Automatic attendance and closing forgotten clock-outs

Quick answer

#What it's good for

• People with fixed hours who don’t scan still appear in the reports and in payroll.
• Regular absences, such as working from home every Friday, don’t need entering every week.
• A forgotten stretch of days can be filled in afterwards in one go.
• No more 20-hour days in the reports because someone forgot to scan out.
• The next morning’s clock-in works normally, because the previous record is already closed.

#Who it's for

#Set up automatic attendance

1. Open Automatic attendance.

   In the left menu, click Employees and open the Automatic attendance tab. The filter next to the button switches between active and other rules. Click Create new rule.

2. Choose the days.

   Under Apply on specific days pick Weekdays (Mon-Fri), Weekends (Sat-Sun), All days or Custom selection, then untick individual days as needed. Niamh Ryan, Brightway’s office administrator, is in the Head office from Monday to Thursday – Friday is unticked. Below the days are Odd week and Even week; with both ticked, the rule applies every week. For hours that alternate every two weeks, create two rules: one with only Odd week ticked, the other with only Even week and the other days.

   

3. Choose the employees and the branch.

   In User Name pick one or more employees; Select all picks everyone. Then choose the Branch where the attendance is recorded.

4. Enter the times and a note, then save.

   Fill in Start and End, for example 08:30 and 17:00. In Note, write why the rule exists – the note is shown under the name in the list of rules. Leave Rule active switched on and save the rule.

5. Check the records.

   The records the rule creates appear in Scan Details and in the reports as ordinary attendance. See Scan details.

#An absence instead of attendance

Under the Branch field, click or select absence type instead of branch and pick a type, for example Home Office. On the selected days the rule then records an approved absence. That’s how Niamh has working from home every Friday. Start and End are required here too. The rule card in the list doesn’t show the absence type, so put it in the note, for example “Working from home on Fridays”.

#A temporary rule

Open Advanced Scheduling and choose Temporary rule with the dates Active from and Active until. Useful, for example, for working from home while the office is being refitted. A Permanent rule has no end date.

#Attendance for past days

On the rule card, click the clock icon with the arrow. Generate attendance for past days appears right in the card with a from – to date range. Confirm with the tick and the rule creates records for those days. Then check the result in Scan Details.

#Forgot to clock out? Close open attendance automatically

When an employee forgot to clock out, their attendance record stays open. FreshQR can close such records by rule: at an exact time, for example 23:30, or after a set number of worked hours. The closing time is an estimate. This is a separate feature from automatic attendance – it never creates records, it only closes open ones.

How to turn it on

There are no rules at the start, so open records stay open until someone scans out or you close them by hand. In Scan Details click Auto-Close Settings above the table and create the first rule with Add Rule. Anyone who can edit Scan Details can do it – the Owner, Administrators and the role Scans Detail: View & Edit; others don’t see the button. Open records that match a rule get a departure time automatically; nothing changes in the way employees scan. The rules apply to the whole company, and each one can be limited to certain days, branches and employees.

The window explains the feature under Automatic Departure Closure: This prevents incomplete records in the system, but the estimated departure time may not reflect the actual time the employee left. At the bottom it says Automatic processing runs every 15 minutes.

#Add a closing rule

1. Add a rule and choose how it closes. Click Add Rule and fill in the Rule Name. Then choose Close at exact time – for example 23:30, which suits a team with a fixed end, such as Brightway’s evening crew at Malahide Medical Centre, who finish by 23:00 – or Close flexibly after worked hours – for example after 12:00, meaning 12 hours from clock-in, which suits staff with changing hours. The form shows Format: HH:MM (e.g., 08:00 or 24:00). Range: 00:30 to 24:00. An exact time of 00:00 isn’t allowed, because it would be before any clock-in that day; the app suggests 23:59 instead.
2. Let overtime finish first, if needed. The box Only check after time (optional) holds the rule back until a set time. Tick Enable time constraint and enter the time. The form explains: This prevents premature closure that could block overtime work. For example: set to 23:59 to only close attendance after midnight check.
3. Pick the days, branches and employees. Under Active days choose All days, Weekdays only, Weekends only or tick individual days. The rule only closes attendance that started on those days. Under Apply to branches choose all branches, with optional exceptions, or selected branches only. Do the same for employees – for example everyone except the night security guard. Save the rule.

#Order of the closing rules

The list shows Rule Name, Status, Rule Type, Employee Scope and Active days. Rules are processed from top to bottom - the first matching rule will be applied. Drag a rule by the handle on the left to move it. Put specific rules, such as one for a single branch, above general ones. A rule type shown as Close after 12:00 means after 12 worked hours, not at noon. The pause icon in the Actions column switches a rule off without deleting it – handy over Christmas or during a stock-take; the pencil edits it and the bin deletes it.

#Other ways to deal with forgotten clock-outs

• Fix it by handIf you know when the person really left, enter the time in Scan Details with Edit. This also works for a record a rule has already closed. See Scan details.
• A reminder on the phoneThe app can remind employees to clock out after a set number of hours (Clock-out reminder after (hours) in Mobile App Settings). See Clock-out reminder.
• Find the open recordsThe Checks report lists missing scans for a whole period. See Checks (Beta).

#Special cases and tips

An automatic attendance rule is no longer needed

Switch off Rule active, or delete the rule with the × on its card.

A record needs correcting

Edit a record created by a rule in Scan Details like any other – for example when the office administrator left early that day.

A different feature with a similar name

Automatic absences turn marked breaks into absences and have nothing to do with these rules. See Automatic absences and compensatory time off.

Check the first week

After you create an automatic attendance rule, look at the employee’s days in Scan Details or the monthly report for the first week. That way you spot a wrong branch or time before payroll. See Monthly employee report.

No closing rule set up yet

Until you add one, the Automatic Departure Closure window shows only the description, Add Rule and the 15-minute note.

Night shifts

For teams that work past midnight, prefer Close flexibly after worked hours, or use Only check after time. A fixed evening time could close a shift that has only just started. See Night shifts and attendance past midnight.

The estimated closing time affects overtime

A rule that closes too late adds hours; one that closes too early cuts them. Choose the time or the number of hours to match your real shifts. The calculation is explained in Work schedules, rounding and breaks.

#Related

Web app (administrator)Mobile app (employee)