6. Managers: timesheets, workers and payroll hours
For managers: set people up on the time clock, approve each week, send approved hours to payroll, and lock the week once payroll has them.
Where it is
Settings for this
- Settings → Team → Roles — The three People permissions
- People → Workers → Time clock settings — Location, long-shift flag, suggested break
- Settings → Workshop → Technicians — Technician cost rates for job costing
Who this is for: owners, managers and whoever does payroll.
Where to find it
Sidebar Team › People. The tabs are Leave, Timesheets, Workers and Hours & overtime.
Who can do what
The names are the ones in Settings › Roles. Owners and admins can do all of it.
| To | You need |
|---|---|
| See everyone's timesheets, and download the CSVs | See everyone's timesheets |
| Approve, correct, add and void shifts | Correct, add, void and approve shifts (always audited) |
| Add workers, set PINs, rosters and terms, lock and unlock weeks | Manage workers, PINs, balances, and lock exported timesheets |
Setting people up (once)
- Workers › Add all n staff puts everyone with a login on the time clock. Add worker adds someone without one: give a Name, a Type (Contractor, Labour hire, Apprentice, Work experience and so on), BuildTrack login (usually No login for them) and Supplied by for a labour-hire firm. Starts and Finishes set when they appear on the tablet. Press Add worker.
- Roster. Click Set roster in their row. Choose Starts, Every week or Fortnightly, tick the days and set Start, Finish and Unpaid break, then Save roster. Rosters drive the reminders, the late and early flags, and overtime.
- Terms. Click Set terms (the Pay & overtime tab). Set Employment, Paid (Hourly, Salary or Not paid by us) and the Time clock rule:
- Must clock on and off: they're reminded if they haven't clocked on after their rostered start, and missed days are flagged.
- Clocking is optional: clock-ons are kept, but nobody is chased.
- Doesn’t clock on: rostered days count as worked. Usual for salaried staff.
Then Hours past the roster (Paid overtime, Time off in lieu or No overtime) and the Rules they work under. Press Save pay & overtime.
- PIN and badge. In Kiosk PIN press Set (or Reset), type 4 to 6 digits and Save. Tell them the PIN now: nobody can read it back. In Badge, press Scan and scan the card.
- Cost rate ($/h) on a worker is what you pay for their time. It's used to check a labour-hire firm's bills against the clock under Contractors & labour hire on Timesheets. Job costing uses each technician's own rate in Settings › Workshop › Technicians. Only people allowed to see labour rates see either one.
- Time clock settings (bottom of Workers): Record location when people clock on from their phone, Flag a shift still open after (14 hours unless changed) and Suggested break on clock-off.
Hours & overtime rules
Hours & overtime (or Hours & overtime rules on Workers) holds the rule sets that sort hours into bands. The first time, pick one of the Vehicle Repair Award presets under Choose where to start; after that, New rule set adds another. Each set has Ordinary hours, Overtime, Weekends, holidays and evenings, Flags and Clocking on (Late or early after and Remind if not clocked on after). Press Save rules. BuildTrack sorts hours into bands. It doesn't work out pay, and it doesn't check your rules against the award.
Step by step: each week
- Open the week. People › Timesheets. ‹ and › move weeks; This week comes back.
- Read the grid. Each cell is a day's hours. A green ● is on shift now (red when it's been open too long). OT is overtime, M includes a shift a manager entered, Missed is a rostered day with no clock-on, Away is leave, and an amber • has something to check (hover the cell). Grey italics are counted from the roster for people who don't clock on.
- Check Hours by band. Each person's hours under their rules, and a To check column with the flags.
- Fix anything wrong first: click the cell, then Correct, Void or Add a shift for this day (lesson 5). Answer any shift queries; they bring you here.
- Approve. Press Approve week for everyone, or tick rows and press Approve n selected. You can't tick your own row (Someone else approves your own shifts); only the owner approves their own. If people haven't confirmed, a line above the grid says so. You can still approve, but Fair Work expects the worker to have checked them.
- Send the hours to payroll. Payroll hours CSV gives approved hours per worker, by band, with each band's multiplier and any approved leave. Import it into your payroll. Shifts that aren't approved, or are still running, are left out: Export approved hours only? says how many, and Export approved hours carries on. Shifts CSV lists every shift that isn't voided, with its times and status, for your records.
- Lock the week once payroll has it. Press Lock week, then Export & lock in Lock this week?. It downloads the Payroll hours CSV first, so what you lock is what payroll got. Approved shifts become Locked and read-only.
There's no direct payroll connection. BuildTrack keeps hours, never pay. The Payroll hours CSV is what goes to your payroll.
Unlocking
Payroll needs a re-run? Unlock week, give the reason, and press Unlock week. Every locked shift goes back to Approved with the reason on its record. One shift: open the day and press Unlock on it.
What happens by itself
- Approving fixes the hours by band. Changing rules or rosters later doesn't rewrite an approved week. Days not approved yet show provisional.
- Bells: you hear when someone who must clock on hasn't, when a shift has been open past the long-shift time, and when a worker queries a shift.
- On site now at the bottom of Timesheets is the live roll call. Shifts open far too long are listed apart as Probably not on site.
Where it ends
The week is Locked, payroll has the CSV, and the next week starts.
Lesson 6 of 7 in Clocking on: shifts and jobs. Previous: 5. Fixing mistakes. Next: 7. Managers: watching the floor and the hours.