New #MyClock App from PayrollHero

We have released an updated version of the #MyClock app to the iOS and Android app stores. The #MyClock app gives employees the power to clock in and out with or without GPS and Photos.

The attendance export functionality is still the same within your PayrollHero account, but watch for an update coming shortly that upgrades the report and makes it more useful.

Check out the new #MyClock below;

Biometrics VS Selfies – Which is Best for Your Business?

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Restaurants and retails stores usually generate payroll by multiplying their employees’ hourly rate with the number of hours worked by each employee.

The number of hours worked is measured by a time sheet that employees punch in, a biometric device or (if you’re one of our awesome clients) the PayrollHero app that lets your employees take selfies to clock in and out.

We get a lot of questions about why businesses should change from biometrics to anything else. Some say that the biometrics system is already ideal… that it’s fast and accurate. While all of this might be true, we have a strong argument for why biometrics may not be the best option for your business.

The PayrollHero app – an all in one solution

Biometric devices work as a standalone system. You need to get a whole new software for processing information from the device and integrating it into the software that calculates attendance. Often, you need another system to monitor scheduling, manage leaves and generate payroll.

On the other hand, PayrollHero’s TeamClockMyClock app records all the information you need to know about your employee on the cloud. It is an end-to-end solution that relieves you of the hassle of integrating multiple systems together.

The only device you will ever need is either of the following: iPad, smartphone (Android or iOS), or a computer (PC or Mac). PayrollHero’s apps are compatible with these devices so you are assured to have a streamlined process from start to finish.

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Wear and tear

The biometric device is subject to wear and tear. If you have hundreds of employees using a couple of biometric devices, you are more likely to face this issue. However, MyClock or TeamClock are is accessed within an iPad / smartphone (or computer),  which is less likely to undergo the kind of wear and tear that biometric devices are prone to.

Software updates

The PayrollHero app updates from time to time to give the user a better experience and introduce new features (for example, we have just introduced leave management! Check it out). The app is always improving and finding ways to make time and attendance easier for businesses, whereas the biometric device can only go so far in it capabilities.

There are other issues with the biometric device too. Biometric devices lead to manual calculations when there are minor infractions where employees come just a couple of minutes early or late.

We handle this problem by implementing thresholds within which these infractions are excused. This frees up time for your HR manager to do more important things, like finding the best talent for your company and managing employee relations.

Altogether, the biometric device may be faster in recording clock ins, but the time wasted by the HR manager in fixing the inefficiencies in the device is far more.

So if you’re ready to let go of your biometric device and embrace the selfie clock in, contact us at sales@payrollhero.com or visit our website to learn more.

PayrollHero Certification: Hands on Experience with the App

badge-payroll-certificationLast week, Kieran our Head of Client Success, conducted training sessions for the new PayrollHero team members in Singapore as well as a few clients. We got some hands on experience with the app, which helped us gain a deeper understanding of how the product works. As an intern who has been here for a few weeks, my knowledge about the product came from speaking with team members, listening to sales pitches and reading about the product online. So it was an interesting experience to use the product on a demo account and view it from the perspective of a payroll administrator. All new PayrollHero team members get certified on the platform so that they know exactly what the platform can do.

Kieran took us through every aspect of the product. My first thought when I was told about the training was, “Wow, a two and a half day training session? But I already know everything about it!” Which, as you may have guessed, turned out to be highly overstated. Within the first two hours of training, I came to the conclusion that the product was far more powerful than I had expected.

The first day was about Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). The next day was spent on generating payroll and the final day was dedicated to understanding time, attendance and scheduling using the app.

The interesting part about the app is its customization capabilities. A human resources (HR) administrator can record the company’s organizational chart. The hierarchy allows you to identify employee types and positions. Thresholds allow you to set rules on what kinds of notifications you get based on the activities of employees under you in the hierarchy. The thresholds have multiple permutations and combinations that, once customized, help you prioritize information that you need instantly versus information that can wait till a more suitable time.

badge-tas-certificationIt didn’t stop there. Customization extended to how you segment payroll: employer contributions (CPF, SDL, FWL), bonuses, vacation payments, advance payments, claims that need to be redeemed. Any kind of payment outside of the basic calculation of an employee’s hourly wages can be segmented and customized so that all a payroll administrator has to do, is enter which segment the payment should go into. The app can take care of debiting/crediting the amount to the required account. It will notify you when the account is hitting a pre-recorded limit. The flexibility of the app went as far as allowing you to import data from a spreadsheet, allowing the app to automatically fill in employee details.

While all of this might seem like a rather dry topic to train on for nearly three days, Kieran managed to make the whole session more interesting by throwing in quizzes and having interactive sessions. Every demo account had characters from Kieran’s favourite fiction series. Homer Simpson got a bonus for his outstanding work (let’s pretend like that is EVER going to happen), Sherlock Holmes got promoted to the next level on the org chart, Buffy Summers asked for a change in her schedule for the next 3 weeks and Harry Potter recorded coming in early to work consistently. All these characters were a part of the certification exercises, which made the entire process not only informative but also engaging.

The time, attendance and scheduling part of the course was done through an online training portal on the PayrollHero website. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by how detailed the app was and how customizable the entire process of scheduling was. It was impressive that the app was user friendly and flexible with creating, adjusting or removing schedules based on timing, location and type of work: whether it was a routine desk job or a part time job that required changing schedules often. The app, as was intended, was perfectly designed for retailers and restaurant owners who deal with employees who have erratic schedules which require constant adjustments.

The exercises and quizzes were effective in understanding how much we grasped from the lessons. It was clear that working with app required you to be consistent and methodological with the processes for entering data, giving system permissions, organizing the company’s hierarchy and setting customized options especially since the data that the system works with is sensitive. Finally, the certification undoubtedly served its purpose: it gave us a complete picture of how the app works and how a payroll administrator can benefit by using all its features for time, attendance, scheduling and payroll.

Learn more about PayrollHero Certification in the Philippines and Singapore.

#MyClock iOS App Updated

PayrollHero MyClock DTR Time Device

The PayrollHero #MyClock iOS app has been updated in the Apple app store. There are quite a few changes to the app, most noticeably is the design. The overall look has been updated as well as some new functionality.

Screen Shot 2015-06-23 at 11.19.31 AMThe #MyClock iOS app is designed for individual employee use. The app shows an employee their upcoming and past schedules, their clock in and out data, the clock photos as well as lets them require a change to their schedule or notify of an absent.

Interested to know more about how PayrollHero works? Check out our website or reach out to our team and we would be pleased to give you a free one on one demo of the platform as well as the features and benefits.

Visit the Apple app store for the #MyClock app

Apple Announces the Release of iOS 9 for September 2015!

The World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week saw a host of announcements by Apple, including the introduction of Apple Pay in UK, a new trackpad feature for the iPad and (what is now becoming) the customary announcement on iOS upgrades. iOS 9 is scheduled to roll out in September, with the public beta starting out in July.

What does this mean for PayrollHero?Singapore Payroll

There are currently 3 PayrollHero iOS apps: TeamClock#MyClock and Xray Insights. The launch of iOS 9 means that we will stop supporting iOS 7. PayrollHero supports the most recent version of Apple’s iOS and the one prior. (which is the same support Apple provides for their iOS)

The new versions of the iOS PayrollHero apps will have:

  • Full compatibility with iOS 9.
  • Performance tweaks – faster and smoother operation.
  • Improvements on the face detection system.
  • Enhanced security and data privacy.
  • Multiple code optimizations and bug fixes.

The announced list of compatible devices with iOS 9 is:

  • iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2
  • iPad mini, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3
  • iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus
  • iPod touch (fifth generation)
  • Newer devices than these above should be supported, please contact us at support first to confirm.

If you are using a 5th generation iPod, an iPad 2 or iPhone 4s or any newer models and you haven’t already upgraded to at least iOS 8, make sure you get on that as soon as possible. As of September, we will not be able to fix any bugs that surface on the iOS 7.1.2 or lower.

 

Internet Issues in the Philippines? Offline Mode!

Does your company experience inconsistent internet in the Philippines? slow internet? brown outs? There are many reasons for this, you can read more about it here and try and push for change here.  But in the meantime, here is how we have built PayrollHero to ensure that internet issues don’t get in the way of your employees clocking in and out.

itunes-logoThe first way we accomplished this was via iOS (download: TeamClock / #MyClock). Companies using iPads (or iPhones) for their employees to clock in and out via PayrollHero can utilize the offline version of the app without even knowing the internet is offline. Most iOS apps have an offline version, for PayrollHero, the iOS app can gather clock ins/outs, gps location, photos, etc and then when the internet comes back online, sync the data with the cloud. It is a great way to deal with any internet issues your location may have.

Screen Shot 2014-06-23 at 8.25.38 AMThe second way we have accomplished this via a Chrome App in the Google Chrome Web Store. The Chrome TeamClock App (in beta) functions the same way the iOS TeamClock does except it can function offline. Employees can clock in and out and when the internet comes back online it can sync with the data in the cloud to make sure all is up to date.

Plus you will notice a new feature – schedules. Employees can view their schedules from the Chrome TeamClock and managers can edit them. This new functionality is being moved over to iOS as well.  Watch for updates soon.

Let us know what you think. We are hard at work, building PayrollHero into the most robust, time, attendance, scheduling, HRIS, analytics and payroll platform in the world – with a keen eye on how things need to be done a bit differently for emerging markets!

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