I can’t get into my account — password, invitation, lockout

First: is it Zeitflex?

Before you reset a password, check the status page. It can be reached without signing in and shows the state of the web app, time clock and terminal, mobile sync, reports and exports, and email delivery — with the outage history of the last 90 days.

If an outage is listed there, your password is not the problem; every failed attempt still counts towards the lockout (see below). In the meantime, record working time on paper. If nothing is listed there, try a different device or network (mobile data instead of the company Wi-Fi) — only then turn to the account itself.

“Email or password is incorrect.”

This message deliberately does not say what is wrong. It appears in four cases:

The last point is the most common reason for “but the password is right”.

Resetting your password

1. On the sign-in page, below the password field, click Forgot password?
2. Enter your email address and submit. The reply is always the same: “If an account belongs to this address, the email is on its way now.” Zeitflex does not reveal whether the account exists.
3. Open the link in the email and set a new password. You are then signed in.

Also:

• At most 5 requests per hour for the same address from the same connection; after that a 30-minute lockout (“Too many reset requests.”).
• No email? Check your spam folder. Accounts without an address and deactivated accounts do not receive an email — the on-screen message still looks the same.
• The new password needs at least 10 characters, a letter and a digit, plus a special character — or instead at least 16 characters. Zeitflex rejects parts of your email address or your name and trivial words such as “passwort1”; while you type, it shows the strength.
• Resetting ends all phone sessions. Sign in again in the app.

Too many attempts: the lockout

Zeitflex counts sign-in attempts per email address and connection. After 10 failed attempts within 10 minutes, this combination is locked for 10 minutes; a successful sign-in resets the counter.

The invitation link no longer works

Invitations are valid for 14 days. After that — or if the link has already been used — you see: “This invitation link no longer works. It has expired, has already been used or is invalid.”

1. Ask the owner or shift manager to invite you again — under Employees; the invitation list there shows “Open”, “Accepted” or “Expired”.
2. Inviting the same address again creates a new link with a new 14 days; no second account is created.
3. If redeeming it shows “This access has been deactivated”, the account has since been marked as having left. Clarify this with the business.

Management’s view is explained under Inviting employees.

The confirmation email has expired

After a business registers, Zeitflex sends a confirmation email; its link is valid for 24 hours. An expired link leads to the sign-in page — sign in with your password and request a new link: in the banner at the top of the app or under Settings → Account, button Send confirmation link. At most 5 per hour, then a 30-minute pause. Later only hides the banner until the page is next loaded; it comes back until the address is confirmed. If management changes your address, the link is sent to the new address automatically. Forgot password also confirms the address, because the link arrives in exactly that mailbox.

Signing in, clocking in and everything else work even without confirmation. Invoices, payment notices, the weekly report and the mini-job warning go to the owner’s address even before confirmation. A confirmed address is required for the sign-in link by email and the security notices to the owner (for example when a manager enters an address on someone else’s account). Managers receive the weekly report and the mini-job warning only at a confirmed address.

Without an email address: the PIN at the terminal

Anyone set up without an email address clocks in and out exclusively with a PIN at the wall terminal — for this person there is no sign-in in the app or browser that could fail (all routes: Clocking in and out by phone, tablet or browser).

• Management assigns and changes the PIN under Settings in the Terminal area. New PINs have 6 digits; older four-digit ones remain valid but are marked for renewal. Nobody can see the PIN itself there.
• Forgotten your PIN? It cannot be displayed — management sets a new one.
• After 5 wrong PINs, the terminal locks this person on this device for 5 minutes. Other people on the device and the same person at a different terminal are not affected; a correct PIN resets the counter.
• If the PIN is removed, the person can no longer clock in and out at the terminal.

What Zeitflex does not have

• No password change from within the signed-in account. The only way to a new password is “Forgot password?” — even if you still know the old one.
• No two-factor sign-in for business accounts.
• No looking up the old password. Zeitflex only stores passwords as a hash; nobody — not even support — can tell you what it is.

Still stuck?

If nobody from the business can get in, write to support from your own mailbox — the form in the app is of no use then; you set up the mobile app with Getting Zeitflex on your phone.