Tanda Blog: Product Updates

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.

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!

Renée Mellish

31 January 2019    |   

Creating rosters using templates is great because in one click you have an entire roster worth of shifts. But even with templates, there are still a bunch of edits that you have to make after it is applied, for example: swapping out staff who are now on leave or unavailable, assigning staff to vacant shifts, etc. Today, we are introducing Smart Templates, a way to apply a template and have the best staff assigned to vacant shifts at the same time. You can start using Smart Templates today, by clicking the Apply Smart template option in your template menu on rosters. How it works: 1. Start by creating a template that has the coverage you know you need for the week, e.g. you know you need 3 people in the bar on Saturday night and 1 person to always be on the front desk. Note: Only vacant shifts will get adjusted so if you have shifts you don’t want to be altered just make sure those have staff assigned. 2. Apply your smart template. 3. When a template is applied any vacant shifts will have staff assigned automatically using the Tanda’s Cognitive algorithm. The algorithm works like this: Look at all the vacant shifts in the template across the week Avoid adding users with clashing shifts/leave/unavailability Avoid breaking roster validation rules Assign a cost-effective team Aim for fairness by spreading out shifts Read more: What’s new in Tanda — January 2019 FAQ Does it assign staff to shifts on a day by day basis (mon-sun) or does it look across the entire week? The way the algorithm works is it looks for the best combinations across the entire week at once, rather than doing it day by day and making the choices for available staff on the last day the least favourable. If I have shifts in my template that already have staff assigned i.e. full timers, part timers but those staff are on leave when I apply the template will those shifts be swapped out? At this stage no, only shifts that are left vacant will be filled – but we plan on making this part of a future version of smart templates.

Jess Golding

24 January 2019    |   

Breaks are an important part of the workday. They allow employees to take a rest, get food and drink, and gain energy for the rest of the shift so they can come back focussed and ready to work. Tracking breaks can be important for businesses too; for compliance, to ensure you’re paying your staff correctly, and to make sure staff are taking the right amount of breaks. Introducing paid breaks As we roll out a new Tanda Timeclock that helps users to clock multiple breaks, we are introducing the beginning of an exciting new feature: paid breaks. This means you’ll be able to track every break your staff takes through Tanda. Change a break in timesheets Managers can now assign a break in Tanda as either paid or unpaid in the employee’s timesheet. Tanda treats these breaks as normal working time; the employee will continue to be paid their relevant rate through the paid break time: Now you’ll have an accurate representation of exactly when your staff is taking breaks, as well as which are paid or unpaid. For employees, this means they’ll get paid accurately for the time they work. With the new Tanda Timeclock, tracking all breaks in one spot is quick and easy. Coming soon: automatic paid breaks Enabling paid breaks in timesheets is just the beginning. We are working hard to deliver you an automated solution to break in the coming months, meaning breaks will correctly appear in the timesheets as paid or unpaid. We always endeavour to build the best features possible for our clients. To do this, we find user feedback and testing invaluable. If you’re interested in being a beta tester for automated paid breaks you can sign up for early access via our Beta Program.

Renée Mellish

22 January 2019    |   

This January many new features have been released to help you better plan, execute and review shifts.  Auto-approval of shifts on timesheets Approving shifts just got faster! Shifts without variances can now be automatically approved to save managers time when checking and approving timesheets. ⚡️ A shift can be auto-approved when the rostered times match the clocked times. Shifts with variances won’t be auto-approved, and any auto-approved shift can be adjusted. Learn more about Auto-approved Shifts or turn it on now. See all roster changes with Roster Edit History Have complete oversight over your rosters with the new Roster Edit History. Any changes made from the 3rd of January will be tracked. Multiple managers can confidently work on the same roster. See exactly Who made the change What the change was What time the change was made Make roster changes in the mobile app As plans change you can make roster changes on the fly with the Tanda mobile app. Within the app you can edit the following shift information: Date Times Location and team Add or remove a shift detail All changes will published, and a notification will be sent to staff so they’re aware of any changes to their roster. Improved Time and Attendance with the new Time Clock To make tracking time and attendance easier and more precise we’ve update the Time Clock. The new and improved Time Clock features a bunch of improvements: A new redesign Clock breaks with break buttons Portrait & Landscape Orientation Smart shift status Facial detection Easier device reporting The new Time Clock will be released on the 29th of January, 2019. Checkout our help article for more detail on this Time Clock update. Break Editor in My Tanda When employees clock multiple breaks you can specify which of those breaks were paid and unpaid. Custom Events and Blackout periods You can now add custom events to your schedule to help cater for demand and communicate blackout periods to your staff. Events can be flagged as a ‘blackout’ to discourage staff from applying for time-off on that day. Gain actionable insights Have you ever found it difficult to gain honest, actionable feedback from front-line staff? With Shift Feedback you can collect actionable insights from your staff to improve daily operations and employee engagement. How Shift Feedback works: Staff submit feedback through their Tanda mobile app Admins and Managers receive a weekly email with the feedback Learn more about Shift Feedback or turn it on now Coming soon Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming soon to Tanda Timesheets in the mobile app – employees will be able to view their clocked times in the app Shift Replacements in MyTanda –  manage replacement requests on desktop Break status – showing employees how long they have been on their break in the mobile app

Brod Gaggi

15 January 2019    |   

Today we’re excited to announce the upcoming release of a newly redesigned Tanda Employee Time Clock. Addressing the problem of recording accurate employee Time and Attendance is core to ensuring we service you, our customers. This is why, on the 29th of January 2019, an update to both iOS and Android will be released on the respective app stores. Any update from the app stores from the 29th of January onwards will download this new Time Clock. The new Time Clock features a bunch of improvements that are expanded upon below: A new redesign Clock breaks with break buttons Portrait & Landscape Orientation Smart shift status Facial detection Easier device reporting To get this new Time Clock now – download the Beta on both Android and iOS. Redesign New colours, new design and some obvious layout changes have been perfected and refined for this new Time Clock. A zappy keypad now sits on a deep navy background that ripples blue waves to the rounded edge of each button. Successful entry opens a vibrant and compact user interface that pops with judicious colours. A thin-blue timer encapsulates the ‘close’ button and indicates when the Time Clock screen times out – gleefully sliding all contents away. Employee’s information is smartly displayed within the shift card and clocked times are swiftly populated upon each action. This is the Time Clock of the future. Get Beta versions now. Clock Breaks with Break Buttons The Time Clock will automatically show/hide break buttons based on the Settings enabled in your My Tanda account. If your My Tanda account doesn’t allow staff to clock breaks – your Time Clock will display just ‘Clock in’ and ‘Clock out’ buttons automatically. Read more on Displaying Break Buttons or our blog post on the release of multi-breaks. See it in action below: Portrait & Landscape Orientation Dock your tablet in whatever orientation suits. The new Time Clock will dock and send photos in portrait, landscape and even upside-down (charging ports are sometimes in funky spots). All features will work as expected. Smart Shift Status Knowing what stage of a shift you’re in helps Timesheet reporting and accuracy. That’s why we’ve made the Time Clock smarter in detecting a shift status (whether it’s started, on a break, near completion) to automatically render the correct button action. This will go a long way in answering common questions staff have: what button should I press? was I on a break or already clocked in? how long was the break I just took? and providing instant clarity during a shift. Facial Detection Making sure the correct staff are at work at the correct time is important for your business. Equally important is making sure the correct staff are clocking in. As an introduction for much cooler things to come, both iOS and Android support facial detection on the Time Clock. Device Reporting We want our customers to successfully manage their business, not their Tanda accounts. That’s why we’ve made reporting device information about your Time Clock as simple and as fast as  possible to Tanda Support and technical staff to help us assist you debug any issues. Read more about how to Send Device Info to Tanda. The Wrap This new Time Clock will provide quicker clarity to employees throughout their shift and help support the entire shift cycle. Users on Android 5.0+ and iOS Devices 9.0+ can download the Beta version right now and get clocking in. The Time Clock will be released in full for everyone on January 29th 2019 – to prepare for this release. Ensure you have: Your 8 digit setup code or login details prepared All pending clock ins sent prior to updating Read the FAQ If you have any questions, please contact support@tanda.co.