We hope you will find the following frequently asked questions (FAQ) and answers helpful. Please be sure to also check our video tutorials in our YouTube channel.

Where can I find a user guide?

We hope that Staff Times is fairly self-guiding. However, the Help Center should be your point of reference where articles are published about various Staff Times features as well as administration scenarios you may face. To find what your are looking for you can click and browse and go through the articles in the order they are published or simply type in a search word in the search option as illustrated:

Your user will have access to this short general guide from within the mobile app which highlights the essentials from a team member's perspective. If you have any further questions, contact us at support@stafftimes.com or use the in-app messenger. We are happy to help! 😁

How do I change my account password ?

Click on your company name in the upper right-hand corner and find 'My Profile'. You will find the edit option (pencil icon) and in Edit mode an option to change the password. Don’t forget to confirm your changes by clicking on the corresponding button (“Save”). Alternatively, you can go to the login page and click the forgot password link which will let you reset your password.

Can I change my login email-ID ?

This is not possible because it forms part of the Account ID to which all team members and subscriptions are tied. However, you can transfer ownership of the account to a different user. To do this you can set up an additional administrator (Deputy owner) or standard user and transfer your subscription to that user. Find out more about managing administrators here.

I have created the account. Can I change the ownership ?

Yes, you can. The account creator is the account owner with master rights. The account owner can transfer those rights to another admin user (Transfer Ownership). To do this you must set up an additional admin user with specific admin role, e.g. deputy owner. Find out more about managing administrators here. Please note that account ownership is limited to one user.

How can I grant users administration rights ?

At Staff Times a member can be set up as a standard user for entering timesheets (time tracking) as well as having additional admin privileges for configuring timesheet formats (activities, tasks, projects, services), annual leave entitlements and more. Specific permission roles can be managed so enable team leaders and HR administrators with rights to view team reports and edit settings. Find out more about managing administrators here.

Is it possible to delete a user ?

No. However, we can offer an alternative called 'Archive'. By archiving, that user is moved to a tab named 'Archived' within Team reports and removed from all Reports. Archived users won't be able to login anymore or update their time entries (read-only). An archived user can be restore provided the subscription has not expired. To archive a user, go to Manage users and click on the Staff's name and look for the Expire option.

What is meant by "plan" hours ?

This refers to the scheduled daily working hours set by the employer (a.k.a. standard hours, offset, prescribed or required hours). Normally, plan time is net of lunch break as lunch time is not paid time. The app is designed to enable logging time against daily plan time defined within the employment profiles. However, some jobs may have a weekly or monthly working hours arrangement which may not be broken down to daily plan hours. In this case, the employment profile will allocate the weekly working hours into individual working day segments. The mobile app does provide a weekly balance view which would offset distortions from daily views.

What does 'Activity name' relate to in the context of this app?

The term 'Activity' is used to designate a unit to which you allocate your staff's time. It is also known as 'Time account' or 'Time bank'. You may decide that a different term is more appropriate for the way you would like to track time. For example, in some jobs this unit might rather be called a 'Task' or 'Project' or 'Shift'. In addition, you may consider using an Activity as a bucket for work performed at special rates.

A set of common activity names have been included when you created the account. The universal one being 'At work'. However, you are free to change these to more detailed actions and tasks. You may bundle activity names into a "group" and assign specific staff members to that group. Those Activity names would only be visible to staff members of that group. You may also wish to assign an Activity name to a "Role" and assign staff to that specific job role from within the employment profile. To configure your Activity names find out more here.

What should my members consider when switching to a new mobile device ?

1. Install the mobile app on the new device. It can be re-installed direct from the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. Search for 'Staff Times' My Time app.
2. Sign in with the original credentials (refer to the original invite and welcome mail) and all timesheet data is restored from with the Staff Times cloud. You can re-trigger the credentials mail from within the Admin panel Manage users domain.
3. Double-check the overtime and annual leave balances after the data is restored to ensure all is as expected.
4. The app can be run on multiple devices in parallel. For example, running the app on a smartphone and on a tablet using the same login is possible with Staff Times cloud auto-synching feature. Please ensure the devices are online.

How do I set up my user's starting balance ?

You may want to transfer an existing overtime balance for each of your staff as you onboard them to Staff Times. This is done through the web panel in the section 'Manage users' where you configure the starting balance as part of the employment profile as follows :

• Go to side-bar menu "Manage users"

• Click on the user name to go into edit mode and click through to the "Set Terms" screen. If a new user then look for the 'Add user' button on top right of screen.

• On the 'Set Terms' page, look for the section named "Overtime & hours adjustments". Use the arrow selector to set the total hours to be added or subtracted to the balance. Then click on the calendar picker to allocate this adjustment to the desired date.

• Add a comment and click save and click through to confirm the final page.
  An adjustment activity will be inserted in the user data and an email is sent to the user alerting him about this adjustment.

How does leaves & absences work ?

Paid absences can relate to public holidays or when your team member is out of office due to iIllness, family care, off-site seminar, vacation, etc. Within the context of Staff Times absences are defined as Activity names and a set of common absences is provided by default. Your staff can report their absences if configured with tracking mode as Full- or part-time.

Public Holidays: Staff Times enables you to manage public holidays which apply for your company. Please login to your account and check the left side menu bar "Manage locations". Any saved public holiday will appear on the app as a paid absence on the respective calendar day. You need to refresh your public holidays list annually. Find out more here.

Vacation: your staff is assigned an annual vacation quota on the basis of the terms of employment configured within the "manage users" section. Your staff can submit vacation leaves and track his remaining leave from the mobile app using the "Report absences" blue button.

Users set up with 'basic' tracking mode (used for freelancers and temp staff) cannot report paid leaves & absences. For reporting unpaid absences you may create specific Activity names whose hours are not accounted against plan. Alternatively, your user may simply use the check-out button or skip logging an unpaid segment of his day when his absence is not paid.

How do I reduce my team members accrued overtime ?

Based on your region or industry there may be different definitions of what constitutes overtime. Within the context of Staff Times "Overtime" is referred to as the total logged working hours which exceed the daily plan hours. In other words, overtime relates to every minute of paid work which goes beyond the daily plan.

Let's take this example: your standard prescribed working day consists of 8 hours net of any breaks. If your workday's activities totaled to 9.15 working hours which was duly logged against your plan hours then your overtime equates to 1.15h for that day.

Your staff might want to track this surplus time as it builds up over time and redeem or "burn" it. Should your company offer a flexible work time model then your surplus hours might be referred to as the flextime balance. You might decide to compensate your surplus hours by coming in late or leaving early to burn your flextime balance or get extra pay for your surplus hours. Further options to reduce the balance are as follows:

Option A: Reduce balance by taking a working day off for compensation

• Staff can omit logging time for that day which results in a negative balance against Plan time. The total work hours will show 0 and the day’s balance will show a negative plan amount (eg. -8.00) which will ultimately reduce the total year to date balance in the reports

• Run your reports on the following day to check that the total balance amount has been reduced accordingly.

Option B: Reduce the overtime balance by making an hours adjustment

• Go to side-bar menu "Manage users"

• Click on the user name to go into edit mode and click through to the "Set Terms" screen. Look for the section "Overtime & Hours adjustment"

• Use the arrow selector to set the total hours to be subtracted from the accrued balance and select the date to which this adjustment applies. Add a comment and click save and click through to confirm the final page.

Following above steps, an adjustment activity is inserted into the user's data and an email is sent alerting him about this adjustment. An audit trail of all your adjustments is listed on the bottom of the Set Terms screen.

How can I create templates of timesheets for my staff ?

The mobile app provides a feature named "Favorites". Favorites enable you to store working day situations with a set of activities which facilitate time tracking when these situations are repetitive. For example, you might like to re-use a previous week's timesheet, need same activities every week or a combination of activities you need once a month for special occasions. Your staff can save their time logs using the Favorites button on the Daily Activities page and easily insert from their collection of Favorites. This is explained on the mobile app on getting started guide.

How do I configure supplements and bonus hours ?

Some industries and trade associations have regulations regarding surplus hours where supplements may be applicable when the total working hours per week exceed a specific threshold (e.g. >40.00 hr week). Furthermore, night shift, weekend work and stand-by duty may qualify for special hourly rates with a factor of 1.25, 1.5x or 2x. Staff Times enables you to add time supplements to your working hours using a Company-wide Activity name configured with an hourly multiplier.

Example: your staff works on the weekend for 7 hours and those hours qualify for the 1.5x rate resulting in 3.30hr supplement (bonus hours).

Login to your account and go to the left side bar and menu item "Manage Activities" and create an activity name with a 1.50 multiplier setting (e.g. named "At work 1.5 rate"). Proceed as follows:

• hit the button "Add Activity" (or copy an existing Activity and edit it)

• set the parameters as desired* (right side shows how this will appear in the user's app). Select the level as company wide if all staff should be able to use this Activity name. Alternatively, you may wish to choose level 'Role' if role specific usage or create a group level > follow instructions for defining Roles and Groups.

• Hit the Save button which will push the Activity name out to the user's device

• Your staff may now select the relevant level from the Daily Activities page from within their mobile app to log their work at the 1.5 rate. Please ensure to instruct your staff accordingly.

• Please run the reports to verify your results.

You may want to add the overtime pay you expect into the amount field. To have your pay calculated you simply activate the amount field for your Activity. To do this, please switch on the Amount field as Hourly rate type.

For granting special overtime rates for total hours exceeding specific weekly thresholds there is currently no setting available. In such a case you can review the weekly hours logged and balances using the Detail report and apply a manual overtime adjustment by going to the Manage User menu item, clicking into the user detail and paging to the Terms screen and proceeding to the adjustments section.

How can I further process or analyse my team's time tracking data ?

While Staff Times offers various standard online reports you may wish to download your detailed data history to a spreadsheet where further filters, comments and formatting as well as graphical elements can be added at your discretion. Or you may want to forward your data for further processing with your accountant or HR experts be it for external audits or to upload this to a third-party application. We suggest you run the “Detail Report” with the desired date range which contains all details of the timesheets and balances and download the results using the format options (csv, xls, pdf). The Detail Report includes the Total values in minutes to facilitate adding more calculations. Please use the Detail Report fields hide/unhide filter where fields can be included or excluded with your download.

Where do I get the annual leave overview of my staff members?

Use the "Annual leave" report under the Reports section of each of your staff members. All vacation leaves submitted are listed along with the current year quota and remaining days balances. The report can be download and forwarded to your user. Your staff can view this information from within the mobile app's various page under 'My absences' and 'Terms of Employment'. For creating vacation adjustments please follow the instructions here.

How do I format and print my reports ?

You may export your report to a PDF, Excel or CSV File using the Export icons found on the Report results page. The PDF version has a print ready format with your logo included for a professional finish. We suggest you open the exported file from your computer with access to a printer, apply any additional formatting and print it from there.

What do I have to consider when canceling my annual subscription?

The annual subscriptions of your users do not renew automatically, so there is no notice period and no action required from your side if you do not wish to renew your subscriptions.

For an overview go to the left menu item 'Subscribed Users' to check your users' subscriptions expiration dates. If a subscribed user is leaving prior to expiry you may transfer the remaining portion of that user's subscription to another user. If you want to close your Staff Times account, we advise you to expire all users on the final date within the Manage users domain which will block user access and stop mail reminders. Please remember to back up your data, as Staff Times can delete this data approx. 30 days after it has expired. The employee data can be exported in XLS or CSV file format as a detailed report. Any expired user's reports can be accessed via the Team reports domain and checking the 'Archived' tab. An expired user can be restored from his archived state while a subscription is still active.