The Time Card Time Entry settings are used to help prevent an employee from receiving more hours than expected for a single time record and to help determine an employee's typical workday. This can range from a warning if a time record would exceed X hours or a time record is separated into two lines.

This setting cannot take into account every possible scenario you may encounter. The time cards should still be reviewed to ensure an employee receives the correct amount of hours. 

Table of Contents

• What the Setting Does
• Setting Up Time Card Time Entry
• Problem From Time Entry Settings
  • Too Small of a Threshold
  • Too Large of a Threshold

What the Setting Does

1. If the total hours of the record would exceed the threshold for the warning when editing a time record, you will see the following message. You can still save any edits with this warning.
   
2. When trying to edit a time record to go over your maximum threshold, you will see the following message and cannot save the time edit.
   
3. Any time records made in the field (via ExakTime Mobile or JobClocks) and exceeding the maximum allowable hours will have their clock in and clock out separated into two separate lines. In the example below, an employee clocked out after 14 hours, resulting in the time records being separated as this is not typical. 
   • An administrator will need to edit the time record so they are complete and do not exceed the maximum threshold. These time records cannot be merged. You will need to either manually enter the clock out time into the time record with the clock in or enter the clock in time into the time record with the clock out.
   
4. If an employee were to forget to clock out for the day, and clock in on the following day, if the clock ins were to exceed the threshold, it would assume that the time records should be separated and will keep the time records separated to their respective days.

   

Setting Up Time Card Time Entry

• Go to Manage and click Company Settings.

  

• Click the Time & Attendance tab and scroll down towards the Time Card Time Entry settings.

  

  

• Adjust the number of hours that are allowed between the start and stop times of a single time record. It is best to enter a number of hours that would be impossible for your employees to receive, such as 12-14 hours.
  • When making edits to a time record, if the time record would exceed the set threshold, this will not allow you to save those changes.
  • After employees clock in, if the time record would exceed the set threshold, the start and stop times will be separated into two separate lines.
  
• Adjust the number of hours that should be allowed between the start and stop times of a single time record before a warning appears. It is best to enter a number of hours that would be normal for you to enter for an employee's typical workday, such as 8-10 hours.

  

• Save any changes made.

Tips

• Changing the time card time entry settings will only affect time records moving forward. It will not retroactively split time records.
• As changing the time card time entry settings only affects future time records, it can be helpful to adjust the setting to coincide with seasonal work changes.
  • For example, your winter season may not have that much work and your employees would not expect to work more than 8 hours. Your employees may work more than 10 hours during the summer, however.

Problem From Time Entry Settings

We generally recommend that the time card time entry settings are set to a reasonable time frame that would be typical of your employees. 

Too Small of a Threshold

If the time card time entry settings are too small, such as a 0 or 1-hour separation, it can result in ExakTime Connect separating time records that would normally be connected.

In the example below, the employee is clocking in multiple times throughout the day for more accurate time tracking with less than an hour separation. Due to the low 0 to 1 hour separation, the system will make every record be incomplete.

Too Large of a Threshold

If the time card time entry settings are too large, such as 24 or more separation, it can result in ExakTime Connect combining time records that would normally be disconnected.

In the example below, the employee has clocked in at 8:36 AM and forgot to clock out. They clocked in the following day at 7:10 AM. The system believes that it is possible for the employee to have this work day as the time between both clock ins is within the 24-hour separation.

Correcting Either Issue

To correct either issue, you will need to change the time card time entry setting that does not allow punches to be separated to be more than X hours.

We would generally advise looking at an employee's typical workday, including overtime/double-time if allowed, as a reference to enter here.