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 offline queue and bookings via the interface carry “API”, imported legacy data “IMPORT”.

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, no terminal. Anyone without a PIN cannot clock in there. If a PIN is removed, the person is immediately locked out at the terminal.
• 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.
• 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.

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 unmistakably marked: the note begins with “[Recorded offline at the terminal – PIN not confirmed]”, the entry remains unapproved and waits in approval, where a person reads it and approves or cancels it. The time is too valuable to throw away and too uncertain to wave through.
• 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: only the actual mobile app provides a location, and it is not yet in the app stores. The browser does not send a location — neither on a computer nor on a phone — and nor does the terminal. As long as your team clocks in via the browser, no coordinates are stored, regardless of how the switch is set.

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, check in the timesheet whether entries with the note “Recorded offline at the terminal” are waiting in approval; you have to look at them and approve them. 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.

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.