Collage's Time Tracking module allows you to easily track employee hours worked, have managers approve timesheets, and export timesheets and hours to be used in payroll. You can also build and publish weekly shift schedules for your employees.
This article will walk you through how to set up a time tracking policy, enrol employees, manage employee timesheet entries, and export employee hours.
Creating a time tracking policy
The first time you go to Time Tracking, you will be prompted to create a new policy:
Step 1: Start by adding a policy name. Start by adding a policy name. This step is also where you choose whether employees enter start and end times or total hours, and, for start and end times, whether to enable clocking in and out, collecting clock in and out locations, and geofencing to a work location.
You can also check Enable Shift Scheduling if you'd like to build and publish weekly shift schedules for the employees in this policy. Once enabled, a Scheduling tab appears under Time Tracking for the policy's timesheet manager and for admins, and employees will see a Shift column in their timesheets. See Shift Scheduling for how to create and publish shifts.
Step 2: Create a pay schedule by entering the start date of the pay schedule and selecting a frequency. The pay schedule in the time tracking policy should match the schedule that the employees in the policy are paid at.
Future timesheets will automatically be created to match your pay schedule.
Step 3: Define overtime rules.
Standard will match the overtime rules of the employee's province of residence, and is the recommended option if all of the employees in the policy are in Canada, and none are federally-regulated. For more information on overtime, please view our overtime support article.
Custom lets you specify your own overtime rules by setting the threshold for daily overtime, daily double overtime, and weekly overtime. Custom is recommended for policies containing federally-regulated employees, or employees not based in Canada who earn overtime, or employees who have any alternative overtime arrangements.
Exempt will not calculate any overtime at all. Exempt is recommended for policies with employees whose work is exempt from overtime per provincial employment standards, for contractors who do not earn overtime, and for any other staff who should not earn overtime on their hours worked.
Step 4: Add employees.
Select employees in the left-hand Available Employees column, and use the arrows in the middle to add them to the policy.
In the list of employees to be added to a policy, multiple employees can be selected by clicking and dragging, or by using Ctrl + Click on Windows or Cmd + Click on Mac.
Step 5: Select a timesheet manager.
This person approves timesheets for the employees in the policy. If Shift Scheduling is enabled on the policy, the timesheet manager is also the person who creates, edits, and publishes shifts for those employees.
For most people, this will be their manager, but if you want a specific employee to approve timesheets instead of a manager, simply select them from the dropdown.
Step 6: Review your policy and specify notification settings.
On the final page, ensure all the details of the policy are correct. You can choose whether to notify employees when a pay period has ended, whether to notify timesheet managers when a pay period has ended or when an approved timesheet is edited, and, if Shift Scheduling is enabled, whether to notify employees when their shifts are published or changed.
Once you click Finish, your time tracking policy will be ready, and employees can submit timesheets.
Entering time worked
Employees can now view their timesheets in the My Timesheets tab and add their time entries.
By default, the current timesheet will be visible, but employees can go back to previous timesheets using the Pay Period dropdown in the top left.
Employees can enter their time worked on each day of the pay period, and these amounts will be totalled at the top automatically.
If an employee has any approved time off during the pay period, that amount will be reflected in the timesheet, as well as in the totals at the top:
Employees don't need to manually submit their timesheets, as their entries will be automatically saved, and managers will be notified when a pay period is over and timesheets need to be reviewed.
Approving timesheets
Once timesheets are ready to be approved, managers can view employee timesheets in the Timesheets tab:
Managers will only see timesheets for approval in policies where they are the assignee. Admins can view all timesheets by switching from "Assigned to me" to "All" in the dropdown beside the employee search bar.
By default, timesheets will be visible for the current pay period. If a manager is an assignee in multiple time tracking policies, or they want to see previous pay periods, they can switch between policies and pay periods using the Pay Schedule and Pay Period dropdowns, respectively.
Timesheets can be approved using the "Approve" button in the top right. If an assignee is also enrolled in the time tracking policy for which they are the assignee, they will be able to approve/export their own hours directly from the My Timesheets tab.
Employees can edit timesheets after they have been approved, but this will notify their manager/the policy assignee.
Exports
The Time Tracking module offers 2 exports: timesheets and payroll hours.
Exporting Timesheets
Individual timesheets can be exported by managers and admins when viewing an employee's timesheet using the Export button in the top right:
The timesheet export will show an employee's hours for that current pay period, any notes added to timesheet entries, and whether or not that entry has been approved:
Exporting Payroll Hours
The payroll hours export is intended to export total hours for multiple employees, so that these hours can be entered into the payroll provider you use.
To view payroll hours, go to the Payroll Hours tab:
This page will give you an overview of all of the totals for the selected schedule and pay period. Hours can also be approved from this page:
The Payroll Hours export will show you a list of employees, their total hours for the selected pay period, and whether or not hours have been approved:
Creating Dimensions
If you want employees to designate specific tasks/clients/projects etc they are spending their time on, the Collage Time Tracking module lets you set up dimensions.
To get started, go to the "Dimensions" tab. You should see a "Project" dimension that we have already created for you. Feel free to rename/delete this dimension if it doesn't fit your use-case.
You can create new dimensions by clicking "+ Add Dimension" and specifying your dimension's name.
Next, we'll add values to your dimensions. Click "+ Add Value", give it a name, and select the employees that it applies to:
Once the value has been created, any employees added to it will be able to specify the dimension when submitting hours:
These hours will also appear in the Payroll Hours page and export, separated out by dimension and dimension value. This is useful if, for example, 2 projects have 2 different pay rates, or are billed to 2 separate clients:
