Redcort Software Gets New Website

For those of you who have been following the Redcort Software blog over the years, we sure appreciate your patronage. I'm pleased to announce that redcort.com has a new look and all past and future blog posts will be available on the new Redcort Software website. Please stop by and have a look.

Jeff Morrow
Virtual TimeClock Product Manager
Redcort Software Inc.

Insurance Office Time Clock

We get a lot of calls from State Farm and Farmers insurance agents looking for a way to keep track of time & attendance for their support staff. We have several time clock deployment options that work well in an insurance office setting. If you have just a couple of employees and need simple time clock features, then the Basic Edition may be just what you need. Employees can clock in and out from a central computer and print timecards at the end of the payroll period with all of the regular hours and overtime already calculated for you. If you need more advanced features, then consider the Pro Edition which adds paid time off, activity tracking, messaging, and shift rules. If you'd like your staff to clock in and out from their own computer workstations, then the Network Edition fits the bill. Each edition of Virtual TimeClock is available as a free time clock software download for a generous evaluation period.

We're currently working with State Farm corporate to have Virtual TimeClock approved for download on State Farm supplied laptop computers.

Jeff Morrow
Virtual TimeClock Product Manager
Redcort Software Inc.

Is Columbus Day a Holiday?

Columbus Day first became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937, and has been observed on the second Monday in October since 1970. In fact, many countries in the New World celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas, which happened on October 12, 1492. Columbus Day is generally observed by banks, the US Postal Service, other federal agencies, most state government offices, many businesses, and most school districts. However, many businesses and even some states abstain from observing the holiday.

Hawaii, Alaska, and South Dakota are the three US states that do not recognize Columbus Day at all. Instead, Hawaii celebrates Discoverers' Day, which commemorates the Polynesian discoverers of Hawaii. And South Dakota celebrates an official state holiday known as Native American Day rather than Columbus Day.

Are you looking for a way to keep track of your employee holidays, vacation, sick leave, and personal time off? Then check out our full-featured time & attendance system.

Jeff Morrow
Virtual TimeClock Product Manager
Redcort Software Inc.

Virtual TimeClock '13 Release 2

The new Virtual TimeClock release is now available. It's got some great new features that our customers have been asking for, like tracking the complicated overtime and overnight shift rules required in some states. Here are some of the highlights:

• Track the complicated 6th and 7th day overtime rules required by states like California.
• Report hours for overnight shifts according to the rules of your state.
• New timecard report summarizes worker daily time and activities on a single line.
• New Report Writer options to include workers with no hours.
• Report layout changes make timecard reports even easier to read.
• Faster importing of users from QuickBooks or a CSV file.

You can read the full press release for Virtual TimeClock '13 Release 2 at Virtual TimeClock Simplifies Employee Overtime Tracking.

Jeff Morrow
Virtual TimeClock Product Specialist
Redcort Software Inc.

When Is Labor Day?

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September. Even though Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday in 1887, it didn't become a federal holiday until 1894 when the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve legislation to make it a national holiday, following the deaths of about 30 workers at the hands of the US military during the Pullman Strike. President Grover Cleveland signed it into law less than a week after the end of the strike.

The purpose of Labor Day is to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers. Ironically, Labor Day has become an important sale weekend for many retailers in the United States wanting to take advantage of large numbers of potential customers free to shop. Some retailers claim it is one of the largest sale dates of the year, second only to the Christmas season's Black Friday.

Need to find your next day off? Check our handy business holiday calendar.

Jeff Morrow
Virtual TimeClock Product Manager
Redcort Software, Inc.

Customizing Employee Time Cards

At the heart of all employee time clock software programs is the ability to access employee time and attendance information for payroll, labor costing, and even client billing. If gathering the information you need to effectively manage your business is a burden or the result of redundant processes, then you're less likely to experience the time and cost saving advantages of automating your time tracking process in the first place. A good time clock system will be backed by a powerful and efficient SQL database engine and built-in report writer that will make gathering and using your time and attendance data a breeze.

To see how Virtual TimeClock accomplishes this, check out our online article Customizing Employee Time Cards.

Jeff Morrow
Virtual TimeClock Product Manager
Redcort Software, Inc.

Does Apple Need to Think Different About Its Time and Attendance Policies?

Most of you have heard by now about Apple's trouble with some former retail store employees who have filed a class action lawsuit for lost wages. Apple has a retail store policy that requires employees to have their personal bags checked by managers for stolen property before leaving the store for breaks, lunches, and at the end of their shift. Apparently, employees sometimes have to wait for as long as 15 minutes after they've already clocked out for this to happen. The former employees claim a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as well as other state labor laws because they consider this a mandatory job function which they should be compensated for. The lawsuit could potentially affect thousands of employees going back more than 10 years. The central question becomes what constitutes compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Apple employees claim they are clocking out and then "engaged to wait" which should be compensable time.

I don't know what Apple's doing for time and attendance tracking, but it would sure be easy to set up a networked time clock by each entrance and just let employees punch out after the mandatory search has been completed. Or even better, have the manager clock the employee out when the search is done.

Jeff Morrow
Virtual TimeClock Product Manager
Redcort Software, Inc.