Shift questions display a customisable question when staff clock-in or out of their shift. Responses to shift questions can trigger a variety of outcomes, such as applying a comment to timesheets, or automatically applying an allowance.
Example use cases include:
Recording the reason for clocking in or out before or after the scheduled time
Recording acknowledgement of a policy
Recording information about what happened on shift, such as how many kilometers were driven
Clock-in Restrictions prevent the staff member from submitting their timeclock entry if a certain condition is met (such as clocking in early).
How to create a shift question
To create a shift question, navigate to Settings > All Settings > Shift Questions > Set up shift questions. Alternatively, find them under Settings > Timeclocks > Shift Questions.
Once on this page, click + Add New Shift Question and fill out the required fields:
What question should we ask? - This is what the employee will see when asked the question
Where should we ask this question? - Determines whether this question should be asked in the Mobile app, the Time Clock, or both.
When should we ask this question? - Choose whether this is asked upon clock in, clock out, break start, or break finish.
Only ask this question if… - This is where you can set the condition for when this question should be asked. Select either Always ask, Earlier or Later than scheduled, Unscheduled, Question has not been answered before, Schedule still requires acceptance from employee, Shift length is over specified hours.
For conditional requirements such as ‘Earlier/later than scheduled’ or ‘Over specified hours’, a second field will appear allowing you to configure the specific requirements.
Who should see this question? - Configure if this question should apply to everyone, or only those with a specific tag.
What should happen next? - Determine how this question will impact the shift/timesheet. You can either make it add a timesheet comment, add an allowance to the shift (a number input, or a yes/no input), or set a shift tag.
Required - Determines whether staff must answer the question to clock their time.
Add Quick Responses (optional) - Instead of requiring staff to type out an answer, you can set preset answers that they can choose from.
Answer Text: For timesheet comments, this is what the user will see and can choose when responding to the question. If there is no Result Value set, the Answer Text is what will be attached to the shift.
Result Value: What will be actually entered into the timesheet (optional).
When adding new questions, expect your device to take 10 minutes to sync the new questions.
How to create a Clock-in Restriction
To create a clock-in restriction, navigate to Settings > All Settings > Shift Questions > Set up shift questions > Clock-in Restrictions. Alternatively, find them under Settings > Timeclocks > Clock-in Restrictions.
On this page, select + Add New Restriction and fill in the following fields:
Where should we enforce this restriction? - Choose if this should apply to clock-ins done through the shared timeclock, when an employee is clocking in on their personal device using the mobile app, or both.
Which timeclock action should we block? - Choose if this restriction should block clock-ins, clock-outs, break starts, or break finishes.
Only block if... - Choose from the following reasons to determine if the timeclock entry should be blocked:
Earlier than scheduled
Later than scheduled
Unscheduled
Away from scheduled location
Schedule still requires acceptance from employee
Who should this restriction apply to? - Limit the restriction to a certain group of staff, or have it apply to everyone
How minutes lenience is allowed? - For the reasons in points 3. a), b) and e), determine if any lenience is allowed. For example, if the leniency is set to 10 minutes, and an employee clocks in 7 minutes early, their clock-in will not be blocked.
FAQ's and Troubleshooting
How can I find the comments added to the timesheet?
When an employee leaves an answer and you choose to add it to the timesheet, there will be a red notification sign for each shift. Clicking on it will show the answer:
If the Is required? option is selected in the shift question settings, and the employee doesn't provide a response to the question, a comment will still be left to show that the employee made no selection.
All the comments are be stored in the Excel summary as well which you can download by going to Timesheets > Preview and Export > Download Excel Summary. There is a tab in the excel file called "By Comment".
If there is more than one shift question asked, how is the order of questions determined?
The shift question order is determined by the order that the shift questions were created, with the earliest created shift question asked first.
What happens if an employee does not answer a question that is marked as 'is required'?
If the employee walks away from the time clock or closes the mobile app without answering a mandatory question, the response on the timesheet comment for the shift question will read "no answer was given".
After the shift, provided the shift hasn't been approved yet, the employee will also see a prompt to answer the shift question in their mobile app, increasing the likelihood of a response being provided:
