Time clock

The Time clock records the hours staff actually work, separately from the Shifts they are scheduled for. Staff clock in and out on the dashboard, in the Elara Staff app on their phone, or with a PIN at a front-desk kiosk. Managers review each pay period's hours against the schedule, correct mistakes and approve them, and every punch and correction is kept in the entry's history.

Getting there

• Sidebar path: Operations → Time clock, or the clock at the top of My work. In the staff app, use the Work tab.
• Permission: every signed-in admin can clock in and see their own hours. The Today and Hours tabs need timesheets:read, and with it Time clock opens on Today. Adding, correcting, and voiding entries need timesheets:create, timesheets:update, and timesheets:delete. A role scoped to certain locations sees and corrects time at those locations only, and a role that can read more locations than it can change sees the others read-only.
• Turning it on: the time clock is off for a new studio. An admin with studio-wide timesheets:update turns it on under Settings → Time clock.

Clocking in and out

1. Open Time clock, and with timesheets:read choose My time. You can also use My work, or Work in the staff app. Today's published shifts are listed for reference.
2. Check the Location you are working at. It starts on the location of the shift you are working or about to start, or on your studio's only location, and then the button names that shift, for example Clock in for 3:00 PM shift, Main. Select Change to pick another location. With nothing to start from, choose one.
3. Optionally select Add note and write one, then select Clock in.
4. While on the clock, a timer shows the time worked so far. Select Start break and End break around a break.
5. Select Clock out at the end of your shift. You can add a note when clocking out. The confirmation says how long you have worked today.

You can only be clocked in once at a time. If you sign in on two devices, the second attempt is refused. An instructor record linked to your sign-in shares one timeline with it, so time is never recorded twice for the same person.

If you forget to clock out, ask a manager to set the time you left. An entry can run at most 24 hours, so once you have been clocked in for longer than that, Clock out and Start break are unavailable and the card tells you to ask a manager instead. If the studio turns them on, the time clock emails you when you're still clocked in after your shift ended, and clocks you out automatically after a set number of hours (see Reminders and alerts).

Location checks

The studio chooses how the time clock uses your phone's location:

• Don't use location: nothing is collected.
• Record location: your browser asks to share your location when you punch. The punch saves how far you were from the location, and Hours flags punches made away from it. Declining never stops you from clocking in.
• Require being on site: you must share your location and be within the studio's radius to clock in. Clocking out and breaks are never blocked, so nobody is stuck on the clock.

If the browser can't read your location, the message explains why, for example that location permission is turned off for the site.

Front-desk kiosk

A kiosk is a tablet or computer at the front desk where staff clock in and out with a 4 to 6 digit PIN instead of signing in. Each kiosk belongs to one location, lists the staff on that location's roster, and clocks them in there. Kiosk punches never ask for the device's location.

Set up a kiosk

1. Under Settings → Time clock, in Kiosks, select Add kiosk, name it, and choose its location.
2. A pairing code is shown once. On the front-desk device, open the dashboard's address followed by /kiosk (the dialog shows the full address) and enter the code. A code works once and expires after 15 minutes; select Get a new code if it runs out.
3. The device now shows the kiosk screen and stays paired until the kiosk is revoked. It needs nobody to be signed in, and the kiosk's credential reaches nothing but the kiosk screen. Pairing signs the device's browser out of the dashboard, so pairing the browser you were signed in on does not leave your account at the front desk. Like Log out, it also signs you out on your other devices.

To replace a device, select Pair a new device and enter the new code on it. The old device keeps working until the new code is used, then it is signed out. To retire a kiosk, select Revoke: the device is refused on its next request and goes back to the pairing screen. Hours punched on it are kept.

Adding a kiosk needs timesheets:create at its location, renaming it, getting a new code, choosing its staff or resuming it needs timesheets:update there, and revoking it needs timesheets:delete there.

Choose who clocks in

A kiosk lists only the staff on its location's roster who have a PIN, so someone at the front desk can only try PINs for people who work there. Select Choose staff on a kiosk, tick the people who clock in at that location, and select Save. On an empty roster, Add everyone with a PIN ticks everyone who has one: untick anyone who works at another location before saving. If someone else saves that roster while you have it open, yours is refused rather than undoing theirs: close it and open it again. Every kiosk at the location shares the roster. Someone can be on the roster at more than one location, and anyone not on a roster still clocks in from their own phone or computer. Staff see the locations whose kiosks list them in Kiosk PIN.

Putting someone on a roster takes the same authority as editing them: you can add a person with a sign-in only if their role has no permissions yours lacks, and only a Super Admin can add a Super Admin. Anyone can be taken off.

Kiosk PINs

Only staff with a PIN are listed on a kiosk. Staff with a sign-in set their own under Time clock (or Account in the staff app), in Kiosk PIN, once the studio has a kiosk. A PIN can't be one that is easy to guess: a repeated digit or pair (1111, 1212), a run (1234, 9876), a year (1987, 2024), a date (0704, 3112, 0890 for August 1990, or a six-digit birthday such as 040790), or a common pattern such as a line down the keypad (2580). In Kiosk PINs on the settings page, an admin with studio-wide timesheets:update sets or removes anyone's PIN, including an instructor record without a sign-in. Setting the PIN of someone with a sign-in follows the same rule as adding them to a roster. Each admin can set PINs, their own and others together, up to 30 times an hour. A manager of only some locations sees who has a PIN, but whether one is locked or turned off only for the staff on their locations' rosters: those are the people their kiosks list and the alerts they get are about. Everyone else's PIN shows as set, since only a studio-wide admin can do anything about it.

Five wrong PINs in a row lock that person's PIN for 15 minutes, and the next five for an hour. The PIN turns off until a new one is set (Needs a new PIN) on a third lockout, or on the fifteenth wrong PIN in any 24 hours or the thirtieth in any 30 days, however they are spread and from whichever kiosk. A right PIN only clears the wrong ones in a row: the lockouts and the wrong PINs those windows count stand, and lockouts are forgotten a day after the latest one ends. The kiosk only ever says a PIN is not right, never how many tries are left. Setting a new PIN unlocks it straight away and starts the count again.

The person is emailed when their PIN locks or turns off, so they can tell a manager if it wasn't them. When a PIN turns off, the managers of the kiosk's location (everyone with timesheets:update there) are emailed too. And when someone enters their right PIN at a kiosk after wrong ones for them, the kiosk tells them how many there were since they last used it, and the audit log records it.

So nobody can try more than 30 PINs for one person in any rolling 30 days, under four in a thousand of the four-digit PINs a kiosk accepts, and setting a new PIN starts the count fresh. The flip side is that anyone at a kiosk can turn a coworker's PIN off on purpose with fifteen wrong tries over about an hour and a quarter, waiting out the two locks. That is a nuisance, not a way in: the person and their managers are emailed, the audit log names the kiosk, and the kiosk's own allowance (below) runs out partway through a second one and pauses it until a manager resumes it. If it keeps happening, check who uses that kiosk.

When a kiosk stops taking PINs

Each kiosk also has its own allowance of wrong PINs, about 20, which refills by one an hour. If it runs out, the kiosk stops taking PINs and shows that it is paused, the location's managers (everyone with timesheets:update there) get an email, and the kiosk shows as Stopped in Kiosks. Staff can still clock in from their own phone or computer. Once you know why (someone forgot their PIN, for example), select Resume. If you don't know why, check who has been using the kiosk first, and reset any PIN that is locked: resuming a kiosk does not unlock PINs.

Clocking in at a kiosk

1. Tap your name.
2. Enter your PIN and tap OK.
3. Tap Clock in, Start break, End break, or Clock out. The kiosk confirms the punch and returns to the list of names.

If nobody touches the screen for 30 seconds, it goes back to the list and forgets the PIN. Each entry's history names the kiosk a punch was made on.

My hours

Below the clock, My hours lists your entries for the week, grouped by the studio day each one started on, with the week's total. Hours are decimal (7.50 is seven and a half hours), as on payroll. Each finished entry is marked Approved once payroll has approved its pay period, or Awaiting approval until then. My work shows the same for the whole pay period. Use the previous and next week arrows, or This week, to change week. Unpaid breaks are not counted; paid breaks are. Voided entries stay visible but are not counted.

Today

With timesheets:read, the Today tab compares today's published shifts with the clock at the locations you manage, and refreshes itself every minute. Three tiles count who is Scheduled, who is Working now, and who is Late or missing. Below them, each shift is a row with the person, location, scheduled times, when they clocked in and out, and how early or late that was, with the rows that need you first:

• Late: the shift started and they have not clocked in. Someone counts as late once the missed clock-in alert's wait has passed, so the board and the email agree, or 10 minutes after the start when that alert is off.
• Missed: the shift is over and they never clocked in.
• Working or On break: clocked in for the shift. Clocking in up to an hour early counts, as does still being on the clock from before.
• Unscheduled: time clocked today that no shift accounts for.
• Not in yet: the shift has not started, or is inside the wait above.
• Done: clocked in for the shift and since clocked out.
• Time off: approved time off covers the whole shift. Time off for only part of it, such as an hour for an appointment, does not, and neither does a request still waiting for a decision.

A shift assigned to a role is one row, covered once anyone holding the role clocks in. A shift that ran past midnight also shows on the next day's board, and stays for the rest of that day as every shift does once it is over. If someone clocked in for a shift here at a location you don't manage, the row says so without showing that entry.

Select a row to open its entry and correct it, or, with timesheets:create, to add the missed punch with the person, location and shift times already filled in.

Hours

With timesheets:read, the Hours tab (once called Timesheets) shows the hours grid: one row per person with time or a published shift, their worked hours for each day, their Scheduled and Worked totals, and how many of their entries have Exceptions. Who is on the clock right now is on the Today tab.

Choose Pay period or Week at the top. Pay period needs payroll:read across the studio and opens on the period that just ended while anyone in it still needs approving, otherwise on the current one; use the arrows or Current period to move. Week runs from the first day of the payroll workweek set under Settings → Payroll, so a week's totals are the hours its overtime is counted over. Without payroll:read the tab shows weeks only.

Select a day's hours to list that person's entries for the day below the grid, and select an entry to open it. Worked hours are counted as Payroll counts them: decimal hours after rounding and breaks, on the studio day they were worked, so an overnight shift splits at midnight. Each entry shows the same paid figure, with its punched time beneath when rounding or breaks make the two differ. An entry clocked in before the dates shown is listed too when it has time in them, such as one still open from the last period. Scheduled hours are the person's published shifts in the dates shown; a shift assigned to a role counts for nobody. Filter by Location when the studio has more than one: the grid then shows only time and shifts there.

Exceptions

Each entry is checked for what is worth a look before approving it:

• Clocked out automatically: the automatic clock-out ended it, so nobody knows when the person left. Correct it, or save it unchanged with a reason, to clear it.
• Open since an earlier day: still on the clock from a previous studio day.
• Not on the schedule: no shift was matched when they clocked in.
• Off site: a punch was made away from the location.
• In late or early, Out late or early: a punch further from the start or end of the shift it was matched to than the studio's tolerance (10 minutes unless changed under Settings), with how many minutes.

Select a person's exceptions count to list the flagged entries, or Needs review to show only the people with exceptions and every flagged entry by day. Entries also carry On the clock, Added by a manager, Clocked out by a manager and Voided where they apply. Times are shown in the studio's time zone.

Approve hours

In the Pay period view, each person's Status is one of:

• Period not ended: the period is still running, so it can't be approved yet.
• Has open entry: they are still on the clock in the period. With timesheets:update, Clock out opens the entry so you can set when they left.
• Ready: the period has ended and every entry is closed.
• Approved, or Approved in another period: see Payroll.

With payroll:update across the studio, select Approve on a ready person's row, or Approve all ready to approve everyone ready at once. The confirmation shows the hours from the pay period, across every location. Afterwards, a note lists anyone left out and why: still on the clock, your own time when the studio does not allow it, or hours that changed after you opened the page. Approved people can be reopened with Reopen. Approving covers all of a person's time in the period, so these controls are hidden while a location filter is on. A role that sees only some locations' time, or has no timesheets:read, approves and reopens one person at a time on the Payroll tab instead.

Once the pay period view opens on the period that just ended, it stays there while you approve, even after the last person is approved.

To compare worked hours with the schedule over any range up to 92 days, use the Staff tab in Reports. It counts hours the same way, per person and location.

Add missing time

1. Select Add time.
2. Choose the staff member and location.
3. Set the date and the clock-in and clock-out times. A clock-out earlier than the clock-in is the next day, as on an overnight shift. Leave the clock-out empty only if they are still on the clock.
4. Add any breaks with Add break, ticking Paid for a paid break.
5. Enter a Reason and select Add time.

An entry can't overlap another entry for the same person, start in the future, or run more than 24 hours.

An entry in a pay period that has been approved is read-only until the period is reopened (see Approve hours). Unless the studio allows it, managers can't add, correct or void their own time either; the entry explains why it is read-only.

Correct an entry

Select an entry to open it. Change the times, location, breaks, or note, enter a Reason, and select Save correction. Leaving the clock-out empty keeps the person on the clock. If someone else changed the entry while you had it open, the save is refused so their change isn't overwritten; reopen the entry and make your change again.

An entry marked Clocked out automatically ended at the studio's automatic clock-out limit, not when the person left. Set the clock-out to the time they actually left, or, if that limit was right, save it unchanged with a reason to confirm it. Either removes the mark, and the history keeps your reason.

Void an entry

To remove an entry from the hours, such as a duplicate, open it, select Void entry, and give a reason. A voided entry stays in Hours and its history but no longer counts, and it can't be edited afterwards. Add a new entry if the time is needed again.

History

Each entry's History lists every punch, break, correction, and void, who made it, when, the reason given, and what a correction changed.

Settings

Under Settings → Time clock (needs timesheets:read to view and studio-wide timesheets:update to change):

• Time clock: turn clocking in on or off. Turning it off stops new clock-ins; anyone already on the clock can still clock out.
• Location check: choose Don't use location, Record location, or Require being on site.
• Radius in meters: how far from a location a punch still counts as on site, from 25 to 5,000. The default of 150 allows for phones indoors, which are often off by 30 to 80 meters.
• Kiosks and Kiosk PINs: see Front-desk kiosk.
• Timesheet review: see Timesheet review.

Overtime, rounding, breaks and pay periods are set under Settings → Payroll. See Payroll.

Reminders and alerts

Each of these is off for a new studio. Turn one on and set its timing:

• Shift reminder: emails each person with a staff login 15 minutes to 24 hours before a published shift of theirs starts, and never once it has started. A shift assigned to a role reminds every active member of it. Nobody is reminded of a shift their approved time off covers, and staff invited to the dashboard who have not accepted yet are not reminded.
• Missed clock-in alert: when the person on a published shift hasn't clocked in 5 to 240 minutes after it started, emails each admin who can edit timesheets (timesheets:update) at that location, in a message of their own. For a shift assigned to a role, the alert goes out when nobody holding the role has clocked in. Clocking in up to an hour before the shift counts, as does already being on the clock. The alert is only sent while the shift is still running, so a shift shorter than the wait never alerts. Nor is it sent when approved time off covers the shift (for a role, when it covers every member). Time off for only part of a shift, or a request still waiting for a decision, silences neither email. Staff invited to the dashboard who have not accepted yet get no alerts.
• Clock-out reminder: emails a person still clocked in 5 to 240 minutes after the shift they clocked in for ended. Time not clocked against a shift gets no reminder; the automatic clock-out still ends it.
• Automatic clock-out: clocks out anyone still on the clock 2 to 24 hours after clocking in, ending any open break at the same time. An entry never runs past 24 hours. The entry is marked Clocked out automatically for a manager to correct, and its history shows the automatic clock-out and why.

Shift reminders and missed clock-in alerts only go out while the time clock is on. Clock-out reminders and the automatic clock-out keep running when it is off, for anyone still on the clock. Each email goes out once for each day a shift runs, even when the whole series is edited that day, including while the email is being sent. An email that fails to send during such an edit is not tried again. None go out while the studio's email is turned off. Times follow the studio's time zone, including across daylight saving changes. A day changed on its own on the rota counts as changed: a cancelled day sends nothing, a retimed day goes by its new times, and a day handed to someone else reminds them instead.

A location is placed on the map from its street address. Locations without a map position are listed on the settings page. Punches there still record the staff member's position (and Require being on site still needs one), but their distance isn't measured until a full address is added on the dashboard's Locations page.

Timesheet review

Minutes off shift before a punch is flagged sets how far a clock-in or clock-out may land from its shift's start or end before Hours flags it as in or out early or late. It runs from 1 to 60 minutes, and the default is 10. The Hours screen states the tolerance it applied, and a change applies to every entry the next time Hours loads, including entries from earlier pay periods.

Tips

• Deleting a staff member who has recorded time is refused, because wage records outlive the job. Set them to Inactive in the Directory instead.
• Linking an instructor record to a sign-in is refused while both have entries at the same time. Void the duplicate entry first, then link them.