Time Tracking Settings

Summary

Time Tracking Settings lets you configure how staff attendance, breaks, overtime, holidays, and photo verification work across your organisation. A separate Kiosk Devices page manages the physical terminals staff use to clock in and out. Both pages are accessed from Settings and require specific capabilities.

Prerequisites

• You are signed in to Torqueflow.
• Your account has the settings.time_tracking.manage capability (Owner by default) for time tracking settings.
• Your account has the kiosk.manage capability (Owner by default) for kiosk device management.

Permissions

Capability	Default Roles	Gives Access To
settings.time_tracking.manage	Owner	Time Tracking Settings page
kiosk.manage	Owner	Kiosk Devices page

Steps

Configuring working hours and attendance

1. Click Settings in the sidebar.
2. Click Time Tracking Settings. The page title reads Time Tracking Settings with the subtitle “Configure staff attendance tracking and payroll settings”.
3. The Working Hours & Attendance card contains the settings form.

Standard Working Hours

1. Set the Start Time using the dropdown (half-hour intervals from 00:00 to 23:30). Default: 09:00.
2. Set the End Time using the dropdown. Default: 17:30. Start time must be before end time.
3. Set the Standard Break (minutes) using the numeric input (0 to 120). Default: 30.

Working Days

1. Tick the checkboxes for each day your workshop is open. Default: Monday to Friday (1-5). At least one day must be selected.

Time Rounding

1. Select a Rounding Interval: “No rounding (exact times)”, “5 minutes”, or “15 minutes”. Default: No rounding.
2. If rounding is enabled, select a Rounding Direction: “Nearest interval”, “Round up (employee-friendly)”, or “Round down”.

Overtime

1. Set the Overtime Threshold (hours) using the numeric input. Must be greater than 0. Default: 40.

2. Select a Calculation Period: “Weekly (e.g., >40 hrs/week)” or “Daily (e.g., >8 hrs/day)”. Default: Weekly.

3. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the form.

4. A success toast confirms “Your time tracking settings have been updated”.

Configuring photo verification

1. Scroll to the Photo Verification section (camera icon).
2. Toggle Require photo on check-in/out on or off. Default: off. When enabled, photos are automatically captured at the kiosk during clock in and clock out.
3. Select a Photo Retention Period: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, or 180 days. Default: 90 days. Photos older than the selected period are automatically deleted.
4. When photo capture is enabled, a warning appears: “Enabling photo capture will increase storage usage. Photos are compressed to approximately 100KB each.”
5. Click Save Changes.

Configuring break tracking

1. Scroll to the Break Tracking section (coffee cup icon).
2. Toggle Enable Break Tracking on or off. Default: off. When enabled, staff can clock out for breaks and back in from the kiosk.
3. When break tracking is on, additional options appear:
   • Break Payment: select “Unpaid (deducted from hours)” or “Paid (not deducted)”. Default: Unpaid. This is the organisation default. Individual staff can override it from their staff record (see “Per-staff overrides” below).
   • Auto-Deduct Break toggle: when enabled, break time is automatically deducted when staff clock out without recording any breaks. Default: off.
   • Auto-Deduct Minutes (shown when auto-deduct is on): set the number of minutes to deduct (0 to 120). Default: 30.
4. Click Save Changes.

Per-staff break override and pay rate

You can override the organisation-wide break payment setting for individual staff and configure an hourly pay rate for use in time-tracking reports.

1. Go to Settings → Staff.
2. Edit a staff member who has time tracking enabled.
3. A Time & Pay section appears with:
   • Break override dropdown: “Use Org Default” (default), “Paid”, or “Unpaid”. Pick one to override the org-wide setting for this staff member only.
   • Hourly Pay Rate (£) input: the staff member’s hourly pay rate. Used to calculate “estimated pay” in the time-tracking reports. Leave blank for “not set” (the report will show ”—” for this staff member rather than £0.00).
4. Save.

The staff settings table shows a small clock icon next to staff who have any custom time settings configured.

The new Pay column on the time-tracking report shows hours × rate per entry. A Total Estimated Pay summary card appears alongside Total Hours. The CSV export includes the Pay column. Staff without a configured rate show as ”—” rather than £0.00 — distinguish from explicit zero rates.

Use this for orgs with mixed contracts (salaried vs hourly), apprentice vs senior tech rates, or where one staff member’s break treatment differs from the rest.

Configuring holiday entitlement

1. Scroll to the Holiday Entitlement section (calendar icon).
2. Set Standard Day (Hours): hours per standard working day. Used for day-to-hours conversion. Default: 8. Range: 1 to 24.
3. Set Annual Holiday Days: the yearly allowance in days. Default: 28 (UK statutory minimum). Range: 0 to 60.
4. The Annual Entitlement summary updates automatically, e.g. “224h (28 days x 8h)”.
5. Select the Holiday Year Start month. Common choices: January (calendar year) or April (UK Tax Year). Default: January.
6. Click Save Changes.

Managing kiosk devices

1. Click Settings in the sidebar.
2. Click Kiosk Devices. The page title reads Kiosk Devices with the subtitle “Manage time clock kiosk devices”.
3. The page shows a count, e.g. “2 kiosk devices”, and a list table.

Adding a kiosk device

1. Click Add Device.
2. In the Create Kiosk Device dialog, enter a Device Name (e.g. “Front Desk Kiosk”, “Workshop Terminal”). Required, max 100 characters.
3. Click Create Device.
4. A success toast confirms the device has been created.

Generating a QR code

1. In the device list, click the QR Code button next to an active device.
2. A dialog opens with the heading “Setup QR Code” and the instruction “Scan this QR code with your kiosk device to authenticate it”.
3. The QR code is displayed with an expiry time.
4. Open the kiosk app on the tablet and scan the QR code to authenticate.
5. If the code expires, click the refresh button to generate a new one.

Device status indicators

The Status column shows one of:

• Online (green badge with wifi icon) - activity within the last 5 minutes.
• Idle (amber badge with clock icon) - activity between 5 minutes and 7 days ago.
• Offline (grey badge with wifi-off icon) - no activity for 7 or more days, or never connected.
• Inactive (grey badge) - the device has been deactivated.

An amber warning triangle appears next to active devices that have been offline for more than 24 hours.

Activating or deactivating a device

1. Click the power icon button next to a device to toggle its active state.
2. Inactive devices cannot generate QR codes or be used for clock in/out.

Viewing device activity

1. Click the history icon button to view the audit log filtered to that kiosk device.

Deleting a kiosk device

1. Click the red bin icon button next to a device.
2. A confirmation dialog warns: “This will permanently delete [device name]. The device will no longer be able to authenticate. This action cannot be undone.”
3. Click Delete to confirm.

Expected Outcome

• Time tracking settings apply organisation-wide to all staff.
• Kiosk devices appear in the list with real-time status indicators.
• Default values follow UK conventions (09:00-17:30, Mon-Fri, 28 days holiday, 40-hour overtime threshold).
• Changes take effect immediately after saving.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Time Tracking Settings page redirects to Dashboard	Your account does not have the settings.time_tracking.manage capability	Ask an Owner to check your role and permissions
Kiosk Devices page redirects to Settings	Your account does not have the kiosk.manage capability	Ask an Owner to check your role and permissions
”Working hours start must be before end” error	Start time is the same as or later than end time	Set the start time to an earlier value than the end time
”At least one working day is required” error	All day checkboxes are unticked	Tick at least one working day
”Time rounding must be 0, 5, or 15 minutes” error	An invalid rounding value was submitted	Select one of the available rounding intervals
QR Code button is greyed out	The kiosk device is inactive	Activate the device first using the power icon button
”Kiosk device is inactive” error when generating QR	The device was deactivated after the page loaded	Refresh the page and activate the device
Kiosk shows amber warning triangle	The device has not connected for more than 24 hours	Check the tablet is powered on, connected to the network, and the kiosk app is running
”Failed to generate QR code” error	A server error occurred during token generation	Try again. If the problem persists, check the audit log for details
Photo retention dropdown shows no selection	An unsupported value was set	Select 30, 60, 90, or 180 days
Auto-deduct minutes not saving	Value is outside 0-120 range	Enter a value between 0 and 120

Notes

• All time tracking settings are organisation-wide. Individual staff overrides are not yet supported.
• Photo verification only applies to kiosk-based clock in/out, not manual time entries.
• Deleting a kiosk device is permanent and removes the authentication credentials. The device must be re-created and re-paired with a new QR code.
• The “How Time Tracking Works” info card at the bottom of the settings page explains Working Hours, Time Rounding, Overtime, and Working Days concepts.