Connecteam is an extremely customizable platform, and different companies from different industries are able to utilize it in different ways according to their specific needs.
Our time clock and scheduling are two separate features that can be used separately or in sync.
The job-scheduling makes it effortless to plan and assign team members to shifts, service calls, or expected jobs, where the time clock makes it easy to track the actual work time of your team and improves your payroll process.
If you're new to Connecteam, those features will be synced by default if both are activated, but it's important to know that there are more options.
How to recognize if my schedule and time-clock are synced?
You can easily recognize if your time-clock and schedule are synced when seeing this sign - 🔄 in either of them.
How to sync the schedule with the time clock by myself?
Performing the sync is a simple and quick action, although only admins with "Owner" permissions are allowed to perform it.
First, have both the schedule and time clock activated.
Access the schedule or time clock you wish to sync and click on the "options" button at the upper-right corner.
From the dropdown menu, select "sync with time clock/schedule"
Then, you'll be able to select an existing schedule or time-clock to sync with, or create a new one.
What happens once my schedule and time clock are synced, or unsynced?
Without syncing the 2 features, they will act separately: Job-scheduling for planning and publishing shifts, and time-clock for tracking actual work time.
Employees can still check-in for their shift and mark it as completed, but those actions are only for reporting purposes and would not be recorded in the employee timesheet for payroll.
When you have the 2 features synced, you will see that:
Users will be able to clock in directly from their shift to save the extra steps of both checking-in to the shift and clocking in. All the time tracking records will be automatically documented in the time clock's timesheets.
Unified job list: the ‘jobs’ from both features will be unified and synced including all the relevant job information.
Adding new jobs, editing and removing existing jobs from the schedule will affect the time clock and vice versa.
Filter users in the time-clock according to their shifts. When the 2 features, are synced, you can finally get a quick understanding of everyone who should be working today.
Avoid time-theft. If the time clock is synced with your job schedule, you can limit users from clocking-in prior to their shift time, and even automatically clock them out at the end of their shift.
Now, you will finally have insights regarding the actual work time on each and every job from the schedule.
A new shortcut link will be added to your synced schedule and time clock for quicker navigation between the synced features.
You'll still be able to use everything the time clock has to offer, like automated unpaid breaks, overtime, absence management and more.
Best Practices
Now that you understand the effects of having the job-schedule and the time-clock synced, it’s important to understand which of the 2 options best matches your needs:
Synced:
Best for hourly-paid employees, where you’d like them to simply be able to clock-in directly from their shift and you to be able to track that time in their timesheet.
Un-synced:
Best for employees that just need to report checked-in and/or that they completed a shift or a service call to a customer.
This could be relevant for non-hourly employees (Salaried employees) which you don’t need to track time for, or for hourly employees who clock-in in the morning from the time-clock and then need to report check-in and complete of different jobs during the day and until they clock-out at the end of it.
FAQs:
I synced my time clock and schedule, and now I can't see when employees are checkin' in and completing their jobs on my schedule. Why?
The check-in and complete statuses are for compliance purposes and status reporting mainly and has nothing to do with time spent on job, as the time should be spent is scheduled.
If you prefer using the "check-in" and "complete" statuses in the schedule, you can un-sync the features. Then, employees will be able to use the time clock for tracking work hours and the schedule to report when they start and end a job on their schedule with the check-in and complete statuses.
How many schedules and time clocks can be synced?
A schedule can be synced only with a single time clock.
Basic plan accounts can have 1 time clock and 1 schedule
Advanced plan accounts can have 3 time clocks and 3 schedules
Expert plan accounts can have 6 time clocks and 6 schedules
Enterprise plan accounts can add unlimited time clocks and schedules.
Will employees be able to clock in and out only from their shift once the features are synced?
No, employees could still clock in and out directly from the time clock, just remember that on clock-in, employees will be required to select the job they clock-in to.
Can employees track time for jobs that are not scheduled?
Yes. They can simply open the time clock and clock in. It's that easy :)