Icon Time RTC1000 2.5 Universal Employee Time Clock

Overall: very easy to setup and use. I can tell that a lot of thought went into these time clocks to make them user-friendly and stable. This company is unusual in the realm of time clocks; I did a lot of research on competing products and companies and was very impressed by Icon's products and support, which tend to be lackluster in the world of time clocks. Most of the time clock companies today are going the route of online service only and most other companies have bloated software with a monthly service contract. But Icon hits a sweet middle-ground where you don't have to maintain any software or pay a monthly fee.Also, I have had a great experience with this time clock and its manufacturer. The time clock is very easy to setup and use, and when I had a question, I got a quick, friendly, and relevant response. Their support is located at their headquarters in the US (Beaverton, Oregon), which is nice since that is where their products are designed and there appears to be a free exchange between the two departments. In addition, they have a good selection of resources on their website, including a knowledgebase and download section.We bought two clocks, one for each of our production shops and we use a web-based punch-in feature that is built into the time clock for our office-folk. With this semi-complicated setup, I was amazed when I easily had it ready to deploy in a few hours with no issues. The reports are easy to generate and contain all the information that we need for administrative purposes and to hand to employees for verification and approval. In addition, the data can be imported into our accounting software using a direct CSV export OR they have free pre-built programs to integrate the data into popular accounting/payroll software packages (ADP, QuickBooks, Paychex).It has many useful features and is highly configurable, but it doesn't contain a bunch of junk that we'll never use. It only took me an hour to become very fluent with the built-in time clock software, and after a few days of use, I was able to learn it fairly completely. The features include the ability for supervisors to login and see who is clocked in, what department, and if they're on break. And we're able to track what work order an employee is working on as it can be setup to request that information when the employee clocks-in or out. However, if we don't need to track that data for an employee, they can be setup so that they just have to wave their card to clock in and out.Included with the time clock is a 5-user license (more can be purchased) for a Web Punch module which allows people with a computer to login from their desk. We have all of our office personnel clocking in with this method and all of the production people using the physical time clocks.There is no software to setup, as the software is installed on the device and you access it through your web browser; thus it is accessible from anywhere on our LAN or even over the Internet. Which saves us from having a computer setup just for this purpose and allows us to have multiple administrators login to modify time sheets and also supervisors are able to look at time sheets and see who is clocked-in from their own desks.

This was purchased to replace an older Icon time clock to work on Windows 7.First the pluses. Customer service is fantastic. We had issues setting it up with our network. We have static IP addresses, so it took a few minutes, with their tech support people. But once that was resolved, it works well. Connecting is a breeze. Quite flexible. I like (with certain reservations, see below) that there is no software to install needed . Compatibility issues simply do not exist.Why it only gets 3 stars rather than 5. Payroll must be dead accurate. Unfortunately I have run across an issue with their reporting. When you run a report of payroll hours, the total at the bottom isn't always correct. In other words if the amount of hours is 723.27, the total which prints might be 723.29. I called Icon to report this inaccuracy. They confirmed the issue, and said that it was due to the way they round. I am troubled that they don't want to fix it. Imagine if you bank statement had that kind of error.This NEVER happened on our prior Icon time clock (older model).If they ever release a software upgrade to resolve this issue, I will gladly rate this item 5 stars. Maybe someone from Icon will step up to the plate and get it right. Bottom line, if you have to enter a lot of payroll data, you cannot count on their report totals to be accurate all of the time.

Three REASONS NOT TO BUY: First, there is no memory or back up to this clock - lose power and all the info is erased: employee info, log in/out, port forwarding info, EVERYTHING. Second - AWFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE. Third- BEWARE time clock CANNOT be accessed on the internet (meaning you can't login to the time clock website and add employees, change hours, etc) unless PORT FORWARDED from your router which requires an expert - Customer service refused to help me unless I paid $99, I hadn't been able to use my time clock for 2 years because I couldn't figure out why it wasn't accessible from the internet and during the first two months I had the clock, I was accessing the time clock website from the same network as the time clock and router and only discovered I'd been misled about access when I tried to log on from another location. The Icon Time Systems tech man ridiculed me for not calling then, asking me why I hadn't been using my time clock for two years and finally insisted that Icon Time Systems had "just started offering port forwarding service one week ago" - what? Meaning they only started telling their customers how to port forward and access their product from another network in the past 7 days, yet they've been selling these clocks for years? Here's the issue in laments terms: unless port forwarded which requires Icon Time tech support tell you how to do this within 30 days of purchase, or you pay them $99 or hire an expert, etc you cannot access the clock website from any other network but the one the clock is hooked into (not from your home, office, etc). Icon Time Systems would not even make a one time exception despite my admission of fault. I am VERY UNSATISFIED after paying $400 for this clock and will be selling this on Craigslist or throwing it in the trash (jk I will e-waste recycle it). You can buy an iPad for the same money, download an app and access employee login for FREE easily from any computer anywhere. May these clocks and this company go the way of the dinosaur. This company makes money by forcing you to pay for their tech support when you run into any issues - maybe that's common practice in the tech world but all I needed was a one time exception they refused to concede. Such a disappointment esp coming from a cool state like Oregon.