Teams on Time Portal Mobile

Information. Support for Teams was introduced for the Windows Version of Time Portal Mobile in February, 2024 and then for the Android Version on March 20, 2024.  To learn how Teams are managed in the Time Portal Web App, please refer to the article Teams.

Purpose

The purpose of the Teams option is to allow for the splitting of pieces among a small group of workers.  A crate of apples, for example, may have been loaded by two people, who should each get credit for half of the crate.

Overview

"Teams" may be defined within the Time Portal web application, identified with a name such as "Team 5" and generally consist of two or three people who work together on piece jobs.  When the badge/barcode for a Team is scanned in the mobile app, the Add-Piece action is performed for each member of the Team.   This allows the scan of a Team barcode to split the piece count for each member of the Team.

Important. Team badge/barcodes may only be used for scanning Pieces and Weights.  Employees must Clock-in and Clock-out using their Employee badge/barcodes.

Assign Badges

Although Team Badges are usually created when Teams are formed in the back office, it is possible that a Team Badge is lost in the field.  If this occurs, the "Assign Badges" option, on the Home Screen can be used to assign a new badge to the Team. 

This new badge number will be saved to the Time Portal Web Site upon synchronization and can be subsequently retrieved by other Time Portal devices when they synchronize.

Once in the "Assign Badges" screen, notice the option titled "Teams" as illustrated below.  When turned off, the screen title is "Assign Employee Badges" and the screen provides options to assign badges to individual employees. 

As highlighted above, the Team Name for each worker is displayed between the Employee Number and Employee Name.  For example, Gerardo Guerrero is on the Team "Group B".  As always, you may tap on the "Assign Badge" or existing badge number to assign or change the employee badge.

After toggling the "Teams" option at the top right corner, the screen title will become "Assign Team Badges" and the screen provides options to assign badges to Teams.  When in this mode, the list can be set to include just the Teams with at least one employee for a crew or "Not Selected" to include all Teams, regardless of employee crew.

Type text into the Search box to filter the list and quickly find a particular Team.  Tap "Assign Badge" or an existing badge number to assign or change the Team badge.

Important. Barcodes/badge numbers can be assigned in the Time Portal web application or by using a device in the field as discussed above. Badge numbers assigned on the device will be transmitted to the Time Portal web application once the device has successfully synchronized.  Other devices can be updated with employee and team badge assignments by subsequently synchronizing with the Time Portal web application.

Scan Barcodes in Time Sheet Mode

Important. Team barcodes may be used when Adding Pieces and Adding Weights, but not when Clocking In or Clocking Out.

In Time Sheet mode, Time Portal will split the Piece Count among Team members who are currently clocked into a Piece Job.  If one Team member has been clocked out or clocked into an hourly job, for example, the Piece Count will be split among the other Team members.  An error message will be displayed if no Team members are clocked into a Piece Job.

The Scan History is shown at the bottom of the screen and can be expanded by tapping the button illustrated by the arrow, above.

Notice that the Scan History includes three entries for the Badge "T1", which was the barcode for a 3-person Team.  Since each line will have the same Time Stamp and Badge Number, it's easy to see what was entered by a single scan.  If a Piece Scan was performed by mistake, it can be deleted by tapping the "garbage can icon" at the right of any of the related items.  Doing so will remove all three scans.

Scan Barcodes in Punch Mode

Punch Mode allows for the collection of information in multiple devices and therefore does not perform data validation on any particular device since everything is sorted out by back-office personnel after data upload.  As mentioned previously, Team barcodes may be used when Adding Pieces and Adding Weights, but not when Clocking In or Clocking Out.

When a Team Barcode is scanned while Adding Pieces, Time Portal will simply split the piece count among Team Members without consideration of their current Job status.

As illustrated, the scan of a Team badge, when adding pieces, will identify the Team, the piece count, and the number of pieces credited to each member of the Team.

The Scan History is shown at the bottom of the screen and can be expanded by tapping the button illustrated by the arrow, above.

Notice that the Scan History includes four entries for the Badge "T001", which was the barcode for a 4-person Team.  Since each line will have the same Time Stamp and Badge Number, it's easy to see what was entered by a single scan.

If a Piece Scan was performed by mistake, it can be deleted by tapping the "garbage can icon" at the right of any of the related items.  Doing so will remove all four scans.

What happens when a Team Member is absent?

If a team member is absent, you may choose to manually adjust the piece count to a fractional value and then individually scan each present team member's badge to give them credit for the fractional value.  If only three people of a 4-person team are present, for example, you could set the Piece Count to 0.33 and then scan the badges of each of the 3-people.

Alternatively, you can scan the Team barcode and let Time Portal figure it out for you.  After all the devices have been synchronized/uploaded, the web application can determine that one or more of the Team Members were absent and will automatically re-allocate pieces to the members who are present. 

When scanning a Team Badge, for example, the device may credit each member of a 4-person team with 1/4 of the piece count since it does not know that one person was absent.  After uploading to the web site, and it is determined that only 3 team members were present, the missing person's 1/4 credit is distributed among each of the other team members, who end up with 1/3 (instead of 1/4) of the piece count.