Correcting a forgotten clock entry

Forgetting to clock out is the most common case in everyday work. It is provided for, and it is no drama — as long as the correction remains traceable.

Who may correct?

Owners and management. Employees can see their own times, but not change them. That is intentional: a working-time record that the person recording it can adjust afterwards loses its value as evidence. The history of an entry can be seen by owners, management and the invited tax adviser.

Step by step

1. On the left, open Timesheets.
2. Use Previous week and Next week to go to the week in question; the table shows the entries of all employees.
3. If a clock-out time from yesterday or earlier is missing — or an entry has been running for more than 16 hours —, a red card “Entries without clock-out time” appears at the top with the button Add clock-out time. For any other change, click the row of the entry.
4. Enter the correct time. If only the clock-out time is missing, below the field there is Set to end of shift with a suggestion: clock-in time plus daily target time. Check it against the actual end of work instead of accepting it unseen.
5. Enter a reason. The field is required, at least five characters. One sentence is enough: “Forgot to clock out, end of work according to shift plan 17:00.”
6. Save.

The result: The day shows the corrected time. The original entry is not gone — it remains as an earlier version in the change log, together with the time, person and reason.

Late entry instead of correction

A correction changes an entry that already exists. If someone did not clock in at all on a day, there is nothing to correct — that is what the late entry is for.

1. Open Timesheets and click Add late entry at the top.
2. Choose the person and the type: Working time or Break.
3. Enter the date, Clock in and Clock out. If the clock-out time is before the clock-in time, it counts as a night shift ending the next day.
4. Reason for the late entry — required field, at least five characters.
5. Click Add late entry.

What the late entry deliberately does differently from a real clock entry:

• It never looks like a clock entry. The entry carries the source “manual”, the person who created it, and the reason — in the timesheet, in the history and in the audit folder.
• It is not yet approved. Like every clocked day, the late entry is created as an open entry and goes through the same approval. The person concerned is notified about the late entry — with the date and reason, unless they created it themselves.
• It always needs an end. A late entry without a clock-out time would be a “running” entry in the past that counts nowhere and blocks the month-end close.
• It is never in the future. A late entry documents work performed. For planned times, the shift plan is responsible.
• A single entry covers at most 24 hours. The limit catches typos in the date; it is not a working-time check — that runs separately and reports breaches of the maximum working time under § 3 ArbZG (German Working Hours Act) as a separate warning.
• There is no limit going back, except the month lock: nothing can be added to a locked month (see Corrections after the lock).

Viewing the change log

For the entry, click Corrected · history (for a late entry, click Late entry · reason). For each version you see:

• What was there before and what is there now
• Who made the change
• When the change was made
• Why the change was made (the reason)

This is exactly the list you present in an inspection.

Good and bad reasons

The reason will be read — by you yourself in four months, by the tax adviser, and if in doubt by an inspector. Write it for these readers.

The reminder after 14 hours — to management

If a clock entry runs for longer than 14 hours, it is practically always a mistake. Zeitflex checks this every hour and then sends push notifications — exactly once per open clock entry.

To owners and management goes the notification “Open clock entry — please add the end”: who has been clocked in since when, how many hours that is, and the request to add the actual end of work. The reason for this recipient is simple: only management may correct.

To the person concerned — unless they belong to management themselves — goes the notification “Still clocked in?” with the request to tell management the actual end of work. They are explicitly not asked to clock out now: that would record an end of work 14 hours after the real one — a false record and, on top of that, a working-time breach that never happened.

The notification itself contains no suggested time, and nothing is added automatically. A suggestion only exists in the correction field, and only there: Set to end of shift fills the clock-out time with clock-in plus daily target time — a value that management checks, changes or confirms with a reason. It is only saved by a click from a human, never by itself.

The reminder respects the personal notification settings: anyone who has the “Reminders” switch off does not receive it; anyone who is currently in their quiet hours does not receive it at that moment. The group rule behind this: as soon as at least one person has been reached, the reminder for this clock entry counts as delivered — anyone who was in their quiet hours at that moment does not receive it later. If nobody was reached and at least one person was only in their quiet hours, Zeitflex tries again in the next hour. A business in which everyone sleeps at night therefore gets the notification in the morning; it does not get lost.

What applies after the month-end close

As soon as a month is locked, its times can no longer be changed directly. The way to do it is explained under Corrections after the lock.

When nothing works at all

If Zeitflex goes down, keep recording on paper: name, date, start, end, break. As soon as the system is back, enter the days via Add late entry — with the reason “Re-entry from paper list [date]”. If someone clocked in on that day but did not clock out, use Add clock-out time instead. The recording obligation knows no outage, but it does not prescribe a tool. What works by itself without a network is explained under Working offline.

Frequently asked questions

An employee did not clock in at all yesterday. Correct or add a late entry?

Add a late entry. A correction requires an existing entry. Via Add late entry you create the day anew with clock-in, clock-out and reason; the entry is then recognisable as manually recorded.

I am the owner myself and forgot to clock out. Do I get two notifications?

No. Anyone who belongs to management only gets the management notification with the request to add the end of work. Two notifications about the same thing would be noise.

May I add a late entry for a night shift from 22:00 to 06:00?

Yes. If the clock-out time is before the clock-in time, the late entry automatically counts towards the next day. The limit of 24 hours per entry is not affected by this.

Can I create a late entry for next week because I already know the shift?

No. A late entry documents work performed and must not be in the future. Plan the shift in the shift plan; clocking in happens when it takes place.

Still stuck?

Whether there is currently an outage, you can see on our status page; for everything else you can reach us via Support. Corrections in months that are already locked are explained in Corrections after the lock, the reminder settings in Notifications and quiet hours.