MANAGER GUIDE
Set up your company.
Know it is ready.
Work through the settings in order, then check one complete workday before rolling out to your team.
Before you begin
Sign in with a company manager account. Employees join the workspace through accounts you create; they should not register separate companies.
- Have your pay-period dates, employee names and email addresses ready.
- Decide who will review time and who may reopen locked periods.
- Count all active accounts, including managers, against your plan's user limit.
- If you record your own time, arrange another manager to review your timesheet submissions. Managers cannot review their own submissions.
SETUP 01
Set company time and entry fields
Open Company Settings → Company and time.
- Review the company address. Check the address information before preparing reports.
- Set the dashboard week and pay period. Choose Workweek starts, Days per pay period and Fiscal start date. To anchor the schedule independently of the fiscal year, enter the first day of an actual period in Known pay-period start.
- Choose entry fields. Decide whether clients, contracts and descriptions are shown or required. Add clients and contracts before requiring employees to select them.
- Choose manual-entry access. Allow manual time entries controls creating entries manually. It does not choose how employees edit completed time; that is covered below.
- Set report defaults. Choose the approval filter, date format, hour decimal places, CSV separator and clock format. Save company settings.
The general Workweek starts field sets the dashboard week. Configure the separate fixed overtime workweek under Overtime tracking. See the overtime workweek guide and client and contract setup guide.
Open Reports and confirm the expected pay-period dates. Display precision changes how hours are shown; it does not round clock-in or clock-out times.
What happens if I change the pay-period start later?
Report boundaries change, but recorded shifts are not rewritten. Saved timesheet periods retain their original dates, and new periods cannot overlap them. Existing timestamps remain in company server time; this setting does not convert time zones.
SETUP 02
Create employee accounts
Open Employees.
- Enter the employee's email, first name and last name.
- Choose the appropriate Rank. Give manager access only to people who should administer the company.
- Review Payment Type and Payment Rate if you use cost or gross-pay estimates.
- Enter and confirm an initial password, or use the password-generation option, then save the account.
- Use the employee password-reset action to send a reset link, or share initial credentials securely. Passwords are not emailed.
Have the employee sign in using their own account and confirm they are in the correct company. Check that their role gives them the expected tools.
SETUP 03
Choose how completed time can change
Open Company Settings → Employee corrections.
Choose direct employee editing, manager correction requests or no employee changes. Manual-entry creation is separate, and changes remain subject to locks. Follow the correction-mode and lock instructions before saving.
Configure the optional date cutoff and saved-period permissions deliberately. They protect different boundaries; reopening one does not reopen the other.
SETUP 04
Enable the tools your company needs
Start with the tools your team will use now. Each section below has its own settings and save action.
Break tracking
Open Break tracking. Enable tracking and choose live start/end controls or requests after the shift. Set what happens if an employee clocks out with a break active.
- Paid: includes break time in payable hours.
- Count as work: also includes paid break time in working hours and billing estimates.
- Unpaid: reduces both payable and working hours.
- Qualifying: counts toward the missing-break check and resets the work reminder.
Missing breaks are flagged, never automatically deducted. Required break reviews can block entry approval and period locking until another manager reviews the issue. Existing break records keep their original hour rules when you change a type.
Full break-tracking guide →Work sites and remote work
Open Work sites. Add site boundaries, choose location-check outcomes, and review default access and employee overrides. Enable remote work if needed.
Remote work does not require GPS. Site location checks occur at clock-in or transfer, not continuously, and GPS is never required to clock out. Test the employee's actual device and location before relying on a boundary.
Work-site setup and review guide →Leave and PTO
Open Leave. Set working days, hours per full day, the start time and leave types. Managers enter opening balances and explained adjustments.
For balance-tracked types, approval deducts leave hours, including future approved leave. Pending requests do not deduct the balance; approved cancellations restore it. Automatic accruals, annual allowances, carryover and balance limits are not applied. Another manager must review your own leave or adjust your balance.
Full leave and PTO guide →Schedules, overtime and reminders
Scheduling guide · Overtime guide
Review Schedules, Overtime and Reminders separately. Publish schedules for employees to use. Planned shifts do not create worked time, and scheduling warnings do not calculate payroll overtime.
For notifications, check the company delivery channels and the recipient's Profile preferences. A company setting alone does not guarantee email or text delivery.
Reminder settings and troubleshooting guide →SETUP 05
Check one complete workday
Before inviting everyone to start, walk through the employee workflow with one team member during an actual shift.
- Confirm the correct client, contract, description and site choices are available.
- Have the employee clock in, record a break if enabled, and clock out.
- Review the completed entry together. Check dates, duration, break treatment and required details.
- Show the employee where to review time and how to request a correction if needed.
- In Timesheet review, resolve any flagged issues and confirm the entry is ready for approval.
The shift is closed, the expected details are present, and the hours agree with your company rules. Do not leave practice entries mixed into payroll data.
SETUP 06
Review and close the first period
Configure Timesheet periods, then open Submissions and periods.
If you use period submissions, enable them and decide whether approved submissions are required before locking. Select which managers may reopen periods. With no managers selected, nobody can reopen a saved period until permission is granted.
- Choose a date inside the intended pay period and select Show period. Check the displayed boundaries.
- After the period ends, have employees submit their time. A manager can record a submission on an employee's behalf; the manager and time are recorded.
- Review the closing checklist. Resolve open shifts, outstanding corrections and required reviews. Review entries in Timesheet review.
- Review the submissions. If approved submissions are required, everyone with time or a submission needs one approved. Employees with no time do not block closing. Have another manager review your own submission.
- When the checklist is clear, lock the period. Reopening later requires an authorized manager and a reason.
Entry approval, submission approval, locking, exporting and payment status are separate actions. Use the timesheet status guide for their meanings and the full closing workflow.
SETUP 07
Prepare reports and payroll
Open Reports. Match the date range, employees and approval filter to the period you reviewed. Check totals before exporting. An approved-only report can exclude completed entries that are still pending.
For internal gross-pay preparation, enable Use TakeUrTime payroll preparation under Payroll. Review the included shifts, paid leave, holiday credits and calculation preferences. Confirm employee rates before relying on the estimate.
Provider connections are configured under Integrations. They are available on every plan and are separate from the internal Payroll setting. Check provider requirements, mappings and delivery results before relying on a transfer.
Report filters and exports · Full payroll preparation guide · Integration setup guide
If something does not look right
An employee cannot edit an entry.
Check the correction mode, whether requests are enabled, the date cutoff and any saved-period lock. Manual-entry permission only controls creating entries. Use the correction workflow or an authorized manager review rather than changing unrelated settings.
The period cannot be submitted or locked.
Submission is available after the period ends. Confirm the period dates and feature setting, then use its closing checklist to identify blockers. If required, approve outstanding submissions and resolve entry or break reviews. Another manager must review your submission.
The dates do not match our payroll calendar.
Check Days per pay period and Known pay-period start under Company and time. Saved periods keep their dates even after settings change. Review those saved periods before changing the schedule again.
A feature is missing, or a setting did not stick.
Confirm the company feature is enabled, the account has the right access, and the correct section was saved successfully. Reload the section to check the saved value. Payroll preparation and integrations have separate controls.
Leave hours or break totals are unexpected.
For leave, check the full-day schedule, type rules, request status and balance adjustments. For breaks, check the recorded type and whether the break is open, paid or counted as work. Existing records can keep earlier rules, so changing today's settings may not change their totals.