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GryTNA System |
November 2009
Gryphon Time & Attendance - Features
The GryTNA application is a means of interfacing data collection devices to a payroll system such as Frontier’s chris21 HRIS. It can take time and attendance feeds from timeclocks, biometrical devices, telephone systems, web based timesheets, or spreadsheets and interpret the data to provide an input file into typical payroll systems (Quickbooks, MYOB, chris21, etc).
It is written in an Australian software database management language known as SIR but requires little to no understanding of the database structure as the operation is transparent to the user. From a payroll perspective the system is hidden from both the employee and payroll operator. All operations are undertaken as scheduled tasks.
GryTNA can be retrofitted to existing payrolls and data capture devices such as timeclocks but the more seamless and feature rich application is derived as a complete package using CSTime clocks and Frontier Software’s chris21 HRIS. It is currently operating in one of the larger private multi-campus hospitals in Australia and a large international charitable organisation.
While GryTNA is not designed to compete with a dynamic rostering system like Kronos or RosterOn it does use the same interfaces to HRIS. It is however a very cost effective means of providing the time and attendance data and basic award interpretation components of these systems particularly in the health sector. The cost is around one tenth of the equivalent dynamic rostering system and has proved to be reliable and requires a minimum of intervention.
Features
Archiving
The system automatically archives employee records older than 3 months where the system is configured for daily attendance loading. This is unnecessary for a pay period processing configuration. Because the database journals every transaction the journal file will get very large if it is not maintained. Again these operations can be scheduled and occur behind the scenes.
Award Interpretation
The system employs two methods of analysing the captured attendance times. The first is by matching the times worked with predetermined shifts. Each shift has the requisite penalties applied. There can be very large numbers of shifts – a distinct shift for each award, work pattern and sometimes classifications. The other is by writing rules that are applied to the times worked. These are produced in SIR’s procedural query language (PQL).
Chris21 TCB Output
The chris21 output format is of the form below. The TCB is quite flexible and can accommodate leave records as well as payroll fields.
12 SFX 001102 1 N110509 1001 1355000800+ 07:24 - 15:54
2 SFX 001114 1 N110509 1001 1815000100+ 00:00 - 20:01 *
2 SFX 000112 1 N110509 1001 2385000760+ 07:50 - 16:04
2 SFX 000112 1 N110509 3903 2385000100+
23 SFX 001125 1 N110509 1001 1365000800+ 07:46 - 16:35
23 SFX 001125 1 N110509 3903 1365000100+
9 SFX 001127 1 N110509 1001 1280000525+ 15:48 - 21:02
9 SFX 001127 1 N110509 3031 1280000100+
9 SFX 001127 1 N110509 3903 1280000100+
11 SFX 001129 1 N110509 1001 1355000760+ 06:51 - 15:00
Clock Installation
Most clocks have a TCPIP connection allowing communication with the clock. Therefore there is a need to provide a RS422 and power connection to the point where the clock is installed. In cases where the clock needs a database (like OC500, IdTek, etc) the database resides on a server and processes either manual or scheduled are started to interrogate the clocks. It is usual that the clock is maintained through these databases (loading employee names, fingerprints, cost centres, etc).
CSTime Clocks
The difference between the CSTime clock and others is that GryTNA have been able to work with the suppliers to provide an interface that employs no third party database to complicate the process. The GryTNA directly communicates with the clock which contains a SQLite database so that the clock can be maintained by GryTNA as well as extracting the timings.
Dates
The system works out the day of the week, date, pay date, period end date, etc – then looks at the public holiday list, also checking the next day for a public holiday, etc – ie setting the environment including setting the Weekend Worked flag if an employee has worked either the Saturday or Sunday. Processing occurs in the morning for the previous day but importantly picks up clockings in the current day to accommodate night shifts.
Daily/Pay Period Processing
Some clients like to analyse labour costs on a daily basis which means that processing has to be daily while others store data and run the process once a pay period.
Daily Processing
This configuration produces a daily payroll input file that is loaded into the payroll while at the same time producing a daily management spreadsheet listing employee times for authorisation.
Delayed Processing
The system allows the deferral of pay where the times entered have not been authorised or verified. The transactions are “parked” and processed in the next scheduled pay run.
Disaster Recovery
The SIR database has numerous security and database management features. The journaling referred to above can be turned off but it does have the advantage that in the event of an IT crash the database can be restored to its condition at the time of the crash.
Dumb Rostering
This term relates to providing a forward looking roster based on past times worked. Because most rotating rosters are prepared on the same work pattern the GryTNA produces a populated roster for the next fortnight.
Email Distribution
The GryTNA system holds the email address for each cost centre which is used to generate a command line used by a shareware program (postie.exe) which does the emailing. In other installations the spreadsheets are deposited in a shared directory or employ a program written in jcaps or other software to achieve the distribution (up to 999 emails).
Error Logs
A series of error logs are produced during the analysis phase many of which contain warnings rather than errors. Warnings are produced when the system cannot match times (ie the outgoing time may be reversed with the incoming).
**** No shift able to be found so forcing a shift for Empid# 1127
**** Empid# 1136 appears to have times reversed - fixing - please verify
**** No shift able to be found so forcing a shift for Empid# 1136
**** No shift able to be found so forcing a shift for Empid# 150053
**** No shift able to be found so forcing a shift for Empid# 151432
**** Finish of previous day shift 151955 started at 220645 OUT_ENTRY Ignoring this record for today!!
**** Empid# 153338 appears to have times reversed - fixing - please verify
**** Processing next day records for Empid# 154547 found 070216
**** No shift able to be found so forcing a shift for Empid# 155330
**** Finish of previous day shift 160067 started at 212556 IN_ENTRY Ignoring this record for today!!
**** Empid# 160111 appears to have times reversed - fixing - please verify
**** No shift able to be found so forcing a shift for Empid# 160133
**** Finish of previous day shift 160210 started at 215013 OUT_ENTRY Ignoring this record for today!!
Interpreting Times
The times are usually rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 minutes, special conditions identified and numerous tests undertaken to choose the most appropriate shift. Up to ten tests are applied in trying to match a shift to times. The tests commence with matching the in and out times to the windows specified for the shift_id and day of the week. It progressively broadens the criteria by searching all weekdays/weekends and window times, then shift_ids finishing up with a forced selection based on the start time.
Management Authorisation
At the time that the payroll file is processed a spreadsheet for every cost centre is produced listing all employees and their times. This sheet is automatically emailed to the nominated manager for authorisation (noting leave, allowances, approved overtime, changed shift, etc). This is emailed back to payroll for adjustment in the FTE/TIM screen (chris21).
Multiple Shifts
Within any 24 hour period a person may work multiple shifts or may attend for a meeting, go home then come back 4 hours later to commence a normal shift. Up to 3 occurrences (ie 3 clocking on and off) in the same period are dealt with in GryTNA
Night Shifts
Where nightshifts occur on Friday and Sunday it is necessary to split the shift to allow for weekend penalties to be applied to only that period before or after midnight. This is written into the shifts so no operator action is necessary. In addition to the public holiday processing the system also deals with the next day or the previous day being a public holiday for correct night shifts penalties.
Overtime
Overtime is only paid when it is authorised by the Manager on the relevant report. It is however calculated and provided on the Payroll report.
Pay Period Processing
The system is configure to either load times daily or sit dormant until a day before pay day when it awakes, processes the periods pay, produces reports and loads the interpreted information into the HRIS
Payroll Report by Cost Centre
A text/pdf payroll report sorted by cost centre is generated that has a full breakdown of the staffing and wage components payable from the system including staff who did not work in the period.
 Public Holiday Not Worked
Most payroll systems have a requirement for a code for full time staff who did not work on a public holiday. The GryTNA produces an additional file for loading with the requisite code and 7.6 hours. A report is also generated as part of the process.
Inserted Public Holiday code 1008 into the following records (7.6 hr)
for 10/04/2009
Emp ID# Name No Shift Worked Emp Status PH Date
Cost centre - 1065
2899 xxxxxxxxxxxx Full Time 1 10/04/2009
2244 xxxxxxxxxxxx Full Time 1 10/04/2009
161833 xxxxxxxxxxxxx Full Time 1 10/04/2009
56855 xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Full Time 1 10/04/2009
SIR/xs
The latest commercial release, SIR/XS, includes full relational and hierarchical database structures, query language, reporting language, interactive and batch data entry facilities, 4GL, analytical procedures and graphical application development utilities.
Special Reports
Reports are available that deal with autopay personnel (who may record time for lime in lieu purposes but whose pay is unaffected by their attendance), contractors, nurse agency employees, etc.
System Administration
There are few tasks required to maintain the GryTNA system – maintaining the list of applicable public holidays is one, another is maintaining the list of email addresses applicable to cost centres. All other tasks are automated and the systems admin function is confined to checking logs and looking for trends where the shifts selected do not fit the work patterns worked.
Timeclocks
While the system can take the output from any clock device many of the commercial products available employ their own MS Access database to collect and store the data. The recommended clock is the CSTime series of clocks
Treatment of Single Sided Entries
Single sides transactions, those where there is only one clocking because the employee forgot to clock on or off, or it was a night duty where the employee finished after the cutoff are highlighted and given a duration of 1 hour. Without a quantum they would be overlooked. This usually occurs where processing is scheduled to read the clocks at around 8am - any registrations after 8am are missed from processing for the previous day.
12 Hour Shifts with Changeover
A particular difficulty occurs on night duty where the shift changeover occurs at the same time. Some clocks allow for a button to be pressed to indicate the start or end of a shift. People rarely use this facility so it is necessary to logically work out whether the registration is an in or out.
Updates from HRIS
Most clients provide a simple comma delimited file produced from the payroll system to maintain the employees within GryTNA. In the case of a chris21 payroll about a dozen fields from the POS screen are dumped every night from a scheduled task within chris21. These include the ID, name, cost centre, classification, pay point, award code.
Web Timesheet Interface
On line timesheet applications such as Replicon can be easily accepted as input to the GryTNA system whether to verify the selected wage code or to interpret the raw times entered.
Web Report (comparing Replicon output)
-------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Calculated Casual Timekeeping Report
---------------- Calculated ---------------|------------- Submitted -----------------------------
RS12 13038 xxxxxxxxxxx RW1 |
|**** 4.00 090000 130000 20/10/2009 Tue 09:00-13:00 A
|**** 1.50 110000 123000 27/10/2009 Tue 11:00-12:30 W
|**** 4.00 130000 170000 27/10/2009 Tue 13:00-17:00 W
|**** 2.50 093000 120000 28/10/2009 Wed 09:30-12:00 W
|**** 4.50 123000 170000 28/10/2009 Wed 12:30-17:00 W
13038 311009 RW1 CNOR 16.5 |
|**** 4.00 100000 140000 25/10/2009 Sun 10:00-14:00 W
13038 311009 RW1 CSUN 4 |
-------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------
RS12 13040 xxxxxxxxxxxx RW1 |
|**** 7.50 090000 163000 28/10/2009 Wed 09:00-16:30 W
13040 311009 RW1 CNOR 7.5 |
|STAN 3.00 130000 160000 25/10/2009 Sun 13:00-16:00 W
13040 311009 RW1 CSUN 3 |
Why Proximity Cards/Fobs?
The GryTNA system doesn’t care where the data is derived. However, in a hospital environment the proximity fob/card appears to be the more acceptable and reliable for employees. The need for disinfectant, care in placing the readers, fingerprint identification, and processing speed is avoided.
Call Col Barling for further details 03 9878 6595 or 0407 766 996. |
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