about this newsletter

On Track is a publication for users of Advanced Tracker solutions. Our goal is to provide news, tips, and information to help you be more productive.

In this issue:

• New Version of Employee Tracker is Released
• Winter Training Schedule
• Updating Your Server to Windows 2003

Information is more valuable when it is shared, so feel free to forward this newsletter to other people. See the end of this newsletter for subscription instructions.

third-quarter release

New Version of Employee Tracker is Released

The Q3 release of Employee Tracker is now available, in keeping with our plan of releasing an updated version every quarter.

We have paid a lot of attention to the Time Approval Center in this release:

• The "Lock Out Edits" setting is now taken into account within the Time Approval Center.
• Employees who are placed within the "Overtime" category within the Time Approval Center will no longer get a message upon approval which falsely indicates that overtime will not be paid.
• There is a new Time Approval Center option that sets how scheduled shift lengths are handled when they include non-automatic Shift Lunch Rule deductions. A new option "Always deduct Minimum Lunch Durations within Shift Lunch Rules" toggles the scheduled shift time between always deducting the non-automatic amount or never deducting it.
• Error record correction within the Time Approval Center now properly assigns either the Schedule or Transaction shift times.
• Employees assigned to the "Absent Approved" category of the Time Approval Center can no longer have transactions added. You need to Un-approve the employee before you can add more transactions.
• Conditions which could have caused runtime errors when setting transactional colors within the Time Approval Center have been fixed.
• Scheduled time will now calculate correctly under all circumstances and categories within the Time Approval Center.
• Users can now directly alter the shift, department, rule and position on Absent and Holiday type transactions within the Time Approval Center.
• The popup for adjusting the Job of a transaction is now sorted alpha-numerically within the Time Approval Center.

Many other areas of Employee Tracker have received attention, including:

• The "Selected Operation" (the user-settable daily toolbar button) will stop changing by itself on releases after this current one. The user may still need to set it once after applying this update.
• The Hours Worked Analysis now has a total of the scheduled hours.
• Step-Rate level determination can now be set to include statutory holiday pay time in the accumulations. New option under Utilities -> Customize Calculation Routines, "Step rate accumulation and determination to include HOLIDAY records".
• Issues with editing of Payroll Export Run generated transactions are now corrected.
• General Ledger Account masking will now operate for time worked on a statutory holiday.
• The System Access Log will now keep a better record of user activities within the Edit Time and Attendance screen.
• The Rolodex within the Sortable employee specification buckets now operates as expected.
• The Time Card Facsimile option of the Time And Attendance Transaction Analysis can now include user-defined text and an area for the employee to sign off on the hours.
• The position list is now populated when adding an absent transaction via the Utilities -> Add menu within the Edit Time and Attendance screen.
• The Hours Worked By Employee And Department report now correctly presents the actual hours worked.
• Defaulted action to pay overtime on Saturday, Sunday or a holiday will now work as expected for both Absent and Holiday type transactions.
• Piece records can now be adjusted or deleted as one would expect within the Edit Time and Attendance screen.

Not sure if you need to update? If none of the above-mentioned items sound like familiar issues, then you probably do not need the new version. If you want to know if specific Work Order numbers are included in this relase, read the release notes at http://www.advancedtracker.com/download/pdf/ETP-RelNotes.pdf.

If you want to update, you can download the new version from the web at http://www.advancedtracker.com/download/updates.html. Follow the instructions on the web page to verify your current version number and database platform, and to download the update as well as the installation instructions. Then call the helpdesk at 1-888-531-3774 x226 so we can verify your support status and supply the password to unlock the update.

Hint for downloaders: even though you may need only the Update file, we recommend also downloading the Setup file, too. Save the Setup in case one of your computers has a meltdown, or you acquire a new computer, and you need to install Employee Tracker from scratch. It will be far easier to install from the most recent Setup file than by trying to locate your original Setup CD and then applying the Update.

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tracker university

Winter Training Schedule

Employee Tracker Certification -- This is a one day "boardroom" style course. The first half day is dedicated to an overall product review. Each student then takes the certification test and we group mark the test together with "live" software examples to the answers. Any one who does not "pass" the test will re-write immediately after the group marking in order to become certified. Certification is important to the effective use of Employee Tracker, and having a certified user in your company is a requirement for unlimited help desk support.

Getting the most from your system (Founders edition) -- This is a one day "boardroom" style course presented by the founder of Advanced Tracker, Jamie Smith. The course focuses on "best practices" for daily, weekly, pay period, monthly, and annual procedures that should be in place in your organization. Additionally Jamie will share a wealth of tips and techniques that help you "get the most" and the day wraps up with Jamie’s famous Q&A session. With this course, enrolled attendees may submit their questions in advance via email.

Scheduling 101 & Advanced -- This is a one day "workshop" broken into two half day sessions. The first half of the course (101) is focused on the basics of scheduling, shifts, positions, departments, rotations, daily, weekly, monthly views, and of course printing scheduled information. The second half of the course "advanced" course focuses on advanced features such as budgeting, availability scheduling, substitution management, seniority implications, scheduling strategies. Each half day can be enrolled separately.

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windows compatibility

Updating Your Server to Windows 2003

Please pass this information to your IT department or computer consultants.

It remains the case that the original release of Windows 2003 Server is not compatible with Advanced Tracker products; it can corrupt your Tracker data.

You must update your Windows 2003 Server with Service Pack 1 for safe operation.

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