Time Tracking Setup Checklist
What do I need to do before I enable BambooHR Time Tracking?
Purpose: Several things need to be set in place for BambooHR Time Tracking to work smoothly. This guide will walk you through what needs to be accurate to ensure correct rules and calculations.
Before you get started with the checklist below, there are a few items you will want to verify in your account. You can read through each of these below.
Review your employees' compensation details* and ensure that hourly workers have the pay type set to hourly and their pay rate lists as per hour. This is also a good time to double-check that their pay schedules are correct.
An easy way to confirm this is to create a custom report, including the pay rate and pay type for each employee. Filter it to show only your hourly employees so you can easily see which employees still need a pay rate listed as per hour.
*We do not require this for enabling Time Tracking, but we recommend it to ensure clean data.
Review your time off categories and make sure you have set up paid time off categories correctly. You can do this by editing a time off category and making sure the box checks for Time off policies in this Category are paid policies.
Do you want your employees to accrue time off based on the hours entered in BambooHR? Check out this help guide that will show the process of setting up a time off policy based on hours worked.
Before you enable BambooHR Time Tracking for employees, you want to make sure they have the right access to timesheets. The following settings are by default when you activate Time Tracking in your account:
- Employee access levels: Employee users can view and edit their own timesheets by default.* You can adjust employees' access to allow View access, but you cannot set timesheets to No Access. If you are using the time clock and want employees to only be able to clock in and out, you will need to edit the employee access level and set the Timesheet tab to View Only access.
- Manager access levels: Users assigned to a manager access level can view the timesheets for the employees they have access to by default. You can adjust this access to allow managers to edit timesheets if needed.
- Custom access levels: By default, users in a custom access level have no access to view employee timesheets. You can adjust this access by editing the custom access level to allow users to view or edit timesheets for the employees they can access. In addition to employee timesheets, you can grant custom access level users access to approve timesheets, enable or disable Time Tracking for employees, and manage Time Tracking Settings.
*Please keep in mind this is only applicable if the employee has Time Tracking enabled. If an employee is in an employee access level with access to timesheets but does not have Time Tracking enabled, they will not see the Timesheets tab on their profile.
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.
When you first add BambooHR Time Tracking to your account, you will see the Time Tracking Setup Checklist in Time Tracking Settings. This list goes through the basics that need completion before you can enable Time Tracking.
It is a requirement for you to ensure each employee has the correct pay schedule listed to enable time tracking for an employee and that you created their timesheets correctly.
Click Go to Pay Schedules.
Pay Schedule settings
If you have not purchased BambooHR Payroll, you can find the Pay Schedule tab in Settings > Employee Fields.
Employee timesheets will start and end as defined by your pay period. Notifications for approvals are based on your pay day. Review your pay schedules in Settings to ensure the setup is correct to match your company's pay calendar.
Hover over a pay schedule and click the calendar icon to see the pay period start and end dates, along with the pay dates for all pay periods during the following year. If you need to make edits to a pay schedule, click on the edit icon.
The employee's pay schedule
Once you have ensured that your pay schedules are correct, you need to verify that you assigned your hourly employees to the correct pay schedule.
An easy way to confirm this is to create a custom report, including the pay type and pay schedule for each employee. Filter it to show only your hourly employees to see which employees still need a pay schedule added. If no employees have a pay schedule listed, you can add that information through the power edit tool. When using the power edit tool, please remember it will add a new line of information with the date of when you used the power edit tool to edit an employee's Compensation table instead of editing the current data line.
Once you have confirmed your pay schedules are correct and assigned to employees, go to Time Tracking in Settings and check the box next to Verify Your Pay Schedules.
To ensure overtime is tracked accurately, you need to verify the addresses for each of your business locations.
Click Go to Locations.
Locations
You are not required to track overtime in BambooHR's time tracking feature. However, if you want to track overtime, you need to make sure the following information is correct.
- Listed states: Be sure all of your locations in the United States have state information and all locations in Canada have province information listed in the address.
- Remote locations: If workers are part of a remote location, be sure the location marks as remote. BambooHR will then reference an employee's physical address for overtime rules. (See below.)
If you enable custom overtime rules, BambooHR will not refer to the employee's location. All non-exempt employees will adhere to the same rules the admin sets up in time tracking settings.
Hourly employees
If you are using the Standard U.S. and Canadian Overtime Rules option, be sure to review your hourly employees' Job Information tables to ensure they have a location listed.
Personal addresses
If an employee lists as working in a remote location, make sure they have the correct home address listed on their Personal tab.
An easy way to confirm this is to create a custom report, including the pay type, location, and personal address. Filter it to show only your hourly employees to see which employees still need a location listed. If an employee's location is remote, make sure they have a personal address in the system.
Once you have confirmed all of your business locations and personal addresses for your remote employees, navigate Time Tracking in Settings and check the box next to Verify Your Business Locations.
Now let's get your Holidays set up. Click Go to Holiday Settings to go directly to that section in Settings.
You can add new holidays individually by clicking + Add Holiday, or click Copy 20__ Holidays to copy over all the holidays you set up the previous year.
The next step is to manage Time Tracking Settings, such as how your employees will enter their hours, who will approve timesheets, etc.
Click Go to Settings.
Read through this help guide to learn more about each setting for Time Tracking. Once you have set up your settings the way you would like them to be, click Save Changes.
Click Time Tracking to return to the checklist. Then, check the box next to Manage Settings.
Next, you can determine which employees need Time Tracking enabled.
Click Add Employees.
Follow these steps to enable Time Tracking for your employees in bulk. If you would like to enable Time Tracking for your employees as of a specific future start date, you can set that in the next step.
Once you have added the right employees, click Setup Checklist. Then, check the box next to Add Employees.
Enable Now: If you would like your employees to start tracking hours worked immediately, click Enable Now. After you enable Time Tracking, an employee with Edit access to timesheets can add hours for any previous days in the specific pay period.
Schedule Start Date: If you would like to schedule a future start date for your employees to start tracking hours, click Schedule Start Date. (See below.)
You can select a future pay period start date for each pay schedule with assigned employees. Keep in mind that only the pay schedules for Time Tracking employees show in the pop-up box. You can select from the next three pay periods.
Once you have selected your date(s), click Schedule Time Tracking.
If you are scheduling Time Tracking to start on a future date, your employees will not see their Timesheet tab, or have the ability to add hours, until that date.
*The exception to this is if you re-add an employee who was previously enabled with Time Tracking. An employee who was previously enabled with time tracking will be able to see their Timesheet tab immediately, even if you schedule it for a future date.
If you want to enable Time Tracking for new employees who have a future hire date, you can schedule the start date on their hire date. Click here to learn more about how this works.
The Employees Tracking Time page shows a list of all the employees you have added and their scheduled start dates.