Tanda Blog: Product Updates

Emerson Domingo

10 June 2019    |   

At Tanda, we move fast to solve the world’s greatest workforce challenges. We released over 200 features last year. Here are the major ones. The last 12 months have seen Tanda rise above the capabilities of traditional workforce software.  Our product team has focused on releasing features that help management to plan and execute the perfect shifts — all while constantly strengthening our core offering. Building the world’s #1 workforce platform requires going above the administrative efficiencies traditionally gained with workforce software. We’re talking about features that empower businesses to enhance the way they employ and manage staff. These help managers plan and execute successful shifts; help employees integrate their work and private life; and allow businesses to measure their success in the right ways. In these last 12 months, the Tanda product team also materialised the 6 headline features announced at the 2018 Tanda conference, all of which are now live in the Tanda platform. The year has seen the release of over 150 user interface updates, 25 key redesigns of existing features, and 10 key feature releases.  They all fall into these themes: Helping managers to execute the best decision-making Helping managers integrate compliance into decision-making Helping employees integrate their employment and personal lives Allowing businesses to build their own workflows by adopting a platform approach   Features that help managers execute the best decision making Live Insights: on-the-go decision-making Live insights is big business technology that we’ve made available to businesses of any size.   Off the shelf, Live Insights syncs live sales from integrated cloud based point of sale systems like Kounta, Vend and Ordermate, and compares real-time with award-interpreted wage cost.   This closes the feedback loops on wage cost reporting and allows managers to execute decision-making during operations, instead of after the day is done. Live Feed: real-time shift updates Managers who are involved in shift handovers know how important it is to be updated on what’s happened during the previous shift.  Live Feed gives a real time overview of the state of the shift, showing a full picture of who is there, who isn’t, and what the staff movements will be. Key Alerts: Know staffing issues in real time Great shifts can be planned ahead of time on the roster, but it’s not until the shift starts that the plan is put to the test. This is where wage costs can unexpectedly inflate. Five minutes here, five minutes there. These minor variances to the roster add up to large amounts when it happens across multiple shifts. Key alerts helps managers stay in control by proactively notifying them of these little variances before they blow up costs. Cognitive Demand Builder: Predict future demand, and adjust for it Integrated point of sale data has been available as standard in Tanda for several years now.  Access to data is one thing, but it’s the way we’re allowing managers to use that data which is unique to Tanda. Tanda’s new demand builder allows managers to build a demand profile from historical sales data and modify for expected changes in demand.  The feature can algorithmically select a sample group of historical sales while eliminating anomalous days automatically. It means that businesses of any size can plug in their point of sale system and have access to meaningful demand data instantly. Best-fit shift replacements: Finding the right match When choosing a replacement for an employee who can no longer work a shift, it’s difficult for a manager to assess every influencing factor. This can include contract hours, overtime risk, cost difference, qualifications, and safety considerations such as fatigue management. Receiving shift replacement requests on My Tanda (L) and choosing best fit replacements on mobile (R) When a shift replacement request comes through, the manager sees a set of best fit options. Importantly, Tanda calculates the cost difference between employees in real time, which avoids the issue of employees unexpectedly entering overtime, or more senior staff members performing junior roles. Shift Feedback: Information is Powerful Feedback needs to be actionable and specific to be useful to management. We trialled several methods of collecting frontline feedback with our beta group to create the first version of Tanda Shift Feedback.  The feature is integrated as a prompt on the existing platform, meaning employees and management aren’t required to divert their resources to a new process, and the time investment is minimal. More about shift feedback. A more full-featured leave Tanda users can now open the app on their phone and instantly view their leave current leave balance, see the best times to apply for leave, and plan future holidays with leave balance projections. We’ve also strengthened the management controls in the leave process and increased transparency with additional features: Custom events: a method for employees to gauge the best times to take leave by being able to see who else has applied at the same time Leave balance projections: ensures adequate leave balance for planned time off Safeguards against leave balances entering negative territory Backup leave types for when the primary leave type is exhausted The ability to accrue Time In Lieu within Tanda Accurate leave hours through editing breakdowns on leave requests Features that integrate compliance into management decision-making In Australia, maintaining compliance doesn’t just mean paying staff members correctly.  There are many state and local laws that apply in respect to workplace health and safety, fatigue management, licencing & qualification requirements, and record keeping requirements. Compliance HQ: Compliance in one place Given the multifaceted nature of workforce compliance in Australia, we’ve made things simpler. Compliance HQ is a central dashboard for all of the tools used in the process of maintaining compliance.  Every setting you need to stay compliant with all levels of government is here. Qualification Notifications: Stay on top of expiring qualifications Qualifications cover processes of any nature that are required to be reviewed, retrieved on demand or represent a minimum training requirement for particular activities within the business.  Employees are now notified of pending qualification expiries, as is the manager, and qualification expiries are now easily reportable. The new, more powerful Time Clock Redesigned the time clock from the ground up, the new Time Clock features a more intuitive UI, including break buttons, team swapping, and smart shift status. Inside, it retains powerful photo verification, passcode protection, and automatic timesheet creation features from the previous version. It’s the easiest, most powerful attendance recording tool we’ve made. Roster validations: limit inefficient rosters Roster validations are customisable limits that will flag managers when it’s reached. They can be used operationally to control overtime for example, and used in the same way for fatigue management or other forms of compliance such as minimum and maximum shift lengths. Read more about roster validation. Automated higher duties: approve timesheets quicker Automated higher duties allows different pay rates to be associated to teams and activities where an employee may be paid more than one level.  This ensures that roster costs consider changes in level based on activity, and that higher duties are automatically tagged on timesheets for export to payroll. Use cases include staff members in food service industries who work in both a supervisor and non-supervisory capacity, and industries such as transport that pay different rates depending on the type of equipment operated. Training Centre The Tanda Training centre cuts down the resources required for businesses to train new management in using the Tanda platform.  The Training Centre includes the option for businesses to upload their own resources customised to their unique workflows to ensure a bespoke experience based on their internal procedures. GPS Clock-ins: Clock in anywhere in the world Tanda supports your mobile workforce. So we built GPS tagged clock-ins on the Tanda mobile app. Wherever they are, and wherever you are, Tanda’s time and attendance features works anywhere in the world. Features that help employees to integrate their work and personal lives Shift replacements Employees have non-negotiable events pop up in their personal lives that will require time off. For example, a mandatory examination, or births and deaths in the family.  Business also have a non-negotiable requirement to open the doors and trade to survive, so when the two of these non-negotiable requirements clash it results in a lose-lose scenario. Shift swapping is about affording the flexibility to turn lose-lose scenarios into win-win, with the dual benefit of being able to instantly canvas the whole workforce for shift replacements.  Appropriate management controls ensure accountability in the selection of replacement staff. Custom events: highlight busy periods ahead of time Indicate busy times of year for your staff Custom events allows staff members to best plan their time off.  Informing them of peak times of year gives staff more certainty of the best periods to request for leave. And combined with the leave calendar and leave projections, this allows them to plan future time off effectively. Features that allow businesses to build their own workflows by adopting a platform approach The difference between being an off-the-shelf solution and a comprehensive workforce platform comes down to the ability to customise workflows. Build Tanda to fit the business, not change the business to fit Tanda. You know your business best. So we’ve invested in powerful customisation tools that allow unique use cases, and gives businesses the tools they need to turn Tanda into a solution for their unique problems. Custom permission levels: have more control on who’s in control A greater degree of flexibility in roles, especially surrounding who can view costs and provide approvals allows Tanda to fit existing internal controls.   Custom Fields: a new, powerful communication tool Custom Fields allows users to gather or communicate any information staff need to be successful in their job. This is done by creating text fields and apply them to shifts and employee profiles. Create fields to gather or communicate information Common use cases for the employee profile include: Details required by HR on the employee profile, e.g. date of last review Allergy information On the roster, fields could be put for specific tasks and assets such as: A specific truck that will be driven by a transport worker.   Addresses of clients assigned to disability support workers A list of tasks for a cleaner There is no limit to the potential uses cases. Coming Up Roster patterns (beta) Many awards, agreements and industry regulations stipulate arrangements for roster patterns. This is particularly prevalent in shift worker industries that have fatigue management considerations, such as firefighters and emergency workers. Our roster patterns beta builds on our existing work to make Tanda the most comprehensive workforce platform for shift worker industries like healthcare, mining, manufacturing and essential services. This is in its final stages of development and will be released very soon. If you made it to the end, well done! Takes a ton of commitment to read through a year’s worth of updates. And that’s only the major ones; our product team is always improving Tanda. If you’re not a current Tanda user and would like to learn more, head www.tanda.co to book in time with our team to chat.

Emerson Domingo

31 May 2019    |   

Have you ever changed numbers on Excel, and everything else changed too? How long did that take? I’m guessing less than the time it took to read this sentence. What takes seconds now took an entire day for an accountant or bookkeeper in the ‘60s. They had paper spreadsheets back then. So a small adjustment meant recalculating, erasing, and filling out all boxes affected by that number. Manually. So if businesses wanted to know how something affects the bottom line, they need to plan ahead. And pay a day’s wage for someone to work it out. This is just for one change. Accounting tools of the 60s. Groovy. Just because something is used a lot doesn’t mean it works. We’re living in the manual spreadsheets era of workforce management Even with current solutions, workforce management is still mostly manual. Checking timesheets, calling up staff to cover, staying on top of qualifications. What should take a couple of minutes can take hours. In short, more time spent in the back office. Less time spent leading staff, tackling business issues, hitting business goals. Less admin, more ambition You buy software to do everything faster. All Tanda research and development comes down to this: we want you to use us less. Less means the job gets done faster. Less timesheet reviews, less calling around, less communication blocks. More working on the frontline, more business goals, more rest and relaxation. Here are 5 new ways to use Tanda less. 1. Less time behind the desk with Live Feed Wherever you are, see who’s at work — and who’s not. Combined with key alerts and live insights, you can make snap decisions to keep your store, warehouse, or centre well-staffed throughout the day and night. Live Feed on the mobile app Previously, you’d have to get on My Tanda to see who’s clocked-in—which takes some time. Even then, it may not be possible, especially if you’re managing a remote workforce, or travel frequently. How it Works. Live feed lets you keep an eye on staff status on the mobile app. This works across teams and locations, depending on manager permissions. Read more: How key alerts and live insights lead to better customer service. 2. Less time figuring things out with the Training Centre Everything you need to get started with Tanda—from basics to breakthroughs—we’ve put it all in one place. Whether you’re just getting started or refreshing your knowledge, our video tutorials will guide you through in record speed. Tanda Training Centre How it Works. A series of videos that teach you everything from basic set-up to advanced rostering. Learn at your own pace. And if you ever get stuck, the chat button is always there. Access it on my.tanda.co/learn. 3. Less work approving timesheets with Associated Tags No need to assign higher duties tags manually on timesheets — which can be time consuming, especially if you have a large team. Associated tags automatically assigns this when certain staff work in different teams.  The associated tags field, located in the team profile. How it Works. Assign the higher duties tag in the team profile. If an employee with that higher duties tag works in that particular team, they’ll immediately receive the higher duties allowance. For more information, visit our help page. 4. Less uncertainty with new Rosters Overview validations Identify unsustainable patterns across time more easily, including overworked or underworked staff; how many staff are going on leave; and staffing levels across multiple weeks. Seeing these inefficient patterns early means you’re likely to avoid them on your next roster (e.g. over-rostering, concurrent leave). Validations on rosters overview. See the full list. How it Works. View as much as a month’s worth of rosters on Rosters Overview‘s easy-to-use interface. Now with all validations of the old weekly roster view. 5. Less clicking around with Qualification Expiry Emails Only see which qualifications need action, when they need to be actioned. You won’t need to go to each staff profile page to review this, which means time saved. This becomes more important as your business grows. An employee qualification email alert How it works. You’ll receive email alerts when staff qualifications are 1) expiring in one month; and 2) have expired. They’ll also be alerted and asked to update their qualifications, if necessary.   Tell us what features make you use Tanda less. The only thing we love more than helping you succeed is hearing success stories. We love your feedback. We listen to it all. Send me a direct email at emerson@tanda.co. Keep up to date with our latest updates on our full changelog.

Emerson Domingo

3 May 2019    |   

What’s new in Tanda: April 2019 Every organisation needs to adapt and evolve alongside rapid changes in technology, customer attitudes, and the competition. It’s easier to do that if staff have buy-in to your business goals. And we know from plenty of case studies that treating employees like your best customer turns staff into your greatest brand advocates.   ‘Treating your employees like your best customers turns them into your greatest brand advocates’   This month, we released 7 brand-new features to help you build partnership with your staff, and be on your way to lower turnover rate, increased revenue, and higher profitability. 1. Protect your employees’ privacy by choosing which managers can see costs Cost is a sensitive topic in a lot of workplaces. Some managers are averse to others seeing their pay information, especially if it’s not relevant to their jobs. You can now restrict costs information to managers of your choice, ensuring privacy and avoiding potential conflict. This feature only works if ‘Allow managers to see staff costs’ is turned off. After doing this, you can go to the staff profiles to give individual permission. 2. It’s now easier to ensure leave requests have accurate hours On opening an existing leave request, you can now edit hours so they match part-time staff work hours. This means it’s quicker to achieve accurate leave hours in rosters and timesheets, and correctly pay staff in the process. If you need more help, here’s a detailed doc on how it works. This is phase one of building fully automatic leave. 3. Custom Permissions: Have more control on who’s in control Decide which roles can approve leave requests, add time clocks, or add or remove employees. For example, staff with team manager permissions can typically create rosters and add employees. But for some organisations, hiring is left to a general manager. Custom permissions allows you to customise Tanda and reflect how your organisation works. Where to find it. Head to general settings. Choose who can add/remove employees on the general tab, who can approve leave requests on the time off tab, and who can add time clocks under the clock-in/out tab. 4. Stay on top of rostering issues as they happen with Key Alerts Make sure employees are following rostered times without getting stuck on the back office computer. Key Alerts lets you know through the mobile app if an employee is late to clock-in or clock-out; did not clock their break; or is at risk of overtime. It gives you information only when there’s something to be done. We won’t alert you of staff who are following rostered times and breaks. Key alerts is only sent to the mobile app (not desktop/web). Download the app on your iOS or Android smartphone. Read more about key alerts, including how to set up, on our help docs. 5. Create up to a month’s worth of rosters on one page   When we launched Roster Overview a month ago, you were able to view shifts up to a month in advance. Now, you can view, create and edit shifts like you would in the typical weekly roster view. This is useful to those who manage big teams, multiple teams, or prefer to look ahead in terms of scheduling. See how to find it in your rosters page. 6. Find out why some staff are working outside their roster If you want to know why staff have clocked-in early (or late), clocked-out late, or why they clocked-in at all, you’d have to go to the individual to clarify. But now, you can create your own questions and set it to show up during the above situations. Learn more about how to use it on our help page. 7. In a rush? Clock them in now, onboard later. If you need staff starting ASAP, you can add them straight through Time Clock. All you need is their name and email. They’ll receive their unique 4-digit passcode and can clock-in straight away. Read more. Keep up to date with our latest updates on our full changelog.

Emerson Domingo

11 April 2019    |   

From today, every payroll system you can think of, as long as it has an import function, can now work with Tanda. And it won’t cost thousands of dollars in custom integration costs. In fact, it won’t cost anything at all. Introducing Custom Export Builder With this feature, you can export all your timesheet data into a CSV file. It’s fully-customisable, and can work with the format any payroll software in the world requires. Change data terms, date formats, or eliminate information you don’t need to export. It’s all up to you and your requirements. Get started by watching the video below, or go straight into the deep end and create your own integration now. Why release this feature? Because at Tanda, our highest goal is empowering our customers to succeed. Higher than sales targets. Higher than revenue. And we’re true to our word. To see what else we do, check out our features overview, or book a free 20-minute product tour with one of our Workforce Success Executives.

Jeff Libanan

8 April 2019    |   

MYOB AccountRight Live: Importing Staff Tanda and MYOB AccountRight Live have a live API connection, so you can import your staff from MYOB into Tanda automatically. This article will take you through requirements in MYOB and Tanda for integration and how to bulk import your staff into Tanda the first time and then options for new staff going forward. Integration You will need to have MYOB AccountRight Live Plus or Premier to integrate with Tanda. The Standard solution does not have a Payroll component, therefore it cannot integrate. It’s also recommended to run the latest version of MYOB, you can check out this article from MYOB to ensure you’re running the latest version. In MYOB You’ll need to configure a few things in your MYOB file to use Tanda: 1. Timesheets are enabled: Setup > Preferences > System tab > ensure you have ticked I Use Timesheets for Payroll and my Week Starts on a [enter start day]: 2. Terminated staff have been marked as Inactive Card and also set a Termination Date: Tick the Inactive Card box under Card File > Employee > Staff Member’s profile: Enter a Termination Date under the Payroll Details tab: 3. All staff have a mobile phone number and/or email address: You can use staff contact details to send out information from Tanda so it’s easier to have it in MYOB now so it imports automatically. 4. Your Company File is Online: You have uploaded your file to the cloud, so it is Online. In the bottom right corner, it should look like this: If your file isn’t Online, just click the box to upload it, or speak with a Bookkeeper/Accountant. Should you not want to unpload your file, you can import your staff as you would with MYOB AccountRight Desktop. In Tanda Add MYOB to your Tanda account by going to Settings > Add-ons > Payroll & Accounting: In the top right corner, click on + New Payroll Integration:   Find the MYOB AccountRight Live logo and click on it: A pop-up will then display asking you to login to MYOB. Enter your Email and Password that you would login to MYOB AccountRight Live with and click Login.Please note you will need to have Administrator level access: Next, choose your MYOB business name, and enter the login details for your company file. Leave the password field blank if you do not have a password for your company file. You’ll then go back to the Integration Setup screen in Tanda and you’ll see a box with MYOB. You can click on this box to go into the Integration setup where you can configure: Who the integration applies to: All staff by selecting Everyone or Default Locations and then selecting a Location (if you haven’t set this up yet you can come back into here later). This is used if you have more than one MYOB account connected to your Tanda account, you need to match a Location to a MYOB file. You can also select how you want Tanda to handle new staff. If you have enabled to Automatically import new staff profiles, when you add a new employee to MYOB, Tanda will automatically import this within the hour. Only new employees will be imported and existing profiles updated. If you make any changes just click Save at the bottom. Importing Staff In Tanda Go to Workforce > Staff: On the right, click on + Add Staff: In the pop-up window, at the bottom select Import from > MYOB AccountRight Live.Click on the MYOB box to select the integration. If you only have one file attached to Tanda, you’ll just see one box however if you have more than one just click on the one you want to import from first. Next, you’ll see a bar loading to show your staff are being imported, depending on the amount of staff you have this can take a few minutes, so just stay in the screen. Once the import has finished, you’ll see a list of your staff that have been imported into Tanda. If there are any staff in the list that shouldn’t have been imported to Tanda, just click Don’t Import next to their name and they won’t be brought through, otherwise if it’s all correct just click Complete Staff Import at the bottom: If one or more staff didn’t import and they are in MYOB, check their details in MYOB to ensure you have added them, their start date is correct, they don’t have a termination date or they don’t have Inactive Card ticked on their profile. Your staff list will now show under Workforce > Staff. Going forward, when you have a new employee you have the following options: Add the employee to MYOB and if you have enabled to automatically import new staff, in your Tanda MYOB integration setup, Tanda will automatically import this employee within the hour. Add the employee to MYOB and you can force this update to happen immediately by going to Workforce > Staff > Add Staff > Import from MYOB. Only new staff will be imported and existing staff updated. Use Employee Onboarding: this sends the new employee an App to fill in their details and a profile will then automatically be added to MYOB and Tanda. Next you might want to look at Adding Locations & Teams, Welcome Staff or Build your first Roster.

Emerson Domingo

1 April 2019    |   

Key updatesWHAT’S NEW IN TANDA – MARCH 2019 If you want to skip the opening , jump straight to these sections: Shift Replacements on Desktop: Receive and approve/decline cover requests Change Teams on Time Clock: Swap teams anytime on a clocked-in shift GPS Clock-Ins: Location-tracked clock-ins on the mobile app Automatic Breaks: Fulfil compliance requirements on breaks Managing a team is like a duck in waterThings may look calm on top, but underneath there’s a lot of fierce paddling. It’s not hard to see why. The waters towards a successful shift can be turbulent. Sometimes, staff suddenly can’t come in. Other times, demand spikes unexpectedly. And compliance requirements are always looming.Tanda is like a state-of-the-art speedboatBut whenever you log in, something happens. The little duck becomes a powerful machine. Because Tanda lets you manage your team easily, so you cruise over most issues that’ll sink any other workflow. And you stay above the water, no sweat. This month, we’ve tinkered with it and made it more powerful. Here are the upgrades.No one is replaced without your go-aheadSHIFT REPLACEMENTS ON DESKTOP Choosing and approving shift replacements on desktop An unavoidable part of business: staff can’t work a rostered shift. Enter Shift Replacements. Receive, view, and approve or decline shift replacement requests on desktop. Now, there’s no need to go through these: Doing the ring around. Making sure the replacement can do the job. Making sure they’re not too expensive. Not finding anyone. Having to come in on your day off. How It Works. Staff use the mobile app to request cover. If you approve it, you can offer the shift to staff. Select some or all staff in the same team. We’ll show you wages and rostered hours to help you decide. See your shift replacement requests or learn more about this feature.A person who wears many hats CHANGE TEAMS ON TIME CLOCK Switch teams in the time clock app Change teams in the middle of the shift. Useful when customer demand spikes, or when different tasks carry different rates and allowances. Need more waitstaff for the lunch rush? Staff can move from the bar to front of house. How It Works. Swap teams anytime during a clocked-in shift. This splits the shift into two timesheets—one for each team. All relevant pay rates, allowances, and higher duties apply. When the shift ends, clock-out as usual. Use this feature on the latest version of the Time Clock app (4.3.36 or newer). Check your time clocks, or learn more about this feature.The world is your office GPS CLOCK-INS GPS Clock-in on the mobile app The leading workforce management software now works everywhere. From the worksite to the delivery truck, GPS clock-ins means Tanda is fully-mobile. How It Works. Staff can clock-in and out anywhere through the Tanda mobile app. Their locations are saved and attached to the timesheets. So you’re confident staff are where they need to be. Learn more about GPS Clock-ins.Are you recording Fair Work-mandated breaks? AUTOMATIC  BREAKS Fulfil compliance requirements by demonstrating you’re giving staff correct breaks. How It Works. Just set up the initial break rules and we can automatically apply paid and unpaid breaks to your timesheets. Learn how to set-up automatic breaks.Up Next Automated Leave: No more manual leave corrections New Day View: We’ve improved the design so you can find information easier Key Alerts: Get notified of important staff events (e.g. overtime risk, failed to clock-in/out, and more)

Rosie Ramirez

28 March 2019    |   

Karen is running late to work at a job site and can’t afford another strike on her record. She asks her coworker to clock in for her using her employee number and password. She arrives ten minutes late but her pay remains the same, with her employer none the wiser. This is called buddy punching and is just one of the top three ways employees commit time theft. A 2008 Nucleus Research report showed that 19% of employees admit to buddy punching. Ten minutes here and there doesn’t seem like much, but companies lose millions to time theft annually. So how can managers ensure that employees are clocking in and out when they’re supposed to? The challenge of multiple locations Inaccurate attendance tracking is common for mobile workforces. Due to the unique condition of their workplaces, timesheets may not be as accurate as they need to be. Notably, employees could be getting paid for hours they didn’t work. A 2015 study found that 43% of hourly employees surveyed admit to exaggerating their work hours. But without the right tools, there’s no way to prove otherwise. Even seemingly modern devices like fingerprint scanners are not reliable enough. They’re expensive, hard to repair, and don’t even work 100% of the time. And there are plenty of situations where they cannot be used. Employers whose staff work outside an office cannot be expected to make punch clocks and fingerprint scanners work. Construction workers, long-haul truck drivers, home care providers, and event organisers rarely report to the main office. Being off-site means employers need to rely on trust. They depend on the site manager’s or employee’s attendance reports. The accuracy of these records is questionable, regardless of the employee’s character or performance. Human error is far too common and businesses often pay for work that was not rendered. Read more: Time Theft: Top 3 ways employees steal time and how to stop it How can you be everywhere at once? When a business has multiple locations, a manager would like to be everywhere at once. Employees are only one of several moving parts that keep the business going. But they are also the biggest expense and most difficult to keep track of. Being everywhere at once used to be impossible. Now, with GPS-enabled technology, it’s not just possible; it’s already becoming the standard in every industry. Tanda, a leading time and attendance automation platform, lets managers supervise their mobile workforce from anywhere. It does this through the GPS Clock-in feature on the Employee Scheduling App.  The Employee Scheduling App, which runs on iOS and Android devices, lets employees clock in and out from anywhere. Using it remotely will send the latitude, longitude, and employee’s photo to cloud-based timesheets. This is useful when they work at multiple sites or drive from location to location throughout the day. You can even monitor breaks through the mobile app. Access is no problem, as managers can use Tanda from desktop or mobile. You can verify every entry and ensure that there is no time theft, whether intentional or not. Read more: Facial Recognition vs Fingerprint Scanners for Time & Attendance Let automation do the work Time and attendance automation is indispensable to modern businesses. Keeping up with industry standards is no longer enough. Automation technology is one way to maintain an edge over the competition. Tanda helps businesses eliminate time theft and save millions of dollars in the process. Even businesses where traditional punch clocks and fingerprint scanners fail can revolutionize the way they monitor time. Mobile workforces will no longer be at risk of inaccurate timesheets because the GPS clock-in feature monitors it effortlessly. For construction, logistics, and home care industries, the GPS clock-in feature is a gamechanger. Managers are now able to oversee their employees and communicate any changes on one platform. Even rewarding performance is easier with attendance data to back it up. Employees too are assured that they are being paid exactly what they should be. Plus, they can check their shifts and file leave requests from wherever they are. Investing in software with a GPS clock-in feature empowers mobile workforces to perform at their best. And when they do, the business also grows with them. Managing a mobile workforce is a challenge, but Tanda’s GPS clock-in makes it a breeze. Start your free trial today!

Emerson Domingo

27 March 2019    |   

Key takeaways We are building towards fully automated leave Features are released in stages over the next 3-6 months Eventually, staff can just enter the leave start and end date We’ll apply the correct hours every time All managers have to do is review and approve Our vision: never having to manually correct leave. Ever. Released in stages over the next 3-6 months We are making leave entry completely automated. In the next few months, you’ll be seeing a series of features, with each release letting you check and approve leave requests faster. The end goal: never having to manually correct leave ever again. Ultimate leave automation: applying contract hours and roster patterns For automated leave to work, it needs to be accurate, too. Otherwise, we’ll always rely on manual entry. So in this feature, we’ll take rostered hours and usual hours worked,  (contractually-bound or verbal). Then we combine them and form the entire leave request—making the hours as accurate as possible. And if you are in 24/7 industries like call centres and fire departments, good news. We’re releasing roster patterns soon. When applied, leave hours are matched with the roster pattern in use. Our end goal: an even higher form of automation Soon, you’ll only see it in a museum. This is what we’re eventually working towards: if we detect a statistically-significant pattern based on previous hours, these days and times get carried to the leave request. So to kill the dinosaurs of manual entry, that’s the great automated leave meteor we’re building. But to get to that, we need to work our way up. One small step for getting rid of manual corrections If a 3-days/week staff member requests a 2-week long leave, they get allocated 14 days leave pay—which is incorrect. So instead of approving, managers delete the leave request and create new ones. This is not an efficient use of time. And we’re happy to say you don’t have to do that anymore. You can now edit time breakdowns on leave requests. Ironically, our first step towards leave automation is manual (baby steps). You can manually assign the times match the correct leave hours (see visual below). This is likely to go live in the next couple of weeks. We’re hoping this is a helpful remedy in the meantime, but you won’t be doing this for long. Soon, it’ll be automated. Changing time breakdowns: our manual step to automation. Up next: automatically fill from roster. If staff are rostered during their leave dates, these hours are reflected on the request. Just check and approve. Then: change the roster cards. Before approving the leave request, change the affected shifts: Make the shift vacant and find a replacement Delete the shift if you don’t need it anymore. Usually applies for salaried staff. Keep the rostered shift and the leave card. Applies when staff work half a shift and then go home sick. We’re always listening. We talk about what we do a lot. But we also love to listen. If you have any feedback, suggestions, or general thoughts on this, shoot me an email at emerson@tanda.co We build features so you can succeed with your team. So we value your ideas. After all, you’re on the frontline. Thanks for being part of the team.

Emerson Domingo

4 March 2019    |   

WHAT’S NEW IN TANDA – FEBRUARY 2019 Choosing Tanda means choosing to get your time back. Time you can put into great things. Like expanding your business. Creating new products. Getting an hour of r & r. Anything but manually organising your team. That’s why we say ‘automated’ a lot in these posts. So this February, we’ve got time-giving updates we think you’ll love. SMART TEMPLATES One click: every vacant shift filled Pop up window with Smart Templates option (see arrow) You’ve applied your template for the next fortnight’s roster. But Matt’s on leave starting next week, and Hannah is now unavailable on Fridays instead of Thursdays. And you’ve deleted their shifts–but they need filling. Which leads to the (extremely reasonable) question, ‘What’s the point of templates if I’ve got to do all this?’ Smart Templates is the newest step we’re making towards not having to do all that. Use this feature when you’re applying a roster template. When you use Smart Templates, Tanda’s algorithm decides on the best person to fill a vacant shift. Sounds interesting? Learn how it works. TIME-OFF CALENDAR With their powers combined… The new combined leave and unavailability calendar. Leave and unavailability are now in one Time-Off Calendar! Need to know when staff can’t come to work? No need to flick between two calendars. It’s all in one place, and you can see what type of time off they are taking. ROSTERS, DEMAND PREDICTION, NEW INTEGRATION From little things: more time-giving updates These smaller updates can create huge improvements to the way you run the team. A screenshot of raw downloaded roster data. A printed roster after your own heart Customise and print your roster exactly the way you want it. Tanda now lets you download raw roster data into Excel. Whether you want to fit the whole thing into one page, or would rather not show the hours each employee gets, the power is all yours. Go to the roster tab on Tanda and click the print icon. The new Demand Prediction Modal The Public Holiday Surge: unusual sales data skewing demand prediction? Christmas Day shutdown or the Boxing Day surge are not representative of typical sales. Our new Demand Prediction Modal highlights potential outliers like these. Now, you can see the culprits more clearly, and remove them from skewing your demand prediction. Try it out by going into your current roster on Tanda and click on any day.  Three new Tanda integrations: Clover POS (US and EU) Live Insights on Retail Express Timesheets export to Paypac UPCOMING FEATURES We’re working on more, so you spend less time Remote clock-ins: Clock-in anywhere through the mobile app. With GPS tracking. Tanda Chat: Stay connected to your staff — all within Tanda. Shift Replacements on Desktop: Request and approve shift replacements on the desktop version.

Monic Del Rosario

18 February 2019    |   

Tanda is excited to announce an integration with innovative API integration company, Doshii. Doshii’s API, which connects apps with POS in real-time, allows Tanda customers to harness their data through a single integration and gain immediate insights so they can manage their businesses better. Tanda’s cloud-based workforce success software offers strong employee onboarding, payroll, and rostering features. It also gives powerful real-time insights that help businesses track the correlation between sales and labour. Through their extensive partnerships and experience in the hospitality and retail industries, Doshii helps Tanda clients predict exactly how many staff they need at any time. Doshii collates all workplace data in one place and eliminate human error in rostering. The Tanda-Doshii partnership automates admin tasks so owners and managers have time to focus on their business instead of spending countless frustrating hours dealing with rosters and payroll. This is particularly valuable in the retail and hospitality industries, as business managers can compare expected to actual figures as the day progresses – allowing them to make on-the-spot scheduling adjustments as needed. In the future, reservation data could be used to monitor staffing levels and notify a venue manager of dates with low staff allocation and high bookings. Dan Etiel, Tanda CMO, says, “Tanda’s integration with Doshii offers customers a wide range of integrations that allow them to utilise their data to grow their business. “By connecting Tanda and Doshii, customers get real-time sales data which allows them to optimise their business operations live throughout the day by making data-driven decisions. This level of insight has not been available before and is a significant step forward for real-time business intelligence.” Doshii GM, Greg Williams, explains that “having live data allows customers to control their business and fine-tune their operation as the day unfolds, instead of having to try and correct events after the fact when it’s too late to remedy.” Tanda’s platform allows business managers to build a detailed roster based on locations and teams in minutes using its simple online rostering tool. This is then shared with staff via email or SMS, who clock in and out of shifts on the fly using Tanda’s Time Clock App. Automated timesheets are then updated in Tanda and its seamless integration with payroll ensures staff are paid correctly, in half the usual time. Tanda’s full platform for Workforce Success includes: Customisable employee onboarding One-touch intelligent rostering with 5-point compliance check Time and attendance with facial detection Leave management Compliant Award interpretation for over 35 industry awards and the ability to build in EBA’s on request Payroll integrations with all top payroll solutions A mobile solution for employees to view rosters, apply for leave and offer to fill vacant shifts. Simplify your staff management and make more informed business decisions based on demand data with Tanda. To find out more, email info@tanda.co, ring 1 300 859 117, or send us a message. Have you streamlined the process for onboarding new employees? We’ve added an online paperless employee onboarding feature which is completely automated to our platform. This new feature is completely customisable, and integrates with your existing software. Check out the online demo here, where you can test drive this onboarding feature online – no sign up required!