How to Calculate a Time Card

Welcome to the online software manual for the Spectrum Time Card Calculator. This document is designed to explain how to calculate time cards using the Spectrum Time Card Calculator.

If you have only just purchased and installed the software on your Windows 2000 (or better) computer, please refer to the software registration section below.

To learn more about the Spectrum Time Card Calculator, or to purchase to use on your own computer, click Time Card Calculator Software.

1.0: Setting Defaults

1.01: How to Set the Payroll Period

1. Set the payroll period start date by clicking on a date within the calendar and pressing the "Set Payroll Start" button.
2. Set the payroll period end date by clicking on a date within the calendar and pressing the "Set Payroll End" button.

1.02: Set the First Day of the Workweek

The first day of the workweek is typically Sunday for most firms, but it can be any day that you specify and stick to. Weekly and bi-weekly payroll periods will use a "Payroll Start" date that is the same day of the week as the first day of the workweek.

1.03: First Day of Week for Semi-Monthly Payroll

To calculate payroll for semi-monthly payroll periods, you must enter time worked by an employee - for the whole workweek. For example, suppose that your "First Day of Workweek" is a Sunday, and you are figuring semi-monthly payroll for the period from Wednesday, 4/15/2009 to Thursday, 4/30/2009. You would need to enter all shifts starting on Sunday, 4/12/2009 through the end of the pay period.

When calculating, the software will review the hours worked on Sunday, 4/12/2009, Monday and Tuesday and take those into consideration when determining if an employee goes into overtime on Wednesday, 4/15/2009 or later in the week. Those first three days three days would have been paid in the previous pay period, and will not be included in the totals. They will only be reviewed.

1.04: How to Round Time to Nearest 5,6 or 15 Minutes

• Click on the "No Time Rounding" radio button if you don't want to use time rounding.
  
  When you do this, the "Shift Start" and "Shift End" time selection controls will look like the the following.
  
  
  
  
• Click on the "Round to 5 Minutes" radio button to round to the nearest 5 minutes.
  The "Shift Start" and "Shift End" time selection controls will then look like the following.
  
  
  
  
• Click on the "Round to 6 Minutes" radio button to round to the nearest 6 minutes.
  The "Shift Start" and "Shift End" time selection controls will then look like the following.
  
  
  
  
• Click on the "Round to 15 Minutes" radio button to round to the nearest 15 minutes.
  The "Shift Start" and "Shift End" time selection controls will then look like the following.
  
  
  
  

1.05: Configuring for California Overtime Regulations

2.0: Adding Time Cards

1. Within the calendar, click on the date for a time card shift start time.
2. Within the "Hours Type" control, select one of Regular, Vacation, Sick, Holiday, or Other.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Within the "Automatic Break Subtraction" drop-down list box, select the amount of unpaid break time you want automatically subtracted from each shift.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Within the "Shift Start" control, select the shift's starting hour. Eight O'Clock is used as an example here. AM or PM will be selected lager.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Within the "Shift Start" control, select the shift's starting minute.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Within the "Shift Start" control, select whether the start time was AM or PM.
   
   
7. Redo steps 4-6 for within the "Shift End" control for the shift's end time. Be sure to select the correct value for "AM" or "PM".
8. Click on the "Add Shift" button to add the shift to the time sheet list control at the top of the program. Calculations will be done later.
   
   
9. Repeat steps 4-8 until you have added all shifts. You can press the "Increment Day" button to quickly advance the calendar to the next calendar day.
   
   

3.0 Removing Incorrect Time Cards / Removing All Time Cards

4.0 Calculating Payroll

After you do this, the time sheet list control at the top of the program will display each shift along with its calculated values, as seen below.

Additionally, the "Totals" section will hold summary calculations as see below.



If all you need are an employee's gross paid hours and hours type totals, you can stop here.

5.0 Generating a Payroll Report

1. Enter the employee's name in the "Name" input box at the right of the application.
2. Enter the employee's hourly pay rate in the "Pay Rate" input box.
3. Click on the "Generate Payroll Report" button.

6.0: Software Registration

After you install the program on your workstation's hard disk, you must register it before you can use it. Registration is performed online.

To register your software, do the following:

1. Click the "Register Software" button.
2. Enter the serial number that we emailed you into the "Serial Number" input box.
3. Press the "Register over the Internet" button.
4. If your serial number is valid for the computer you are installing the software on, you will receive a registration key that you can enter in the "Registration Key" input box.
5. Click the "OK" button
6. Restart the program.

Additional Helpful Information