TimeForce: a powertool, but only if your company is small, simple, and US-based
February 22, 2014
TimeForce: a powertool, but only if your company is small, simple, and US-based
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
TimeForce (legacy)
Modules Used
- General time and absence
Overall Satisfaction with iSolved Time (formerly TimeForce)
We are a global company headquartered in the US and currently we are using TimeForce for our subsidiary in the Philippines for a 400+ mostly hourly employee population.
For that location, we required a time tracking setup with a biometric clock (purchased from Infinisource) and software able to calculate time worked, time off, shift premiums, and lunch breaks. It needed to be flexible enough to accommodate needs of different departments and frequent policy changes. TimeForce addressed those business needs.
For that location, we required a time tracking setup with a biometric clock (purchased from Infinisource) and software able to calculate time worked, time off, shift premiums, and lunch breaks. It needed to be flexible enough to accommodate needs of different departments and frequent policy changes. TimeForce addressed those business needs.
- Flexibility. Schedule templates can be created at departmental level and managers can be made responsible for maintaining schedules rather than HR. Time entries can be edited on multiple levels (punches or total hours worked). New security groups can be easily added anytime.
- Reporting Power. TimeForce provides a significant number of standard reports for HR, manager and audit purposes.
- Import Utility. It is very easy to update the system with new employment-related data through by importing .csv documents through TF Import Utility.
- No Sandbox/Test tenant/Redirect. All changes happen in the live database, and from what I have seen, they are not reversible. Admins cannot log in as somebody else without resetting their password.
- Hardware Issues. In our case, biometric clocks used for live punches kept disconnecting for no apparent reason. This problem affected all four clocks that we purchased from Infinisource (they may not be the manufacturers, though, but just the distributors), and they were losing connection to the server one by one or all at once. Our IT and TF tech support working together were not able to determine the problem source.
- Inconsistent Update Quality. Oftentimes, system updates affected out setup: punches stopped coming, employees lost visibility of their timecards, admins were not able to run payroll reports, etc. TF would not notify us about known issues and it normally takes them several days to issue a patch or roll back an update.
- Tech Support. We rely on our consultant for professional advice even after we completed the implementation and transitioned to the support queue. If we contact the service center, most of the time we do not get quality advice. Online chat support is even less knowledgeable and answers only basic questions. Also, because of the tech support business hours and time difference, our Philippine colleagues cannot really use this service.
- TimeForce increased visibility to the actual hours our employees work. The implementation helped us to reevaluate our HR policies to account for the business needs.
- Before TF we used Excel spreadsheets, so implementing the system freed up some HR time and increased managers' responsibility for keeping track of employee hours.
- Disconnecting time clocks and post-update issues are our biggest pain point, setting out management to start looking around for an alternative system. As customizable as TF is, this cannot offset the reliability problems.