Clocking in and out by phone, tablet or browser

There are three routes into the same record. Which one fits depends on the business — not on the technology.

All three create the same time entry. The history of an entry in the timesheet shows which route was used to book it: “WEB” for a clock-in in the browser, “STEMPELUHR” for the terminal, “manual” for a late entry made by hand. Clock-ins delivered later from the browser's offline queue and clock-ins from the actual mobile app carry “API”, imported legacy data “IMPORT”. Nothing can be booked via the interface with an API key — it only reads.

Route 1: Browser

1. Sign in to Zeitflex.
2. On the dashboard, click Clock in.
3. At the end of the working day, click Clock out.

The time clock is on the dashboard, and only there. While an entry is running, it shows the elapsed time; if you switch to another page in the meantime, you get back to the button via the dashboard.

If the connection drops briefly, the clock-in is not lost: the browser puts it in a queue and delivers it as soon as there is a connection again. The device's time at the moment of the click is the clock-in time, not the time of delivery. How this works in detail is described under Working without a connection.

Route 2: Phone

The process is the same as in the browser. If you put Zeitflex on your home screen, it is two taps away — see Getting Zeitflex on your phone.

Route 3: Tablet terminal on the wall

The terminal is a separate view with large tiles, one per person. It is intended for a device that hangs in the business and that everyone uses.

Setting up (once, by the owner or management):

1. Open Settings → Terminal and check that the Enable terminal mode switch is on.
2. Under Terminal devices, add a new device. Zeitflex shows a pairing code exactly once — as text in the form ABCD-EFGH and as a QR code.
3. On the tablet, open the address /terminal and enter the pairing code or scan the QR code.
4. For each person who is to clock in at the terminal, assign a 6-digit PIN in the PIN list under Settings → Terminal.

The pairing code is valid for 60 minutes and can only be redeemed once. After that you have to generate a new one. The character set deliberately leaves out the characters I, O, 0 and 1, because they get mixed up when typed.

Using it (by the staff):

1. Tap your own tile.
2. Enter your PIN.
3. The clock-in or clock-out is confirmed, and the view jumps back to the tile overview.

PIN rules

• Six digits, numbers only. Four-digit PINs from the early days still work, but should be replaced — the terminal points this out after clocking in or out, and the PIN list in the settings marks them for renewal.
• Management assigns the PIN, not the person themselves: owners and managers set, change and remove PINs under Settings → Terminal. The PIN is stored encrypted; even management only sees whether a PIN is set and how many digits it has — never the PIN itself.
• No PIN and no badge, no terminal. Anyone with neither a PIN nor a badge cannot clock in there. If a PIN is removed, that person can only clock in at the terminal with a badge — or, without a badge, not at all. If Badge only together with PIN is switched on, the badge does not help them either (see below).
• Five failed attempts within five minutes lock for five minutes. The lock applies to the combination of this tablet and this person: a tablet at which someone is trying out numbers does not lock out the colleague at the neighbouring terminal, and a locked person does not block the whole tablet. A correct PIN resets the counter. Wrong PINs and invalid badges count together.
• No dates of birth, no 123456. The PIN is entered on a tablet that others can watch.
• The tax adviser never clocks in. Accounts with the tax adviser role appear neither on the tiles nor in the PIN list.

Badge instead of PIN

Instead of typing the PIN, a person can show their badge at the terminal — a printed card with a QR code. The tablet reads it with its camera.

Issuing (owner or management):

1. Open Settings → Terminal and, in the PIN list, click Issue badge next to the person.
2. In the dialog choose Print now, ideally on sturdy paper, laminated or in a card sleeve. The code is shown only at this moment: Zeitflex only stores a check value of it. The print dialog also offers "Save as PDF" — the file itself is then the access credential.
3. Printing again means Reissue. The previous badge stops working at that moment.
4. If a badge is lost, click Revoke in the same row — the card is worthless immediately.

Using it (staff):

1. On the tablet, tap Clock in with badge below the tiles.
2. Hold the badge about 15–25 cm from the camera, with the code inside the frame.
3. The greeting confirms the clock entry, just like with the PIN.

Good to know:

• The camera only runs after the tap, for 30 seconds at most, and switches off as soon as the badge is read. The image is only evaluated on the tablet; Zeitflex neither stores nor transmits it.
• Network required. Without a connection the button is locked and says "Without network: PIN only". Anyone with only a badge and no PIN then notes the time and reports it to the office; management enters it. It is therefore best to also set a PIN — the issuing dialog points this out.
• A badge is an access credential like a known PIN: whoever holds it — even as a photo or copy — can clock in for this person with it. Do not wear it openly, report a loss immediately. If you do not want to accept that, switch on Badge only together with PIN (next section).
• When someone leaves, the badge stops working. If the person returns, issue a new one.
• iPad: if the tablet asks for the camera, choose "Allow". If the camera is set to "Deny", open the iPad's system app "Settings", then "Safari", then "Camera", and choose "Allow".
• A badge from the preview on zeitflex.de only works there; the terminal says so when reading it.

Badge only together with PIN

A badge can be copied — a photo is enough, and someone could clock in for a colleague who is not there at all. Against this, Settings → Terminal has the switch Badge only together with PIN in the card "Terminal PINs and badges". Owners and management can change it; every change is recorded in the change log.

• Default: off. The badge then replaces the PIN, as described above.
• Switched on, the tablet also asks for the person's PIN after the scan. The clock entry is only made once badge and PIN are correct. A photographed card on its own is then no longer enough. The server checks this, not just the tablet.
• A wrong PIN after the scan counts like a wrong PIN on the tile: after five failed attempts the person is locked on this tablet for five minutes. It is the same PIN check with the same counter.
• Anyone without a PIN cannot clock in with a badge while the switch is on. The tablet says so after the scan and names the way back: note the time and report it to the office. Management sees these people beforehand: the number is shown below the switch, the person's row carries a note, and Zeitflex asks with this number before switching on. Give these people a PIN before you switch it on.
• The PIN alone remains a full way. Anyone who taps their tile and enters the PIN clocks in as before, also without network.
• A badge never works without network anyway. The switch does not change that.

People without an email address

Not everyone has their own mailbox — the construction helper, the seasonal worker, the mini-jobber with a second job. You create such people in employee management without an email address. They then cannot sign in in the browser or on the phone, because that requires an account and password. Their route is the terminal with a PIN: tile, six digits, done. Everything else — checking timesheets, corrections, vacation requests — is handled for them by management. See Inviting employees.

Terminal without a connection

Wall terminals hang where there is no connection: basement, hall, site container. The terminal therefore keeps working offline — with clear limits.

What works offline:

• The tile overview comes from the last known state on the tablet. From an age of 12 hours, the status line shows a notice saying how old the list is. After 72 hours without a connection, the terminal no longer shows any tiles, but the instruction to write down the times by hand. So the tablet bridges a weekend plus a public holiday; anyone without a connection for longer has an infrastructure problem that the tablet should not hide.
• Arriving and leaving go into a queue and are delivered as soon as there is a connection again. The device time at the moment of tapping is the clock-in time.
• The PIN is neither checked nor stored on the tablet, but sealed with a server key and only checked on delivery. Neither the PIN nor any representation of it is kept on the tablet.
• The status line always tells the truth: offline, how many clock-ins are waiting, when the last sync took place.

What does not work offline — and the person at the tablet is told so:

• Clocking in a person who was hired after the last known state. They are missing from the list. Management has to add their time as a late entry.
• Immediate feedback on whether the PIN was correct. Anyone who mistypes offline only notices later.

What happens on delivery:

• If the PIN is correct, the entry is created as normal.
• If the PIN is not correct or missing, the time is still created — but marked as unverified, with a marker in the note that is always stored in German and begins with “[Offline am Terminal erfasst” (“recorded offline at the terminal – PIN not confirmed”). It is recorded and included in payroll, but stays under reservation until management approves it or confirms it explicitly at month-end closing; a correction does not remove the marking. Where management knows for certain that no work was done, it can mark exactly such rows as “not recognised”, with a reason — only where the clock-in itself was booked without a confirmed PIN, never on a break, never on its own row, and without deleting the record. On rows where only the clock-out came without a PIN the route does not appear. Rows from before September 2026 stay out of it as well — for them Zeitflex did not record the two halves separately, and we do not guess in hindsight. These limits keep the route narrow; they do not prevent misuse — anybody with access to the wall tablet can produce the mark, and shortening a time to one minute is open to any manager anyway. What exposes misuse is visibility: the timesheet, the monthly sheet and the audit folder keep such a row as “not recognised” with the reason, and the person concerned receives a message in the bell. The time is too valuable to throw away and too uncertain to wave through. What management and employees do then is described under Working without a network.
• The server rejects clock-ins for a person who has since been deactivated.
• Clock-ins older than 14 days are no longer accepted automatically — closed payroll months may already lie there. They go through a late entry with a reason. Clock-ins whose time is more than 24 hours in the future are also rejected; in that case the tablet's clock is wrong.

GPS when clocking in

If your business is on the Pro plan and has switched on GPS, the location is saved once when clocking in or out — at the moment of clocking, not continuously. No movement profile is created. After six months, Zeitflex automatically removes the coordinates from the entry; the entry itself remains.

The honest status: the time clock in the browser and the mobile app provide the location. The browser asks the first time whether it may use the location. If the person declines or no position arrives, the clock-in happens without a location. The terminal does not send a location, and neither do clock events the browser stores while offline.

The setting is under Settings → GPS & privacy and is off by default. If there is a works council, it belongs in the works agreement — see Works council and co-determination and Location when clocking in.

Frequently asked questions

The cook mistyped several times and now her tile no longer works. What should I do?

After five failed attempts, the tile is locked for this person at this tablet for five minutes; the display shows the waiting time. After that it works again. If she has forgotten her PIN, management assigns a new one under Settings → Terminal — the old one cannot be displayed, only replaced.

The Wi-Fi in the hall was down all weekend. Are the clock-ins lost?

No. The tablet kept them in the queue and delivers them as soon as there is a connection again — with the time at which the tile was actually tapped. On Monday, look at the red messages at the top of the tablet: if it reports there that the PIN could not be confirmed, the time was created as unverified. Look at such entries and approve them in the timesheet or confirm them at month-end closing, which lists them before locking. After 72 hours without a connection, the tablet would no longer have shown any tiles — then only paper notes and a late entry help.

A temporary waiter has no email address. Can he still clock in?

Yes, at the terminal. Create him in employee management without an email address and assign a PIN under Settings → Terminal. Browser and phone remain closed to him, because they require an account with a password.

We have two tablets. Is one pairing code enough?

No. Each tablet is a separate device with its own code. Under Settings → Terminal, create a separate entry for each device and pair each one individually. Then you can also revoke a lost tablet individually without disturbing the other.

We have several locations. Does each tablet only show its own people?

Largely, if you assign it. Under Settings → Terminal, choose for each device where it is mounted. An assigned tablet then only shows the people of that location and everyone without a location — so anybody not yet assigned disappears from no tablet. A tablet without an assignment shows everyone, as before. You set a person's location in employee management, in the “Assignment” section.

Anyone who started their shift at a tablet stays on every tablet until they clock out — including the tablet of another location. That way nobody gets stuck clocked in because you changed their location or a tablet's assignment in the middle of a shift. Anyone who clocked in in the app or the browser clocks out there too and does not appear on other locations' tablets. An archived location counts as none: a tablet still assigned to it shows everyone again.

The assignment hides tiles, but it is not a lock: someone assigned to another location who has not clocked in will not find themselves on this tablet. If a clock-in from such a person still arrives — for example because the tablet still shows the old list after a change, or was in a dead zone — the clock-in is accepted and counts. So it is not lost; the change log records it as “Clocked in on a tablet of another location” together with the name of the device.

Need more help?

Write to us via support; if a booking is missing or duplicated, Correcting a forgotten clock-in helps, and for dead zones, Working without a connection.