Patent ID: 8468211

Claim:
A method of synchronizing a local database with a global database in a networked time-keeping environment, the networked time-keeping environment including a server with a computer readable memory that stores the global database and a plurality of client time-keeping terminals each including a computer readable memory storing a local database, wherein the global database and each local database includes a plurality of previously stored data elements and a timestamp corresponding to each previously stored data element, the method comprising: creating a new data element at a client terminal in response to a time-keeping event at the client terminal, wherein the new data element includes an edited attribute of a previously stored data element and a unique object identifier associated with the previously stored data element; adding the new data element to the local database of the client terminal; initiating a connection to the server from the client terminal; sending the new data element from the client terminal to the server; sending a previous timestamp associated with the previously stored data element from the client terminal to the server, wherein the previous timestamp was previously received from the server and indicates when the previously stored data element was added to the global database of the server; if the unique object identifier assigned to the new data element is already stored in the global database, comparing the previous timestamp to a timestamp stored in the global database for the previously stored data element, and if the timestamps match, changing the previously stored data element in the global database to include the edited attribute, generating a new timestamp, storing the new timestamp in the global database, and sending a copy of the new timestamp to the client terminal; receiving a timestamp for the new data element from the server indicating when the new data element was added to a global database of the server; and storing the timestamp for the new data element to the local database of the client terminal.