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 three 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. Submission 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. Submission frequency

Here you will be prompted to set up the exact times employees are expected to input hours. 

Clock mode

For clock mode, this can only be real-time submission.

You may select between:

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).

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, this can only be Weekly, Biweekly or Monthly submission.

• 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.

Action	Explanation
Edit	If the policy has already been assigned to any employees, then only the policy details are editable, and the rest of the information is read-only.
Disable	Disabling a time tracking policy already assigned to an employee prevents future assignments for other employees. Any employees already assigned to this policy will continue with their current time tracking settings. A disabled marker will appear next to disabled policies.
Enable	Enabling a disabled time tracking policy will make it available for new assignments to employees.
Delete	Deleting a time tracking policy that is not assigned to any employees will completely remove it from the account. Any past assignments to employees won't be affected.

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

Reminders are on by default on all of the account's available channels and configurable via Settings > Preferences. Note that clock mode never generates inbox/to-do items.

Mode	Inbox/ To - do	Email/Slack	Push
Clock mode	None	Clock in Clock out	Clock in Clock out
Manual mode	Timesheet submit reminder	Timesheet submit reminder	Timesheet submit reminder