Telephone Timekeeping System for Mac Mini

[jblagden]

My uncle has a small cleaning business and he uses a telephone timekeeping system so he can easily keep track of employees clocking and out. He would like to be able to replace the one he's got as it's been having issues recently and it's 15 years old. He would like a Mac-based one as his current timekeeping system is running on a Windows based IBM clone. His current timekeeping system's hardware consists of a PCI card which has phone line ports on it. He would like to be able to have two phone lines for it to prevent busy signals when a lot of employees are clocking in and out. Either USB, Firewire or maybe Thunderbolt interfaces/connectors are preferable to PCI/PCIE because it they don’t require a $2500-3000 Mac Pro, and instead can be run a $600 Mac Mini. Also, the ability to receive no-show alerts by email is critical, that way my uncle can arrange for that job to be taken care of by someone else if the person who normally does that job doesn't show up.

 

[opinio]

Why does the system need to operate via modem/s over the telephone line through old fashion dialing? Can't it operate over the internet?

 

[G4er?]

So employees call in when they arrive at job sites and call in when they leave jobs sites correct? Computer program records time of calls by employee phone numbers.

If you don't find anything you could consider something like Hindsite but you have to use smart phones for it.

http://hindsitesoftware.com/

I have no stake in Hindsite or any other brand of service like this. Company I work for uses it for the service techs.

 

[jblagden]

Correct

Yeah, that's right. A computer timekeeping system is a great way of keeping track of the number of hours employees actually worked, and it can be used from any phone.

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My uncle won't be able to use something like Hindsite due to the smartphone requirement. His employees are only part-time, and most of them just have basic phones, if that. Otherwise, they'll just use the phones which are at the job site. So, thanks anyway.

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The other thing is that he wants a local timekeeping system, not a cloud-based one. Although the trouble is that it's really hard to find that kind of a system because most of the timekeeping systems are cloud-based. That's why I began this thread. I was hoping someone might know of a local timekeeping system.

 

[Schnort]

Maybe consider using a service, rather than buying hardware?

10 minutes of googling showed me a few options that were in the $30/mo range.

 

[jblagden]

Local Only

Maybe consider using a service, rather than buying hardware?

10 minutes of googling showed me a few options that were in the $30/mo range.

Again, my uncle only wants a local timekeeping system. Also, the extreme difficulty in finding a local option nowadays is precisely why I started this thread.

 

[sergiobaschi]

You might have more success in other sections of this forum, as this isn't a Mac Mini related question.

 

[Schnort]

Yeah, this is such a niche product none of us are going to be able to help you any more than google can, though maybe finding a quickbooks forum or a small business forum would be useful to finding leads.

 

[sergiobaschi]

I'm not saying that the forum's members aren't able to answer this question, just that it isn't a Mac Mini specific question. Hence, the answer might be found in other parts of this forum.

 

[opinio]

If you like the old system but want to run it on a Mac mini you could always run windows in boot camp or Parallels and then the old system from it. I am guessing you would just need to add a USB modem or two.

 

[Schnort]

If the system is really 15 years old, that puts it back at windows 98 or win2k timeframe, just when USB was beginning to come about.

Who knows if the software he's got can run in xp/vista/windows7, whether or not the PCI modem card is really AT compliant and everything is done through the standard TAPI.

But it might be fun to try. A usb voice modem seems to be available for $20-ish dollars.

Still seems like a waste of money, though, to use a mac mini. Just get a beater resale computer from Salvation Army/Good will and use that. $50 and done.

 

[CH12671]

Well, 15 year old technology is probably the only thing that is going to drive a 15 year old idea..