Employee App clocking (phone clocking)

If you would like to use the Employee App for your business's clocking needs, you will need to complete the steps below:

• Enable the Employee App in the Clock Settings.
• Set up geolocation for each of your rosters.
• Toggle on 'Enable Employee Clock' for all relevant employees.
• Employees will need to ensure they Download and set up their Employee App.
   

Enable the Employee App in clock settings

When using the Employee App for timekeeping, it is best practice to check your settings to ensure that Employee App permission has been turned on in your platform.

This setting should be enabled by default; however, if it is not, you will be unable to set a geolocation boundary for your rosters or update settings in an Operation. 
 

To check on the Employee App permission:

1. Navigate to the main menu > Platform Settings > Clock Settings.
2. In the Clocking section, ensure the 'Enable Clocking' is toggled to Yes. If set to No, toggle to Yes.
3. Scroll down to the Employee Clock App section.
4. Ensure the 'Allow employees to clock in or out with their Employee App' option is toggled to 'Yes'. If set to No, toggle to Yes.
   • When checking your settings, don’t forget to review the other options in this section to ensure they meet your business needs. 
5. Select Save from the taskbar.

  Hot tip: The Clock Settings page sets the default settings for your platform. You can override these per Operation, enabling Employee App clocking for a portion of your workforce. 

Setting up geolocation

The Employee App is designed to utilise an employee's mobile device and Geolocation (GPS) to clock in and out.

When employees select Clock In through the Employee App, they will be prompted to grant permission to use their GPS location on their mobile devices.

• The GPS location is then used to check if the employee is within the location boundary zone set by your business. If so, the employee is either allowed to clock in/out or informed that they can't clock in/out until they're within the location zone.
• Admins can then view the location from which employees are clocking in and manage Approve Shifts as normal.
• Employees will need to ensure that their mobile location settings are enabled to use their mobile phone's GPS location services.

The boundary zone or area from which employees can clock is set each time you add a new roster and can be edited when needed.
 

Editing a roster's geolocation boundary:

1. Navigate to Work > Rosters > select the down arrow on the right-hand side to expand all rosters. Next, select the ellipses next to the relevant roster, and then select Edit.        

   

2. From this page, enter the Roster Address. This will set an approximate location for the fence placement. There are two ways to add an address:
   • Type in the Address - This method will use the address finder to search and locate the address registered with Google Maps. 
   • Entering the Address Manually - This method may be preferable for newer addresses that may not yet be registered. 
3. Enter your Clocking radius. This sets the geolocation boundary. If your employees use their Employee App on their phones for clocking, this radius makes sure they clock in within the boundary before starting their shifts.   
   
     Please note: The Clock setting 'Allow employees to clock in or out with their Employee App' must be on for the geolocation option to show on the roster. If this setting is only enabled in the individual Operation, it will not be displayed. It must be enabled in the main clock settings.
   
   There are 2 ways you can add a radius:
   • Enter the radius in the Clocking Radius field - We recommend setting a minimum of 250m to ensure a good clocking experience.
   • Draw a radius manually on the map. This option is useful for larger venues or new construction sites that may not yet have a registered address. To do so, select the 'or draw radius on map' button, then select on the map the centre of your radius. 
4. To save your changes, select Save roster.

Before your employees can clock in using the Employee App, you'll need to enable this feature for any employees who you want to use it. Enabling this feature per employee gives you the flexibility to decide which employees or groups of employees can clock in this way. 

There are 2 ways to enable clocking with the Employee App: 

• Individually from each employee's profile  
• For multiple employees from the People menu
   

Enable Employee App clocking for individual employees

Enabling clocking from the employee's profile may be your preferred method for the following situations: 

• You only have a few remote/ working from home employees
• Enabling clocking for your upper management team
• As part of your onboarding & recruitment process, as you are already in the employee profile 
   

To enable Employee App clocking per employee: 

1. From the quick menu, navigate to People > Pending/ Approved People > Select the desired employee. 
2. In the Employee profile, enable the toggle for 'Employee Clock Enabled'.

Enable Employee App clocking in bulk for multiple employees

Enabling clocking in bulk might be your preferred method for the following circumstances: 

• You regularly conduct mass recruitment
• Moving between platforms
• If this is the sole method of time keeping, you can update all of your employees in one go
   

To enable Employee App clocking in bulk: 

1. From the quick menu, navigate to People > Pending/ Approved People.
2. Select the Show Filter dropdown to see your filter options. From here you can:
    
   • Increase your page size so you can select all employees
   • Filter for a specific group of employees 
3. Select the check box for the desired employees, or the checkbox in the blue bar for all employees on the first page. 
4. Navigate to Bulk Actions > Enable employee clock For Selected.
5. In the modal, enable the 'Allow selected employee to use the clock from the employee app' toggle and select Save. 

Once clocking via the Employee App has been enabled on your platform, your employees will need to download the Employee App onto their mobile devices to begin clocking. The Employee App can be easily downloaded on both Apple and Android devices. 

  For a complete guide on how employees can download and log into the app, please refer to our employee article Download the Employee App & Login.
 

Clocking to start shift

Clocking to Start shift refers to the process of commencing a shift's start, which is different from clocking for a break or ending a shift.

Once the Employee App has been enabled, an employee can clock to Start shift anytime, provided they are within the geolocation boundary set. This means they can clock into their regular rostered shifts or unrostered shifts if they are called in. 
 

To start shift:

1. From the Home Page, select Start shift. 
2. The next steps will depend on whether the shift is rostered or not:

   • For a rostered shift - Review the shift details and select Start shift.

     
     
     For an unrostered shift - Depending on your platform's settings, employees may be required to select the relevant roster & provide a reason as to why they Start shift. 

     

  Please note: Employees will be unable to start their shifts or breaks if there is no or low internet connectivity. If your business is in a remote area, consider using one of the other clocking methods or Submit Shifts. 
 

Clock for a break

Employees can clock for both paid and unpaid breaks; this includes those that have been rostered or for any unrostered breaks when necessary. 

If your business uses split shifts on the same day to meet its needs, it is important for your employees to understand when to:

• Start or end a break
• End their first shift and start their second shift

  Please note: If an employee accidentally ends their shift instead of starting a break, this action is irreversible. They must Start shift to resume working, creating a second unrostered shift where they can explain the reason using a comment field. 
 

To clock for a break:

1. To start a break, from the Home Page, select Break. 
2. The following steps will depend on whether the break is rostered or not:
   • For a rostered break - Select which rostered break the employee is clocking. 
   • For an unrostered break - Select if it is a Paid break or an Unpaid break

3. To end a break, select End break.

   

Clock to end shift

Ending a shift is a straightforward process of completing the shift. This is only possible if the employee has a CURRENT SHIFT (a shift that has been started).

Additionally, shifts can also time out, meaning that this option will be unavailable for employees whose shifts exceed the maximum duration, they will only have the option to start a new shift. 
 

To end Shift: 

1. From the Home Page, in the CURRENT SHIFT box, select End shift. 
2. The employee may then be prompted with any additional requirements based on your Clock Settings, which include:
   • Responding to clocking questions

   • Providing reasons why they are clocking out early or late

     

 For more information on how employees clock in via the Employee App, view this article.  

The Employee App can switch on the geolocation setting, which allows employees to clock in and out within a certain area (boundary) and use their mobile phone's GPS location.

Select the link to see compatible software versions for your device:

• Requirements for iPhones
• Requirements for Android Phones

Any phone using the specified versions or newer should be able to use this setting. If a phone is not on a compatible operating system, a software update may be necessary to enable geolocation.
 

Checking the software version on your mobile device

Keeping your phone's operating software updated is essential for maintaining compatibility with the Employee App.

To find out what software your device is currently using, please select your device type from the tabs below for the instructions.

When an employee attempts to start a shift, they may be prevented from doing so for one of three reasons:

• They’re trying to start their shift outside the geolocation boundary
• Their device doesn’t have location enabled
• They haven't allowed location permissions for the Employee App

You can override these restrictions in Clock Settings or by Operation, which lets employees start their shift from outside the set boundary or without the necessary location permissions. This can be helpful if they work in rural areas where GPS signals can be spotty. 

Remember that this override applies to all employees and rosters tied to that Operation, and it won’t track an employee's location if permissions aren't turned on. 

  For further information on clock settings and overrides, please refer here. 
 

Clocking outside of the geolocation boundary

Once you have set up your boundaries, any employees enabled to clock using their Employee App will need to ensure they are inside the boundaries before they can clock for their shifts. 

You can override this in your clock settings by setting the 'Allow employees to clock in or out when they're outside the location zone' to Yes. 

Depending on the option selected for this setting, when an employee tries to clock in outside of the boundary, they will be prompted with one of the 2 following scenarios:

• When set to Yes 

  • The employee will be prompted to provide a reason for clocking outside the geolocation boundary.

    

• When set to No 
  • The employee will receive an error informing them they are unable to clock in as they are outside of the geolocation boundary. 

  • To resolve these errors, the employee will need to move inside the boundary, refresh their page and Start shift again. 

    
     

Device's location or permissions are turned off

When employees use the app for timekeeping, they will need to enable location permissions on their phones. Without permissions, the Employee App will be unable to determine if their location is within the geolocation boundary, and as a result, they will be unable to start their shift. 

You can override this by updating the setting 'Allow employees to clock in or out without location settings turned on' to Yes. 

Depending on the option selected for this setting,  when your employees try to clock in without enabling location permissions, they will be prompted with one of the 2 following scenarios:

• When set to Yes
  • The employee will be prompted to provide a reason as to why they are clocking outside of the geolocation boundary.

  • Additionally, they will be notified that they will need to enable location permissions on their device.

    

• When set to No
  • The employee will receive an error message informing them that the app is unable to find their location and that they need to enable location permissions on their device. 
  • The error displayed will depend on whether the employee has location enabled on their phone or location permissions enabled for the Employee App.

  • To resolve these errors, the employee must enable location on their device and set permissions for the Employee App. Then, they should refresh their page and start their shift again.

    

  Please note: This error can also occur when your employees have an older version of the software on their mobile device. 

To discover how to enable location permissions for the Employee App, please select your device type from the tabs below for the instructions.

Can an employee clock without having a rostered shift or break?

Yes! Employees can begin their shift or take a break even if it's not rostered. However, they must be within the Geolocation Boundary set for that specific roster before clocking in or taking a break.

Since their shift isn’t on the roster, they might need to explain why they're clocking in for a non-rostered shift.

My employee is trying to End Shift, why is there only the option to Start shift ?

Your platform will have a setting for the maximum duration a shift can be. This setting serves two main purposes:
 

• It prevents shifts from being rostered beyond the maximum limit.
• It times out a shift. If an employee forgets to end their shift, they won't have to end it when returning for their next shift; they can simply clock into their current shift instead.

To all your employee to End Shift, this setting will need an update, since starting a new shift would create a second shift.

  For further information about this setting, please refer to our article on Work Defaults. 

Can my employees clock using the Employee App and Submit Shifts?

Employees can have the toggles 'Employee Clock Enabled' and 'Use Submit Shifts' enabled on their profile. 

This allows them to access both features; however, they cannot use them for the same shift. Therefore, submitting that same shift will not be possible if an employee begins a shift.

Why is my employee receiving a location error?

Employees may receive a location error when trying to Start their shifts for a few reasons:

• The employee attempts to start their shift outside the Geolocation Boundary.
• The employee has Location Services disabled on their phone.
• The employee has not enabled Location permissions for the Employee App. 

To resolve these errors, the employee will need to update their settings and move inside the boundary. 

Please refer to the 'Errors & Location permissions' section above for further information. 

Can employees clock using the Employee App and Clock App?

Absolutely! Employees can clock their shifts through the Clock App when they’re on site, or use the Employee App if enabled on their profile.

That said, we recommend sticking to one method per shift. So if they begin their shift with the Clock App, they should end their shift with the same app.