A practical plan for moving from paper or spreadsheets to a digital time clock in about a week.
Setting up a time clock is mostly decisions, not technology. Gather the information you need: your list of employees, their roles, the pay period and workweek, the locations where people work and any break policies. Ask whoever runs payroll how they want the hours delivered. Having these ready saves hours later.
There are a few common options, and many teams mix them.
| Method | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Phone app | Mobile and field staff | Needs a smartphone and data |
| Shared tablet | Shops, kitchens, warehouses | Needs a safe spot and a way to identify people |
| Web browser | Office and remote staff | Easy to forget without a reminder |
| Kiosk with PIN | Sites without personal phones | Shared PINs reduce accuracy |
Pick the method that fits where and how people work, not the one that sounds most advanced.
Rules prevent arguments. Keep them short and share them in writing.
Rounding, breaks and pay rules vary by location, so confirm your approach with a qualified professional.
Add each employee with the correct name, role, location and pay period settings. If you use schedules, enter the standard shifts or a first week of real ones. Set up groups or departments so managers see only the people they supervise. Check that each person has a unique login or PIN.
Decide who approves timesheets and how often. Weekly approvals keep problems small. Turn on alerts for missed punches, late arrivals and overtime so managers hear early. Keep the number of alerts low, since too many get ignored.
Choose three to five employees plus one manager. Have them use the clock for a few days while you keep your old method in parallel. Ask them to try common situations: a forgotten clock-out, a break, a shift change. At the end, compare the totals with your old records and fix any rule that produced a surprise.
Hold a short session or send a one page guide with screenshots. Explain what is changing, why and when it starts. Give people a contact for questions in the first two weeks. Review the exceptions list each day at first, then weekly.
| Problem | Likely cause | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| Employee cannot clock in | Wrong login or no connection | Reset the login and check the network or data |
| Hours look too high | Missed clock-out | Add a correction request and approve it |
| Break time missing | Unclear break rule | Restate the rule and adjust the setting |
| Wrong location shown | Phone location off | Ask the employee to turn location on for the app |
Keep a short list of these answers where managers can find them. Most issues in the first two weeks repeat, so a simple help sheet saves a surprising amount of time.
If a problem keeps coming back for the same person, ask them about it privately. There may be a simple reason, such as a shared phone, a long walk from the entrance to the clock, or a shift that starts before the system is open.
When the pay period ends, give yourself a short routine. First, check that every employee has approved hours. Second, review the exceptions list for missed punches and overtime. Third, export the totals and compare a few employees by hand against their schedules. Finally, save the export and any notes about changes. This takes minutes once it becomes habit, and it gives you a clear record of how each pay period was handled.
After the first month, look at what went wrong. If one person keeps forgetting, ask whether the method suits them. If a rule keeps causing confusion, simplify it. A good setup is one that keeps getting a little better.
Finally, keep your records organized so that you can show how time was recorded and approved if anyone asks.
Overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act is counted per workweek, which the U.S. Department of Labor defines as a fixed, regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It can start on any day and at any hour, but once set it should stay fixed. Changing it is allowed only if the change is meant to be permanent and not to avoid overtime.
Enter the workweek start in the time clock settings and make sure payroll uses the same one. A clock that counts Sunday to Saturday while payroll counts Monday to Sunday will calculate overtime on different weeks, and nobody will notice until a long week straddles the boundary.
| Day | Task | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Choose clock-in methods: mobile app, tablet kiosk, NFC tag or a mix | Owner |
| Monday | Set the workweek, overtime threshold and break rules | Owner with payroll |
| Tuesday | Add employees, locations and the next two weeks of schedule | Manager |
| Tuesday | Set approved clock-in locations for each site | Manager |
| Wednesday | Run a test with three employees across one shift | Manager |
| Thursday | Fix issues, then show everyone how to clock in | Manager |
| Following week | Everyone clocks in; review missed punches daily | Manager |
On EZTime, approved clock-in locations depend on the plan: up to three on Advanced and unlimited on Premium.
The DOL requires employers covered by the FLSA to display the federal minimum wage poster where employees can readily see it, and most states require their own wage and hour posters as well. The area by a wall-mounted kiosk or tablet is a natural place. If most of your team clocks in by phone and rarely visits one site, check whether your state allows electronic posting and how it must be done.
A small team can be ready in a day, and a full rollout with testing usually takes one to two weeks.
Not necessarily. A shared tablet or kiosk works for sites where personal phones are not used.
For a short pilot, yes. Running both for too long creates double work.
Use a correction request that a manager approves, so the original entry and the fix are both recorded.
Yes, if the change is intended to be permanent and is not made to avoid paying overtime. Tell employees and make the change at a clean boundary.
At minimum the federal FLSA minimum wage poster and your state’s required wage and hour notices. Other federal posters, such as FMLA, apply depending on your size.
As soon as you have hourly staff, two jobs take more time than most owners expect: recording hours accurately and building a schedule everyone can see. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must keep accurate records of hours worked and pay non-exempt employees overtime for hours over 40 in a workweek, and some states add daily overtime or meal-break rules. This is general information, not legal advice.
EZTime covers all three with a time clock app, employee scheduling and payroll-ready exports, from $2 per employee per month. See pricing and start a 14-day trial.
See how EZTime records start, stop and breaks so your reports are ready for payroll.