Creating and managing time tracking policies

Workable empowers HR teams to track employee attendance effectively. Time tracking is commonly used for payroll processing and HR monitoring. Employees can record their working hours through clock-in/out, while HR admins and managers can oversee policies and access detailed attendance reports.

Establishing time-tracking policies is essential for ensuring precise employee compensation and allowing managers to monitor and manage time and attendance effectively.

Configure the time tracking policy

To create a new time tracking policy as an HR Admin:

1. Navigate to Time Tracking settings.
2. Click "Add time tracking policy" on the right top corner.

Time tracking policy settings are grouped into four stages:

1. Policy details

Here you will be prompted to define:

1. Policy name: this is visible only to HR Admins
2. Description: Extra information regarding the policy (visible to HR Admins only)
3. Entities and locations: Allow policy to be available for only specific entities/locations. This aims to help avoid potentially incorrect assignments.
4. Departments: Allow policy to be available for only specific departments. This aims to help avoid potentially incorrect assignments.

2. Time tracking method

Here you will be prompted to choose how employees should provide their working hours.

Clock mode

This mode is designed to receive real-time submissions (when an employee arrives at and leaves work) and sends reminders to employees to clock in and out on time. It has two sub-modes of timesheet editing (toggle at the bottom):

• Non-editable timesheets: This is a strict version of clocking in and out. Only a timer widget is available, and nothing else.
• Editable timesheets (Default): This is a more “lax” version of clock mode, where employees may also enter or fix past entries in case they forgot to clock or made a mistake. Future entries are never allowed. Employees are encouraged to clock in on time, so the timer widget is their default view.

Manual mode

This mode is expecting to receive input by employees retroactively at the end of a period: Weekly, Bi-weekly, Monthly.

• Timesheets are always editable, and future entries are never allowed.
• The reminder arrives at the end of the period.
• There is no timer widget.

3. Geofencing settings (Optional)

In this section, you can optionally enable geofencing for the time tracking policy to control where employees clock in and out, ensuring they’re on-site. Check our geofencing article for more information.

4. Time tracking rules & reminders

In this section, configure when employees are expected to submit their hours, when attendance issues are detected, and which reminders are sent.

Clock mode

For clock mode, submissions take place in real time.

Work Schedule reminders:

• Clock-in reminder: Users receive a notification to clock in based on the time mentioned on their work schedule.
  • In case users have clocked in prior to their starting time, they should not receive the notification.
• Clock-out reminder: Users receive a notification to clock out based on their clock-in time and working hours.
  • For example clock in: [ 9:30 ] + [ 8.5 working hours (incl. break) ] = 18:00 send clock-out reminder.
    • If the clock-out reminder is expected to go beyond midnight, send a clock-out reminder at midnight.

Important: Employees with clock mode & work schedule reminders do not receive reminders if they are on approved PTO, bank holiday, or non-working day (i.e. weekend).

Attendance issue rules:

• Late arrival: Sets the grace period after the scheduled start time before a late arrival or missed clock-in is detected. Available values range from 0 minutes to 3 hours in 15-minute increments. The default is 1 hour.
• Exceeding work hours: Sets how long an employee can remain clocked in beyond their scheduled end time before an issue is detected. Available values range from 0 minutes to 3 hours in 15-minute increments. The default is 1 hour.

A threshold of 0 means there is no grace period or overage allowance. In this case, the related threshold-based follow-up reminder cannot be enabled.

Note: Changing a threshold affects attendance indicators from that point forward and does not automatically rewrite past indicators. Past indicators may recalculate if the underlying time entry, approved time off, or work schedule is changed for that date.

Additional reminders:

For Clock-mode policies, including Ergani, you can enable additional automatic reminders for the following attendance issues:

• Late arrival: Sent after the configured late-arrival threshold if the employee has not clocked in
• Exceeding work hours: Sent after the configured overage threshold to remind an employee who is still working to clock out
• No attendance: Sent at the end of the scheduled workday if no clock events were recorded. If employees can edit their clock entries, the reminder asks them to update their attendance. For Ergani or other non-editable Clock-mode policies, the reminder asks them to add a time-off entry instead

Additional reminders can be delivered by email, Slack, or push notification and follow the employee's existing Reminder to clock notification preference. Workable sends at most one automatic notification per employee, per attendance indicator, per day.

Note: Additional reminders were initially turned off for existing time tracking policies. Review existing policies and enable them if needed.

Custom reminders:

• Clock in & out reminders are sent on fixed days and hours. This is meant to be used for employees without a work schedule in Workable.

Manual mode

For manual mode, submissions can only be Weekly, Biweekly or Monthly.

• Work Schedule reminders:
  Users receive a notification to submit their worked hours retroactively for the selected time period. The reminder is sent on the last working hour of the last working day (for example 5PM on Friday for a weekly timesheet reminder).
• Custom reminders:
  Clock in & out reminders are sent on fixed days and hours. This is meant to be used for employees without a work schedule in Workable.

Once you're done with the above configuration, click Save to save your settings and make the policy visible in the list and ready for use.

Manage a time tracking policy

As an HR Admin, you have full control over time tracking policies, with the ability to edit, disable/ enable, or delete them as needed.

To view the list of employees assigned to each time tracking policy, click on the number “pill” on the right of each policy.

Assign a time tracking policy to an employee

Currently, there are no automatic or bulk time tracking policy assignments. To assign a time tracking policy to an employee as an HR Admin, navigate to the employee profile and:

1. Select Actions > Assign time tracking policy.
   
2. Select the time tracking policy that should be used for the employee. Only one policy may be assigned to an employee at a time.
   
   
3. Once you are done, click Save to complete the process. The policy assignment is effective immediately, and the employee can start logging their hours. 

To edit an employee's time tracking policy, select "Manage time tracking policy" from the Actions menu.

Time tracking reminders

Time tracking reminders are configurable via Settings > Preferences. Clock mode never generates inbox/to-do items.

For Clock-mode policies, employees can also receive the additional attendance reminders configured in their policy for Late arrival, Exceeding work hours, and No attendance. These follow the employee's Reminder to clock notification preference and can be delivered by email, Slack, or push notification.

Connecting external time tracking tools

In addition to employees clocking in and out directly in Workable, time entries can also be submitted automatically via the Workable API. This allows external tools and devices to push clock-in/out data straight into your employees' timesheets. Common integration types include:

• Biometric and hardware devices: fingerprint scanners, RFID terminals, and badge readers can send clock-in and clock-out events directly to Workable, ensuring on-site accuracy
• Software integrations: dedicated time tracking tools such as Clockify, Toggl Track, or Harvest can sync time data automatically
• AI and automation tools: MCP-compatible agents can read and write time entries as part of automated workflows

Entries submitted via external integrations appear alongside entries recorded directly in Workable and are visible in the employee's timesheet and the Attendance report.