Your First 30 Days as a TimeKeeper Administrator
Welcome to TimeKeeper!
We're excited to help you get the most out of your first 30 days as a TimeKeeper administrator. This guide is designed to help you configure the core features and see how TimeKeeper can support your business.
Disclaimer: These steps do not need to be completed in order. This is a general guide for your first 30 days, and you can tackle them in the sequence that best fits your needs. Please note, these steps will not take 30 days to complete - it's just a suggested timeline to help you get up and running. Following these steps will give you a solid foundation for tracking time, managing jobs, and handling leave for your team.
TimeKeeper - Video Tutorial
In this 11-minute video, we take you through the process of setting up your TimeKeeper trial account. If you haven’t completed the steps yet, this video is a great way to get you up to speed.
Note: While this video covers some of the essential setup steps, we also have a wealth of guides and resources available that dive deeper into TimeKeeper's functionality. This video will help you get the ball rolling, but it doesn’t cover everything!
In the video, we go through the following steps:
Guided Setup
Setting up an Employee profile
Setting up a Working Pattern
Adding a Job
Setting up a Team
Setting up a Public Holiday Group
Setting up Multiple Leave Types
Adding a Request Type (Expense Request)
Leave Setup
If you'd like your employees to book their holidays using TimeKeeper, you'll need to set their leave entitlement in their profile first. You can enter how many days (or hours) of leave they are entitled to, and when the leave year starts. Once this is set, employees will be able to make leave requests via the app or web, which you can approve.
You can also add leave entries manually via the Wall Calendar and create different leave types under the Leave Types tab (for example, to track sick leave or training days).
As seen in the video above, our Public Holidays calendar function can be used to automatically add bank holidays to employees' profiles. These are always non-deductible from their entitlement, but can be set as paid or unpaid.
Permissions and Managers
By default, each employee can only view their own information. You can assign 'Manager' or 'Team Manager' permission to your employees if you'd like them to view and edit information for the employees they manage, or can grant 'Administrator' permission if you'd like to give them full access to the system.
If you set up your business' account with TimeKeeper, you remain the main Administrator on the system, but can add as many other Administrators as required.
The steps in this guide will help you assign the right roles to your team.
Adding jobs
If you'd like to track your employees time against certain projects, you'll need to set up Jobs. Jobs can also be used to ensure employees are on site when clocking in and automatically block off-site clock in attempts, through the use of Job Geofences.
As well as configuring your jobs, you'll need to tick 'Require job on clock in' under your Account Settings to enforce this requirement.
To add a job, you just need to enter a job name. You'll also have the option to set start and end dates, documents, notes and descriptions to a job.
If you set an address for a job, a geofence will be generated around that job. If you have 'Enforce geofencing' switched on under your Account Settings, employees must be within the geofence to clock in or out of that job. Jobs which have no address set can be clocked into from any location.
Setting up clock in stations
By default when you add an employee, they will only have permission to clock in to a tablet kiosk (using the automatically generated 4 digit pin we've sent to them).
If you’d like your employees to clock in on mobile, make sure to select ‘Can access the mobile app’ and 'Can clock in on mobile' in the Access & Permissions tab on their employee profile. Once they have downloaded the TimeKeeper app from the app store, they will be able to log in on mobile using their email/mobile number and password they have set.
If you’d like your employees to clock in on web, make sure to select ‘Can clock in on web’ in the Access & Permissions tab on their employee profile.
If you’d like your employees to clock in on a central tablet, you’ll need to set this up first. Most Android and iOS tablets can be used as a kiosk, as long as they have a front facing camera and internet connection.
You’ll need to download the TImeKeeper app from the app store on your device, and log in with your administrator credentials. The app will then ask if you’d like to set up Kiosk Mode or Employee Mode - select Kiosk Mode here. You can then choose which location this kiosk is linked to. New Kiosk Locations can be added via the web portal. If you specify an address and radius for this Kiosk Location, nearby mobile clock ins will also be linked to that location in your reports.
If you’d like employees to submit timesheets retrospectively, you can enable the setting ‘Can submit manual timesheets’ in their profile. This is done on an individual employee basis, and allows them to add or edit time entries via either the app or web portal.
Managing employee times
As an admin, you’ll be able to view and edit all employees’ clock in and out times. Team Managers also have permission to edit their team’s clock in times. You can use either the Manage > Time Entries or Manage > Employee Entries screens to do this.
From the Employee Entries screen, you can edit or add times, as well as editing the details for a time entry (for example, changing the job that time was allocated to).
The hours seen on this screen are ‘raw’ times - you’ll need to run a timesheet report to apply any rounding rules and calculate overtime.
Honourable Mention: Rounding & Overtime Rules
It's worth putting some time into viewing and testing the rounding rules and overtime rules to ensure they align with your business needs. These two functionalities are particularly unique to each business, so we recommend:
Testing the settings thoroughly.
Tweaking the rules as needed.
Using the overtime guide and rounding rules guide to help configure the settings based on your specific business requirements.
Only if applicable, taking the time to configure these rules correctly will save you from errors down the line and ensure time calculations are accurate for payroll or reporting.
Key reports
There are lots of handy reports in TimeKeeper, but the most commonly used reports are the Employee Timesheet Report and Staff Timesheet Report.
The Employee Timesheet Report allows you to view an individual employee's hours over a time period, as well as checking their time entries and location entries. Employees also have access to their own timesheet report on the web and app, so can check their own hours.
The Staff Timesheet Report allows you to view hours over a time period for a group of employees - you have the option to filter this report by team, location and contract type. The default format is a web based preview, but if you’d like to download this report to your computer, you can change the ‘Export format’ at the top of the screen.
The Staff Timesheet Excel Report is the most comprehensive report for payroll, as it contains multiple sheets with daily logs and breakdowns of your employees’ hours.
Running your first Staff Timesheet Report
Once you’ve set up your employees, their clock-in/out times, and any relevant rounding and overtime rules, the next step is to run your first timesheet report for payroll.
First, go to the Reports section > Time & Attendance > select Staff Timesheet' > filter the 'Export Format' to Staff Timesheet Preview to view timesheets in real time with editable entries.
Alternatively, choose "Staff Timesheet Excel Report" to generate a downloadable Excel file with multiple worksheets: Employees Summary, Employee Logs, Job Summary, and more.
Set your desired date range, select the team (e.g., Fabrication), and run the report. The Excel version includes detailed logs, job breakdowns, and location tracking—ideal for payroll processing.
You can find a full walkthrough here: Staff Timesheet Preview Report | Staff Timesheet Excel Report
Using Timesheet Approvals (Optional)
If you’ve enabled timesheet approvals for your employees, you’ll want to review and approve timesheets before running the payroll report.
Employees will submit their timesheets for approval, and you can approve or reject them via the Timesheet Approvals screen.
This adds an extra layer of control and ensures that all timesheets are accurate and have been reviewed before processing payroll.
To set up timesheet approvals, check out Using Timesheet Approvals.
Honourable Mention:
If this is your first payroll cycle, we highly recommend test running a data set with a small cohort of employees first. This will allow you to spot any potential issues—especially with rounding, overtime, or leave calculations—without affecting real payroll data. Running a test report with a small group will help ensure everything is configured correctly before processing your actual payroll.
Need Help?
If you have any questions or need a hand getting set up, our team is always happy to help. You can reach us via Live Chat directly within TimeKeeper or email us at [email protected].
We’re here to make sure you get the most out of your TimeKeeper experience!