Setting Up Daily Time Clock Information

Before You Begin

You need Firm Owner or Office Manager permissions to access the settings in this article. All changes apply firm-wide.

What Is Daily Time Clock Tracking?

Some regions require firms to record the precise start and end times of each employee's workday, along with any breaks taken. Factor's daily time clock feature adds this layer of detail to your existing timesheet process.

This feature works alongside your time entries — it does not replace them. Payroll, utilization tracking, and project reporting all continue to rely on time entries logged to projects. The daily time clock captures supporting information and uses a matching check to confirm that the hours an employee reports working align with what they've logged to projects and overhead.

Step 1: Enable the Feature

1. Go to Settings > Your Firm.
2. Scroll to the time entry preferences section.
3. Enable Require users to enter daily time clock information.

Once enabled, all users will see a new row at the top of the time entry grid for recording their daily time clock information.

NOTE: in Step 3: Set Up Break Types, you will need to enable at least the default type, which is for tracking time in and time out for the day, for the feature to work.

Step 2: Manage User Exemptions

Depending on your regional requirements, you may want to apply this feature to all employees or exempt certain individuals.

To exempt a specific employee:

1. Navigate to the employee's user record.
2. Edit the user.
3. Check the option to make them Exempt from tracking breaks.

Employees with this exemption will not see the daily time clock row on their timesheets and will not be blocked from submitting if their time entries don't match a time clock record.

Step 3: Set Up Break Types

Factor includes a default Time In / Time Out entry that records the start and end of each workday. You can add additional break types — such as a morning break or a lunch break — from the Lists page.

To add a break type:

1. Go to Settings > Lists.
2. Find Break Types in the list.
3. Click Add to create a new break type.
4. Enter a name for the break (for example, Morning Break or Lunch).
5. Set a minimum duration in minutes.
6. Select whether the break is Paid or Unpaid.
7. Click Save.

Paid vs. Unpaid Breaks

The paid or unpaid designation affects how each break factors into the daily time total:

• Paid break — Time logged to this break counts toward the employee's total hours worked for the day.
• Unpaid break — Time logged to this break is subtracted from the employee's total hours worked for the day.

This distinction matters because Factor compares the total hours worked against the sum of the employee's time entries to check for a match.

Example: An employee works from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (9 hours total). They take a 1-hour unpaid lunch break. Their total hours worked = 8 hours. They must have 8 hours of time entries logged for the day for their timesheet to balance.

Paid breaks — such as a 15-minute morning break — do not reduce the total, so no additional time entries are required to account for them.

How Matching Works

Factor calculates the employee's total hours worked using this logic:

Total Hours Worked = (End Time − Start Time) − Total Unpaid Break Time

This number must equal the total of all time entries the employee has logged for that day. When there is a mismatch, the employee will see an alert on the time clock row showing how many hours are unaccounted for. They will not be able to submit their timesheet until the time clock and time entries are in balance.

Time clock entries must be entered fresh each day. There is no option to copy the previous day's time clock information.

Impact on Payroll and Reporting

Enabling this feature does not change how payroll is calculated. Factor continues to use time entries — not time clock data — as the basis for payroll exports, utilization reporting, and all other time-based reports.

The daily time clock information can be added as an additional section to timesheet reports. This section appears alongside the standard time entry detail in both the employee's review view and the manager's approval view.

What's Next

Once you've completed setup, employees will begin recording their daily time clock information directly on their timesheets.