This guide is for Admin and HR users.
As your team clocks in and out, Breathe builds their timesheets for you.
This guide shows you how to set up time tracking, check attendance and approve timesheets.
1. Key settings
Before your team starts using Rota, Time & Attendance, choose how they record their time.
Clock-in Windows & Violations: Set clock-in windows, violation thresholds, and snap-to-shift tolerance for accurate payable time. Go to Rota, Time & Attendance > Settings > Clock-in & capture.
Unscheduled Clock-in: Decide if employees are permitted to clock in when they don't have a shift scheduled. Go to Rota, Time & Attendance > Settings > Clock-in & capture.
Manual Timesheets: Choose whether employees can manually add their own timesheets (useful for staff working across multiple jobs or departments). Go to Rota, Time & Attendance> Settings > Timesheet & breaks.
Approval Workflows: Set whether timesheets require formal manager approval or if they should be automatically approved. Go to Rota, Time & Attendance > Settings > Timesheet & breaks.
💡 Good to know: you can change these settings at any time in Rota, Time & Attendance > Settings.
2. The Attendance dashboard
The Attendance dashboard shows you who's working right now.
Go to Rota, Time & Attendance > Attendance. Admin and HR users and line managers can use it.
💡 Good to know: click someone's row to open their activity panel. It shows where they clocked in on a map, whether they were inside the geofence, and a step-by-step log of their shift.
Status: see who's clocked in, on break, running late, clocked off, a no-show or not due yet.
💡 Good to know: in a fire drill, you can use the dashboard to check who's on site.
Views: switch between a table and a board.
Filters: filter by location or status.
3. Clocking in and out
Breathe gives your team flexible, intuitive options for recording their hours: #claude note: rewrite this intro and the Clocking in and Adding notes bullets in plain words, with a link to Clocking in and out (Bethan Q3, Q4)
Standard Clock-In: Employees can start their scheduled shifts directly via the web or the mobile app.
💡Please note: They cannot clock in for an unscheduled shift if they are already scheduled for one at the same time.
Geotagging: If you require location tracking, employees will be asked for location consent during their first clock-in. If they select 'no', they can still clock in, but this refusal will be flagged to their manager.
Adding Notes: Employees can easily add context to their clock-ins, such as leaving a note to say they are running late due to traffic.
Time Clock: You can set up a shared tablet as a punch clock using a simple pairing code. Employees can quickly clock in and out using their secure PIN. If they forget their PIN, they can easily change it themselves from their My shifts screen. You can also generate and re-set an employees pin from the settings > timeclock > people > generate pin
4. Timesheets and exceptions
Breathe creates timesheets as your team clocks in and out. You can edit them to fix mistakes.
Go to Rota, Time & Attendance > Timesheets approval.
Exceptions: Breathe flags anything unusual to managers as an exception, such as late clock-ins, early or late clock-outs, clock-ins outside the geofence, and no-shows.
💡Please note: Whether something gets flagged depends on your settings in Clock-in & capture.
Employee edits: We know mistakes happen. If an employee forgets to clock out, they can edit their auto-generated timesheet to add the missing information before it gets approved. Once a manager approves the timesheet, the employee can no longer make amendments.
Manager Edits: Managers can review, manually correct, and approve timesheets. When making a correction (like fixing an accidental early clock-out), managers can leave a clear reason for the change.
If someone forgets to clock out, or clocks out by mistake:
Open their record from the Attendance dashboard or their timesheet.
Click Edit clock record.
Enter a reason for the change. This is required, and it's saved in the audit log.
Click Save.
💡 Good to Know: if your account uses Auto-approve, timesheets are approved without a manager signing them off.
5. Audit log and notifications
Audit log: Breathe records every change to a timesheet, including when it's created, when a break starts, and who edited it and why.
Email notifications: Managers get email notifications, including a daily digest of who's due to work today and who's running late. To choose who gets which emails, see Notifications.
FAQ
What else is included in Exceptions?
late clock-ins and early clock-outs
late clock-outs
missing clock-outs
no-shows
clock-ins outside the geofence
someone declining location sharing
💡 See Setting up the Timeclock guide for more information.
We're here to help
Any questions? Contact support by using the messaging feature at the bottom right of your screen 💬