Time Clock Customization Options

Learn how to customize your time clock's layout and functionality

Shoshana Fleischmann avatar
Written by Shoshana Fleischmann
Updated over a week ago

The Time Clock was designed to allow you to easily track the work hours of your team and to make payroll a breeze! From an employee perspective, with just a few clicks employees can clock in and out from their mobile devices or desktop. As managers, you can easily see what’s going on with your employees on a daily basis, communicate with your employees, edit their timesheets and when ready, export the information for payroll.

Time Clock customization allows you to add and remove different functionalities in order to meet your organization's time management workflow. Toggling different switches on or off will affect the Time Clock's interface in accordance with your selections, so it's easy to use and intuitive for your users with any setup you choose.

In this article we will go over the following:

The Ability to Decide How Users Can Track Their Work Time

Users can track their work hours in multiple ways with Connecteam, whether by clocking in and out from their mobile app, from the company device using the Kiosk App, directly from their schedule, or by adding time records to their timesheets.

By customizing this section, you'll be able to decide how users can track their work time and from which device. Let's cover the options:

Screenshot of how users can track their work time settings in the Time Clock on Connecteam's admin dashboard

When customizing the time clock settings, you will see a mobile preview that will show you what it would look like from the user's view. In the examples below you can see how the time clock will appear for the user based on how the settings are customized in the admin dashboard.

Option 1: Users can clock in and out from their mobile app time clock

This option determines if users can clock in and out from their mobile devices with the Connecteam app. By toggling this option OFF, users won't have the ability to clock in and out in real-time from their mobile app as the main "Start Shift" button will be replaced with another option according to your selection

On the Users end, this is what it would look like:

Screenshot of Time Clock on Connecteam's mobile app

Option 2: Users can clock in and out from the Kiosk time clock

This option determines if users can clock in and out from the Kiosk App. Same outcome as with option 1, but regarding the Kiosk App only.

Pro Tip: To learn more about the Kiosk App, click here.

This is how the Time Clock appears when users attempt to clock in via the Connecteam app rather than the Connecteam Kiosk app.

Screenshot of Time Clock on Connecteam's mobile app

Option 3: When synced, users can clock in and out directly from their schedule

If you're using Connecteam's scheduling feature and the schedule is synced with the Time Clock, you can decide if users can clock in and out directly from their scheduled shifts.

Screenshot of clocking in from Job Scheduler on Connecteam's mobile app

Option 4: Users can clock in and out from their computer's time clock

This option determines if users can clock in from their computer time clock when logging in to the Connecteam dashboard users view. On the left, you can see how the time clock will appear for a user attempting to clock in via the mobile app while on the right you can see how it appears on the computer.

Screenshots of clocking in via the computer's time clock in Connecteam

Option 5: Users can manually request shift/break records to their timesheets

This option determines if users can add shift records to their timesheets. If only this setting is toggled on, users won't have the button to clock in and out of shifts. In the following section, you'll be able to decide if those shift records added by the users will be pending an admin's approval before being added to the timesheets.

Screenshot of add shift button in Connecteam's time clock

The Ability to Select Which User Actions Require an Admin's Approval

This section allows you to decide which user actions require an admin's approval. With the switch toggled ON, the action will not automatically be updated in the user's timesheets but will generate a new request to be approved by an admin.

Even if you've selected that certain actions will not require approval by an admin, you'll still be able to view what was added by each user and then by opening the time clock requests window and clicking on History.

Screenshot of which user actions require admin's approval settings in the Time Clock on Connecteam's admin dashboard

Option 1: When users add shifts/breaks manually

This option determines if shift records or breaks that were added manually by a user will be pending an admin's approval. When switched OFF, users can add work hours and breaks to their timesheets without approval. As an admin, you'll still be able to access all timesheets and modify them as you'd like

Option 2: When users edit or delete shifts/breaks from their timesheets

This option determines if users can edit or delete shift records or breaks from their timesheets. When switched OFF, users will be able to modify existing records in their timesheets without approval. As an admin, you'll still be able to access all timesheets and modify them as you'd like, but so will the users

Option 3: When users clock-out outside the Geo-fence

This option determines if users can clock out outside geographically fenced sites without an admin's approval. By default, users can't clock out outside the geofence and they can either try again when on the work site or request to clock out and have that shift approved by an admin. When this option is switched OFF, users will be able to clock out from anywhere, even when Geofence is activated, while clocking in will still have to be inside a fenced work site

Different Use Cases for a Quick and Easy Setup

Many options, right? Don't worry, we added a few suggestions for you based on common use cases. Note that these are only suggestions, and you as an admin have the control to modify them as you see fit.

Let's get started!

⭐️ The default setup:

Users can clock in and out in any way they find comfortable, but everything that's not happening in real time will have to be approved by an admin

Screenshot of default Time Clock settings on Connecteam's admin dashboard
Screenshot of Time Clock on Connecteam's mobile app
  • All switches are ON

  • Users can clock in and out from their mobile app's time clock

  • Users can clock in and out from the Kiosk app if it was set up by an admin

  • Users can clock in and out directly from their scheduled shifts

⏱ The "Kiosk only" setup:

If you want your users to all clock in from one device that you set up in your business such as your store or in any case you don't want your employees using their phones at work. Users can clock in and out only from the Kiosk app but can use their mobile app for anything else.

Screenshot of Kiosk settings in the Time Clock on Connecteam's admin dashboard
Screenshot of Connecteam mobile app and Kiosk app
  • Clock in and out switches are ON for the Kiosk only

  • Users can still add time clock requests

  • Users can use all the other features of the app from their mobile app

🗓 The "Timesheets app" setup:

Users can edit and add records to their timesheets with no need for an admin's approval, there's no clock-in and out real-time option, and absences will need to be approved by an admin.

Screenshot of Timesheets app settings in the Time Clock on Connecteam's admin dashboard
Screenshot of add shift button in Connecteam's time clock
  • Users don't clock in and out in real-time

  • Users can manually add shift records to their timesheets without an admin's approval

  • Users can request paid or not paid time off (absences)

📲 The "clock into scheduled shifts only" setup:

Users can clock in and out only if they have a scheduled shift. They can't track work time if a shift wasn't scheduled for them by an admin.

Screenshot of clock into scheduled shifts settings in the Time Clock on Connecteam's admin dashboard
Screenshot of clocking in via the job scheduler in Connecteam's mobile app
  • The option to clock indirectly from the time clock in the mobile app is turned OFF

  • The option to clock in from the Kiosk app is turned OFF

Pro Tip: To learn about the time clock limitations, click here.

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