Access Restrictions and Scalability

 

There are several exiting changes in the upcoming release of Spokeware.

Spokeware always had access restrictions on the individual device level. If you want to employee access controls you can restrict access to only authorized devices and only an Admin can authorize a device in the field.

This feature always allowed for fast deployment of devices and being able to replace devices in a pinch in the case of a hardware failure.

In the upcoming release of Spokeware we add another layer of access restrictions based on IP addresses. Now, a client can decide to limit access by authorizing individual devices, or to limit access based on IP address or to enforce both types of restrictions.

This allows clients the most flexibility in configuring access to Spokeware. Configuring IP address restrictions is done by our staff so contact your support representative if you want to deploy this feature.

Separately our technical team has been working hard on integrating the Spokeware platform with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. AWS was the forerunner in the cloud computing arena, years before other companies even realized what cloud computing is. Today, the AWS platform offers the most scalable, robust, mature and reliable cloud computing platform out there.

By integrating with the AWS platform Spokeware servers can now have the option to dynamically scale up and down as load changes. Allowing us to continue to offer a robust and responsive customer experience by automatically deploying more servers when needed.

Another integration point is the ability to use AWS’s cloud based Databases for storing some of our data. The AWS cloud database is replicated and distributed which means that it is resilient to hardware failures, something all systems are susceptible to. In a traditional system a hardware failure would dictate rebuilding the hardware and restoring data from backups. With the AWS cloud database the data is replicated in real-time so recovery happens in real-time without any noticeable effects to the end user.

The robust security architecture employed by AWS makes it extremely secure adding another advantage to their offering.

We started with offloading a very small amount of our data to the AWS cloud. Our objective is to leverage the AWS platform where it makes most sense while utilizing our current data centers to the fullest where it makes the most sense.

“I am really impressed with Spokeware’s balancing act of leveraging the robust AWS platform for items that benefit from distributed, replicated architecture while maintaining the core of their offerings on their existing proven platform” – CEO of Coffee Computing Corp.

The aforementioned updates will be rolled out over the next week as we perform a staged roll out across our servers.

Adding Timesheets

 

In Spokeware timesheets are automatically created when an employee punches in. This eliminates the extra steps of managing timesheets separately and having to remember to maintain them and makes it extra convenient for the manager to view/edit and process employees’ punches or whole timesheets.

However this ease of use has generated a need and a request. The need stems from people being new hired into the system and not having been trained on punching in/out. By the time they punch in to the system for the first time their prior week’s timesheet is closed.

The request came from all the people that are falling in love with Spokeware and would like to use it to manage timesheets for salaried employees or have the employees submit their own timesheets based on an honor system. Since there are no punches, the system does not generate a timesheet and there is no way for the salaried employee to enter their time.

To solve the need and fulfill the request the software now allows the Manager to add timesheets on the fly whilst managing open timesheets as illustrated in the screenshot below:

You simply pick the employee that you want to add the timesheet for, enter the starting date of the week you want to add the timesheet for and click the Add Time Sheet button.

The timesheet will be created and can be edited just like any other timesheet in the system. The manager can fill in the hours for the salaried employees or have the employees complete and submit the hours themselves.

For new hires that have missed punching in for the week the manager can enter their hours manually into the timesheet.

The latest release of Spokeware also includes couple of other enhancements. In that same screenshot you will notice a Filter By Location drop down. If you are a manager managing multiple locations you used to view timesheets for all employees in all locations all at once. This can be overwhelming for managers that manage hundreds of employees.

With this release you filter the timesheets by location so that you can process them one location at a time.

The last change deals with incorrect settings. If the employee was not setup correctly with a punch earning code Spokeware registered the punch without an earning code.

This is not a typical usage scenario but is an indication of a missing setup. None the less the manager could not open the timesheet to fix the error if the timesheets had punches with no earning codes.

This latest release of the software uses the system’s default hourly earning if no default earning code was defined for the employee. In the vast majority of the cases that’s the proper earning code to use. In the few cases where that is not the case the manager would be able to edit the timesheet and override the earning code.

The new features are available immediately in the system. As always, if you have any questions please contact your friendly account representative.

Time Away From Work in Timesheets

In the most recent release of Spokeware we added a new functionality that would help reduce double data entry and eliminate errors.

Previously, if somebody requested Personal Time Off through the HR system it needed to be manually added to payroll in order to get paid. This resulted in couple of undesirable results. First, the double data entry, a manager had to approve the PTO (or any other Time Away from Work) request and then the manager had to remember to pay that amount on the next payroll. Secondly, there was no way to track that time on the Employee’s time sheet.

With the most recent release of Spokeware a new feature has been added whereas Time Away requests, such as PTO, will automatically be added to the appropriate Timesheet once the request is approved by the manager. Once the request is in the Timesheet it will flow to payroll along with the rest of the Timesheet entries once the Timesheet is imported into the payroll system.

The new functionality eliminates the need to enter the data in multiple places. It also leaves a permanent record of the PTO on the employee’s timesheet for tracking and auditing purposes.