# Clocking settings

> Every clocking rule explained: free clocking, automatic closing, GPS perimeter, hour and break rounding, paid and automatic breaks, QR code and PIN codes.

Source: https://help.shyfter.com/en/settings/clocking-settings  
Category: Settings  
Updated: 2026-07-01

This page gathers all the rules that govern how your employees clock and how Shyfter turns a raw clocking into hours usable for payroll. Go to **Settings ⚙️ → Clocking → Settings**. Each setting is a switch (or a field) that you enable then save with **Save**.

## General

- **Enable the "Clocking" dashboard**: replaces your home dashboard with a page centred on clocking (map, staff currently clocked in, etc.). Enable it if real-time clocking monitoring is your priority when opening Shyfter. The dashboard remains accessible by clicking the Shyfter logo at the top left.
- **Allow clocking outside scheduled time slots**: your employees can clock even without a scheduled shift. These are called **free clockings**. Useful if your teams sometimes work without having been scheduled in advance.
- **Automatically approve clockings outside scheduled time slots**: by default, a free clocking must be approved manually before being taken into account. Enable this option so they are validated automatically. Reserve it for organisations that trust free clockings without prior control.
- **In case of oversight, automatically close clockings**: if an employee forgets to clock out, the system closes the clocking by itself rather than leaving it open indefinitely. This avoids "endless" clockings that distort the counters.
- **Show an icon if a clocking is made outside the company perimeter**: flags, in the timesheets report, the clockings made too far from the workplace (location is indicative, not 100% precise). When the option is enabled, a **Clocking outside the allowed range (in km)** field appears: there you define the radius, in kilometres around the department's location, beyond which a clocking is marked with the icon. Handy to spot clockings made at a distance.

## Editing clocking hours

These settings automatically round the clocked time to avoid paying micro-differences (an employee who badges 8 minutes too early, for example). You enable **start time** and **end time** separately using their switch, then tick the desired rules. Three rules exist, on each side:

- **Bring back a clocking that is too early (or an overrun at the end)**: a clocking made more than X minutes before the scheduled time (or an end that overruns by X minutes) is brought back to that threshold. Example: threshold 30 min, shift at 9:00, clocking at 8:10, the time is brought back to 8:30. On the end side: shift at 17:00, clocking at 18:12, brought back to 17:30.
- **Use the shift time if the clocking falls within a window**: if the clocking happens within X minutes before or after the scheduled time, the shift time is kept. Example: 15 min before, shift at 9:00, clocking at 8:50, rounded to 9:00 (but a clocking at 8:32 stays unchanged as it is outside the window).
- **Round by step**: rounds the clocking up or down by increments of X minutes. Example: up, 5 min, clocking at 8:23, rounded to 8:25.

These rules combine to turn a real clocking into a "clean" hour consistent with the schedule.

## Automatic editing of clocking breaks

- **Round break time**: automatically rounds the break duration, up or down, by steps of X minutes. Example: up, 15 min, a 23-min break becomes 30 min; down, 5 min, an 8-min break becomes 5 min.
- **Use the break time of the scheduled shift**: if the break actually clocked is shorter than the break planned in the schedule, the system keeps the scheduled break. This guarantees that a mandatory break is properly counted even if the employee did not clock it fully.

## Break management

- **Consider clocking breaks as "paid breaks"**: any break taken during a clocking is counted as paid time (therefore included in the paid hours).
- **Automatic breaks**: Shyfter can add a break by itself if your employees forget to clock it. Each rule reads "X minutes of break after Y of work, paid or unpaid" (for example "20 min after 6h of work, unpaid break"). The **Add an automatic break** button creates a new rule, and you can define several to cover different duration thresholds. It is a simple way to respect legal breaks even when they are not badged.

## Department QR code and PIN codes

At the bottom of the page, the dedicated section lets you **download the QR code** of the department (for scan clocking from the app) and **download the PIN codes** of the employees (for clocking on the Shyfter POS tablet). Print the QR code and display it at the clocking spot; distribute the PIN codes to the employees who clock on the tablet.

> The other clocking settings are grouped in their own pages: **Cost management** (calculating costs based on clocking), **Shyfter POS** (clocking tablet) and **Shyfter Staff** (clocking from the mobile app), each described in its own article.