Chronotek Classic Complete System Guide

We have several ways that your employees can clock in to create time cards.

1 - Clock In by Calling from the Job Site Landline or Cell Phone

Employees can clock in and out by calling a toll-free number from the job site landline or their cell phone (we do not get GPS tracks on these clock-ins). It's super easy to do in 3 steps and 17 seconds.

That's it! You can eliminate step 3 if your employees clock in from the job site landlines. Just link the job site caller ID to the job code. When employees call from linked phones, we won't ask for the job code, and it's a great way to ensure employees are at the job site when clocking in.

What Your Employees Will Hear When Calling to Clock In/Out

2 - Clock In with the GPS Time Clock App

Your employees can clock in with our GPS time clock app with 2 clicks. We will report their GPS location and whether we track them at the job site or not (if they have their location services enabled). Here's how to set up your existing employees to use the mobile app (which also applies to clocking in from a desktop or laptop).

3 - Clock In from a Desktop or Laptop

Clocking in from a desktop or laptop is a great option for office workers or employees who work remotely from home. They will need login credentials that you learned how to create above. Employees will clock in through https://m.chronotek.net/login.aspx.

4 - Clock In With Our Dialer App

The Dialer App is a great solution if you want GPS tracks when employees clock in/out but also want to use our integrated voice messaging system and Custom Prompts. The Dialer app is basically a speed dial button on your employee's phone.

5 - Crew Clock-ins With the Supervisor's Mobile App

Your supervisors or crew leaders can clock in and clock out their team members with the supervisor's mobile app. Your supervisors ensure everyone gets on the clock when they should, and it solves the problem for the rare employees who don't have smartphones.

Once logged into Chronotek, the Dashboard is the landing page that shows the “thousand-foot-view” of the labor hours over the past three weeks. The graph should look consistent - peaks or valleys show that labor hours have changed. The Dashboard is designed to show three weeks of labor hours with the current week in the front row.

The Call Log and Employee Status lists show the call detail for the day.

HINT: Hover your mouse over the Call Log section for more job information.

HINT: Click on Column Headers to sort data accordingly

If your account has jobs that are set to time zones other than the company default, the Dashboard will show times according to these different settings. The Call Log section reflects the time zone of the company default. The Employee Status reflects the time cards in the job time zone setting.

Our Workforce Dashboard is an efficient and quick way to monitor your employees' work week and send new employee invitations. Filtered by Employee Zone.

Access it by navigating to Dashboards > Workforce Dashboard on the admin website.

Workforce Dashboard Overview

The WFD provides a comprehensive week-at-a-glance view of your workforce, displaying:

Color-Coding System

The dashboard uses an intuitive color system to quickly identify time card status:

Understanding GPS Tracking

Map Features

Handling Location Violations

When you see a yellow cell indicating a location violation, you can:

Managing Hours and Overtime

The dashboard automatically tracks:

Best Practices

Customizing Dashboard Settings

Adjust your dashboard view:

Quick Add Process:

Monitoring Invitation Status

Track new employee onboarding through the Pending Invitations section:

Understanding Invitation Status

Onboarding Video

When an employee receives a Chronotek invitation via email, it includes a link to a tutorial video and setup instructions. The video is a crucial part of getting your employees started with Chronotek. The video demonstrates proper clock in/out procedures, how to enable location services on their device, and explains why GPS tracking is essential for accurate time tracking.

This feature is the hub of the whole system. Zones can be used to group employees and jobs to properly direct the supervisory functions in Chronotek. Zones tell the system how to direct alerts, voice messages, and can be used to limit access to the system.

List Maintenance, Employees, Add New Employee or select employee from the list

The Basic Setup tab has required* fields that are necessary for workers to begin using Chronotek.

Add Employees

A 6-digit code is required for each employee. Chronotek assigns the first 3 digits and you will assign the last 3 digits or select Generate Code for the system to complete the code automatically.

View all Reports according to the sort of the Employees List. If the View: is set to First, Last then Reports will list in this order. Use the View dropdown to change your sort order.

Note: You can alternatively add and invite new employees from the Workforce Dashboard using the Quick Add function. This method will send the employee an onboarding email with instructions and a video. Just do not add the same employees both ways.

Language (English or Spanish)

The Chronotek call prompts are spoken in English, but can be changed to Spanish. After the employee code is entered, the system will recognize the setting and will continue the clock-in/out process in the selected language.

The default setting for the Employee Level is Basic Employee. A Chronotek Supervisor should be assigned in order to receive alerts and to use the voice mail system.

Employee Status

Mobile Access

Enable mobile access for employees who will clock in and out with the Chronotek Classic mobile app.

The system will send the employee (and copy you) an email for the employee to create his/her password. Their email address will be their username.

Use these fields to conveniently store your driver's license number, birth date, and pay rate. If Pay Rates are entered, the calculated hourly amounts are shown on multiple reports. The address and phone fields are for storage only and are not required.

All Check-Ins / All Check-Outs (Alerts)

Alerts can be sent to the Employee Zone Supervisor every time employees clock-in/out by selecting the Supervisor Alerts for Alerts for All Check-Ins/Outs. We don’t recommend using these alerts for every employee because they will overwhelm your supervisors who can easily monitor check-ins and outs on the supervisor mobile app. Use check-in/out alerts for new employees or employees you need to monitor closely and use scheduled no-show alerts for everyone else. (Note: If employees call to clock in, these alerts go to the employee’s zone supervisor. If they use the app to clock in, these alerts go to the job zone supervisor.)

Random Voice Verification (RVV)

Chronotek offers a tool for an additional layer of employee identification. If RVV is enabled, employees are asked to “Please State Your Name” at clock-in/out (depending on the % that is selected for each employee). The system will store a recording of the employee’s name in the Supervisor’s voice mailbox for review. Note the caution 50% or higher because a high volume of recordings can accumulate. If buddy punching is suspected, turn RVV on to 100% for both employees.

Chronotek does not verify the employee match, yet it allows the supervisor to monitor the recordings regularly. The Employee Zone Supervisor will have a log of RVV messages in their voicemail box; they can also listen to these recordings at Communications, Voice Messages.

For RVV to work, a Supervisor must be assigned to the Employee Zone. Go to Zones, select Zone Name, select the Supervisor of the Employee Zone, and Save.

Reset the Name Recording

For the system to prompt the employee for a new recording of their name (to tag their employee mailbox), Reset the Name Recording.

Auto Safeguard for Missed Clock-Outs

If the employee forgets to clock out, the system will prevent “ongoing” time cards with this tool. The default setting on Timecard Reset After Hours is set for 16 hours after the employee has clocked in. If an employee ever works longer than 16 hours, this setting needs to be increased. Otherwise, the employee will hear that they are clocking in instead of clocking out. If a time card is automatically closed, the “0-hour” time card will be denoted with a red flag and must be edited before payroll. Other options are Timecard Reset after Time of Day or Disabled.

If the employee forgets to clock in, an admin can also use the Supervisor Clock under Payroll Functions to clock in/out an employee at the correct time.

A time card can also be manually added under Edit Time Cards (for current/future dates).

Payroll Cross Reference Identifiers - External Codes

The External Code fields can be used to store additional employee identifier data for payroll service exports. Use these fields also as a cross-reference for the QuickBooks interface or simply store employee information. These fields are exported in Excel formatted reports.

Use Notes to store and track information about employees, such as call-outs, performance evaluations, PTO accrued, infractions, warnings given, pay raise dates, etc..

List Maintenance, Jobs, Add New Job

The Basic Setup tab has required* fields that are necessary for workers to begin using Chronotek.

Enter your customers' locations to track travel time and to see if your employees are on the jobsites when clocking in with our GPS time clock app.

Use Notes to store and track information about customers, such as contract dates and amounts, door entry codes, specific job instructions, conversation summaries with customer contacts, complaints, contact birthdays, etc.

Monitor your employee’s activity with two types of alerts:

Chronotek directs alerts through Zone Supervisors. If no Supervisor is assigned, no alert will go out.

Multiple people can receive alerts. Use a semicolon (;) to separate the alert destinations. Select the Zone Supervisor* then fill in Email Address* with cell phone text messaging address format and/or email address for the alerts. Send Test to make sure set up is accurate, Save.

Use the Note field as a reminder of the numbers/email addresses for those who are receiving alerts.

Turn off alerts for specific times (holiday, business closed) by Disabling Alerts. Go to My Account, Company Setup, uncheck the box for Enable Alerts. Re-check Enable Alerts to turn alerts on.

Chronotek captures the caller-ID and related information on every call. Prohibit cell phones (or any unauthorized phones) from being used to clock-in/out. Link Phones to ensure that employees are calling from the job site. Because a blocked phone list could be limitless, the Chronotek system uses Link Phones to prevent any unauthorized use. Link Phones will also simplify the clock-in process for employees and your reports will be accurate with the correct Job Code.

Go to List Maintenance, Phones, and find the number you want to link. Click on it. Then go to the Link to Job tab. The job may appear under Possible Jobs. If this job is correct, click the grey Link button to the right and save. You can also choose it from the dropdown box. Choose it, link it, and save it. All set!

After a phone number is linked, the employee will no longer be required to enter a job code at clock-in from this site phone. The time cards are automatically associated with the correct job code based on the phone number. Once the phone numbers have been linked, change the job codes to a new code to prevent employees from clocking in when they aren’t calling from the job site phones.

Unauthorize (or block) phone numbers in your phone list. This prevents the number from being used to clock in/out of the system. The next time an employee calls from an unauthorized phone number, they will hear, "You are calling from an unauthorized phone; please contact your Supervisor for assistance."

Go to List Maintenance, Phones, and look down the list for wireless numbers. Or change your view to Cell Phones. Click on a number you want to block, click the Unauthorized CID box, and save. Done.

Activity Codes are an optional feature used at clock-in to give further definition to an employee's time card. The activity reports what is done at the job site (floor work, windows, snow plow, etc.).Your list of Activity Codes is universal and can be applied to any job. Activity Codes aren't tied to a specific job.

Don't worry about the Pay Type Override just yet. That's a QB or Payroll Snapshot-related item. The External Codes are fields that can appear as columns on CSV exports. That's another conversation.

How Employees Clock In with Activity Codes

Using Activity Codes Internally

Perhaps you want to track a few tasks, but not at every employee clock-in. You can also use Activity Codes for administrative purposes, such as approving time cards and tracking call-outs. You can do these things without requiring employees to clock into an Activity Code on every clock-in.

Create the Activity Codes and check the Admin Use Only box. The system will not prompt your employees to enter them on clock-in. But you can manually tag time cards with activities under Payroll Functions, Edit Time Cards.

Check out our complete guide to using Activity Codes for other ways to use them.

We have 3 activity reports:

Filters by Employee Zone.

Notes:

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's website, “Time spent traveling during normal work hours is considered compensable work time.” This means you must pay your mobile employees for drive time between jobs. The Travel Manager feature automatically creates Travel Time Cards when an employee clocks out of one job, and into a different job.

Set Up

Step 1: Setting Up Activity Codes

Activity codes help categorize work tasks at job sites. For Travel Manager, create a Travel activity code.

Step 2: Mapping Job Sites

The Travel Manager integrates with Google Maps to calculate travel time and mileage between job sites. Here's how to add and map a new job site:

Step 3: Configuring Travel Settings

To enable travel tracking, configure the Travel Settings in the My Account menu.

Step 4: Choosing Mileage and Time Tracking Methods

You can select between Actual and Mapped Estimated options for travel time and mileage:

Note: In some states, like California, you may need to capture actual time. If so, you can set a maximum threshold, like 30 minutes, to avoid overpaying for travel records that exceed a reasonable travel duration.

Step 5: Allocating Travel Time in Job Cost Reporting

You can assign travel time to specific jobs for accurate cost tracking:

To configure:

Step 6: Assigning Travel Pay to Employees

Always click Save after making changes in the settings screen.

Approving and Disapproving Travel Time

Once your employees begin recording travel time, you can manage and approve/disapprove their entries in the Travel Manager. We recommend that you review and approve travel every 2-3 days. Travel time is not applied to the employee's time cards or job cost reports until approved. Don't wait until the end of your pay period before approving travel, and discover travel has put people into overtime that could have been easily managed if you were approving travel on a more regular basis.

Approving Travel Time:

Access the Travel Manager:

Review Travel Time:

Approve Travel Time:

Adjust Travel Time (If Needed):

Disapproving Travel Time:

If the travel time recorded by an employee is inaccurate, click the Disapprove button next to the relevant entry.

Running Time Card Reports for Travel Time

The Travel Manager includes two key employee reports to help you manage time: Employee Activity Summary and Employee Activity Detail reports. Additionally, the Job Activity Detail report shows work and travel hours broken out by job. See the article on Reviewing, Approving, Reporting for more details.

We don't automatically update your payroll period because we don't know when you do payroll and are ready to change the dates. So, once you have processed payroll, select the new payroll period date.

Please complete these steps at the beginning of each new pay period. It's simple and will make the Edit Time Card screen load much quicker and keep your reports updated.

The Payroll Snapshot is a powerful feature that calculates regular and overtime hours for any pay period. This includes overtime with semi-monthly payroll, over 8 or 12 hours in a day, and 7th consecutive day for California overtime. This report is great for job costing purposes, payroll dollar budgets, and much more.

The Payroll Snapshot is used for:

See our Payroll Snapshot article for more details.

*NOTE: The Reports Daily Time Cards, Time Cards … are not calculated with the Snapshot Settings. These reports do not calculate overtime (except for Over 40 Hours Check and this report should be used for weekly/bi-weekly payroll only).

How to Set Up the Payroll Snapshot

Supervisor Clock is an easy way to clock an individual or a group of employees in and out at one time. From the Admin site, any user with access to Supervisor Clock can manually "start" or "close" a time card. If your employees forget to clock in or out, you can start or close their time cards easily and assign the correct times.

Steps for preparing your time cards for payroll:

After completing payroll, set pay period to current dates.

Weekly Schedule Reports

Daily Schedule

Filters by Employee and Job Zone.

Schedule Viewer

Job Actual vs. Schedule Report

Shift Lock is an optional feature that helps control labor hours by restricting time cards to scheduled clock-in/out times when employees clock in early and out late. It's integrated with our scheduling system and is ideal when your employees have set schedules. We don't recommend Shift Lock for employees with flexible start times because Shift Lock is based on set in/out times and not durations.

When Shift Lock is applied to a time card, employees are informed of the time card adjustment when they clock-in/out of the system.

Check out our detailed help article, Eliminate Early Clock Ins and Late Clock Outs with Shift Lock, to learn how to set up and use Shift Lock.

What is Budget Manager?

Budget Manager is a tool that helps you track and manage job budgets by comparing your planned hours against actual worked hours and future schedules. Think of it as a health monitor for your job budgets that shows if you're on track or need to adjust.

Understanding Your Dashboard

The Bubble Display

When you first open Budget Manager, you'll see colorful bubbles at the top of your screen. Each bubble represents one of your jobs:

Think of these bubbles like a traffic light system for your budgets. The position of each bubble shows how far off track you might be - the further from center, the more attention it needs.

Step 1: Access Budget Manager

Step 2: Add a New Budget

Step 3: Set Up Your Budget Details

Critical Step: Setting Up Future Schedules

You don't have to use our scheduling to use Budget Manager, but we strongly suggest that you do to see your budgets in the future and see where you need to make adjustments.

Step 1: Access Scheduler

Step 2: Create a Regular Schedule

Viewing the Dashboard

Understanding the Dashboard

Understanding Your Numbers

When you click on a job in the dashboard list, you'll see:

Making Adjustments

If you're off track:

Example: Managing a 200-Hour Job

Let's walk through a real example:

To learn more about creating and using schedules for no-show alerts, check out our video and written instructions for Schedule Manager.

Chronotek has a 2-way voice mail system that can be used to send messages between Supervisors and employees.

Supervisors calling the Chronotek toll-free number hear a menu:

a. “Press 1 to clock-in/out”

b. “Press 2 to access the voicemail system”

a. A specific employee (enter the employee code)

b. A Zone (enter the zone code)

c. All employees

Note: The option to leave a voice message to a building (Job) is no longer functional.

After the beep, record your message then press any key to complete the process. The system will say “Your message has been sent”.

If an employee receives a message from a Supervisor, they can reply, delete, or save the message before proceeding to clock-in/out. An employee can also create a voice message for the Supervisor of their Employee Zone.

When Supervisors press 2 to access the voicemail system, they can listen to messages by then pressing 1.

An employee can send voice messages to the Supervisor of their Employee Zone.

Set up Alert Destinations for Chronotek Supervisors. Multiple people can receive alerts through the system, but a Chronotek Supervisor has to be listed for the system to know where to start. Use a semicolon (;) to separate addresses if you want to send alerts to multiple people.

Select the Zone Supervisor then fill in Email Address with cell phone text messaging address format and/or email address for the alerts. Send Test to make sure set up is accurate, Save.

The Note field can be used to denote the owner of the cell numbers/email addresses for those who are receiving alerts.

Your user account must have mobile access to send messages from the desktop. If you're not set up for mobile access, you can't send messages through the app or desktop.

The image below shows a user (Joe) who has access to the admin site (desktop) but no mobile access. Joe will not be able to send messages to his employees through the app or desktop.

Check out this quick video that explains more.

*On some phones, if you are trying to reply to a message, the keyboard will pop up and block the text box, and you can't see what you're typing. Just swipe up, and it pulls the message box above the keyboard. Easy!

You should have an envelope icon at the top right of your account screen.

Click the envelope and the messaging feature opens. The screens and the steps on the desktop are identical to what the video showed for the mobile app.

Chronotek Reports are filled with invaluable data for growing a strong business. Choose from a variety of reports to run numbers based on employee hours.

HINT: Use the Search field – type search word(s) and press Enter

HINT: Change the dates to view reports: Date Range, Refresh

HINT: Export data into Excel (.csv spreadsheet) or Adobe (.pdf format)

HINT: View names according to sort: List Maintenance, Employees, View: name:

Report Hints:

Search through reports by using Control + F, and an Adobe menu will populate for guidance. Reports show time worked in standard hours/minutes and decimal hours. Decimal hours arebolded because they should be used for payroll calculation.

Our most versatile, go-to report!

Similar to the Late Employees report with the additional ability to filter by late arrivals and no-shows.

Users & Employees

We have two Affordable Care Act (ACA) reports to help customers determine if they are required to comply with the ACA rules. As of January 1, 2016, employers with 50 or more "full-time equivalent" employees must comply.

Filters by Employee Zone only.

ACA: ALE Status

The ACA: ALE Status report will calculate (by month) the total number of full-time and full-time equivalent employees to determine if your company must comply with the ACA.

ACA: FT Status - Monthly

The ACA: FT Status - Monthly breaks down each employee's hours by the month to point out which employees meet the full-time (FT) status according to the ACA 130-hours per month ruling. This report is valuable for more than ACA reporting. You'll find answers to many year-end employee questions in the ACA report.

Vital Employee Information in the ACA Report

Check out our help article, Unlock Hidden Insights: Track Labor Hours for Smarter Business Decisions, to see more ways the ACA: FT Status - Monthly can help you.

These reports are filtered by Job Zone (except for the Weekly Labor Cost report). Example: If my supervisor has visible zone access to zone 1000 and his employee in zone 1000 clocks into a job in zone 5000, the supervisor will not see his employee on job reports. He will see his zone 1000 employee on reports under Time Cards and by Employee.

View the total hours by job, summarizing each employee’s hours within the current pay period.

View data by job even if Activity Codes are not used.

The Weekly Labor Cost (WLC) report is an extension of the Job Summary report, but with added calculations for overtime (over 40 hours in a work week) and "fully loaded" pay rates. You can set the Labor Rate Multiplier that will be applied to the employee hourly pay rates to accommodate those extra costs included in your payroll such as payroll taxes, benefits, workers comp, etc. The report will then calculate the total labor hours and job cost differences based on the set budgeted hours and dollars.

Note: The WLC report does not filter by zone. All jobs with hours for the week will show. Be careful who you give access to this report.

How the Weekly Labor Cost Differs from the Job Summary Report

The Labor Rate Multiplier

The Weekly Labor Cost report uses a fully loaded pay rate to give you more accurate job costing. The fully loaded rate should include your payroll taxes of 7.65% + worker's compensation + other benefits.

Enter your fully loaded pay rate at My Account, Company Set Up, Labor Rate Multiplier, and save.

Read our article, How to Track Job Costs - Weekly Labor Cost Report, to learn more on how the Weekly Labor Cost report.

The Weekly Time Cards by Job report is another view of employees time cards. View the daily and weekly total hours worked by every employee at each job. A notation for a schedule that was missed will show inside of the time card box (*Missed).

Detailed reports by job:

Customizable view:

Three main report types:

Content filters:

View details of employee calls, GPS maps, and supervisor alerts.

Auditing, Clock Locations shows all punches with date/time, employee, job, punch method, CID, and if the app was used, reports if the employee was located at the job or not, and a map link to view the track.

Location Messages for Employee Clock-ins and Outs

The Call Log can not be altered even if time cards are deleted. Use the call log to find entries if you suspect a time card was deleted.

HINT: Use the Search field – type search word(s) and press Enter

HINT: Click on Column Headers to sort data accordingly

HINT: Export data into Excel (.csv spreadsheet) or Adobe (.pdf format)

The Alert Log lists all system alerts that are sent to Zone Supervisors over the past 60 days. These details also include the number of times the system attempts to send the alert and whether or not it was successful. Hover over the red “no” to see why the alert was unsuccessful.

The menu items in this section should only be utilized by Chronotek Administrators. Edit company information, apply global feature settings, add payment information, and create user accounts through these screens.

Create access for other people who will manage the Chronotek system. Your account comes with two predefined access levels: Administrator and Manager. You can create custom access levels at My Account, Admin Access Levels.

An administrator can access all screens, while a Manager can access all except the My Account menu items.

How to Create a New Admin

If you want to create a custom access level instead of assigning someone as an Administrator or Manager, the next section will explain the process.

You can create custom access levels and assign the screens you want the access level to see.

The Company Setup contains your company and contact information. Your Chronotek Administrator is typically the contact for the account. Set up company-wide defaults on this screen.

Set up your account to use Travel Manager. We advise contacting our Support Team for help on your one-time settings. You will also need to return to this screen to activate travel for new employees.

Set up your account to use Shift Lock. See our detailed help article or contact the Support Team for assistance with these one-time settings.

Securely update credit card information for the monthly Auto-Pay process. If a balance is due, easily process the payments from the Payment Center screen.

Custom Prompts will ask your employees any question when they call to clock in or out (in English or Spanish). The requirement is that they call. We don't have Custom Prompts on the mobile app, but they work with the Dialer App.

Use Custom Prompts to capture answers to any yes or no questions or answers that require a count, such as:

Customer Support must set up Custom Prompts. Please contact Support if you are interested, and they will explain how to use them.

Check out the FAQ page.