Overview

 

            We are start up company that has been around for over a year.  We chose Amazone.com has our business name to tailgate amazon.com’s success and it has worked for the past year.  We wouldn’t omit it openly.  We sell numerous items, which includes clothes and jewelry.  We decided not to sell books for legal reasons.

            Time cards have become a major issue for our company.  An old system using time cards has caused late and inaccurate checks.  We devised a plan to make time sheets web based for all departments.  This includes sales, shipping and receiving, administration, and customer service.  All departments will use the new system to maintain consistency through out the organization.  The sponsor has given us the task of implementing the new system by the end of the 3^rd quarter.

Solution

Employees will be able to access their time sheets from any computer that has Internet access.  A username and password will be needed to enter the site.  A menu will be displayed once the identity of a user is confirmed.  The user will have the option of viewing reports, entering their work hours and changing personal information.

The report menu will have several options for the user.  The first option will be viewing past paychecks.  This information will be the same as the information that is actually on their paycheck.  To make the change less drastic we will mimic the user’s paycheck stub as close as possible.  Users will be able to see all deductions, vacation accrual, and actual pay.  We would like to be able to have users view their paycheck information for the last year but this will be determined by the database limitations.

Another report available will be a paycheck calculator.  This will be used so the user can see how their paycheck would change if they added deductions or received a raise.  Also it will determine how much overtime the user would have to work in order to make a certain figure because everyone loves to put in those extra hours.  The sales department may not have this option because commission sales vary and it would be too intricate to maintain. 

Personal information can be viewed or changed via the web page.  This information would be employee’s address, phone #, emergency contact, and deductions.  This information would be an added benefit to using the web base timesheet.  No HR hours would be needed to change or collect this information because the user would be able to do it at anytime.

There will also be a two tiered management option.  (Tier I and Tier II)  Tier II is for managers to print reports for direct subordinates.  These reports will be used for budgeting and help determine where extra manpower is needed.  Mangers will be able to get detail on one or all of their subordinates.  The detail will include total hours worked and salaries.  The output will be in spreadsheet format so it can be sorted to any preference using a spreadsheet program like Excel.

The tier I option will allow higher managers to view hours and pay for whole departments.  It will forecast the manpower deficits or excesses by total hours worked.  Neither the tier I or II option will be available over the Internet because of security issues.  All management options will only be available via the Intranet.

Entering work hours will be in spreadsheet format.  Spaces will be provided for start time, stop time, and lunchtime.  Total time for the day will automatically be calculated and provided to the right of the start and stop time.  Columns will be given for a two week period.  The option will be given to add more columns if needed.  Also to the right of the total time for the day will be a drop down menu for pay codes.  These will be three digit codes to determine the type of pay the user is receiving.  Three digit codes will be made as easy to understand as possible.  For example, the code for holiday pay will be HOL.  In turn, the code for sick pay will be SIC. 

            At the end of the pay period the user’s manager will be notified whose paycheck information is complete.  The manager will be able to enter a management option that allows them to approve, disapprove, or alter timesheets.  The manager will also be informed whose timesheet information is incomplete.  With this information the manager can remind the employee to enter their information or approve information with default values.  The default values will be 40 hours worked.  It would be in the employees’ best interest to complete their timesheets so that no overtime is delayed. 

Alternate Solution

            In the event of a failure in the new system an email based system will be implemented.  Everyone will be given a time sheet template in Excel.  This will have the same information as the web based system.  This spreadsheet will be emailed to their direct manager.  The manager will review the hours worked and forward the spreadsheets to hrtimesheet@amazone.com.  This alternative should rarely be used because the goal is to have the web based system operational for over 95% of the time.  All information from the spread sheet will be added to the database used for the web based system.