Employee time entry and accounting system

What is claimed is:

1. A time and attendance system comprising:

a plurality of supervisor identification cards respectively assigned to a plurality of supervisors, wherein each of the cards contains coded information uniquely identifying the card as being assigned to a single supervisor;

a plurality of employee identification cards respectively assigned to a plurality of employees, wherein each of the employee identification cards contains coded information uniquely identifying the card as being assigned to a single employee;

at least one time clock having a display screen, a plurality of buttons and a card reader, the time clock configurable between a closed state and an open state, wherein the time clock enters the open state only in response to reading an authorized one of the supervisor identification cards, and the time clock generates a set of data signals in the open state in response to reading one of the employee identification cards;

a computer, receiving the signals from the time clock, configured to store information indicative in part of the data signals generated by the time clock;

a first number of data structures associated with the computer and containing information directed to the employee identified in said one employee identification card; and

means, associated with the computer and responsive to said indicative information, for providing changes to data structures defining employee payroll or benefits information in response to signals from the time clock relating to the employee identified in said one employee identification card.

2. The time and attendance system of claim 1, wherein the coded information on the supervisor identification cards and on the employee identification cards comprise information encoded in a bar code.

3. The time and attendance system of claim 1, wherein the computer transmits an authorization signal to the time clock to enter the open state after one of the authorized supervisor identification cards has been read.

4. The time and attendance system of claim 1, wherein the set of data signals include signals indicative of an employee clocking in and clocking out of work, and the time at which the employee clocked in and out of work.

5. The time and attendance system of claim 4, wherein the time clock displays a message on the display screen indicating that the employee has a predefined status in response to receiving a status signal from the computer indicating that the status of the employee is one of a plurality of predefined statuses.

6. The time and attendance system of claim 5, wherein the predefined statuses includes on leave of absence.

7. The time and attendance system of claim 4, wherein the supervisor sends additional information about the employee to the computer by depressing the buttons on the time clock in response to the computer requesting additional information from the time clock.

8. The time and attendance system of claim 7, wherein the supervisor approves overtime pay for the employee by depressing one of the plurality of buttons causing the time clock to send a first approval signal to the computer, whereupon the computer then stores the supervisor's approval in memory.

9. The time and attendance system of claim 7, wherein the supervisor approves the employee working in a new time clock zone by depressing one of the plurality of buttons causing the time clock to send a second approval signal to the computer, whereupon the computer stores the supervisor's approval in memory.

10. The time and attendance system of claim 7, wherein the computer signals the time clock for approval from the employee to being dismissed from work early and upon the employee signifying his approval by depressing one of the plurality of buttons, the computer then stores the employee's approval in memory.

11. The time and attendance system of claim 4, wherein the supervisor sends a signal to the computer indicating that he has assigned the employee to work a shift at a new job by depressing one of the plurality of buttons on the time clock whereupon the computer stores the hours worked by the employee in its memory as having been worked at the new job.

12. The time and attendance system of claim 4, wherein the supervisor sends a signal to the computer indicating that he has assigned an employee to work a shift for a special event by depressing one of the plurality of buttons on the time clock whereupon the computer stores the hours worked by the employee in memory as having been worked for the special event.

13. The time and attendance system of claim 1, wherein the computer periodically updates the information contained within a second number of data structures with the information contained within the first number of data structures.

14. The time and attendance system of claim 13, further comprising a file server having access to both the first number of data structures and the second number of data structures.

15. The time and attendance system of claim 14, wherein the first number of data structures contains information received from the time clock about each of the employees who have clocked in or out.

16. The time and attendance system of claim 15, wherein the second number of data structures contains information about each employee including the hours worked during a current pay period, the pay rate for the hours worked and the job performed by the employee for the hours worked.

17. The time and attendance system of claim 13, further comprising a payroll system having access to the information within the second number of data structures within the memory of the computer and which uses the information stored within the second number of data structures to generate payroll checks for the employees.

18. The time and attendance system of claim 1, further comprising a time keeping personal computer having access to at least a portion of the information in the memory of the computer, enabling the time keeping personal computer to be used to update information contained within the data structures.

19. The time and attendance system of claim 18, wherein the time keeping personal computer generates reports in response to selected parameters using the information contained in the memory of the computer.

20. The time and attendance system of claim 1, wherein the computerized time clock is further configured to permit the supervisor to clock the employee in and out of work by only depressing the plurality of buttons.

21. The time and attendance system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises a plurality of computerized time clocks and at least one of the computerized time clocks is configured to be a meals time clock where the employees scan their identification cards when taking a meal in the cafeteria, and the computer records in memory that the employee has taken a meal.

22. A time and attendance system for a workplace having a plurality of workstations where a plurality of employees perform their assigned jobs, comprising:

a plurality of identification cards individually assigned to a plurality of employees, wherein each of the cards contains coded information specific to the employee assigned the card;

a plurality of time clocks having a card reader with each time clock being positioned at a location in the workplace which is adjacent to at least one of the employees' work stations, the time clock configurable between a closed state and an open state, wherein the time clock enters the open state only in response to reading an authorized one of the plurality of identification cards, and wherein, in response to reading one of the plurality of employee identification cards while in the open state, the time clock generates a set of data signals indicative of the information encoded on the employee identification card that was read;

a central computer having a memory which, in response to receiving the set of data signals from the time clock, stores information indicative of the time the identification cards were scanned;

a first number of data structures associated with the computer and containing information directed to the employee identified in said one employee identification card; and

means, associated with the computer and responsive to said indicative information, for providing changes to data structures defining employee payroll or benefits information in response to signals from the time clock relating to the employee identified in said one employee identification card.

23. The time and attendance system of claim 22 wherein the individually coded information on the cards is encoded in a bar code.

24. The time and attendance system of claim 22 wherein a first number of the identification cards are assigned to supervisors.

25. The time and attendance system of claim 24, wherein the computerized time clock moves from the closed state to the open state only after receiving an authorization signal from the computer indicating the supervisor is authorized to open the time clock.

26. The time and attendance system of claim 22, wherein the computerized time clock further includes a display screen for displaying messages in response to signals from the computer, and a plurality of buttons for transmitting additional information to the computer.

27. The time and attendance system of claim 26, wherein the set of data signals generated by the time clock includes a data signal indicative of an employee who has scanned his identification card to either clock in or clock out of work, the time at which the card was scanned and whether the employee is either clocking in or out.

28. The time and attendance system of claim 27, wherein the supervisor provides additional information to the computer by appropriately depressing at least one of the plurality of buttons on the time clock.

29. The time and attendance system of claim 28, wherein the additional information sent by the time clock is stored by the computer in a file for this employee in its memory.

30. The time and attendance system of claim 26, wherein the supervisor assigns the employee to work at a new job by depressing appropriate buttons on the time clock and the computer thereby stores the hours worked by the employee in memory as worked for the new job.

31. The time and attendance system of claim 26, further comprising a file server having access to information stored within a clock scan data structure, which periodically updates the information contained within a plurality of hours data structures with the information contained within the clock scan data structure.

32. The time and attendance system of claim 31, wherein the plurality of hours structures contains recorded information for each employee including the hours worked during a current pay period, the pay rate for the hours worked and the job performed by the employee for the hours worked.

33. The time and attendance system of claim 32, wherein the computer is configured to generate the information needed to issue payroll checks for the employees, wherein the payroll checks reflect the different pay rates associated with the different jobs assigned to the employee during a single pay period.

34. The time and attendance system of claim 25, wherein the time clock moves from the open state to the closed state in response to the supervisor who opened the clock, scanning his identification badge to close the clock.

35. The time and attendance system of claim 34, wherein the time clock, when in the open state, detects no activity for a pre-selected period of time, the time clock then automatically moves to the closed state and sends a signal to the computer that the time clock has automatically closed.

36. A time and attendance system for a workplace having a plurality of workstations where a plurality of employees perform their assigned jobs interactively accumulating and processing accounting information for hourly employees in a work place comprising:

employee identification means for individually identifying the employees in the work place;

supervisor identification means for individually identifying the supervisors in the work place;

time clock means, configurable between a closed state and an open state, remotely mounted in a plurality of locations in the workplace so that the time clock means are adjacent to at least one of the employee's work stations, for reading the employee identification means and thereby generating data signals indicative of when the employee identification means was read by the time clock means;

control means, connected to the time clock means for placing the time clock means into the open state upon the time clock means reading an authorized one of the supervisor identification means;

central computing means for storing information received from the time clock means, and for reviewing stored information to generate return signals to the time clock means and for generating payroll information and reports;

a first number of data structures associated with the computer and containing information directed to an employee identified by the employee identification means; and

means, associated with the computer and responsive to the generated data signals for providing changes to the data structures relating to an individual employer identified by the employee identification means read by the time clock means.

37. The time and attendance system of claim 36, wherein the employee identification means comprises a first plurality of encoded identification cards individually assigned to each of the employees in the work place.

38. The time and attendance system of claim 36, wherein the supervisor identification means comprises a second plurality of encoded identification cards individually assigned to each of the supervisors in the work place.

39. The time and attendance system of claim 36, wherein the time clock means comprises a computerized time clock having a display screen for displaying messages and a plurality of buttons for sending additional information to the central computing means.

40. The time and attendance system of claim 36, wherein the time clock means has a normally closed state and an open state and the time clock means only sends data signals to the central computer means when in the open state.

41. The time and attendance system of claim 36, wherein the time clock means moves between the closed state and the open state in response to reading a supervisor identification means.

42. The time and attendance system of claim 36, wherein said central computing means comprises a computer having a memory organized into a plurality of data structures containing files for each employee in the work place.

43. The time and attendance system of claim 40, wherein said central computer means, upon receipt of a signal from said time clock means indicating that an employee has either clocked into or out of work, determines whether any additional information is needed about this employee and sends an appropriate signal to the time clock means.

44. The time and attendance system of claim 43, wherein the supervisor enters the additional information using the plurality of buttons while the employee is at the time clock means prior to going to his assigned workstation.

45. The time and attendance system of claim 44, wherein the additional information comprises supervisor approval authorizing the employee to work in a time clock zone where the employee is not regularly assigned.

46. In a time and attendance system comprising a plurality of card reading time clocks having a card reader, configured to read a plurality of employee identification cards and a plurality of supervisor identification cards, and a central computer having a memory which receives signals from the plurality of time clocks, a method of interactively accumulating and processing accounting information for employees in a workplace comprising the steps of:

scanning one of the plurality of supervisor identification cards through the card reader;

opening the computerized time clock if the scanned supervisor identification card is authorized;

scanning one of the plurality of supervisor identification cards through the card reader;

retrieving selected data from the scanned employee identification card;

transmitting the selected data to the central computer;

storing information in the employee's file in the memory of the central computer so as to define payroll parameters for that employee; and

scanning the identification card assigned to the supervisor through the card reading device attached to

the computerized time clock to close the computerized time clock.

47. The method according to claim 46, further comprising the step of verifying that the supervisor is authorized to open the computerized time clock by referring to information stored in the memory of the computer.

48. The method according to claim 47, further comprising the steps of:

reviewing information about the employee stored in the memory of the computer;

determining what additional information is necessary about the employee;

displaying a message on a display screen connected to the computerized time clock requesting the information be entered; and

inputting the additional information by depressing at least one of a plurality of buttons mounted on the time clock.

Description Submit all comments and votes

MICROFICHE APPENDIX

A microfiche appendix containing computer source code is attached. The microfiche appendix comprises 4 sheets of microfiche having 189 frames, including one title frame.

The microfiche appendix contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the reproduction of such material, as it appears in the files of the Patent and Trademark Office, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a system for entering and accumulating information about individual employees for accounting and payroll purposes. In particular, the present invention is concerned with a system for permitting employees to clock in and out from work on remotely located card reading time clocks, which are interactively connected to a central computer, and which are capable of displaying messages generated by the central computer.

2. Description of the Related Technology

The traditional manner an employer records and accounts for the time its hourly employees work is by keeping a daily log of the hours that each employee is present at the workplace. The hours that an employee works per day are typically determined by recording the time at which the employee arrives and leaves the workplace. The completed log is then given to an accounting department to determine accumulated wages earned by each employee for a given pay period.

In many workplaces, the employee is responsible for keeping track of his or her own arrival and departure times. The employee typically logs their arrival and departure time on a time sheet and a supervisor then verifies that the logged times are indeed accurate. In this method, a supervisor has to review the time sheets on a regular basis to ensure their accuracy, which can become a burdensome task if the supervisor has a large number of time sheets to review.

As an alternative to handwritten log entries, a time clock is often used to record the arrival and departure times of each employee at the workplace. Typically the employee will "punch" a time card on arrival and departure from the workplace, the time clock thereby date and time stamps the time card. However, the time clock has its own disadvantages. The supervisor still has to review the punched time cards for each employee to verify that the employee worked the hours he punched. The time clock does not reduce the amount of paper work that must be transmitted to the accounting department for the ultimate good of preparing the employee's paycheck. Even with the time clock, an individual time card for each employee must be collected and delivered to the accounting department where the time data is manually input into either accounting ledgers or a computer system.

Furthermore, there is often only one time clock which is located at the employee's entrance or in a location where the employees don't actually work, e.g., in a lunch room or in a locker room. It often takes a significant amount of time for an employee to transit between the location of the time clock and their actual work station and, hence, employees are often paid for time that they did not actually work. From the employer's perspective, the money paid to the employee for such non-productive time is wasteful.

If the employer employs a large number of hourly employees, the amount of money paid for non-productive time can constitute a significant sum. Generally, the only way that the employer can minimize the amount of non-productive time is for the supervisors of the employees to require the employees be at their assigned posts as soon as possible after clocking in. This mandate, however, can result in poor relations between supervisors and employees. Further, the supervisor may end up spending an inordinate amount of time 1 attempting to get employees to their work stations when they could be performing other, more valuable, tasks.

Another problem with traditional time entry and accounting systems is that they are inflexible. Oftentimes any change in routine will require additional work by supervisors and a substantial amount of paper work. For example, in workplaces which employ many hourly workers performing different jobs, an employee hired and paid to perform one job may be asked to perform a different job during the course of a workday. In many cases, rules established by the employer through collective bargaining agreements, or in response to governmental regulations require that a worker performing a job different than the one they were originally hired to perform, be paid a different hourly wage. These changes can result in additional paper work for the supervisor who is authorizing the change as well as additional work for the accounting department who must change the accounting records accordingly. For example, the supervisor must approve of the transfer based on the qualifications of the worker, and inform the accounting department of the change and the hours worked so that the accounting department can properly adjust the employee's pay. The employee may be working for a different supervisor than usual. Hence, this new supervisor will also have to review the hours that the employee logged on a time sheet to verify the accuracy of the hours.

Similarly, in many workplaces where employees are working for different departments or on different projects, there may be a need to keep track of the amount of money that each of the various departments or projects are costing the company. Again, if an employee is working for a department or project other than the one to which they were originally assigned, or if an employee is working on a special project, extra paper work is generated so that the accounting department can account for the hours the employee works on a particular project.

A further disadvantage of prior timekeeping systems, and in large workplaces especially, is that interaction between the management and the employees at the beginning and end of shifts is limited. Clearly, the time when an employee is either arriving or leaving work is an ideal time to either pass information to or receive information from the employee. In some workplaces, the supervisor is required to be present at the time clock when the employee is logging in or out for just this purpose. However, even in these workplaces, the supervisor is unable to pass current information between the employee and management at that time as typically, the supervisor is out of contact with management. In very large companies, if management, or the accounting department, wishes to either pass information along to the employee or obtain information from the employee, the management must inform the supervisor a day in advance in order for the supervisor to be able to contact the employee.

Additionally, employers oftentimes provide their employees with an on-site cafeteria where the employees are permitted to purchase food and drinks during the course of the workday. Sometimes, the employers will provide a meal to the employees during the course of their working hours either for free or for a subsidized price. In certain companies, the employer will also permit the employee to pay for items purchased by having the aggregate amount taken out of their pay check at the end of the pay period. Oftentimes, the employee is only entitled to a meal if he is working a specific shift, or only when he has worked a requisite number of hours.

In these workplaces there is a need to account for the value of the items purchased or consumed by the employee. In traditional accounting systems, additional paper work must be generated to ensure that the proper amount is deducted from the paycheck of the employee, or to keep track of the number of meals that the employee has consumed. This paper work then must be interpreted by the accounting department and entered into the correct accounting ledger or computer so that the records are accurately maintained. In many workplaces providing such a service, the employee's supervisor must review the cafeteria records to ensure that the employee in his department or division was entitled to a meal in the cafeteria. This review of the cafeteria records can be yet another burdensome paper work task for the supervisor. Finally, the records generated in the cafeteria for each employee must then be transmitted to the accounting department for manual entry into either accounting ledgers or a computerized system.

Hence, a need exists for a timekeeping and accounting system that accounts for the hours that each employee has worked on any of multiple assignments, and the incidental items and expenses that an employee may have deducted out of his pay, e.g., meals etc. The system should prevent generation of many separate pieces of paper work for each individual employee, and the supervisor's concomitant review. There is also a need for a timekeeping system which more accurately reflects the actual amount of time the employee worked. Further, there is also a need for a timekeeping system which can pass and receive information to and from employees while the employee is either logging in or out. Finally, there is a need for an integrated accounting system which can be used to automatically generate accounting records for both employee attendance as well as for the fringe benefits provided by the employer such as cafeterias.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aforementioned needs are satisfied by the present invention which includes a timekeeping and accounting system comprised of an individualized identification card for each hourly employee, a plurality of card reading time clocks located near employee work stations, and a central computer which receives and stores data provided by the card reading time clocks. The computer can be used to generate pay checks and other employee related reports. The time clock also preferably receives signals from the computer, which cause the time clock to display messages display to the supervisor, and a means by which the supervisor can responsively input information about a specific employee. The information input by the supervisor may include authorization for the employee to work overtime, authorization to work and be paid for a different job, deductions for meals and the like.

One significant aspect of the present invention is that each of the time clocks only reads cards input by the employees after the time clock has been opened or enabled by the supervisor in charge of that specific area. This permits the supervisor to be present when the employee logs into and out of work thus enabling the supervisor to interact with the employee and also enabling the supervisor to verify that the hours logged by the employee are in fact accurate. Further, since the time clocks are equipped with additional input means, preferably in the form of switches and buttons, the supervisor can make on-the-spot authorizations for overtime and job changes as well as enter the employees time into specific accounting files within the central computer without reviewing or generating any additional paper work. Additionally, since the time clock is directly connected to the computer all the information entered at the time clock is directly entered into the correct computer file almost instantaneously without generating any additional paper work.

A further aspect of the present invention is that the card readers can be installed in cafeterias or like places. These card readers can then be configured to send a signal to the computer indicative of the meals consumed by the employee for accounting purposes. This provides an efficient system of accounting for these types of charges which does not require a tremendous amount of additional paper work.

These and other objects and features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top-level block diagram of one presently preferred time and attendance system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of a typical time clock of the time and attendance system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2a is a front plan view of a keypad panel of the typical time clock shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 3a is a front view of a typical identification badge configured to be used with the time clock shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 3b is a rear view of the identification badge shown in FIG. 3a;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the time and attendance system of FIG. 1 illustrating information flow in the time and attendance system of FIG. 1 as well as information storage and organization within the time and attendance system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an operational flow diagram illustrating file creation and maintenance in the time and attendance system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an operational flow diagram illustrating one method of updating the memory files in the computer of the time and attendance system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an operational flow diagram illustrating the interface between the time and attendance system of FIG. 1 and an external pay roll system;

FIG. 8 is an operational flow diagram illustrating the generation of reports by the time and attendance system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a top level flow diagram illustrating the basic operation of a time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 when employees are clocking into and out of work;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of a function performed by a time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 when an employee is clocking in while the time clock is performing the basic operation shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of a function performed by a time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 when an employee is clocking out;

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of a function performed by the time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 when a particular employee has changed job assignments for a specific work shift while the time clock is performing the basic operation shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram of a function performed by a time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 when a particular employee will be working for a special event for which a separate accounting record will be made while the time clock is performing the basic operation shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of a function performed by a time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 when the employee either clocks in or clocks out with or without his assigned identification badge shown in FIGS. 3a and 3b while the time clock is performing the basic operation shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of a function performed by a time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 as it evaluates whether specific exceptions requiring supervisor approval apply to the employee who has just clocked in or out while the time clock is performing the basic operation shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of a function performed by the time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 as it executes a CLOCK-OUT/NO CLOCK-IN EXCEPTION function called by the function of FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of a function performed by the time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 as it executes an INVALID ZONE EXCEPTION function called by the function of FIG. 15;

FIG. 18 is a flow diagram of a function performed by the time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 as it executes an OVERTIME EXCEPTION function called by the function of FIG. 15;

FIG. 19 is a flow diagram of a function performed by the time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 as it executes an EARLY OUT EXCEPTION function called by the function of FIG. 15;

FIG. 20 is a flow diagram of a function performed by the time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 as it executes a SUPERVISOR VERIFICATION function called by the function of FIG. 15; and

FIG. 21 is a top level flow diagram of a function performed by a meals time clock of the time and attendance system shown in FIG. 1 where an accounting record recording the meals eaten by the employee is updated.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference is now made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. The components of the time and attendance system, along with their basic operation will initially be described in the SYSTEM OVERVIEW Section. The description of the components of the time and attendance system will be followed by a description of the manner in which data is organized and accessed within the memory of the time and attendance system and how this data is then used in the TIME AND ATTENDANCE DATA ACCESS AND STORAGE Section. Finally, the operation of the programmable time clocks will be described in the TIME CLOCK OPERATION Section.

I. SYSTEM OVERVIEW

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic components of one presently preferred time and attendance system 100. The time and attendance system 100 includes a plurality of time clocks 101a and/or 101b located throughout the premises of the workplace, preferably adjacent to the location of the employees' work station. The workplace is thus preferably divided into distinct time clock zones so that employees working in a specific time clock zone clock in and out using a time clock 101 mounted in the time clock zone. In this preferred embodiment, the time clocks 101 include a programmable microprocessor, a card reader configured to read encoded identification cards, an internal clock system capable of keeping track of the current date and time, a display screen and a plurality of buttons. The time clocks 101 are also preferably capable of recording information, such as clock in and clock out times for multiple employees, transmitting this information to other components of time and attendance system 100 and receiving and displaying additional information provided by other components within the time and attendance system 100. In this preferred embodiment, the time clocks 101 are almost identical to the Model 9560A time clock manufactured by Intermec Corporation of Everett, Wash. with some modifications which are described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 below.

The time clocks 101 are either configured to be hardwired time clocks 101a or radio frequency (RF) time clocks 101b. The hard-wired time clocks 101a are mounted in positions in the workplace where they can be connected to the rest of the system 100 using standard communication wiring. The RF time clocks 101b, however, are typically mounted in locations in the workplace where it would be impractical to run communication wiring. For example, in a workplace where some of the employee work stations are in the middle of a large open space, it may be impractical to run communication wiring to a time clock 101 located therein due to the lack of a suitable surface for the wiring or conditions in the work space which might result in damage to the wiring. For example, in a large open space, floor mounted communication wiring may be inadvertently dislodged by persons walking across the floor. In these locations, the RF time clocks 101b are used to communicate with the rest of the time and attendance system 100 via a radio transmitter/receiver (not shown), such as a Model 9189 radio transmitter/receiver also manufactured by the Intermec Corporation, which is specifically configured to send and receive signals to and from the Model 6560 time clock. Note some of either the hard wired time clocks 101a or the RF time clocks 101b are located within cafeterias in the workplace. These clocks are programmed to send and receive information relating to employees' use of the cafeteria and their operation is described in greater detail below in reference to FIG. 21.

The hard-wired time clocks 101a are electrically connected to a series of concentrators 102a, such as an Intermec Model 9161 concentrator. Preferably, up to 16 time clocks 101a can be connected to a single concentrator 102a. The time clocks 101a preferably transmit and receive data from the concentrator 102a at 9600 baud using an RS-422 interface and a polling mode D protocol. The polling mode D protocol is a half duplex, solicited asychronous protocol more fully described in Section 3 of Intermec's "9560 Transaction Manager User's Manual". The polling mode D protocol permits one way communication between the concentrators 102a and one of the clocks 101 at any one time. Other communication rates, interfaces, and protocols can also be used to connect these devices.

The RF time clocks 101b transmit signals to, and receive signals from a series of concentrators 102b using RF signals in the band range of 906-924 Mhz. The concentrators 102b also include a radio frequency transmitter/receiver such as a Intermec Model 9181 transmitter/receiver. Further, to enhance communication between the concentrators 102b and the time clocks 101b, radio frequency repeaters such as Intermec Model 9183 repeaters are located throughout the workplace. Each of the time clocks 101b is assigned a specific band or series of bands within the aforementioned bandwidth and the concentrator 102b communicates with the time clocks 101b using the same polling mode D protocol described above.

The concentrators 102a and 102b are then connected to a computer 104 using standard communication wiring techniques and a well known communication interface such as RS-232. The computer 104 is preferably a VLX, CLX or Cyclone manufactured by Tandem Computer. The computer 104 receives and stores information from the time clocks 101 including data indicating when each employee has clocked in and out as well as other data from the time clocks 101 resulting from either a supervisor or an employee pushing the buttons mounted on the time clock 101.

The computer 104 processes this information and stores it into files for later processing. Such processing includes generating signals back to the time clocks 101 requiring supervisor approval of special work, and creating records for payroll and accounting purposes. The organization of data within the computer 104 is described in greater detail in reference to FIG. 4 below.

A personal computer (PC) 106, which is dedicated for information systems operations, is connected to the computer 104. The personal computer 106 is preferably a commercially available IBM compatible personal computer. The personal computer 106 is used by a system operator (not shown) to monitor and troubleshoot the operation of the time and attendance system 100 and to control various aspects of the system, such as enabling or disabling certain time clocks 101 at specific times. For example, in this preferred embodiment, each of the time clocks 101 are programmed to send signals to the computer 104 at selected intervals, e.g., 10 minutes, when the time clocks 101 are not in use, signalling that the time clocks 101 are on-line. The computer 104 is programmed to detect when a specific time clock 101 has not sent an on-line message to then display a message to the system operator on the personal computer 106 indicating that one of the time clocks 101 has gone off-line. At that point, the system operator can implement corrective action.

Also connected to the computer 104 are a series of personal computers 109 which are used by a timekeeping department 108 to keep track of the hours that have been logged by individual employees and to perform other accounting tasks. The computers 109 are similar to the com