Employees record their hours by clocking in and out or by adding time by hand. Their hours are grouped into timesheets, which they submit and their manager approves before the hours reach payroll. Time tracking is on the Professional plan and above.
This page is for admins setting it up. For the step-by-step guides, see Clock In & Timesheets for employees and Approve Timesheets for managers.
Turn it on
On the Professional plan and above, time tracking is on by default. Its settings are in the Timekeeping section of Settings › Working Time, below the working day settings.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show Timekeeping in Dashboard | Employees get the clock card on their dashboard and Timekeeping in their user menu. Turn it off to hide time tracking from employees. |
| Require Clock In/Out Times | Every time entry needs a start and an end time, not just a number of hours. |
| Require Geolocation for Clock In/Out | Employees must allow location access to clock in and out, and the location is recorded with each clock action. |
| Allow Clock-In Without a Location After 3 Tries | With geolocation required: on (the default), an employee whose device can't find a position is clocked in anyway after three attempts, and the entry is flagged for a manager to confirm. Off, the tap is refused and a manager has to record the time. |
| Enforce Job-Site Geofences | Refuse a check-in measured outside a job site's radius. Off (the default), it is recorded and flagged instead. Only applies with a precise position. |
| Auto Clock-In at First Check-In | A crew member's first check-in of the day at a job site, within an hour of the planned start, clocks them in automatically. Clock-out is always asked, never automatic. Needs job sites. |
Click Save Changes at the top of the page.
The job-site settings only matter if you use job sites; see Shift Scheduling.
How employees record time
- Clock in and out from the clock card on their dashboard, on the web or their phone.
- Add time by hand on the Timekeeping page, for example when they forgot to clock in or worked off-site. If Require Clock In/Out Times is on, they enter start and end times; otherwise they can enter hours.
- Use chat: with the Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Chat app connected, they can clock in and out, answer "still working?", and see and submit their timesheet from chat. See Slack and Microsoft 365.
The first time an employee opens Timekeeping, they are asked to confirm their time zone, so their hours land on the right days.
Timesheet periods
Hours are grouped into timesheets, one per work period. The work period comes from the employee's overtime policy: Monday to Sunday by default, or 1–4 weeks or a month if the policy sets one. See Overtime & Time Bank.
Each timesheet shows the hours per day, regular and overtime hours, and flags such as a missing clock-out, a location that couldn't be recorded, or a missed unpaid break where your overtime policy has a break rule. A missed break is flagged for review, never deducted automatically.
Changing an employee's work period only affects timesheets that don't exist yet. Timesheets already created keep their dates.
Submitting and approving
- The employee clicks Submit for Approval at the end of the period. They must clock out first: a timesheet with an open clock-in can't be submitted.
- Their manager is notified. The approver is chosen the same way as for leave: the employee's manager, falling back up the chain and to the Standing escalation people under Time off › Approval Delegation. Approval workflows don't apply to timesheets.
- The manager approves or rejects it from Team Timesheets (Timesheet Approvals in the user menu, or Scheduling › Timesheets in the admin menu). Managers can see the location of each clock action.
- A rejected timesheet goes back to the employee to correct and Resubmit for Approval.
Once a timesheet is submitted, its entries are locked. An approved timesheet is final and can't be unlocked or edited.
When an employee who is leaving is still clocked in on their last day, they stay signed in only to clock out. Clocking out submits their final timesheet for them and ends their access.
Forgotten clock-outs
TimeLeaf checks for people who are still clocked in after they should have stopped:
- With a shift on the roster: 15 minutes after the scheduled end, the employee is asked "Still working?". Yes, I'm still working records the overrun for their manager to see. No clocks them out at the scheduled end.
- No answer, or no shift: once the entry has run longer than the overtime policy's Detection Threshold (hrs), it is closed as a draft for the employee to confirm, ending at the scheduled end where there is one, or at the policy's Auto-Cap To (hrs) otherwise.
Set both figures under Forgot Clock-Out Detection on each overtime policy (Time off › Policies › Overtime Policies). Nothing is ever recorded as fact without someone confirming it.
Overtime and payroll
Approved hours feed:
- Overtime calculations and, if you use it, the time bank. See Overtime & Time Bank.
- Payroll exports and the QuickBooks and Xero integrations. Only approved timesheets are exported. See Payroll Integration.
- Reports such as Hours Summary, Timesheet Exceptions and Scheduled vs Worked Variance. See Reports.