Busy, busy developers... Here's what they've been working on!

• Some TimeForge users needed the capability to set weekly costs that divide evenly across shifts. Now they can.
• New forecasting algorithm was only doing one day, it now does 90 days.
• New average of variance algorithm available - does some cool stuff!
• Sales issue is being resolved. The cause was a non-obvious presentation of data to the user.
• Uploading of employee images now works in all browsers.
• PTO was not calculating correctly for a customer, this has been resolved.
• Disappearing event column when some events were scheduled for one customer. This is resolved.
• Shift swap issue was reported and resolved.
• Upload documents tool now works across browsers.
• Location-level reports now run on the individual location's time zone.
• Surepayroll format has been updated (old)
• Speed for specific customers running on older versions of IE has been improved.

This is what we've been working on:

Request number 1281 (ShiftBuilder™ Improvement)
The issue: In some instances, the coverage that the ShiftBuilder™ generates based on Sales or ShiftBuilder™ rules has employees coming in for less time than the minimum duration defined by the user. Basically, the ShiftBuilder™ wants to maintain the coverage necessary, but can't also follow the user-defined rules that prevent it from scheduling an employee to only come in for 30 minutes or an hour - so it was deciding to "call in" an employee for a short shift (break the minimum duration rule), rather than operate short-handed.
The fix: The ShiftBuilder™ can now follow both the "minimum duration" rules and the "minimum coverage" rules - now it just combines any short shifts to create larger shifts.

Request number 1289 (Link Beyond Allowance)
The issue: A user had access to a link that he was locked out of.
The fix: That link has now been modified to ensure allowance compliance.

Request number 1284 (New Sales Report)
The issue: A user with several locations needed a new report for their sales data.
The fix: We built him a new report! Sales and Labor Comparison 2

Request number 1293 (Auto-Clock Out at Department Level)
The issue: A user was concerned about the effectiveness of the Auto-Clock Out feature. It wasn't working for them.
The fix: The options needed to be set at the department level, and they hadn't been. When using departments, many of the Attendance Options are department-specific, so they need set for each department.

Request number 1294 (Aloha Tips v. Gratuity)
The issue: A user needed a differentiation between gratuity and tips, and that wasn't supported by the TimeForge Aloha translator they had installed.
The fix: Now, when using Aloha Translator 2.5.2, gratuity can be separated out from the regular tips.

Request number 1301 (AM/PM Calculation in Attendance)
The issue: There was an issue with the Attendance calculations with shifts spanning noon or midnight, if the account has Events, and the shift is tied to an Event.
The fix: Some new queries are showing up to look for miscalculations and prevent this issue. (The software now has a "fail-safe" that's sole purpose is to find miscalculations if they occur)

Request number 770 (New Availability Reports)
The issue: We had several requests for new availability reports!
The fix: We added them! They are available in your account - go check them out!

Other items:
A potential fix to solve the QuickBooks integration name issue has been done.
Some bulk editing fixes have been completed.
New weather polling is being done by weather underground. We now retain the highs and lows for the day, as well as precipitation. This was added for our customers in industries with sales affected directly by weather conditions.
An issue for emailing schedule reminders has been fixed.

Request number 1274 (Switch between Daily and Weekly View)
The issue: The Scheduler wouldn't let you switch out of your default view if there were no shifts on the schedule, so if you were just starting to build a schedule from scratch, you couldn't switch to any other Schedule Views until you added a shift!
The fix: The developers modified this to allow you to go wherever you want to, regardless of whether your schedule has any shifts in it!

Request number 1276 (PTO in Payroll Export)
The issue: There was an unexpected issue with paid time off, where the PTO would be approved but wasn't showing up in the payroll export.
The fix: The developers got the issue sorted out and now PTO displays appropriately in the payroll export.
Request number 1278 (Enforcement Overrides)
The issue: Manager overrides on schedule enforcement required a username and password at the website level, which can take a few extra seconds to enter if they are long.
The fix: Now, managers can use internal numbers and passwords to do overrides. These are each 4 digits long, and are numbers so they are faster to enter than a username. For example, a username (like "themostawesomemanagerever") and a password (like "mydogsnameisfluffy1980") takes longer to type than an internal id (like "2233") and a password (like "1980").
Request number 1279 (Sage File Export)
The issue: The Sage export needed double-checked.
The fix: The developers double-checked it!
Request number 1280 (Choose Employee in Edit Attendance)
The issue: When setting the employee in the "Edit Attendance" page, TimeForge was defaulting to the Corporate Owner.
The fix: TimeForge doesn't default to the corporate owner anymore!
Request number 1285 (Change Department During Shift)
The issue: While an employee was still clocked in, Manager or Supervisors (whoever has the permissions) were unable to change which department that employee was clocked into until after they clocked out.
The fix: Now users with the correct permissions can change which department the employee is clocked into while that employee is still clocked in.
Request number 1275 (Weighted Averages)
The issue: We have been working fiercely to add more functionality to TimeForge's Sales Forecasting!
The fix: We now have implemented a Weighted Averages feature to the Sales Forecasting tool.

Request number 1226 (Quickbooks)
The issue: The Quickbooks integration wasn't working as it should.
The fix: The Quickbooks integration now works with the new QB SDK versions 11 and 12!

Other items:
Reports are now emailed out based on the timezone for the location and/or corporation

Here's what we've been working on:
Request number 1270 (Importing Sales)
The issue: When importing sales, TimeForge was not importing the first row because that is usually the header row. This was causing the import tool to exclude one row of sales for a user who does not include a header row.
The fix: The software now determines whether a header row is present so sales are not missed.
Request number 1260 (On-Screen Keyboard)
The issue: The on-screen keyboard was not available for users when declaring tips, so they were forced to use a keyboard or declare their tips via a manager at a later time.
The fix: The on-screen keyboard is now available to users for declaring tips.
Request number 1254 (ShiftBuilder)
The issue: The date or day in the ShiftBuilder required scrolling, which was inconvenient.
The fix: The ShiftBuilder date or day is now available without scrolling.
Request number 1249 (Corporate On-Screen Keyboard Settings)
The issue: The on-screen keyboard is awesome, but one of our users needed more options to be available at the corporate level, so that the settings applied globally.
The fix: The on-screen keyboard's settings can now be set globally from the corporate level. Options include a full keyboard, a 10-key keyboard, or no keyboard.
Request number 1248 (Attendance Options for Departments)
The issue: Some users who use TimeForge Departments need employees to be clocked into their “default” departments automatically, while others need their employees to be “unassigned” while clocking in, for managers to “assign” correctly later.
The fix: There is a new setting inside of the Attendance Options which allows each location to decide how employees are added, be it to the employee's default department, or as “unassigned”. We can also notify managers of employees who are “unassigned” to make sure these employees are properly “assigned” to correct departments so that payroll is processed properly.
Request number 1247 (Future Sales)
The issue: Some TimeForge users, like caterers know their actual sales in advance, but TimeForge would not allow actual sales to be entered for the future, as most industries do not have the ability to know their future actual sales!
The fix: Actual sales can now be entered in for the future.
Request number 1246 (Edits when Switched User)
The issue: When making edits while switched into another user's account, TimeForge's audits were recording the wrong person as making the edits.
The fix: TimeForge now properly records the actual person making the edits, rather than the person who had been “switched into”. So, a user can't switch into another user's account to make it look like someone else made the edit.
Request number 1239 (ADP Double Overtime)
The issue: The TimeForge ADP payroll export did not support double overtime as a separate column. This is a necessity for TimeForge users in California.
The fix: When exporting overtime and double overtime to ADP, there is a new column with the double overtime, for proper payroll processing.
Request number 1238 (Mobile Attendance Costs)
The issue: The attendance costs were not rounding properly on the TimeForge Mobile App.
The fix: They do now!
Request number 1237 (Sales Forecasting)
The issue: One of our users is finding that his Sales Forecasting is not what he expected.
The fix: TimeForge needs more data to make an accurate forecast. We are building a Restaurant Manager POS Sales Integration to ensure that more Sales data can be pulled into TimeForge.
Request number 1217 (Per Shift Costs)
The issue: Employee pay rates were not calculating correctly when the employee's pay was “per shift” and was using the TimeClock.
The fix:  Costs are now calculating correctly when a user sets the cost to be "per shift" and uses the time clock.
Other items we solved:
Text message reminders for shifts now have the date on them.
When clicking on "Show employees at the location", managers can change any employee for any department, even those that they do not belong to.

Here's what we've been working on for this version:
Request number 1207 (Canadian Providers)
The issue: We didn't support enough Canadian cell service providers, so some Canadian customers' employees were unable to receive text message notifications.
The fix: We now support some new SMS and text message carriers for Canada, including Fido.
Request number 1213 (California Double Overtime)
The issue: Because our reports don't have a separate field for double overtime, it appeared to not be calculated correctly. It was calculating correctly, just not being displayed separately from the regular overtime (1.5x or “time and a half”). This generally only affects users in California.
The fix: No fix was necessary, because it was calculating correctly. However, the developers are looking into reports to determine if an alternative is going to be necessary to prevent overtime confusion.
Request number 1218 (Location Cost)
The issue: One of our users has a POS integration, and the installer in this integration does not have a value set, causing the account to not calculate the location cost.
The fix: We set a value on that user's installer.
Request number 1222 (Daily View Pop-Up)
The issue: The Daily View pop-up was not always calculating the correct number of shifts per employee for the schedule, depending on the start day of the week.
The fix: The Daily View pop-up calculates the number of shifts correctly now, regardless of the start day of the schedule.
Request number 1225 (Forecasting Improvements)

• On the Sales Categories page, we now show the last time that the TimeForge system forecast was run, and you can request to "Reforecast", forcing the software to re-run the forecasts for that location within the next several minutes (20 - 30 minutes).
• A new field for the sales category allows you to determine how much data is needed to do an “accurate” forecast. This is currently defaulted to 1 year.
• A new sales option allows you to forecast 24 hours per day, or to forecast only the open hours.

Request number 1227 (Printing Hours)
The issue: Some users need to print overtime and regular Attendance hours.
The fix: Now you can print overtime and regular Attendance hours when these are moused over.
Request number 1230 (SurePayroll Export)
The issue: The SurePayroll export stopped working.
The fix: The SurePayroll export works again!

What we've been working on for this update: A much faster Daily View, Weekly View, and Today Page.  Should load in around 2 - 4 seconds in most cases.

Request number 1152 (Attendance Copied)
The issue: When copying an employee's scheduled shifts into their attendance (this is used for employees who don't need to clock in, but their pay should be calculated in attendance costs), there was an issue while copying them nightly.
The fix: "Copied" Attendance entries work fine now, with no known issues!

Request number 1155 (New Upload Tool)
The issue: We needed a newer upload tool for uploading data.
The fix: Jose, Daniel, and Rodrigo built a beautiful data upload tool.

Request number 1155 (Scheduled Reports)
The issue: When scheduling reports to be automatically emailed to you, the subject line was ambiguous, so if you had several reports scheduled, you had no way of knowing which report you were opening until you opened it!
The fix: The name of the report is in the subject line of the email!

Request number 1204 (Admin Termination)
The issue: Occasionally, the account holder in TimeForge (the one who signed up for the account/ receives the “payment notification” emails) would terminate himself. If an account holder is terminated (this could only be done by the account holder), the account is no longer considered active, and all other employees would be unable to access the account – because there was no “accountable” person for the account.
The fix: If you are the account holder, you cannot terminate yourself. You must first give someone else the “account holder” responsibility, then you can terminate yourself.

Request number 1205 (IP Recording)
The issue: Some users would like to know from which IP addresses users who modify attendance are doing the modifying. Basically, if a user (who has been granted permission to modify attendance) is modifying attendance entries for an employee, management wants to know which IP address the user is modifying from – whether the “modifying” user is making changes from home or work, etc.
The fix: TimeForge now records the IP address of any changes made to attendance for auditing.

Request number 1210 (Department Payroll Approval)
The issue: Some users with departments were approving payroll with shifts that had no departments assigned to them. This can  hinder payroll processing, depending on which payroll provider and export method you use.
The fix: You cannot approve payroll if you have departments and there are shifts that aren't assigned to a department. Additionally, there are alerts on the Today page if this is the case.

Request number 1211 (POS Positions Sync)
The issue: Some POS systems were taking longer than we'd like to synchronize. This was caused by some tiny things that could be improved, like syncing all positions instead of just syncing the positions that have changed since the last sync. (If nothing has changed, there's no reason to look for changes, right?)
The fix: Some of the POS systems can sync only the positions that have changed – making the sync faster!

Request number 1212 (POS Employees Sync)
The issue: Just like Request 1211, some POS systems were taking longer than we'd like to synchronize. This was caused by some tiny things that could be improved, like syncing all employees instead of just syncing the employees that have changed since the last sync. (If nothing has changed, there's no reason to look for changes, right?)
The fix: Some of the POS systems can sync only the employees that have changed – making the sync faster!

Other items that we worked on:
Some customers were finding that when they tried to save Attendance Options, the page was “locking up” because of Bid Shift email settings. This should be resolved with a much faster sending of data on our end. When we say much faster, we mean TimeForge went from about 10 hours to send out Bid Shift emails, to less than 30 minutes to send these out!
SurePayroll export should be working again!

What we've been working on for this update:
Request number 1203 (Locked Out User Issue)
The issue: A user's employee was locked out of being able to log in!
The fix: We figured out how to let him modify his credentials and log in.
Request number 1202 (Alerts)
The issue: Alerts weren't specific enough for users with POS integration.
The fix: Alerts with a POS are more specific (telling the user which schedule and/or template and/or location that users are still active, when they cannot be terminated).
Request number 1201 (ADP “Don't Export” Option)
The issue: A user needed the option to not export the hourly rate to ADP, because managers were updating the hourly rate in ADP and not in TimeForge – causing TimeForge's hourly rate to be out of date, but override the changes made in ADP, reverting the hourly rate in ADP back to the “not-updated” rate in TimeForge. It was a “who wears the pay rate pants” issue between TimeForge and ADP.
The fix: TimeForge added an option for that user to not export the hourly rate to ADP, letting ADP be the “master record” without TimeForge overriding it with every export.
Request number 1200 (T-Mobile)
The issue: There were some weird things happening when TimeForge sent text messages to T-Mobile users.
The fix: It's fixed!
Request number 1198 (Emails)
The issue: A user added two employees and they were unable to log in using their email addresses – the same method that all other employees were logging in.
The fix: We set these users up with usernames and password, and that worked for one of them. The other one is Request number 1203 (also solved)!
Request numbers 1196 and 1197 (SurePayroll)
The issue: The TimeForge SurePayroll export was having some issues. It was formatted as “Employee work hours per shift” per line, instead of “Employee work hours per period” per line, and it was re-formatting hours into “1 digit” when opened in “spreadsheet” reader programs instead of text viewer programs.
The fix: The SurePayroll format is now two digits and formatted so that the export works seamlessly.
Request number 1192 (Modified Punch Report)
The issue: A user needed a report of only “Modified Punches” (only those Attendance entries that have been changed after they were entered) to compare to their HR documents and files for record-keeping.
The fix: We built the report!
Request number 1191 (Syncing)
The issue: Syncing employees and positions to TimeForge was taking about 12 minutes for some users!
The fix: It now takes less than 1 minute!
Request number 994 (Emergency Contact Report)
The issue: A user needed a report of emergency contacts for their employees.
The fix: We built the report!
Request number 1134 (Terminated Staff)
The issue: Terminated staff were being displayed in the pop-ups when looking at preferences.
The fix: Terminated staff aren't displayed there anymore – they are “hidden” like they are supposed to be.
And:
Some significant speed improvements around the application... the Daily View now loads in around 2 - 5 seconds for just about any schedule (much faster for most users). The Today page and Corporate Today page now load a bit faster (using our roll-up tables).

It's been a while ... there's a LOT here!
Request number 1162, 1178, and 1189 (Shift Range Rules)
The issue: A user needed the ability to enter ranges of sales data into the ShiftBuilder.
The fix: You can now use the Shift Builder with ranges of sales.  IE, from 100 - 150 in sales, I need 3 employees.  This rule is exclusive of all other rules.
Request number 1188 (Double Employees in Bid Shifts)
The issue: Individual employees were showing up as having bid multiple times for the same shift.
The fix: We fixed it! Employees can only bid on a shift once now.
Request number 1184 (Position Needed to Clock In)
The issue: A user's employee was unable to clock in.
The fix: We added a position to that employee. Employees without positions assigned to them cannot clock in because TimeForge doesn't know “what” they are clocking in as.
Request number 1175 (Monthly View Last Day)
The issue: There was a bug where last day of the month was sometimes not showing up for users who were scheduling my month.
The fix: The last day of every month shows up in the Monthly View of the schedule now!
Request number 1174 (Shifts)
The issue: One of our users wasn't able to find some shifts.
The fix: Unfortunately, we couldn't fix it, because we were unable to reproduce the problem.
Request number 1105 (Text Messages)
The issue: Text messages that were sent were ridiculous and often “cropped” by text providers, because the TimeForge introduction words were so excruciatingly verbose!
The fix: We took away all of that unnecessary stuff, so now your text message looks pretty awesome.
Request numbers 1170 and 1166 (TimeClock Sync)
The issue: Two of our users' TimeClocks weren't syncing to TimeForge like they were supposed to.
The fix: The TimeClocks didn't have a way to send the attendance information for reasons unique to those users. We fixed it for both of them.
Request numbers 1150 and 1161 (Daily View Chart in IE and Chrome)
The issue: The chart in the Daily View of the Schedule was not lining up with the shifts when viewing it in Internet Explorer or Chrome.
The fix: The chart lines up with the shifts now, and we found that the issue also affected Templates, and fixed it there too.
Request number 1160 (Scheduling Events by Employee)
The issue: One of our users was able to get an employee who doesn't have the right HR certifications scheduled to an event that requires specific HR certifications.  It was only happening if you were scheduling by employee instead of by position.
The fix: HR Certification rules now apply, regardless of how you sort your shifts.
Request number 1151 (View Preference for Employees)
The issue: We had added the ability for users to set a preference as to which Schedule View (Daily or Weekly) they wanted to set as a default. Employees were also given this option, even though they can't access the schedule in the same way managers could (IE they had a setting that didn't do anything for them).
The fix: We took this unnecessary preference setting away from employees.
Request number 1142 (Department ID's)
The issue: A user needed to have multiple departments with the same department ID's.
The fix: TimeForge now allows that.
Request number 1119 (Aloha “NOPRINT”)
The issue: In Aloha, there is a field called "NOPRINT" which, if set on a position, marks the position as salaried, rather than hourly.
The fix: Well, now we know!
Request numbers 978, 1010, and 1120 (Multi-site Specific Overtime!)
The issue: This was a long time coming.  Some users needed to be able to select only specific sites to be considered when calculating overtime. Why?  Because if some of the sites are seasonal, overtime may not need to be calculated.
The fix: You can now decide which sites are considered when looking at overtime, and which are not.  For example, if Sarah gets overtime everywhere, then all of the sites she works needs to have overtime set (either 1.5, 2.0, or CA OT).  However, if she only gets overtime at the "50th Street" location, then the other locations can have their overtime turned off (inside of the Set Up -> Settings).
Request number 1102 (Overtime Reports Include Today)
The issue: Overtime reports were including “today” twice (once as a schedule, once as attendance).
The fix: The reports now only include the attendance (not schedule) for today.  Also, a new overtime report that shows only hours is now available.
Request number 1117 (Speed Improvements on Sales Reports)
The issue: Some of the Sales reports were taking 3 to 5 minutes to run!
The fix: We've whittled those Sales reports down to take less than 30 seconds. This is the first step in a series of speed improvements.
Request number 1066 (Hiding Zeros)
The issue: Two Sales reports were listing zeros in the row, even if the whole row was nothing but zeros.
The fix: Now, those two reports will hide zeros on the row, if the whole row is zeros... These reports are “Sales Breakdown by Date and Department” and “Daily Sales Breakdown by Date and Department”.