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Effectively Using Time
Computerized Time and Attendance will Facilitate the
City of Ottawa in Effectively Calculating Time Tracking
by
Betty K. Simpson
Assistant Finance Director-City Treasurer
City of Ottawa, Kansas
CAPSTONE PROJECT
November 3, 2015
University of Kansas Public Management Center
Certified Public Manger (CPM) Program
Topeka Class—2015
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1. What benefits do you hope to achieve by engaging in this project?
I chose the topic of a computerized time clock system as a project because the City of
Ottawa, KS is currently using paper timecards. The City purchased Incode in April 2013 as
the City’s financial and other software needs. At the time of that purchase, the City also
purchased a module called Time Entry. The purpose for seeking a computerized time clock
system is to improve efficiency and improve employee’s use of time.
2. How will you know if your project is successful?
For this project to be successful, management will need to understand why additional
software and time keeping devices will be a necessary piece of utilizing electronic time
keeping. Upon that understanding, an approval to move forward with the recommendations
this team who helped on this project.
3. Was your project implemented?
Implementation of the time and attendance software will be determined with successful buy
in of The Director of Finance and by the City Manager. The Director of Finance has
recently bought into the project. It is the responsibility of this team to analyze options and
make a recommendation. A summary will be presented to City Manager, Richard U.
Nienstedt.
4. Please state any cost savings or increased revenue that has occurred as a result of your
project (if applicable).
At this time, the team has not recognized the cost savings. Upon implementation, there is
an anticipated cost savings in employee hours working on Time cards.
5. Was your project aligned with the Strategic Plan of your organization? If so, please
describe.
The project is aligned with two specific Core Values which have been adopted by the
Governing Bod y of the City. Stewardship is the first core value this project is linked too.
The project will help the City to be a better steward of the community’s resources that is
both monetary and employee time. Flexibility is another core value demonstrated in this
project. The City would be demonstrating that they are flexible and willing to make
changes to better serve their employees by providing opportunity for growth and
development.
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Effectively Using Time
Table of Contents
A. Problem Statement 3
Desired Statement 3
B. Analysis of the Problem 3-5
Stakeholder Analysis 5
C. Research 6
D. Project Team 7
E. Generate Potential Solutions 7
F. Analysis of the Solutions 8-9
G. Select Solutions to Implement 9-10
H. Resource Estimates 10
I. Implement Plan/Solution 10
J. Evaluate Solution 10
K. Attachments 11
Problems with Time Entry 11
Stakeholders for Time and Attendance 12
Gantt Chart 13
Quote from NovaTime 14
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Effectively Using Time
A. Problem Statement
Employees at the City of Ottawa currently use paper time cards for tracking hours worked.
Collectively, this time tracking procedure requires an excessive amount of time calculating and
verifying the employees’ hand written time.
Desired Statement
The City of Ottawa will recognize the need to provide a more efficient time and attendance
software that works with the Incode financial software for payroll processing. As a result, the
City of Ottawa will purchase a time and attendance system for tracking time worked.
B. Analysis of the Problem
The City of Ottawa, Kansas currently uses paper time cards to track employee time and
attendance. Each time card is handled by at least three people. Those people consist of the
employee, the supervisor and the payroll supervisor. Every employee tracks their hours worked,
and the majority of employees compute their time. The timecard is signed off by the employee
and presented to the supervisor to verify the time. This verification requires the supervisor to
also manually track and calculate the time. After the supervisor has verified the timecard and
made any changes, then the payroll supervisor receives the time cards. The payroll supervisor
has the same verification responsibility for approximately 175 employees. One of the largest
areas for error or modification on timecards is the inconsistency of departments and even
positions for overtime pay, to include holidays worked. There are various rules for the Police
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Department, Public Works, Fire Department, and Finance regarding how overtime may be
computed based upon the type of schedules different departments work. The payroll supervisor
spends roughly eight hours each payroll period verifying correct time documentation on the
paper time cards and running an adding machine tape for the various types of hours to be
reconciled. After the payroll supervisor has completed this process, that information to the
employees who enter the information into the payroll module. It takes approximately five hours
of data entry time to input the hours into the City’s financial software. Once the data has been
entered into the financial module, a total is printed and compared to the adding machine tape the
payroll supervisor totaled. The difference has to be reconciled if the two totals do not match.
The reconciliation process is a checks and balance process that is important to verify the data has
been entered accurately. The City’s Human Resource Assistant recently computed that if we
could eliminate the multiple handling of timecards a total of $25,000 a year in paid time for the
City of Ottawa could be saved.
The City of Ottawa purchased the Time Entry module as part of our software purchase with
Incode. The cost of Time Entry module is $2500.00 per year. Over the last two years the City
has paid $5000.00 for Time Entry. The City has not used the Time Entry module. There have
been several attempts to pursue Time Entry. Those attempts have always been halted by the
payroll supervisor. Concerns have been voiced about the current limits that Time Entry through
Incode will place when an employee can access Time Entry due to payroll processing. Weeks
when payroll is being processed, employees would be restricted from using Time Entry for the
first half of the week. The restriction of someone accessing Time Entry during certain processes
comes from documentation from Incode regarding hosted sites using the Time Entry system. If
an employee entered the Incode Time Entry module, the payroll processing will lock up. At that
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point the employees processing payroll would then have to try to find out who is in the
system. Having 175 employees it would be virtually impossible to determine who accessed
Time Entry. If payroll could not determine the employee who is in Time Entry, they would call
Incode and have to wait for a call back from network services to remotely "knock off" the
employee who had accessed the Time Entry system. After one occurrence, Incode charges a fee
for this service. This process would mean payroll would be losing precious time. The Incode
support team was able to confirm this information. Steve Hightower who was the lead Incode
expert, who provided direction to the City’s conversion to the Incode system, was contacted to
verify this problem with a hosted network using Incode and Time Entry.
The City of Ottawa’s Police and Municipal Court departments also use Incode. However, these
departments are on a different server. In order to access Time Entry those employees would
need to be added as a user and connected to the City’s hosted Incode system.
Incode claims “Time Entry is not meant to be a time clock, but rather an electronic timesheet that
replaces your current paper timesheets.” Time Entry does not track when an employee starts his
work day, or when an employee is finished with the work day. Time Entry has the ability to
use templates, which require an employee or supervisor to edit the amount of time worked.
Editing the time set for each day could cause potential problems in time tracking. Time Entry’s
time tracking is limited in what the system provides.
Stakeholder Analysis
The stakeholders would involve all employees of the City of Ottawa. Financial System/Payroll
Supervisor, Linda Hopkins; Director of Finance, Scott D. Bird; and Director of Human
Resources, Michelle Stegman were three of the primary stakeholders and their buy-in was earned
during the project research. Our City Manager, Richard U. Nienstedt, has been made aware of
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the issues with Time Entry. He has requested the Project Team provide him with a summary and
our recommendation. Our City Manager, Mr. Nienstedt is a primary stakeholder in this project.
Other City Department Heads, Supervisors, and City tax payers would be another important
stakeholder for funding of the purposed time tracking system. Employee buy in will be
anticipated as many employees dislike keeping track of time by hand.
C. Research
Research for this project involved contacting Incode for information regarding the Time Entry
process. They supplied us with detailed documentation of setting up and running Time Entry.
Diane Smith, City of Altus, OK agreed to a telephone conversation regarding her thoughts on
Time Entry. Diane spoke very highly of the Time Entry system. It is important to note that
Altus is not a hosted site with Incode. Tyler Connect (on online forum for Incode) was a good
source for information regarding Time Entry. A post was made in the forum asking for feedback
from other sites that are hosted and use Time Entry, this request went unanswered. Incode
support is unwilling to share other hosted users of Time Entry. Incode support directs those
types of questions to Tyler Connect. Attempts in locating any hosted Incode sites using Time
Entry were unsuccessful.
Research for alternatives to time cards and Time Entry include webinars with NovaTime, Time
Clock Plus, and ExecuTime. These vendors offer Time and Attendance software that integrates
with Incode. Time was spent on the telephone discussing the options the various vendors had for
Time and Attendance.
Time and Attendance captures when an employee starts and finishes work in real time. The
payroll interface allows each supervisor to set the rules for their employee’s holidays, overtime,
and other various exceptions applying to payroll. The Time and Attendance module recognizes
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what rules have been set to determine how an employee is paid for. There is a scheduling
feature. The scheduling links to a calendar. The requested time off also feeds into the
employees time tracking. When an employee requests off a day, and the time is approved by the
supervisor, the time then links to the employee’s time and records the time as vacation or the
other appropriate type of time. There are options of having an app on a smart phone. This app
would allow employees to clock in and out during travel without accessing a computer or time
clock for tracking time.
D. Project Team
The project team was carefully selected based upon the members also being a stakeholder. Each
member had an understanding of the City’s various departments time tracking and the ability to
make an informed decision. Those team members are:
Michelle Stegman, Human Resources Director
Scott Bird, Director of Finance
Linda Hopkins, Financial System/Payroll Supervisor
Jami Michael, Human Resources Assistant
Betty Simpson, Assistant Finance Director
Paul Sommer, Information Technology Supervisor
E. Generate Potential Solutions
There are a few solutions that we can consider. One solution is to continue using the paper time
cards. Another solution involves using Time Entry. A third option for discussion allows the
City to replace the hosted Incode with on premise software. However, that option was quickly
dismissed due to the need for multiple servers. A fourth option is a Time and Attendance
software.
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F. Analysis of the Solutions
Solutions
Time Cards at all Time Entry
0
Time and
Attendance,
Attendance
Function like a
Timecard?
Yes, manual
adding and
verification
Yes, employee
must edit time and
compute if
overtime is due,
etc.
No, System
calculates time
based on rules set-
up in beginning
set-up.
Integrates into
Incode software?
Manual input into
the Tyler system
Part of Tyler, feeds
into the Tyler
System
Vendors have
contract with
Tyler, Information
imports into Tyler
Delays in
processing
payroll
Employees cannot
access Human
Resources or
Payroll module
during processing.
Employees cannot
access Human
Resources, Payroll,
or Time Entry
during processing.
Employees cannot
access Human
Resources module
during processing.
Scheduling
Features
N/A Employees request
time off and
supervisor can
respond.
Employees can
request time off
and have the
availability to see
the schedule of
others within the
department.
The Project team looked at the three options on the chart. There were several meetings to
brainstorm about what is the best solution for the City of Ottawa. The question was posed if the
City should consider not being hosted. However, additional computer servers and the change
from a hosted to a non-hosted site were not recommended due to the cost of up keeping of our
own server for all of the scanned documents we have. The Police and Court Departments using
their own Incode products, and having separate servers add complication to the moving from a
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hosted to a self-server site. As the project team evaluated paper time cards and Time Entry with
Incode, it became apparent that the time cards and the Time Entry with Incode would need to be
replaced with a Time and Attendance software.
The one requirement that was imperative was for the Time and Attendance software to integrate
into the Incode Payroll software. Because Time and Attendance is not part of the Incode
software, the problem of keeping employees out of Time and Attendance is not an issue. The
Time and Attendance software creates a report for Incode, and the report is uploaded into Incode.
Employees my use their own computer for clocking into the system. The Time and Attendance
software communicates with Incode’s Human Resources module. This communication between
Time and Attendance and Incode allows for daily updates on employee information. This update
will benefit the payroll processing by automatically populating new employee information, and
pay increases. Employees may also request vacation time and view their available time off.
Time clocks are an optional piece of the Time and Attendance software.
G. Select Solutions to Implement
First the Project Team will need to decide upon a recommendation of the preferred software
vendor. The project team will create a summary and present our recommendation for our City
Manager, Richard Nienstedt. Upon City Manager, Richard U. Nienstedt’s approval, a contract
will be implemented for review and approval of the Finance Director, Scott D. Bird. The
contract with the soon to be recommended vendor will set in motion plan to set an
implementation date. From the chosen date, the vendor will provide the City of Ottawa with a
schedule of events for preparing for implementation. During that time, City employees will
receive information about the upcoming changes. The Finance is already setting the pace for
paperless payroll by implementing required direct deposit and electronic paystubs. The
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movement from paper timecards to a Time and Attendance program will be another step in the
paperless payroll process.
H. Resource Estimates
We have received a few estimates for the project. However, it has not been determined as of
now on how many, if any time clocks will be required. The City will require the resources of
the Information Technology Department in working with the system. The Finance and Human
Resource Departments will require additional time for working with a Time and Attendance
program. Otherwise the initial cost of roughly $13,000 will be the largest resource required.
I. Implement Plan/Solution
Currently, the City of Ottawa does not have an implementation plan. The city is still in the
process of gaining the approval of our City Manager. Keeping employees informed of the
upcoming changes will be important. We are already notifying employees of the move toward a
paperless payroll process. The Time and Attendance Software will be another step in that
process. Upon approval and setting up an implementation plan, there will be a series of
meetings for informing employees of the upcoming changes. Employees will have the
opportunity to ask questions.
J. Evaluate Solution
At this point we are unable to evaluation the solution. It is important to recognize that the
stakeholders, who are part of the Project Team, all agree that Time and Attendance will provide
the best solution for the City of Ottawa in time tracking. Upon completion, the project team will
evaluate the implementation plan for successfulness.
