SwipeClock

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SwipeClock is a server computer program that is used by payroll service bureaus on the "back end" to provide employee timekeeping services to their clients. This program provides a web interface for remote input of employee attendance information, and a dial-up connection for a modem-based physical time clock which employees can use to "punch in" to work. The time clock looks like a standard credit card machine, no different than what one might see at a grocery store, with some customized programming or modification to make it act like a time clock.

While the software appears to be used by tens and perhaps hundreds of small payroll firms who refer to the software by its original name (a simple Google search turns up a list of them [1]), it is also licensed in numerous private-label versions whereby the operator comes up with their own name for the service and sells it as though it were their own. Branded names of this software found on the Internet include "AutoTime", "Accutyme", "SwipeTime", "pro-I-time", or often even just generically, the XYZ Payroll Company's timekeeping service (as an example). Therefore, a significant but perhaps indeterminate number of people use the SwipeClock software without even knowing it. It would best be identified by a screen shot, since the interface looks mostly the same no matter what it's called.

The SwipeClock software is operated by the company who makes it as an application service provider rather than sold, however they run it at numerous URL's on behalf of their payroll company partners, typically without any reference to the name of the software or the people who make it. As an example, a non-descript website running the SwipeClock software can be found at http://payrollservers.us, which is linked to by several of the websites found on Google to be operating the software.

[edit] Time clock appliance

As the name of the software suggests, a significant reason for using this software is the bundled credit-card-machine time clock that is available for it. Installing the clock is fairly simple - it connects to a regular telephone landline and receives its setup over the phone, and then dials out nightly to a server at a toll-free number to transmit each day's activity.

A button is also available that makes the clock transmit its data immediately. In fact, this is simply the credit card machine's number 9 key that is overlaid with a plastic stick-on template to label the button "transmit". The transmit takes about one or two minutes, and any transmitted activity appears on the appropriate SwipeClock-based's Internet page within a minute or so of being transmitted. On the site, the records can be manipulated by managers, missing punches corrected, and reports printed. The payroll service bureau operating the site can retrieve the data afterwards, and use it to calculate the correct check amounts for payday.

According to SwipeClock's FAQ on their web site [2], it is possible to reprogram credit card machines not obtained from them. The specific compatible brands cited are the VeriFone Tranz 330 and Tranz 380, which are technically obsolete models that are available very cheaply from numerous sources including online auctions.

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