Labor: Hours Reconciliation — Clock Time vs Work Time
In Labor → Hours Reconciliation, check each person-day: time on the clock should be explained by approved work time and indirect time. Anything left over is listed for a supervisor to review — with the reason shown on the row.
Two records describe the same day in different words. Attendance says how long a person was on the clock; work records say what they actually did in that time. When the two disagree, payroll questions and client questions are hard to answer. Labor → Hours Reconciliation puts the two side by side for every person and every day: time on the clock should be explained by approved work time plus approved indirect time (training, cleaning, meetings and the like). Whatever is left is called the unexplained remainder — it is listed for a supervisor to look at, with the reason shown on the row. Open it from Labor → Hours Reconciliation, or from the link at the top of Labor → Dashboard.
Step 1: Pick the period and read the summary#
- Open Labor → Hours Reconciliation and pick the start and end dates (up to about three months at a time), then the list loads for exactly that period.
- Read the summary at the top first: how many person-days were checked, and how many rows hit each check. This tells you whether the period is mostly clean or needs a closer look.
- Check the coverage figures next to the summary: they show what share of time entries could be matched to an employee file. Rows that cannot be matched appear as “member without an employee file” — fix the file first, and the row usually clears on the next recalculation.
The checks, in plain words#
| What the row says | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Work time exceeds time on the clock | Approved work time for that day is longer than the time the person was clocked in | Check the day’s entries for a timer left running or a wrong date, and check the attendance record for a missed clock-out |
| Work recorded but no daily attendance report yet | Work exists for the day, but the attendance side has no daily total yet — often the daily report simply has not been generated yet | Wait for the daily report, or generate it in Attend, then recalculate — do not treat the row as an absence |
| Work recorded on a day marked absent / leave / holiday | The attendance side says the person was not at work that day, but work time was recorded | Check which side is wrong: a leave request that was never updated, or work recorded against the wrong day or the wrong person |
| Work recorded on a non-working day | Work time was recorded on a rest day for that person’s schedule | If the person really worked, record the schedule change; if not, correct the entry’s date |
| On the clock but no work recorded that day | The person clocked in, but no work time was recorded at all that day | Ask what the time was spent on: indirect time (training, cleaning, meetings) should be recorded as indirect time; missed entries should be added before review closes |
| Member without an employee file | Work was recorded under a login account that is not linked to any employee file, so the hours cannot be attributed to a person | Create or link the employee file in People so the account and the person match, then recalculate |
| Unfinished time entries (one open for over 24 hours) | A timer was started and never stopped, so that time is not counted anywhere yet | Have the entry stopped with the real end time, then let it go through review as usual |
| Indirect time is not collected yet | Nobody recorded indirect time for that day, so the unexplained remainder includes training, cleaning, meetings and similar time | Start recording indirect time (see the indirect time article); the mark fades by itself once recording is routine |
Step 2: Work through the list, then recalculate#
- Filter the list by one check at a time — for example, only “work time exceeds time on the clock” — so similar rows can be handled together. The list is already sorted with the most serious mismatches first.
- Fix the source, not the reconciliation row: review or correct the time entries, complete the attendance record, or link the employee file — wherever the mismatch came from.
- Back on the reconciliation page, click Recalculate for the same period. Rows whose source is fixed drop off; the rest stay for the next round. The page also recalculates on its own every day, so yesterday’s fixes show up without anyone remembering to run it.
Two reading notes that save arguments. First, time that is still waiting for a supervisor’s review is not counted as work time yet — if it all gets approved, the unexplained remainder for that day shrinks by the same amount, so check the review queue before treating a remainder as a problem. Second, the remainder is called “unexplained” on purpose: until indirect time is recorded in full, the remainder includes it. It is a figure to review together, not a conclusion about any person.
Docklify features used in this article#
- Hours Reconciliation page (period picker, summary, coverage, checks list) — Labor → Hours Reconciliation (/labor/reconciliation)
- Recalculate for a chosen period — Labor → Hours Reconciliation → Recalculate (/labor/reconciliation)
- Shortcut from the dashboard header — Labor → Dashboard → Hours Reconciliation (/labor/dashboard)
- Time entry review queue — WMS → Labor Review (/wms/labor-review)
- Employee files that hours are matched against — People (/people)