How To Set Up and Use the flair Time Tracker

Introduction to Time Tracking

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The Time Tracking feature in the flair Employee Hub is an easy way to keep a record of the hours that employees have spent at work.

What Is Time Tracking Used For?

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Time tracking allows employees and managers to document working hours, breaks, and overtime. It’s an effective way to help employees demonstrate their working time, while also checking that they are taking enough breaks and are fairly compensated for overtime.

Time Tracking With flair

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flair supports three common types of time tracking:

1. Digital Clock In / Clock Out: Employees can clock in, record breaks, and clock out using the flair Employee Hub or mobile app. This offers a more modern and efficient alternative to paper or spreadsheet-based tracking.
2. Project-Based Tracking: With time tracking in flair, you can track time spent on specific projects alongside ordinary working hours. This helps you keep track of billable hours for a particular project, so that you don’t run over time or budget.
3. Tracking With Physical Devices: flair also supports time tracking with physical devices. For example, employees can clock in with a card, badge, or chip when they arrive at work. Their time is then synched with the flair time tracking app.

How To Set Up Time Tracking

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To set up time tracking, you first need to enter the flair HR app in Salesforce. Click on Attendance in the navigation bar and then select Workloads. This will show you any workload templates you have created.

Click on New Workload Template to add a new set of working hours for specific employees. Here you can define how many hours employees are required to work on a weekly or monthly basis. You also have the option to schedule break times.

Setting Up a Time Framework

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While creating your workload template, you may need to set up a time framework to define certain rules for overtime and breaks. This can help you comply with the applicable labor laws in each region where your organization operates.

To create a time framework, click on Add Time Framework from within your workload template. Alternatively, you can click on the HR Admin page in your main navigation bar and select Time Frameworks.

Click New and you can then configure how overtime is calculated and compensated, set minimum break times, set automated break reminders for employees, and more.

Assigning Approval Responsibilities

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Timesheets are automatically sent to the manager(s) of a specific employee for approval. To change the designated manager, click on the employee in the flair HR app and scroll down to the Contract section. Here, you will be able to select a Manager.

If multiple people should be responsible for approval, click Additional Managers on the right-hand side of the menu. You can then add another manager and assign responsibilities. Make sure Time Entries Approval is checked, and then press Save.

How It Works

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Time Tracking Overview

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The Employee Hub Overview section provides employees with essential information regarding their work hours. It displays the number of hours worked by the employee in the current week, as well as the remaining hours. Any break rules established by the organization are presented. Moreover, employees have the option to review their past weeks' work hours and view their scheduled working hours for upcoming weeks.

Employees can also refer to the Absences section. This section encompasses various types of planned absences, such as sick leave, vacation, and public holidays. These absences are automatically subtracted from the originally scheduled working hours.

Time tracking starts when an employee clicks on the Start Tracking button. If the employee wants to take a break, they can press the Pause button and simply press Play again once they have returned. When the employee is ready to clock out and end their day, they simply press the Stop button and their working hours will be displayed in the weekly overview.

Change Requests

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If the employee forgets to clock in, clock out, or track a break, they can manually change their start time, end time, and breaks. The proposed changes are then sent to the timesheet manager for approval.

It is also possible for employees to add notes to a shift. For example, they may want to explain why they worked irregular hours on a certain day, or let their manager know why they have requested a change.

To learn how to set up time tracking in your organization, read our set-up guide.

Start Time Tracking in the Employee Hub

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To start tracking your hours, log in to your Employee Hub and select Time Tracking in the menu on the left. Then click Start Tracking. You can also start tracking time instantly from your Dashboard.

In the Overview, you will see all your tracked hours for the current week. You can also view hours tracked in previous weeks and your scheduled hours for upcoming weeks.

While your time tracker is running, you will see your working time at the bottom-right of every page in the Employee Hub.

If you want to take a break, simply click the Pause button. Click Play to restart time tracking once you return to work. Clicking on the blue arrow will show an overview of your currently tracked day and allow you to write a note about your time-tracking activity.

Depending on which country you work in, you will have different rules on minimum required break times. In the Break Rules box on the left of the Overview, you can see the rules your organization has set regarding break times.

What if I Forget To Track My Time?

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Forgot to clock in or had lunch without pausing your time tracker? No worries. You can correct your hours by clicking on your recorded times and editing them. You can also click on Add Break to enter your break times. Your new times will be shown as Pending Changes until a manager has reviewed your corrections.

Mobile Time Tracking

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You can also use the flair mobile app to track your working hours on the go. This is ideal for remote workers, traveling workers, and people in jobs that spend little or no time at a computer.

You can start tracking time from the home screen of the mobile app by clicking the play button ▶️. Press pause ⏸️ to take a break or stop ⏹️ to clock out for the day.

By opening the Time Tracking tab at the bottom of the screen, you can view your tracked hours for the current week, as well as previous time entries. Tapping the question mark icon at the top right of the screen will show you the break-time rules set by your organization.

Tap on a specific day to see what time you clocked in, took your break, and clocked out on that day. If you forgot to log your working hours, you can tap on Edit in the top-right corner to submit a change request to your manager. You can also leave a comment to explain the reasons for the change.

If you are using iOS 16 or later, our time tracker is also compatible with Apple’s Live Activities feature. This means that you can view and control your time tracker from your phone’s lock screen.

Slack Time Tracking

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flair offers a Slack integration to make time tracking even easier. Check the Apps page in Slack to find the flair app. If it is not there, you may need to install it from the Slack App Directory. Once the flair app is enabled for your Slack workspace, you will see flair in your list of apps.

You can start tracking time from the app Home screen. Under the Time Tracking section, you will see your clock-in, clock-out, and break times for the current day. Below this, you will see various buttons that allow you to start ▶️ tracking time, take a break, or clock out ⏹️ for the day.

If you choose the Clock Out (Comments) button, you will have the option to add a comment for the person reviewing your timesheet. This can be useful if your tracked time was different from your usual schedule.

When your timesheet has been approved, you will receive a notification in Slack showing you a summary of your tracked time during a specific week. You can click on View in Employee Hub to see more details.

How To View and Approve Timesheets

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To view employee timesheets, go to the Manager tab in the Employee Hub and select Time Tracking > Controlling.

There you will see an overview of time fulfillment and days worked by each employee. Clicking on an employee will give you a more detailed view of their timesheets and allow you to make changes and approve timesheets. You can also approve multiple timesheets in one go by checking the box beside each timesheet that you wish to approve.

Approving Change Requests

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When an employee makes a change to their timesheet, you will receive a notification via email. You can view all open change requests in the Employee Hub by clicking on Time Tracking > Change Requests.

Here, you will see more information about the proposed change. Then you can simply select whether or not to approve the request.

Change requests will also appear on the My Team section of the Employee Hub, alongside other items that require approval.

Reapproving Timesheets

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Sometimes, an employee might make a change to their working hours after you’ve already approved a timesheet. For example, if you approved an ordinary working week in advance, but an employee was off sick on one of these days, the working total working time will change.

If this happens, all you need to do is log into the flair HR app and click Timesheets. Select the timesheet for the week during which a change was made. Now, on the right-hand side where the Approve button normally appears, you will see a Re-Approve button. Simply click this button to reapprove the timesheet.

Managing Employee Overtime

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To check employee overtime as a manager go to the My Team tab on the Manager side of the Employee Hub.

Next, select an employee and toggle to the Time Sheets tab. There you will find an overview of that particular employee’s absences, holidays, and overtime. Check weekly details or dive deeper into the working hours of each day.

A second way to review employee overtime is to open the Time Tracking page and go to the Controlling panel. Here you can click on an individual employee’s name and see the same working hours statistics presented through the My Team page.

Reviewing Overtime as an Employee

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For a concise overview of your overtime as an employee, simply access the Employee Hub's Time Tracking page. In the Overview section, you'll find a detailed analysis of your daily and weekly working hours. You can also scroll to review data from previous weeks. Overtime hours are prominently displayed in red on the chart, while regular, allocated working hours are depicted in green.

Overtime Setup

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Overtime management is a crucial aspect of workforce organization, and assigning employees to a Time Framework helps ensure an organized approach to handling overtime or additional hours.

Organizing Overtime Using Time Frameworks

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Let’s take a look at setting up overtime for your company using a Time Framework.

Create Compensatory Time Category

• Create an absence category for compensatory time or overtime in the flair HR app. All the overtime employees accumulate will be accrued within this category.

• To do this go to the HR admin section and select Absence Categories and Policies. Select Create on the Absence Categories panel. In this case, we are creating an Overtime compensation category. Make sure you tick the Compensatory Time box to make this category accrues all the overtime an employee works.

Time Framework Template

• The next step is to create a Time Framework, where you will define your company overtime rules. Go to the HR Admin page and select Time Frameworks. You can either create a new Time Framework or adjust an existing one.

• After setting up and clicking into a Time Framework, you can access the Overtime menu, which allows you to personalize the overtime rules according to your preferences. Within this menu, you can choose the method for calculating extra hours by selecting an option from the Overtime Calculation drop-down box. You have three choices: daily basis, weekly basis, or a combination of daily and weekly maximums.

• If overtime is anything that exceeds workload hours, check the Weekly Overtime Based on Workload box.

• Or, enter the threshold in the Calculate Weekly Overtime After field to determine the number of hours at which overtime begins. For example, for some people, after 40 hours then the overtime rates apply.

• Under the Compensatory Time field, you can set the rate of overtime as a percentage of an employee’s wage. For example, overtime can be calculated at 100% of the standard wage. Any extra hours after this can be calculated at 150%, for example, using the Extra Hours Premium field.

• Once you are happy, click Save.

Assign Employees to a Time Framework

• To Assign an individual or a group of employees to a Time Framework, go to the Employee Workloads tab in the flair HR app.

• Next, select the correct framework under the Time Framework field beside an employee’s name. Then click Apply and then select Save.

• To assign a Time Framework to a group of Employees you can tick Select All rather than ticking individual employee names.

• Please note, if you are unable to see the Time Framework field in the Employee Workloads tab, click on the Settings cog icon. This icon, to the right of the Employee Workloads Search bar, will allow you to display more fields such as a Time Framework.