Migrate Data from TCMSv2 to TCMSv3 Easily

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 TimeTec 48 Comments

INTRODUCTION
TCMS V2 is FingerTec’s bundled software since 14 years ago and over the years we have made progress on the software front. Earlier this year we have introduced the latest and more powerful bundled software TCMS V3 designed for time attendance purpose. Now, you can migrate your data from TCMS V2  to TCMS V3 software easily. Learn how.

BENEFITS
You neither need to redo the clocking schedule setup, nor do you need to insert employee biodata into the TCMS V3 software. The types of data to migrate are as follow:

1. Company hierarchy (names of departments and sections)
2. Attendance rules and calculations (clocking schedules, group duty roster, holiday, leave types)
3. Employees’ biodata (name, address, phone, designation etc.)
4. Employees’ verification credentials (ID, fingerprints, password, card ID)

However, please note that the manually edited data in your TCMS V2’s attendance will not be migrated because the data migration only takes the raw clocking in your Audit list, and generate a new attendance sheet in TCMS V3.

Note : We are strongly recommending user to do housekeeping before migration process for large scale database so that it can decrease migration time and enhance migration process.You can refer here on how to do housekeeping in TCMS V2.

PROCESS
1) Backup your TCMS V2 software database at TCMSv2 > System Settings > Backup/Restore Database > Backup Database.

Note: You must make sure that you are using TCMS v2.2.027 to make the backup. If you are using an older version of TCMS v2, please first update your software to v2.2.027. The installer of TCMS v2.2.027 can be downloaded here 


2) Now, go to the TCMS V3 software > Click v3 icon > Migration Wizard > FingerTec TCMSv2.

3) Click browse and choose your TCMSv2 backup database and click upload.


4) Select all employees and tick all options that you want to migrate such as devices / user / schedule & roster / leave,holiday,remark. After done, click import selected.

5) The migration process is finished when the zip file has been imported successfully.

TA300 Shortcut Keys Explained!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 TimeTec 14 Comments

INTRODUCTION
TA300 is a very simple model, specifically designed for small to medium sized businesses. It is using a different User Interface and has fewer features compared to other FingerTec models. The keypad buttons on the device offer some direct functions including enrolling of fingerprint and user enrollment but at the same time, it has limited access to other settings. With a few tips and Hotkey codes provided in this article, you can now have access to some features of the TA300.

BENEFITS
Some features can be changed easily on the TA300 terminal itself without using any tool.

1. Enroll Admin (User ID 8888)
TA300 supports two types of user privilege: Admin and User. The Admin privilege is only available for 1 user only and the User ID for Admin is 8888. To enroll an Admin, you can press Enroll FP button > User ID = 8888 > Place finger 3 times. Make sure you are not using User ID 8888 for normal user.

To change the Admin, you will need to delete the previous Admin User ID first, but it will require the verification from the previous Admin. In the case of Admin’s resignation or lost of fingerprint, you can use TCMS V2 Software to create another Admin and upload it into Device. If the problem still persists, please contact the reseller for assistance.

2. Change Language (Button 5555)
You can change the language on TA300 by pressing button 5555 > TimeSet. There are 9 languages that have been preloaded into the device: English, Spanish, Arabic, Farsi, TCH (Chinese Traditional), SCH (Chinese Simplified), Portuguese, Indonesia, and French.


3. Change Algorithm Versionn (Button 2222)
Since 2013, the default Algorithm version for TA300 is VX 10.0. There were certain situations where clients who were using VX 9.0 on their FingerTec devices wished to transfer the same fingerprints on TA300. In these kinds of cases, clients can change the Algorithm version of TA300 from VX 10.0 to VX 9.0.

To do that, press button 2222 > TimeSet, select desired Algorithm version, VX9.0 or VX10.0. Please note that changing the Algorithm will delete all existing User data in the device.


4. Set Scheduled Bell (Button TimeSet)
TA300 can support Schedule Bell, which is useful in alerting employees during shifts changes, lunch breaks, or simply the clocking status itself.

To enable the Schedule Bell, press TimeSet button > go to Scheduled Box by pressing button IN(left) or button OUT(right) > set the time to trigger the Schedule Bell.


To disable the Schedule Bell, press TimeSet button > go to Scheduled Box by press button IN(left) or button OUT(right) > press button Del User.

5. View System Info and Device Info (Button 9999)
You can check the TA300’s System Info and Device Info by pressing button 9999 > TimeSet > 9999 > TimeSet. This will display the total Users and Attendance Log inside the terminal. Go to Device Info to view information such as Serial Number and Algorithm version.


6. Enable Display Time in Second (Button 5555)
The default Display Time shows only Hour and Minutes only. If you wish to enable the display time with Seconds, you can press 5151 > TimeSet.


7. Delete Attendance Log (Button 7777)
If the transaction is full in TA300 terminal, you can delete all Attendance Log directly from the TA300 by pressing button 7777 > TimeSet.


8. Auto Test Device (Button 6666)
You can also run a Hardware test on TA300 to inspect the condition of the TA300’s hardware such as LCD Screen, Speaker and Keypad Button. Press 6666 > TimeSet > press button OK.

A. Test LCD Display

B. Test Finger Scanner

C. Test Keypad Button

D. Test Voice

Resolve “Failed to initialize database” error message in TCMS V3 & Ingress (MDB)

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 TimeTec 27 Comments

INTRODUCTION
TCMS V3 and Ingress (MDB) utilize Microsoft Access Database, a small sized database with 2GB size limit, to ease database management, particularly for small and medium sized company. Ingress also supports MySQL database, a more suited database for large company usage, and TCMS V3 will follow suit shortly. It is important to make sure that your database is in good condition before you proceed with any other actions.

In TCMS v3 or Ingress (MDB), when the database is corrupted, an error message as shown below will be shown when you launch the software. This tip provides a way to repair this situation easily.


BENEFITS
By knowing how to resolve this error, you would not panic when it happens, and you could continue with your other tasks without having to reach FingerTec support.

PROCESS
1) Open your PC’s Control Panel > Open Administrative Tools


2) Open ODBC Data Sources (32-bits)


3) Go to System DSN and select TCMS v3 or Ingress (depending on which software that you are using), then click “Configure”


4) Click Repair


5) Click OK


6) The system will display that the database has been repaired.


7) Once completed, run Ingress or TCMS v3 again, and check if the problem persists.

TimeTec Mobile – Supervisor Verifies Clocking with Photo

Tuesday, October 18, 2016 TimeTec 2 Comments

INTRODUCTION
TimeTec Mobile is an app for TimeTec Time Attendance solutions, available in iOS and Android smartphones. With the app, the staff can clock their time and can view time productivity easily. There are many clocking options for TimeTec TA and the latest is Supervisor Clocking whereby a supervisor can clock for their team members using photo verification.

BENEFITS
Some staff might not be having smartphones to access to TimeTec Mobile app, and some might not permitted to bring smartphones to work. To deal with the inconvenience, TimeTec Mobile app introduces Supervisor Clocking that verifies the team member by snapping his/her photo with the clock time.

PROCESS
STEP 1 – Administrator login to TimeTec

STEP 2 – Click on Settings > General and make sure that camera is enabled.

STEP 3 – Click Clocking > Supervisor

STEP 4 – You can view all users

STEP 5 – Click the 'Map marker' icon and the app will open the camera to capture the employee’s photo

STEP 6 - After the verification is done, you will see this message

STEP 7 – To check user clocking data with their picture > Login to Timetec TA Software > Open Data Audit List

STEP 8 – To view user photo, click 'Mobile phone' icon and you can see all the photos of the employee clocked using the Supervisor Clocking feature.


To watch our video guide on Supervisor Clocking, please click here.

TCMSv3 Software Update (v2.0.1.5)

Wednesday, October 12, 2016 TimeTec 0 Comments

The all new release of TCMSv3 software is now packed with multiple new features, together with bug fixes that resolve errors that was found in the previous version. Kindly refer below for the new features and bug fixes:

New Features

1. Enable Attendance Records From Selected Devices Only

In Clocking Range, we’ve added a feature known as “Enable attendance records from selected devices only”. This feature lets you select different terminals to accept  users’ attendance records during different time slots or attendance column. For example, during ‘In’ time, only transactions from Device 1 will be recorded as attendance and during ‘Out’, only transactions from Device 2 will be considered as attendance and etc. This feature is introduced to provide users with better terminal and data management whereby users will be disciplined to use dedicated terminals for different purposes.



 2. Multiple selection for Work Code, Check Type and Verify Type in Data Audit List.

In Data Audit List, you can select multiple options for Work Code, Check Type and Verify Type to make searching and sorting of data easier and more convenient.
 




3. Supports up to 30 Leave Types

Ingress can now support up to 30 leave types under Attendance Tab, ample for many organizations.



4. Remember the options/settings of the last generated report to ease admin work.

5. Added "Show Zero Hour" option in Daily Attendance Listing Report and Weekly Attendance Listing Report



6. Revamped auto generate attendance to include new payroll cycle will be auto generated

7. Added new payroll modules for WinCom Payroll 7 & SQL Payroll (Malaysia), Reckon (Hong Kong), MYOB & Unipay (Australia)

8. Added work code selection in OFIS TA:

a) System setting> Attendance > check “Enable Work Code selection in OFIS TA”



b) Monitoring > OFIS TA




c) Verify User.  The work code window will pop out, select the work code and click “OK”.



9.Added “Batch Device Operation” option to manage simultaneous multiple device operations.



10. Added date selection (today, this week, next week and etc) on all related forms to give users ample choices.



11. Added "Do not overwrite PC user info if the user exist in Ingress" when importing from file and importing from AD.





12. Added password hint and strength indicator when setting up a password.



13. Added "Exclude short time if any" in Schedule Settings Module under “Work treat as Overtime” option.



14. Changed Card No. option from mandatory to non-mandatory when adding user by batch
By default, Card No. field is now non-mandatory in Batch Create User. You may register a card for each user after creating them in batch.



15. This update will remove all attendance from a user once the expiry date of that particular user is due.



16. Added “User ID Input Format” in System Settings, where users can have numeric or alphanumeric User ID based on their preference.



17. When you select United States to be the country in the System Settings Module, the default schedule will be set as “Flexi” when you add a new clocking schedule. For other countries, the default work schedule is ‘Weekly’.





Fixed Errors

1. Fixed Sage UBS payroll not being exported on Attendance Module
2. Fixed users not imported on User Module
3. Fixed wrong calculation of Work Hour when using HH.HH format on Report Module
4. Fixed attendance data not exported when User ID on Attendance Module was not selected.
5. Fixed first and last rounding rules that displayed incorrect results during attendance generation
6. Fixed calculation rules for holiday in USA payroll not saved on Attendance Module
7. Fixed MYOB not exported leave on Attendance Module
8. Fixed Username under department that did not sort out correctly
9. Fixed Work Hour did not display when using Flexi Schedule
10. Fixed Software Crash Issue when Downloading User Photo from TA200+
11. Fixed Software Crash Issue when synchronized with TA300
12. Fixed unknown digits appearing on work code when downloaded from device
13. Fixed some minor UI display errors
14. Fixed Software Crash Issue when user cut and paste attendance time in Attendance Sheet