TCTrak: Simple, Easy, & Affordable Tissue Culture Tracking

Several years ago, a commercial plant nursery approached us with an intriguing challenge: develop an application to track their tissue culture process from the cutting stage through production and sales. The nursery, which propagated a sizable number of plants, struggled to manage the various stages of tissue culture and inventory effectively. Since they were already using our InstaCaliper tool for nursery inventory, they believed we could create a solution that was both user-friendly and affordable.

We eagerly took on the challenge, recognizing its alignment with the traceability systems our growers had requested for tracking produce from the field to the consumer. The initial tissue culture software was too focused on a specific grower’s needs and had limited success—some growers adopted it, but we knew there was room for improvement via expanded capabilities. So, we went back to the drawing board, focused on real-world usability, and reimagined the system from the ground up.

The result? TCTrak—a robust, location-based, and highly flexible application that tracks tissue culture samples from generation through the growing, feeding, expanding, and hardening stages and all the way through their journey to the greenhouse and finally out the door to the customers.

With TCTrak, you can:

• Easily configure locations (e.g., shipping/receiving, laboratory, hoods, refrigerators);
• Manage contacts (vendors and customers);
• Organize tasks (e.g., propagation, feeding, hardening);
• Tag tasks with the specific information you need.

This dynamic system provides detailed inventory insights, tracks generational changes in tissue culture samples, generates receipts, and simplifies order shipping.

Best of all, it is significantly more affordable than traditional LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems).

StockTrak: Ensuring Food Safety Traceability

Similarly, a cherry grower approached us with a need to track produce from the field to customers. The Safe Food for Canadians Regulations required growers to maintain records of where produce originated and its distribution end points, enabling rapid recalls when necessary.

From this need, StockTrak was born—a system built on the same foundation as TCTrak. StockTrak empowers growers to tag produce with barcodes and monitor it throughout farm processes, meeting Canada’s strict regulatory requirements.

In the U.S., similar regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) were scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2025. While future executive changes could alter these mandates, traceability remains a gold standard for food safety. It helps producers quickly identify contamination points and protect consumer health.

Staying Current with System Updates

You might wonder how we keep TCTrak, StockTrak, and our portal up to date. The answer is simple: we listen to you.

Many updates are inspired by user feedback. Whether it is a request for a specialized report or a feature to streamline payroll and operations, we are committed to making your work easier. Our customers’ needs drive our innovation, ensuring our systems evolve to meet real-world challenges.

Closing Thoughts

Whether you are propagating plants or managing food safety traceability, TCTrak and StockTrak simplify complex processes while saving time and money. We are proud to support our customers with flexible, practical solutions that grow alongside their businesses.

Background

In today’s fast-paced work environment, labor costs are a crucial aspect of business management. In agricultural settings, as in all business settings, overtime pay increases the cost of labor, increasing the input needed to get produce to market. The complication of determining whether a worker should be paid overtime is complicated even more when that worker is paid by the piece. Implementing effective piece rate tracking systems and accurately monitoring overtime can significantly impact a company’s profitability.

Piece Work

Piece work is a compensation system where employees are paid based on the number of items they produce, tasks they complete or the weight of produce picked, rather than the hours they work. Piecework pay motivates employees, as it directly ties their earnings to their productivity.

However, tracking piece work can be challenging. It requires a robust system that accurately records the number of pieces an employee produces, or the weight of the produce picked. Without full transparency and records easily accessible to both the employer and the employee, there may be disputes.

Overtime Pay and Its Implications

Overtime pay is additional compensation given to employees who work beyond regular working hours. Federally, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay nonexempt employees at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. Traditionally, under the FLSA, agricultural employers have not had to pay their workers overtime. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/12-flsa-agriculture

In the past few years, however, states like California, Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota have passed laws requiring overtime pay for agricultural workers. Employers in these states must pay all agricultural workers overtime once these workers pass the state overtime threshold. While most states have a weekly threshold, California also has a daily overtime threshold.

Accurate tracking of overtime hours is essential for several reasons to ensure employees are compensated fairly. It also helps businesses manage labor costs and comply with labor laws.

Implementing Effective Labor Tracking Systems

Here are some strategies for and benefits of implementing effective labor tracking systems:

1. STRATEGY: Use Technology – Leveraging technology greatly simplifies labor tracking.
   • Time-tracking software automatically records the hours employees work, including overtime.
   • For piece work, specialized software can track the number of items produced or the weight picked and the hours over which it was produced, providing a piece rate hourly wage. 
   • This same technology can also warn the employer when employees are approaching the overtime threshold, allowing the employer to reduce overtime costs.

BENEFITS: More accurate records, less human-related data input errors, time saved doing manual entry.

2. STRATEGY: Pay Transparency – When the employer commits to transparency, the employer has better employer-employee relations. When employees can see what they picked and can easily understand how their pay is calculated, they trust their employer more.

• Time-tracking software provides employees with receipts after a weigh, at the end of the day, and at the end of the entire pay period.
• Receipts provided at multiple points by automated systems show employers and employees know how much was picked and how much will be paid.
• Easy-to-access records give employers a way to avoid employee disputes.
• Pay transparency is paramount if employers are ever subject to compliance audits.

BENEFITS: Better employer-employee relations due to trust. Better employee retention. Fewer employee complaints.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS:

Time and Money Savings: An effective labor tracking system, especially if automated, will save employers time, money, and headaches.

• Some automated systems may not require an additional employee to ensure workers do not cheat the system.
• Totaling end-of-day receipts or punch cards becomes a thing of the past when pieces and/or hours are tracked automatically.

Conclusion

Effective labor tracking is key to managing piece work and overtime pay. By leveraging technology and maintaining transparency, businesses can ensure fair compensation, boost employee motivation, and enhance productivity making it a win-win for both employers and employees.

2^nd Sight can help agricultural employers with labor tracking solutions. Send us a message at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call today 509-381-2112.