Daylight saving and TR3 timeclocks

Many countries, including NZ and some (but not all) Australian States, adjust their clock times to make better use of longer daylight hours in summer:

Timeclocks also need to be adjusted at the start and end of the daylight savings period, otherwise employee times will be recorded incorrectly.
MYOB's Exo Time and Attendance software uses MYOB branded timeclocks to collect data - they have several ways of adjusting the time.
Anyone can adjust the time manually at the clock itself, if they know the access method and PIN number.
The current PC time can be sent to a selected clock from within Exo Time and Attendance via Poll Time-clocks / Special Clock functions / Send Times.
A Timeclock can change automatically at stored future dates. This is the preferred method - more information is shown below.
Keep in mind, if the time is updated manually on (say) Friday night, and an automatic change is stored for Sunday, by Monday, the clock will be an hour wrong!

When do the clocks change (New Zealand daylight saving)

NZ's time is controlled by the Department of Internal Affairs, who administer the "Time Act 1974". New Zealand Standard Time is currently defined as meaning 12 hours in advance of Co-ordinated Universal Time. The "Summer" period was extended in 2007 as part of a NZ Government energy saving initiative (and the New Zealand Daylight Time Order 2007).
Daylight Saving commences on the last Sunday in September, when 2.00am becomes 3.00am, and ends on the first Sunday in April the following year, when 3.00am becomes 2.00am.
See http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_url/services-daylight-saving-index for a list of daylight saving Start and End dates - they change each year.

When do the clocks change (Australian daylight saving)

At the time of writing, Western Australia, Queensland, and Northern Territory do not observe daylight saving. Other States all use "first Sunday in October" to "first Sunday in April".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Australia has a good overview, as well as links to relevant Government sites such as http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/time.

Timeclock

A "TR3" Timeclock is able to store "Start" and "End" dates in permanent memory. The dates behave as follows:

On the Start date, at 2am, the clock time will advance one hour.
On the End date, at 2am, the clock time will go back one hour.
Those stored dates will NOT work twice - new dates need to be loaded next year.
Set both dates AFTER daylight saving has ended - best done as Spring begins each year.
Dates are loaded from within Exo Time and Attendance via Poll Timeclocks / Special Clock functions / Set Daylight saving function.
See below for more detailed information on setting the times.

To set dates for automatic daylight saving changes

Click on 'Poll Timeclocks' then 'Special Clock Functions' then select 'Set Daylight Saving'.
Choose the required Timeclock (multiple clocks must be set separately).
Enter the correct Start and End Dates by keying directly into the fields - the default dates may be incorrect.

There are drop-down arrows next to each date field that open a calendar window - this will NOT add the chosen date into the field.
With the correct dates visible, click "Save".
If successful, a message is displayed - "Daylight saving time range set for the clock TR3" (or whatever the clock code is). The dates keyed are now stored inside the clock.
If no message appears this indicates that nothing has happened - the dates have NOT been set. Repeat the process for this clock.

On accessing the "Set Daylight Saving" screen again, the dates just keyed have not been saved within Time and Attendance and have reverted to October and March defaults. This is NOT a problem, but can be confusing. The correct dates HAVE been set inside the clock and what the software now displays does not matter.
For multiple clocks, run through the entire procedure again for each clock, keying Start and End dates correctly each time.
Note 3 - If someone later clicks through the default "Set Daylight saving" options without making any changes to the dates, the WRONG October and March dates will replace the correct settings within the clock.

Daylight saving dates can also be set in a timeclock via a "Batch file". This is not user-friendly and is not the best option for most clients. There is no way to see what DST dates a clock holds - if in doubt, set again!

Need more help? You can open the online help by pressing F1 on your keyboard while in your software.

You can also find more help resources on the MYOB Exo Employer Services Education Centre for Australia or New Zealand.