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Settings: Timeclock Sidekick
Settings: Timeclock Sidekick

Learn how to round the hours worked to save time!

StaffAny avatar
Written by StaffAny
Updated over a week ago

Contents of this article is applicable to the following users

Tier: GROWTH, SCALE

Platform: Web

Access Level: Owner

Having staff clock in/out on the dot for every single shift can be challenging. All the extra minutes, regardless of early or late clock in, can add up to substantial costs to your organization.

With Timeclock Sidekick all adjustments of each staff’s hours will be done automatically, saving you time from having to manually adjust every time.

This guide will cover the following:

  1. Set Up Timeclock Sidekick

  2. Display Rounded Timestamp on Timesheet

  3. Clock In Timeclock Sidekick

    1. Early Clock In Allowance & Late Clock In Allowance

    2. Round up to Scheduled Shift Start Time

    3. Early Clock in Prevention

    4. Round down to Scheduled Shift Start Time

    5. Clock In Minute Rounding (New)

  4. Clock Out Timeclock Sidekick

    1. Round Up to Scheduled Shift End Time

    2. Capture Early Clock Out Frequency

    3. Round down to Scheduled Shift Time

    4. Auto Clock Out

    5. Late Clock Out Prevention

    6. Clock Out Minute Rounding (New)

  5. Break Rounding

  6. Timesheet Summary

  7. Timesheet Details

FAQ

Set Up Timeclock Sidekick

  1. In Web app, go to Settings > Click on Timeclock Sidekick.

    With the aid of Timeclock Sidekick, you will be able to optimize your labour cost by tracking only your staff's actual working hours and reduce all unnecessary overtime costs.

    The timeclock sidekick is separated into 3 parts, which are Clock In, Clock Out, and Break Rounding

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Display Rounded Timestamp on Timesheet

By enabling the "Display Rounded Timestamp" feature, you can view rounded Time In and Time Out timestamps in the Timesheet, as a result of the clock-in/out allowance and the minutes rounding settings. This option provides a more simplified and generalized view of the timestamps, which can be particularly useful for managing and reviewing employee attendance records to tally with its calculated work hour duration.

Disable it if you want to display the actual Time In/Out records instead.

Note: If you don't want the Time In and Time Out in Timesheet to show rounded time, you can turn off the toggle.

Clock In Timeclock Sidekick

  1. Set the Early Clock In Allowance and Late Clock In Allowance

2. Toggle on/off for the features

a. Early Clock In Allowance & Late Clock In Allowance

  • Timeclock allowance is a grace period for CICOs before being marked as early/late

b. Round up to Scheduled Shift Start Time

  • If a staff clocks in between 08:45-08:59, the total hours worked will be only calculated from 09:00 onwards.

c. Early Clock in Prevention

  • Staff can only clock in within the Early Clock In Allowance. Your staff will only be able to start clocking in from 0845 onwards.

Note: Disabled if Early Clock In allowance is set as No Rounding

d. Round down to Scheduled Shift Start Time

  • If a staff clocks in between 09:01-09:15, the total hours worked will be only calculated from 09:00 onwards

Note: Disabled if Late Clock In allowance is set as No Rounding

e. Clock In Minute Rounding (New)

  • Round Clock In record to a customizable interval in minutes.

  • There are 3 forms of Minute Rounding

    • Nearest to X-minutes
      Example: Rounding to the nearest 15

      • 09:05 > 09:00

      • 09:08 > 09:15

      • 09:23 > 09:30

    • Rounding Down to X-minutes

      Example: Rounding down to 10
      ​

      • 09:09 > 09:00

      • 09:18 > 09:10

      • 09:29 > 09:20

    • Rounding Up to X-minutes

      Example: Rounding up to 10
      ​

      • 08:51 > 09:00

      • 09:01 > 09:10

      • 09:22 > 09:30

  • You may use the Clock In Minute Rounding alongside the Early/Late Clock In Allowance. Example:

    • Setup:

      • Late Clock In Allowance = 10 minutes

      • Clock In Minute Rounding = Round Nearest 15 minutes

      • Scheduled In = 09:00

    • Result:

      • Clock in at 09:09 > Rounded to 09:00. Rounded to scheduled start because it's within the allowance.

      • Clock in at 09:19 > Rounded to 09:15 (Status = Late). Rounded to the nearest 15, because it's beyond the allowance.

Note: This feature is enabled for selected accounts only. Reach us to enable this.

Clock Out Timeclock Sidekick

  1. Set the Early Clock Out and Late Clock Out Allowance

2. Toggle on/off the features

a. Round Up to Scheduled Shift End Time

  1. If a staff clocks out between 17:45-17:59, the total hours worked will still be calculated until the end of the shift at 18:00

Note: Disabled if Early Clock Out allowance is set as No Rounding

b. Capture Early Clock Out Frequency

  1. Managers can record how many times an employee clocked out earlier than the scheduled time. After enabling this feature, managers will be able to view the records when exporting the Timesheet under the “Early Clock Out Frequency” column.

Note: If Employee clocked out within the Early Clock Out Allowance, it will not be captured or recorded in this column

c. Round down to Scheduled Shift Time

  1. If a staff clocks out between 18:01-18:15, the total hours worked will only be calculated until the end of the shift at 18:00

Note: Disabled if Late Clock Out allowance is set as No Rounding

d. Auto Clock Out

  1. Staff will automatically be clocked out after the given time allowance. The system will auto clock out for all your staff at 1830.

Note: Disabled if Late Clock Out allowance is set as No Rounding

Note: After clocking out, staff can still click 'worked more' to extend their clock out timing. This is usually done if they stayed back to do more work

Note: This is not applicable for sections with Flexi attendance method. Read here to find out how to change your section's attendance method.

e. Late Clock Out Prevention

  1. Staff can only clock out within the given time frame. Your staff will not be able to clock out anytime after 1830.

This setting only works with Auto Clock Out turned on.

Note: After clocking out, staff cannot click 'worked more' to extend their clock out timing.

f. Clock Out Minute Rounding (New)

  • Round Clock Out record to a customizable interval in minutes.

  • There are three forms of Minute Rounding

    • Nearest to X-minutes
      Example: Rounding to nearest 15

      • 18:05 > 18:00

      • 18:08 > 18:15

      • 18:23 > 18:30

    • Rounding Down to X-minutes

      Example: Rounding down to 10

      • 18:10 > 18:10

      • 18:18 > 18:10

      • 18:29 > 18:20

    • Rounding Up to X-minutes

      Example: Rounding up to 30

      • 18:29 > 18:30

      • 18:15 > 18:30

      • 18:40 > 19:00

  • You may use the Clock Out Minute Rounding alongside the Early/Late Clock Out Allowance. Example:

    • Setup:

      • Early Clock Out Allowance = 10 minutes

      • Clock Out Minute Rounding = Round Nearest 10 minutes

      • Scheduled Out = 18:00

    • Result:

      • Clock out at 17:51 > Rounded to 18:00. Rounded to scheduled start because it's within the allowance.

      • Clock out at 17:41 > Rounded to 17:40 (Status = Early Clock Out). Rounded to the nearest 10 minutes because it's beyond the allowance.

Note: This feature is enabled for selected accounts only. Reach us to enable this.

Break Rounding

Staff will automatically have their break hours rounded to scheduled break hours.

The total break duration will always round to 60 mins, regardless of the actual break time clocked (E.g. 24 mins or 75 mins = rounded to 60 mins).

Situation

Without Rounding

Round to Scheduled

Round to X-minutes

Take less break

Scheduled: 60min

Actual: 45min

Override: None

Round to scheduled

Final Break on Timesheets: 60min

Round to scheduled

Final Break on Timesheets: 60min

Round to scheduled

Final Break on Timesheets: 60min

Take more break

Scheduled: 60min

Actual: 75min

Override: None

No rounding

Final Break on Timesheets: 75min

Round to scheduled

Final Break on Timesheets: 60min

Round to X-minutes*

E.g. Round Up to 30

Final Break on Timesheets: 90min

Did not take break

Scheduled: 60min

Actual: 0 min

Override: None

Round to scheduled

Final Break on Timesheets: 60min

Round to scheduled

Final Break on Timesheets: 60min

Round to scheduled

Final Break on Timesheets: 60min

*) Illustration for round to X-minutes:

  • Round break duration to the nearest X-minutes.

  • Round break duration up to the X-minutes.

  • Round break duration down to the X-minutes.

Timesheet Summary

You can now view the number of hours your team has saved under the Timesheet tab.

Hover over the icon to see an overview of the manpower costs saved over the past 7 days and also view a performance comparison

Note: You will only be able to see this when viewing for a period of more than 7 days

Learn more about the full cost saving report here

Timesheet Details

Furthermore, please note that Time In and Time Out entries will now display rounded timestamps instead of the actual times. For instance, if you clock in at 09:55 and clock out at 16:03, the display will show Time In as 10:00 and Time Out as 16:00.

Dive deeper by clicking a timesheet record and selecting the rounding breakdown table. Here, you'll find a comprehensive breakdown of the rounding applied.

For transparency, track changes and rounding adjustments in the timecard history. This provides insights into how your timesheet entries are rounded.

Additionally, you could export the actual timestamp by ticking this checkbox while exporting your Timesheet Individual file.

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FAQ

  1. How does updating Timeclock Sidekick impact previous clocked records?

    1. Auto Clock Out Enablement/Disablement

      1. No, old clocked records will not be affected. These changes will only apply to future shifts and current shifts that have not been clocked out yet.

      2. Disabling auto Clock Out while Staff has not clocked out his current shift will cause his shift to not Clock Out automatically.

    2. Timesheet Rounding Modifications

      1. If timesheets were not locked:
        All historical timesheet entries will experience be recalculated and affected.

      2. If the timesheets were locked:
        Recalculation will impact entries from the timesheet locked date onward, while the previous records remain unaffected.

    3. Learn how to lock your timesheets

  2. Can Clock In/Out Minute Rounding and Early/Late Allowance be used together?

    1. Absolutely! These features complement each other seamlessly. You can leverage Clock In/Clock Out Minute Rounding alongside the Early/Late Allowance.

  3. What happens if my clock in/out occurs within the Early/Late Allowance period?

    1. When your clock-in or clock-out action falls within the specified allowance period, the resulting time entry will be rounded to the scheduled time.

  4. And if my clock in/clock out takes place outside the allowance period?

    1. Should your clock-in or clock-out activity extend beyond the allowance window, the minute-rounding logic comes into play. In such cases, the calculated result adheres to the minute rounding setup.

    2. Example:

      • Setup:

        • Late Clock In Allowance = 10 minutes

        • Clock In Minute Rounding = Round Nearest 15 minutes

        • Scheduled In = 09:00

      • Result:

        • Clock in at 09:09 > Rounded to 09:00. Rounded to scheduled start because it's within the allowance.

        • Clock in at 09:19 > Rounded to 09:15 (Status = Late). Rounded to the nearest 15, because it's beyond the allowance.

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