Hourly Workers’ - meaning we do not give them any attendance for weekly off days, national holidays etc. They get what they work – as simple as that. However, other ‘Staff Employees’ get full attendance on weekly offs, national holidays etc, without coming to office.
A: Simply define the worker as “HW” or “SE”, and the system will take care of it.

Q41: You know, our marketing guys are out of the office most of the time. Can we know, how much time they spent out? It’s not for attendance purpose (they will get full attendance of course), just for our information…
A: Yes, ‘Daily Attendance” and “Time Card”, both show this figure. However remember that maximum attendance scans allowed per day are six.

Q43: Do you mean that during the office time, if some employees are going out and we do not want to cut their attendance (because they may be going out for official work like marketing or personal work - with permission), but want to know why they are going out, TAS2000 can help us ?
A: Yes, when they go out and come back they should swipe with 'Reason Code' for TAS2000 to ignore such swipes for attendance, but display in 'Reason' report. Obviously, the TRM that you buy should have capabilities which can use this feature of TAS2000.

Q44: This 'Reason' feature seems interesting and useful. Is it an 'Option' to be purchased over and above standard TAS2000 ? 
A: No, 'Reason' is a standard feature - but as mentioned above, your TRM should also support it. However Jobbing and Job Costing are Options to be purchased separately.

Q45: What is the difference between Jobbing and Job Costing ? 
A: Jobbing gives you hours spent on Job (or Project), while Job Costing gives cost too.

Q46: How does TAS2000 know what time was spent on a job ?
A: When an employee starts a job, he swipes his card and enters the job-code in the reader. TAS2000 calculates time spent on this job till he moves to another job. Obviously the TRM should have capability to enter the job-code.

Q47: In our construction company we have several sites (we call them jobs or projects), but most of the workers are working in the same job (project) - so we want them to just swipe their card and NOT punch any other codes (some of them are not qualified enough to punch correct code). How can this be handled easily.
A: We have a feature called 'Link Reader To A Job'. Since every reader can have it's own unique number, we use this feature to link one or more readers to a project. In this way employees on a site need not punch anything while swiping and their job code is automatically entered. 

Q48: In our workshop the workers are working on different jobs and performing different tasks all the time. Is it possible to find out how much time and cost was associated with each task in a job ?
A: Yes, at the time of entering job code, let them also enter the task code. But please note that your TRM should have the capability of allowing both the job and task codes to be entered at the time of swiping the badge. TAS2000 software has the capability of handling several jobs and tasks within a job in a day. 

Q49: What is the basis of cost calculation ?
A: You can select between three basis. If you do not have access to individual employee's cost you can use the average trade rate of the trade to which the worker belongs. This can be done by entering the cost in Trade Master. If you know each employee's salary, you can enter it in the Employee Master and that will be used. On the other hand if you know how much the employee actually costs per hour (after considering the salary + other overhead like leave, tickets etc) you can enter that rate in Employee Master.   

Q50: Since each employee is also associated with a trade, can we also get job costing reports by the Trade Codes (like welder, carpenter etc) ?
A: Yes, TAS2000 has jobbing and job costing reports by job, task and trade. 

Q51: Since system can also have employee's salary rate, is it possible to calculate their payroll ?
A: Yes, one very basic payroll report is available as on option. This report will be useful where the most basic pay calculation is needed. 

Q52: What type of employee's salary rate is it possible ?
A: Each employee can have either monthly, daily or hourly rate. 

Q53: OK. I want to evaluate TAS2000 without first buying any TRM. What to do ?
A: Very simple. After downloading and installing TAS2000, you will find that the system is divided into two parts: Interface and Operations. The Interface provided in ‘Demo Version’ is Computer Screen based. You only have to enter the Employee ID in this field and your date/time/id is recorded. However, before you start using the Interface, you have to go through some simple configuration and set-up steps in the Interface and Operations programs. 

Q54: Can we use 3 TRM Readers for  3 doors in our office using One TAS2000 Software ?
A: Yes.  multiple TRM readers can be used with One TAS2000 Software.

Q55: Is it possible to connect to a TRM in our branch office ?
A: Yes. We have solutions using modems as well as if you have a Wide Area Network (WAN) connection with routers over TCP/IP. The exact solution/TRMs will depend on each customer.

Q56: Is it possible to let each branch connect to head office and view their own data as well as maintain attendance ?
A: Yes, it is similar to multi-user situation on LAN. However, in such case you should either go for client/server technology (Softools can provide optionally, Oracle or SQL Server as back-end database) or use such remote control software like PC Anywhere or Citrix etc.