Attendance tracking for multiple locations: branches or projects?

Quick answer

#What it's good for

• Your reports make sense from day one, because hours are recorded where they belong.
• Branches and projects are both available straight away. There is nothing to switch on or order.
• You can combine them: attendance at a branch, and time on client jobs alongside it.
• Employees can move between several branches and several projects in one day. They just scan the right code.

#Who it's for

#Branches and projects compared

#Examples by industry

Cafés, restaurants and hotels: branches

A café group in Galway runs two cafés, one on Quay Street and one in Salthill. Each is a branch with its own Clock in and Clock out codes by the staff entrance. A barista who works the morning on Quay Street and the evening in Salthill scans Clock out at the first and Clock in at the second – her report then shows two records at two branches. Projects are rarely needed here. If the group caters a wedding, it can create the wedding as a project and see how many hours staff spent on it. More on hospitality on the hospitality attendance page.

Manufacturing: branches

The plant and the warehouse are two branches. People scan at the gatehouse or by the changing rooms. Add projects only if you want to track time on particular orders, for example a production run for one customer. See also attendance in manufacturing.

Construction: projects, often alongside a branch

Every building site is a project with one QR code, printed on the site board by the gate. A bricklayer scans it in the morning and again when he leaves. When the job is finished, the project is closed and the code comes down. The office or the yard stays a branch – that’s where people who don’t go out to sites scan. See construction attendance.

Cleaning and facility services: projects for client buildings

Brightway Facility Services in Dublin has two branches: its Head office in Fitzwilliam Place and an Equipment depot in Ballymount. Every client building is a project – Grand Canal Dock – Block B offices, St. Brigid’s Primary School, Malahide Medical Centre. A cleaner scans the building’s code on arrival and again on leaving, and Brightway sees how many hours were worked at each client. If a company has staff permanently based at one large building, it can run that building as a branch instead.

Offices: branches

An office is one branch; offices in several towns are several branches. Projects help if you bill clients for hours. See office attendance.

#How to set it up

1. List the places where people work.

   For each place, ask: do people come here every day, and will it still be here in a year? If so, it’s a branch. If it’s a job with a start and an end, it’s a project. The left menu has an item for each: Attendance (QR Codes) for branches and Projects (QR Codes) for projects.

   

2. Create your branches.

   Your first branch was created at sign-up. Add more in My Company › Branches. Each gets its own Clock in and Clock out codes, which you’ll find under Attendance (QR Codes). The steps are in Branches and Clock-in and clock-out QR codes.

   

3. Create your projects.

   In the left menu open Projects (QR Codes) and add your jobs or client sites. Each project has one Clock In & Out QR Code in its detail. If you want the distance of each scan measured, give the project a location. See Projects and project QR codes.

   

4. Print the codes and explain them to the team.

   Branch codes go by the entrance, project codes at the job site. Tell your staff which code to scan when. What scanning a project looks like on the phone is in Projects – start, finish and several at once.

5. After a few days, check the records.

   In Scan Details, filter by Record Type. Branch records have the type Attendance, project records the type Project with the project name. If something is wrong, you can fix it – see Scan details – reviewing and editing attendance.

   

#Several branches and projects in one day

An employee isn’t tied to one place. During a day they can work at several branches and on several projects:

• Several branches in a day. They scan Clock out at the first branch and Clock in at the second. That gives two records, each with its own branch. If they scan Clock out at a different branch from where they clocked in, the record still closes, and Scan Details highlights the two branches in orange. If you don’t want to allow that, switch on Block attendance closing on different branch in Mobile App Settings.
• A branch and a project at the same time. Projects run independently of branch attendance. Seán O’Connor, a window cleaner at Brightway, clocks in at the Equipment depot in the morning, loads the van, and then starts and finishes the Grand Canal Dock project on site.
• Several projects one after another, or at once. This depends on Allow multiple projects in parallel in My Company › Company Details › General Settings. When it’s on, several projects can run at once and each ends with its own code. When it’s off, employees work on one project at a time, so they end one before starting the next. Details are in Projects and project QR codes.

If people move between branches for good, look at the Automatic branch assignment setting described in Branches.

#More options

• Managers only for their own placesGive the manager of a site the role Branch Manager, and a site supervisor the role Project Manager. Each then sees only their own branches or projects. See User accounts and roles and Project Manager role.
• Compare places in the reportsTable Reports can put branches or projects side by side, for example hours per client building per month. See Branches detail, Overview and Comparison and Project report.

#Special cases and tips

You chose wrongly

Nothing is lost. You can add branches and projects at any time. Set the new place up correctly and stop using the old one; the old records stay in the reports.

One place as both a branch and a project

It works, but it confuses people – they don’t know which code to scan. Pick one approach per place.

A project without a code on the wall

The project code can also be printed and kept by the crew leader or in the van. What matters is that each employee scans it with their own phone.

Clock out at the wrong branch

Someone clocked in at the Head office and out at the depot? The record is closed and marked in orange in Scan Details. Correct it there if needed.

#Related

Web app (administrator)Mobile app (employee)