Konetix’s TimeCentre 2000E tracks employees via the Web

BOULDER — It looks like the good old days of buddy punching, coming in late and scrolling through your supervisor’s computer files might be over.

Konetix Inc., a Boulder company, has created TimeCentre, a Windows-based product that tackles time, attendance and labor-tracking problems by streamlining the time-keeping process into a software program. With a click of a mouse, TimeCentre calculates cost information, produces time-card and management reports and exports to payroll.

What this means is that businesses can more accurately project and, therefore, minimize their costs, as well as ensure security in their buildings and on their computers. It also means that employees have to be on time. 22

“The system is great for those companies that need to keep track of their employees,´ said Mary Ruskusky, Konetix marketing director. “The data goes directly to a centralized computer that can automatically log whether the employee is union or whether he or she gets overtime. Then the information is exported to payroll, saving companies time and cost in figuring out employee payroll records.”

Some of the labor tracking methods — punch clocks, fingerprint recognition, bar-code scanners — look more like futuristic controls from Mission Impossible than merely capturing employee data. Fingerprint recognition, for instance, is used not only at secured office entrance ways, but also on a computer mouse, which reads thumbprints as a password for accessing a computer. These methods not only ensure security, but save businesses time and money.

“We used to use time clocks and had to manually calculate paychecks,´ said Kevin Eldredge, director of corporate affairs at Denver’s K-M Concessions Inc., which handles visitor services to zoos and /aquariums. “Now the system does all the work, and the chance of errors is eliminated.”

And by using time and attendance data, companies keep track of employees at remote locations, as well as run management reports, project budgets and look at employees individually, by departments and by specific jobs. Systems for 25 employees or fewer cost $595 for the hardware and software. Enterprise systems can range up to a couple hundred thousand dollars for large corporations.

Chipsea Greenhouse in Broomfield has “saved a great deal of money” using TimeCentre to generate management reports that determine the number of hours spent on specific jobs. The company also uses its employee data to determine projects in the future.

“By looking at the data, we can figure out how much it costs to do a job with manual labor vs. doing it with a machine,´ said Carol Urling, Chipsea’s information systems accounting manager. “This way we don’t waste money on a machine that might end up being less cost-efficient.”

Konetix was founded by Lester Karplus in 1985, although Karplus had the idea in the back of his mind for years. He now employs 32 people at its Boulder office on Airport Boulevard at expects revenues to reach $5.5 million this year.

As a business consultant, Karplus ran into companies that were constantly looking for an efficient means to track their labor costs.

“My clients kept asking about automating labor data,” Karplus said. “When the technology became available in the early 1990s, I saw the opportunity and took it.”

Six years later, thousands of businesses from law firms to universities to telecommuters use Karplus’ system to track the allocation of labor costs.

For instance, instead of calling into the office every time a home health-care worker arrives and leaves a patient, the worker merely calls a computer that logs the information. Construction crews in remote locations can use a bar-code scanner to show hours logged in at different job sites. All companies can use log-in systems that enable a supervisor to notice at the end of the week what employees are approaching overtime and send them home early, saving money in the budget.

“One of the benefits is that a company can see where expenses are going ahead of time, and cut back on them before it’s too late,” Ruskusky said.

The newest Konetix product, TimeCentre2000E, handles product distribution through the Internet. A company can use its Web browser to access the latest software updates and upgrades.

The system also allows large companies or organizations to keep track of people and jobs through their computer system, permitting supervisors to access employee data through their own terminals.

Though mostly catering to U.S. and Canadian companies, Konetix serves clients in Australia, Malaysia and Europe and has provided TimeCentre solutions for the city of Taos and Washington, D.C. Demonstrations of TimeCentre are available at www.konetix.com. Konetix is a privately funded company.

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