Turn on Enable Time Clock in Store Config and employees clock in and out from the app, with comments and the IP address recorded on every punch. Employees request paid or unpaid time off for a manager to approve, and the time clock and time off reports give payroll exactly what it needs.

If your staff clock hours, the same system they ring sales on can track them — no separate punch clock, no paper timesheets. The time clock lives inside PHP Point Of Sale: an employee signs in, clocks in, and gets to work.

It also handles the other half of scheduling reality: time off. Employees request it, managers approve it, and both hours worked and hours away end up in reports you can hand to payroll.

Turn on the time clock

1. Open Store Config in the left menu and type clock in the search bar at the top.
2. Check Enable Time Clock.
3. Consider the two companion settings that appear with it:
   • Enable time clock paid time off — adds the time-off request workflow: employees can submit requests and admins can approve them. Without it, only clock in/out is tracked.
   • Log out automatically when clocking out — signs the employee out of the software the moment they clock out, so a shared register is never left signed in after a shift ends.
4. Click Save in the bottom right.

Once enabled, three things change: a Time clock entry appears in the left menu, an Hourly pay rate field appears on every employee profile (see employee accounts), and a Time Clock report family appears under Reports. Store Config is also where the rest of your global settings live — see store configuration basics.

Individual employees can be exempted with Not required to clock in on their profile — right for owners and salaried staff who sign in without punching.

Clock in (employees)

With the time clock on, an employee who signs in without being clocked in is taken straight to the Time clock page:

1. Optionally type a note in the Comments box — an explanation for arriving early, covering a shift, and so on.
2. Click Clock In. A popup confirms the punch.

If the employee clicked away from the page first, they can get back to it by clicking their name in the top right and choosing Time Clock, or via Time clock in the left menu.

Every punch stores more than a timestamp: the comment, the location, and the IP address it was made from — so a clock-in from the store network is distinguishable from one made on a phone at home. An employee who is still clocked in at another location sees a warning and must clock out there first; the app never lets someone be on the clock at two locations at once.

Clock out (employees)

When a clocked-in employee goes to log out, the app routes them through the time clock and they must choose one of:

• Clock Out — ends the shift (with an optional comment). If Log out automatically when clocking out is enabled, they are signed out of the software immediately; otherwise a Logout button follows.
• Logout WITHOUT clocking out — signs out of the software while the shift keeps running, for work that continues away from the register.

An employee can also clock out at any time from Time clock in the left menu. The employee's current Hourly pay rate is stamped onto the punch when they clock out, so past shifts keep the wage they were actually worked at even if the rate changes later.

Review your own punches (employees)

On the Time clock page, click My punches. The last two weeks are listed — clock in, clock out, hours, hourly pay rate, total pay, both comments, and the IP addresses of the punches — with a Print button at the bottom. A shift with no clock-out yet shows Not clocked out.

That transparency heads off most "the clock is wrong" conversations: an employee who spots a missed punch can flag it the same day, not at the end of the pay period.

Request time off (employees)

With Enable time clock paid time off on, the Time clock page grows two more buttons:

1. Click Request time off and fill in:
   • Start Date and End Date — the days the time off covers.
   • Hours Requested Off — the total working hours being asked off.
   • Is paid? — check it for paid time off that should reach payroll; leave unchecked for unpaid leave.
   • Reason — optional context, such as vacation or sick time.
2. Click Submit. A banner confirms the request went in.
3. To follow up, click My Time Off Requests on the Time clock page. Each request shows its dates, hours and status: Pending until a decision, then Approved or Not Approved.

Review hours and fix punches (admins)

Time clock administration happens in Reports and is gated by the Time clock permission in the Reports group (see permissions and permission templates) — the same permission that allows editing punches and approving time off.

1. Open Reports in the left menu and click Time Clock.
2. Choose the report:
   • Summary Reports — hours worked and total pay per employee for the period. The quick answer for payroll.
   • Detailed Reports — every punch: clock in and out times, hours, hourly pay rate, total, both comments, and the clock-in and clock-out IP addresses.
   • Time Off Reports — requested time off (covered below).
3. Fill in the report options — Date Range, Employee (all by default), locations on multi-location stores, and Export to Excel if you want a spreadsheet — then click Submit.

On the detailed report each row has Edit and Delete links for correcting bad punches, and an Add missed time clock punch in/out button creates a punch from scratch for someone who forgot. The punch form takes the Employee, Clock In and Clock Out date-times, optional clock-in/out comments, and the Hourly Pay Rate to pay for that shift. Click Save when done.

Approve time off (admins)

1. Open Reports → Time Clock → Time Off Reports.
2. Set the options: the Date Range filters on when the time off takes place, not when it was requested; Employee narrows to one person; Show Approved includes already-approved requests, which are hidden by default. Export to Excel works here too.
3. Click Submit. Each pending request offers three actions:
   • Edit — fix the dates, hours or paid/unpaid flag of a request.
   • Approve — confirm the request; the employee sees Approved under My Time Off Requests.
   • Deny — reject it; the employee sees Not Approved. Denying cannot be undone, so use it deliberately.

Payroll

PHP Point Of Sale does not run payroll itself. The intended flow: at the end of the pay period, run the Summary time clock report (or export the detailed one to Excel), add approved paid time off from the Time Off Report, and hand the numbers to your payroll provider or accountant. Total pay is computed from each punch's stored hourly rate, so mid-period wage changes are handled correctly. Reports can also arrive by email on a schedule — see emailed reports and statements and running reports.

Common questions

Why don't my employees see the Time clock in the menu? The feature is off. Enable Enable Time Clock in Store Config; the Time clock entry then appears in the left menu for everyone (no per-employee permission is needed to punch in and out).

Why doesn't the owner get asked to clock in? Their profile has Not required to clock in checked — that is exactly what the option is for. Uncheck it on the employee profile to make the prompt return.

An employee forgot to clock out. How do I fix it? Open Reports → Time Clock → Detailed Reports, find the row (it shows Not clocked out), and click Edit to set the clock-out time. Use Add missed time clock punch in/out on the same page when the whole shift is missing.

Can an employee be clocked in at two locations at once? No. An employee still on the clock at one location sees a warning at the other and must clock out at the first location before clocking in again.

Why can't employees request time off? The request workflow is a separate switch: enable Enable time clock paid time off in Store Config. Without it, the Time clock page only shows clock in/out and My punches.

Where does the hourly wage come from, and what if it changes mid-year? The rate on the employee profile is stamped onto each punch at clock-out, and admins can override the rate on an individual punch. Old shifts keep the rate that applied when they were worked.

Does clocking out log the employee out of the register? Only if Log out automatically when clocking out is enabled in Store Config. Otherwise the employee stays signed in until they log out normally.

Who can see and edit other people's punches? Anyone with the Time clock permission in the Reports group. Without it, an employee can only see their own history under My punches.