Enable Time Tracking for Employees

How do I enable Time Tracking for my employees?

Purpose: You need to enable BambooHR Time Tracking for the employees you would like to use this add-on feature. This guide will show you how you can enable Time Tracking for individual employees and multiple employees in bulk.


Two things must be true to add an employee to BambooHR Time Tracking:

  1. The employee must have access to BambooHR.
  2. The employee must have a pay schedule set.

The employee profile

You can enable BambooHR Time Tracking for an individual employee through their employee profile. Navigate to the action menu in the top right corner and hover over Time Tracking, then select Enable Time Tracking.

In the pop-up box, you can select if you would like to enable Time Tracking for this employee immediately* or if you would like to wait until the start date of one of the next three pay periods. Once you make your selection, click Save.

If you enable Time Tracking immediately, the employee can automatically start tracking hours worked for all days in the current pay period. This includes any previous days in the pay period. 

*If an employee has a future hire date and the hire date matches the employee's compensation effective date, you will see the employee's hire date instead. The three pay period start dates are for the three pay periods starting after the employee's hire date.

If you enable the employee as of a future pay period start date, you can see when Time Tracking will start through the action menu.

Once you enable Time Tracking for the employee, the Timesheet tab will show on their employee profile.

Enable Time Tracking for multiple employees from the Employees tab

You can enable Time Tracking for multiple employees at once by navigating to Settings and selecting Time Tracking. Click Add Employees to choose which employee(s) you would like to enable Time Tracking for.

Step 1

  1. Filter: If you want to enable time tracking for all employees within a specific department, location, pay type, etc., use the filter to select a subset of employees.
  2. No Pay Schedule: If an employee does not have an assigned pay schedule, you cannot enable Time Tracking for the employee until you add them to an active pay schedule.
  3. Select Employees: Click on an employee's name and use Shift or Command to select multiple employees at a time. Then, click on the arrow to move the employees into the selected section.

Step 2

  1. Enable Now or Schedule Start Date: Once you have selected the correct employees, you can decide to enable Time Tracking for the employees at the moment,  which will immediately* give them access to track hours worked. Or, click Schedule Start Date to enable Time Tracking for the employees as of a future date.

If you choose to schedule the start date, you can select when you would like Time Tracking to start for each pay schedule. You can select a pay period start date from one of the next three pay periods. If an employee has a future hire date that matches their compensation effective date, you can select their hire date to schedule Time Tracking.

*If an employee shows as Future Hire Date and you click Enable Now, the employee will have Time Tracking enabled as of their future hire date. This is only true if the employee's hire date and their compensation effective date are the same.

Step 3

1. Verify your choices.

Once you have enabled Time Tracking for your employees, you will see a list of all employees who have Time Tracking enabled. If an employee has a future scheduled start date, you will see that date right below the employee's name.

If you need to edit the start date, hover over the employee's name and click on the calendar icon. Or, click Change All Start Dates at the top to change all employees' scheduled Time Tracking start dates. 

Note: You will only see Hire Date as an option if all employees with a future start date have the same hire date. Otherwise, you will need to go to the specific employee's profile to update their start date to their hire date.

The Overtime State or Province determines the overtime rules applied to a specific employee's timesheet. If an employee is exempt, overtime will not calculate for the employee.

Enable Time Tracking for multiple employees in a group

To add employees to Time Tracking on a group by group basis, simply navigate to the group and select Add Employees. Then, follow the modal to determine who should be added and when. If you have not created additional Time Tracking groups, all your employees will be added to the Default group.

Did you know we have a BambooHR Learning course about setting up Time Tracking and rolling it out to employees? Click here to learn more about what is included in this course. 

The following links will take you to one-page downloads you can share with your employees about how to add hours in BambooHR.
- Start & End Times (No Time Clock): https://learning.bamboohr.com/r/4kswl3m80ohvyc1ruz7heytnims8ymv

- Start & End Time (Time Clock Enabled): https://learning.bamboohr.com/r/rqsy5mnxrqi7xsyzs2rhxntzi1s1m8v

-Total Hours Worked (Single Entry): https://learning.bamboohr.com/r/3ks81z30lkam9cj7sqnhwmt8ijs3874

- Total Hours Worked (Multiple Entries): https://learning.bamboohr.com/r/zlsyzvql16a80izks40ce0tmizs1zxz

Additionally, click here to access a presentation you can use to help you roll out Time Tracking to your employees.