Configuring clocking methods for your employees

Congratulations! You’ve added your employees, and now we are about to go over uAttend's various clocking methods! With your new uAttend system, your employees can utilise several methods to clock in/out. They include web clocking, smartphone clocking, and, of course, timeclock clocking. These various methods will be explained below, and we will discuss the various situations where they might be used.

Smartphone Clocking

This method is great if you have employees who often work at remote locations. They simply download the uAttend app onto their phones, log in to their employee profile with their username and password, and they’ll be able to clock in/out. There are also some safeguards in place for using mobile clocking in the form of geo-locations. You can configure a geo-location to ensure that an employee can only clock in or out when they are within half a mile of their designated work site. However, before your employees can utilise these options, there are some permissions that need to be set up in your uAttend portal. The steps below will guide you through the process of enabling smartphone clocking. 

1. Log in to your uAttend web portal and click on the People tab.
2. Select the employee that you want to set up for smartphone clocking.
3. Enter the employee's Email Address and click the Invite User hyperlink. This will send the user an email with a link to set up their username and password.
4. Click on the Clocking Management tab.
5. You’ll see an option called “Allow Smartphone Clocking”.
6. Click the Enable button, then click Save.

This employee is now set up for smartphone clocking and can begin utilising it after setting up their username and password. Below, I will briefly explain the permissions required to use the smartphone app and how employees log in.

The smartphone app requires that location services be enabled on the device it is being used on this is so that when geo-locations are enabled, the app knows if the employee is within the necessary range to be able to clock in. If they are not, the app will not let them clock in.

The steps below detail how an employee logs into the mobile app.

1. They want to open either the App Store or the Play Store, depending on the model of phone they have.
2. They will want to search for uAttend and download the app.
3. Once the app is downloaded and opened, it will prompt them to enter a company ID. This can be found in the upper right corner of your uAttend web portal, across from your company name.
4. They will then be prompted to enter their username and password; this can be set up in the Personal section of their employee profile if it is not already set up.
5. After entering their username and password, they will be taken to the main screen on the app, depending on the status of their last clocking, the clock option they see will vary.
6. To perform a clocking, they hold their finger on the “Clock In” or “Clock Out” option until it turns green, and they will have successfully completed a clocking on the smartphone app.

Web Clocking

This method allows your employees to log into an employee version of your uAttend web portal. Once logged in, they can clock in/out from any computer. As with the smartphone app, we have safeguards in place here also in the form of IP restrictions. This allows you to set a specific network, such as your office network, as the only place your employees can log in to perform a web clock. With this enabled, they will not be able to log in from home or another network to clock in/out. The steps below will explain how an employee will clock in/out using the web clocking method. Web Clocking can be set up in the Employee Services tab.

1. They will navigate to your company’s login URL.
2. They will enter their username and password. If this has not been set up, it can be set up from the general section of the employee’s profile.
3. Depending on the status of their last clocking, they will see some clocking options available.
4. They will click on the option they wish to perform, and they will get a message on-screen letting them know they performed a clocking and at what time it was performed.

This method works great if the employee has a workstation/computer they utilise for their job function and if they are not near a physical time clock.

Timeclock Clocking

This is the most common method used and allows employees to utilise a physical time clock to clock in/out. Depending on the model of the timeclock they will be using one of the following methods. A PIN, a fingerprint template, a face template, or an RFID badge/fob.

Depending on the model, you have the setup methods are a bit different and can be found in the help article for your specific clock however, there is one method that is universally acceptable for all our clocks, and that is the PIN. Below, I will explain how to assign a PIN to your employees and how they use it to clock in at the timeclock. The steps below will walk you through the process of how to set up a PIN for your employees.

1. Log in to your uAttend web portal and click on the People tab.
2. Select the employee you want to use a PIN number.
3. Click on the Clocking Management tab.
4. You’ll see an option that says “Pin”.
5. Enter a 4-digit PIN for your employee and click save.

Once that is done, your employee can now clock in using their new PIN. To clock in/out with their pin, they’ll simply enter the pin on the keypad of the time clock and press OK if your model clock has a touchscreen, they’ll need to tap the screen first to bring up the pin pad.

And that covers all the different methods you can use to have your employees clock in/out of your new uAttend system. The great thing about these methods is that they can be utilised together if you choose, or you can choose the one that works best for you. The great thing about the uAttend system is its scalability. For example, you may find that one method works for you now, but as your business/company grows, you can implement different methods of clocking across your company. Great job making it this far! In the next article, we will discuss the various user profile types and what those profiles can and can’t do. see you there!