How to clock in without having a shift in the schedule

With the punch clock, your employees can clock in without having a planned shift in the rota. This could be relevant if an employee suddenly has to work with when they weren't supposed to.

With the function, you therefore no longer need to create shifts in advance, but can let the employees create their own shifts whenever they work. Not even an active rota is required.

In this article we will go through:

• Your overview of the employees' time recordings
• How the employees can clock in through computer or tablet
• How the employees can clock in through the app

Get an overview of your employees' time recordings

When an employee has to clock in without having a shift, they have to register their position and which location they want to use (if you are not using location specific links for the punch clock).

As soon as the employee has clocked in, you will be able to see this in the menu item "Smartplan Time". In this example, Jack has created a shift and has clocked in at 08:15:

You can also see the time recording in "Hours & Salary". Simply be aware that you will only be able to see the number of attended hours, once the employee has clocked out again. The reason for this is that we need an end time before we can calculate the attended hours. The end time is not known in advance, when the employee creates the shifts through the punch clock.

In the settings for the punch clock, you can choose if the employees should choose an expected end time, when they clock in without a planned shift or not. If you choose that they should state a time, you will be able to see this when you click on the time span in the column "Hours after changes" in "Hours & Salary". It will then appear in the activity log for the shift:

How to clock in using a computer or tablet without having a shift in the rota

Within the punch clock, the employees have to click on their name and enter their 4-digits password. Then they will be able to choose "Create shift and clock in":

Now the employee has to pick their position:

If you have chosen that the employees should choose an expected end time, the employee will now be asked to do this:

The information given for the shift is now summarized once again and the employee can clock in to his shift:

How to clock in through the app without having a shift in the rota

The employees will only be able to clock in and out from the app, if an administrator has activated the function on the account. This can be done in "Settings" -> "Punch clock and time recording".

It is still necessary that the employees are within one of the areas that have been determined on the account. You can see how you can create areas here: clock in and out through the app

The employees can create a shift by clicking on "Me" followed by the punch clock icon in the top right corner. Then they will be able to choose "Create shift and clock in to it":

Then they will have to choose which position the shift has and they'll be able to clock in:

The newly created shift is now shown in the user profile under 'Shifts' and the previous duration of the shift since clocking in is displayed:

As soon as the employee has clock in, you can see the time recording in the menu items "Smartplan Time" and "Hours & Salary" when you are logged in on a computer.

You want to learn more about the Hours & Salary? Then take a look at this article.