Can Staff Clock-In at Home or with a Cell Phone?

By default, staff members are able to clock-in from anywhere that has an Internet connection, and this includes work, home, or their mobile Internet on a cell phone. In some circumstances, this is the correct and desired set up. However, for many businesses in the retail and foodservice industries, it is not desirable to provide staff with these abilities.

To support these businesses, TimeForge includes the ability to restrict clock-in and clock-out functionality to specific IP addresses, or physical locations.

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Navigate to the Attendance Options in the Attendance tab.

Add IP Addresses

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You can specify one or more IP addresses which employees must be at, for employees to clock in. To add an IP address for employees to clock in:
- You can type your IP address into the text box. If there is more than one allowed IP address, they should be separated by a space, comma, or on separate lines.
- Instead of typing in the IP address, you can click on the Add this computer to allowed IPs button, and TimeForge will add your current IP address to the list of allowed IP addresses.

Remember to click Save Company Settings.

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How Do I Automatically Switch the Clocked In Position for Staff Members?

TimeForge is a powerful, but easy to use, labor management platform for service oriented industries (restaurants, retail, c-stores, grocers, hotels, etc…). Service-oriented businesses often have difficulties managing the complexities of their ever changing and high turnover workforce.

TimeForge can help manage labor by making labor management simple. Staff are commonly scheduled to work doubles, or back-to-back shifts. In some cases, a staff member may transition from one job (or position) to another without ever leaving the business, and may forget to switch their position in the attendance system.

To help ease administration of employees clocking in and out throughout the day, TimeForge can automatically switch staff to the correct position.

For example, a waiter or waitress (server) may work from 10:00am – 3:00pm as a waiter, and then transition to a bartender from 4:00pm – 8:00pm. Or, a lifeguard may work from 8:00am – 1:00pm, then as a swim coach from 1:00pm – 3:00pm.

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options tab inside of TimeForge.

Set the Auto-Switch Position Flag

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Locate the option to automatically switch positions, based on the schedule, for staff members who are clocked in.

Switch this from No to Yes, and then save your options.

TimeForge now will automatically switch jobs / positions for staff members who work back-to-back shifts.

Please note: The staff member needs to clock in to the first scheduled shift to allow TimeForge to transition between positions.

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How Do I Automatically Clock-Out Employees Based on the Schedule?

TimeForge can help manage your labor by making workforce management simple and intuitive for day-to-day tasks. Staff often forget to clock out for the end of their shift, causing business disruption and a loss of profits when managers are disrupted to enter a time entry for the staff.

To help ease the administrative burden of keeping accurate time clock entries for staff members, TimeForge can automatically clock staff out based on the posted schedule.

For example, a bartender might be scheduled to work from 4:00pm – 2:00am, but forget to clock out at the end of the shift. TimeForge can automatically clock them out at 2:00am if they have not already done so.

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options tab inside of TimeForge.

Turn On the Automatic Clock Out Option

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Locate the option to automatically clock employees out, based on their schedule shift, and switch the value from No (the default) to Yes.

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How Do I Clock Employees In At an Earlier Time, or Out At a Later Time?

TimeForge is a powerful labor management solution for your business. Most hourly wage workers in a business need arrive at work on time – too early will cause payroll problems, and too late will cause customer service disruptions. Four clock in and clock out scenarios will create problems for your business:

1. Arriving before the scheduled in time will reduce business profits, as staff members will arrive at work before they are needed.
2. Arriving after the scheduled in time causes customer service problems, as staff will not be available to service the customer’s needs.

3. Leaving before the scheduled out time can cause similar problems as clocking in late. Customers may not be serviced properly, and other staff may be overworked.
4. Leaving after the scheduled out time will increase payroll costs for the business, decreasing profits.

TimeForge provides multiple technology enhancements that will enforce your labor schedule, ensuring that staff show up on time, and that management know of time entries that affect payroll costs and the bottom line. Enforcing the schedule will reduce your labor costs by 2 – 4% with the click of a button!

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options link or sub-tab (inside of the Attendance tab).

Enforce the Schedule by the Scheduled Time

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To require that employees clock in and out based on the scheduled time, without providing a grace period, set the options as follows.

Please check your local labor regulations to see which ones are applicable (and legal) for your business.

For clocking in:
1. Leave this option set to Yes, allowing employees to clock in at any time.
2. Switch this option from No, to Yes, requiring that staff members acknowledge that their clock in times will not show the actual clock in time, but will instead show the scheduled start time.
TimeForge will record the scheduled start time (not the real time), unless overridden by a manager.

For clocking out:
1. Leave this option set to Yes, allowing employees to clock out at any time.
2. Switch this option from No, to Yes, requiring that staff members acknowledge that their clock out times will not show the actual clock out time, but will instead show the scheduled end time.
TimeForge will record the scheduled end time (not the real time), unless overridden by a manager.

Example:
Using the above options, a staff member may be scheduled from 9:00am – 3:00pm. If the employee shows up at 8:30am, TimeForge will record a start time of 9:00am (not 8:30am). When leaving, if the staff member leaves after 3:00pm, TimeForge will record an end time of 3:00pm. A manager can override and change the behavior of TimeForge when the staff member clocks in or clocks out.

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How Do I Set Up Grace Periods for Clocking In and Out?

TimeForge is a powerful labor management solution for your business. Most hourly wage workers in a business need arrive at work on time – too early will cause payroll problems, and too late will cause customer service disruptions. Four clock in and clock out scenarios will create problems for your business:

1. Arriving before the scheduled in time will reduce business profits, as staff members will arrive at work before they are needed.
2. Arriving after the scheduled in time causes customer service problems, as staff will not be available to service the customer’s needs.

3. Leaving before the scheduled out time can cause similar problems as clocking in late. Customers may not be serviced properly, and other staff may be overworked.
4. Leaving after the scheduled out time will increase payroll costs for the business, decreasing profits.

TimeForge provides multiple technology enhancements that will enforce your labor schedule, ensuring that staff show up on time, and that management know of time entries that affect payroll costs and the bottom line. Enforcing the schedule will reduce your labor costs by 2 – 4% with the click of a button!

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options link or sub-tab (inside of the Attendance tab).

Enforce the Schedule with Grace Periods

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To require that staff members clock in and out with a grace period, based on their scheduled shift, set the options as follows.

Please check your local labor regulations to see which ones are applicable (and legal) for your business.

For clocking in:
1. Switch this option from Yes, to No, requiring that employees must clock in at a predefined time.
2. Enter an appropriate grace period in minutes. This will allow employees to clock in prior to their shift starting.
Staff members who clock in too early will need a manager to approve their clock in.

For clocking out:
3. Switch this option from Yes, to No, requiring that employees must clock out at a predefined time.
4. Enter an appropriate grace period in minutes. This will allow employees to clock out after their shift ends.
Staff members who clock out too late will need a manager to approve their clock out.

Example:
Using the above options, a staff member who is scheduled from 10:00am – 4:00pm would be allowed to clock in after 9:50am, and must clock out no later than 4:20pm. Earlier than 9:50am or later than 4:20pm will require a manager override.

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How Do I Allow Employees to Witness Time Punches?

TimeForge is a powerful labor management tool and includes a number of features not found in other comparable software programs. For example, TimeForge allows staff members to clock in before their scheduled start time, but can require that employees show up for work within a certain grace period of the scheduled start time.

When an employee is too early to clock in, or too late to clock out, TimeForge will require that a manager become involved to allow the employee to clock in or out. More specifically, in these cases, the staff member must get permission from a manager before clocking in or out. Please note: Most of the clock in and clock out configuration settings can be enabled or disabled with a few clicks within TimeForge.

In some businesses, managers do not want to be interrupted with employees who are showing up early or late, and rely on a buddy system to allow employees to keep track of each other. To keep management from being frustrated by early and late staff members, TimeForge allows employees to work as a witness for each others early clock in and late clock out times.

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options tab inside of TimeForge.

Set Up Grace Periods for Staff Members

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Make sure to set up the correct grace periods for staff members who clock in early and clock out late.

Allow Employees to Witness Each Others Clock In and Clock Out

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Make sure that the Allow other employees to witness an employee clock in option is set to Yes.

Other Staff Members Can Override the Early Clock In

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When a staff member is too early to work, they will receive a pop-up window similar to the above image.

A manager can allow the staff member to clock in, or another employee can provide their own credentials (username and password, or fingerprint) to allow the employee to clock in.

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How Do I Round Time Punch Entries (Attendance) in TimeForge?

TimeForge includes a powerful and flexible time and attendance management system, and is able to track time punches on an accurate minute-by-minute clock (which is synchronized with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and is always on time). TimeForge can use the clock in and clock out time punches to calculate payroll for your pay period without any problems. Accurate time tracking is part of what TimeForge does!

However, some businesses (especially in the restaurant, hotel, and hospitality industries) prefer to round time punch for easier calculations. To make time punch calculations easier, TimeForge can round each clock in or clock out time to the nearest 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minute period.

Navigate to Attendance Options

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Navigate to the Attendance Options tab in TimeForge.

Set Rounding Rules for Clock In and Clock Out Times

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Pick the correct rounding rule from the drop-down for time punches in TimeForge. Make sure to Save your settings.

Please note: TimeForge will not round any time entries provided by your POS system. If you want to round time and attendance in your Point of Sale system, please do so within the POS software.

Please note: TimeForge will not round previous time periods. Changing the rounding rules will only affect upcoming time punch entries.

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How Can Time Punches Be Limited to a Specific Computer?

There are many benefits to Software As A Service (SaaS software), which is why TimeForge was built from the ground up as a web-based software solution. More specifically, Managers do not have any software to install, nothing to upgrade, and there are no worries about backups or restoring of data. However, one common concern with web based software and time card tracking is ensuring that staff members are physically at work before they are allowed to clock in.

TimeForge is able to accomplish this by limiting time punches (clocking in and out) to a specific IP address. IP addresses are unique identifiers for computers on the Internet, and are normally provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). In many cases, multiple computers in a single office will share a single IP address through the use of a router or firewall device (such as those provided by Cisco, Linksys, D-Link, or Netgear). Similar to a phone number, only physical location at a time can have an IP address. For example, if your IP address is 208.45.167.3, no other computer system in the world will have that IP address.

TimeForge can require that staff members must be at the physical location that corresponds to your IP address before allowing them to clock in or out. This TimeForge lesson covers the specifics of configuring your IP address inside of TimeForge.

In some cases, your ISP will provide a dynamic IP address, which changes every few weeks. Most ISP’s will allow you to get a static, or sticky-static IP address for a nominal monthly fee.

Please note: Additionally, TimeForge can require that employees must clock in and clock out using a fingerprint scanner, which will restrict clocking in and out to a single physical computer at your location.

Navigate to the Attendance Options

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Locate the Attendance Options tab inside of TimeForge.

Add your IP Address to the list of allowed IP Addresses

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Within TimeForge, you can specify one or more IP addresses for employees to clock in.

To add an IP address for employees to clock in:
1. You can type your IP address into the text box. IP addresses should be separated by a space, comma, or on separate lines.
2. Instead of typing in the IP address, you can click on the “Add this computer to allowed IPs” link, and TimeForge will add your current IP address to the list of allowed IP addresses.

Make sure to Save your settings.

Employees Will Not Be Allowed To Clock In from Restricted Computers

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Employees that try to clock in to TimeForge from a computer at a different IP address than the IP addresses you have allowed, will receive a warning similar to the above screen shot.

These staff members will not be able to clock in or clock out.

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How Do Employees Record Tips and Mileage?

TimeForge is a complete labor management package, and is able to track time and attendance for staff members. TimeForge can track hourly or salaried employees, and can also track information about each shift worked.

In many businesses, employees need to record tips and mileage on a per-shift basis. Tip tracking allows management to accurately report the income that individual staff members are earning, and mileage reporting allows staff members to receive mileage reimbursements for their vehicle usage.

Log Into TimeForge, and Navigate to the Attendance Tab

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Navigate to the Attendance Options screen, located in the Attendance tab.

Configure the Options for Reporting Tips and Mileage

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One option inside of TimeForge controls whether or not employees are required to report tips. Set this to “Yes” to require tips to be reported.

Another option in TimeForge controls whether staff members are required to enter mileage. Set this to “Yes” to require staff members to record driving mileage.

Choose Mileage Positions

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In most businesses, only a few staff members record driving mileage for reimbursement. In hospitality-related businesses, these are commonly delivery drivers, caterers, or employees who are shopping for the business.

Choose which positions will be required to record mileage.

Employees are Prompted when Clocking Out

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TimeForge will prompt employees when they clock out for their declared tips, start and ending mileage, and any necessary notes for the shift.

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How Do I Exit Time Clock Mode?

TimeForge Attendance makes time & attendance tracking easy for your business. Employees clock-in or clock-out for work similar to what is done with a traditional time clock. However, with TimeForge Attendance, reports are automated, employees can see what’s going on, and payroll is one click away.

In addition to clocking in and out, TimeClock includes Time Clock Mode. With Time Clock Mode, staff members can point and click on their name, allowing them to quickly clock in and out of the TimeForge system.

Choose Your Name from the List of Staff Members

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Choose your name from the list of staff members. Only TimeForge managers are able to exit Time Clock Mode.

Enter Your Password

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Enter your password, and then click on Exit TimeClock Mode.

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heartWhat some of our clients have to say ...

We are one year into it now, well past being enamored with the newness. We are married to TimeForge. It's as essential to us now as any of our management tools today, and we very happy about that.- Steve @ Hermosa Cyclery
We really like the program so far. I know that it is geared towards restaurants, but we are a real estate company and we love it because it is inexpensive and it is so easy to use.- Nicole @ Exit Premier Realty
The Timeforge scheduling system has not only increased our efficiency tremendously; decreased the errors in what is normally an error prone environment; it has also saved us ten times what it costs us each month.- Michael @ Tiara Cafe
I would highly recommend TimeForge to anyone making work schedules. ... What used to take 1-2 hours, now takes 15 minutes. The reports section is comprehensive and useful.- Lawrence Payne @ Mid Pacific Country Club
I've been really pleased with this latest version of TimeForge. I'm really getting familiar with this program and its become a great time saver! Keep up the good work!- Loren @ Fresh Produce
Before using TimeForge, creating a schedule took 2 hours. With TimeForge, it takes less than 10 minutes.- Gail @ Kerr Drug

Quick Contact

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Phone: 1 866 684 7191
Fax: 1 866 684 7191
E-Mail: info@timeforge.com

 

About TimeForge

The best tools available for managing labor in the restaurant, retail, food-service, and hospitality industries. Includes time management, employee scheduling, and other labor management tools.

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