Time Tracking & Payroll
The clock your team punches in and out on. Breaks, hourly or fixed daily pay, timers for a single job, a shift length limit, and a report you can hand to whoever does your payroll.
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What it is
Time Clock is the page where your team starts and ends their working day. You open it from the left menu: More›Time Clock. On a phone it is More›Quick Actions›Time Clock.
One tap starts a shift and a running timer. Breaks come off the total. When the shift ends, Joby saves the hours, the rate that person was on, and what they get paid for that shift. Owners and admins see everyone's entries, fix mistakes, and download a spreadsheet under Settings›People›Time Tracking.
The shift
Clock In, Break, Clock Out. This is the time that turns into pay. One person can only have one shift running at a time.
Job timers
A separate stopwatch started from a job's Time tab, to see how long that one job took. It never adds to anyone's pay.
Rates and reports
Each person is paid either by the hour or a fixed amount per day. Hours and cost add up in Reports›Time Tracking Report.
When to use it
- Your team starts and finishes the day and you want the hours recorded without paper timesheets.
- You pay people by the hour, or a flat amount for each day they work.
- You want to see, right now, who is on the clock.
- Payday is coming and you need hours and cost per person for a date range.
- Somebody forgot to clock in or out and you need to correct the record.
- You want to know how many hours went into one particular job, and what that labour cost.
Use Office Agent Scheduling instead when you are planning who is meant to work, rather than recording who actually did. Use Commission Reports for people paid a share of the job instead of by time.
Before you start
- The role needs the Time Clock tab. An owner or admin turns on Time Clock (under the Management group) in Settings›Team Roles. Without it the menu item is hidden and the page will not open.
- Settings›Time Tracking is for owners and admins only. There is no role switch that opens it for anyone else — a normal team member who types the address in is sent back to the Dashboard.
- Set a pay rate first, or pay shows nothing. Rates live in Settings›People›Time Tracking›Team Pay Rates. Someone clocking in without a rate sees Rate not set under the timer and their entries show No rate in the Pay column.
- Only active team members can be paid. The Team Pay Rates list shows active people only, and the same list fills the Team Member drop-down when you add an entry by hand.
- Some parts need a Pro or Growth plan. Clocking in and out, breaks, pay rates, entry editing and the main report work on every paid plan. Job timers, GPS and ZIP proof, and the Lead Time Report tab need Pro or Growth (a trial counts too). Live location tracking is a paid extra on top of Pro and is not available during a trial — see GPS proof and live locations.
- On a phone, allow location if you want GPS proof. If the phone refuses or cannot get a fix, the line under the button reads "GPS unavailable. Time will still be saved." Nobody loses their hours over it.
- Check you are in the right company. If your login covers more than one company, a shift belongs to whichever company was selected when you clocked in.
- Your company may use different words. "Lead", "Office Agent" and "Field Worker" can be renamed under Settings›Company Settings, so your buttons may read "Job", "CSR" or "Technician" instead.
Step-by-step
Clock in for the day
- Open More›Time Clock from the left menu.
- The card at the top reads You are not clocked in. Press Clock In.
- If your company has live location tracking switched on for you, a live location notice appears first. Read it, then press Agree and clock in. It is only shown once.
- The card turns green and shows a counter (hours : minutes : seconds), the time you started, and your rate. The button changes to Break and Clock Out.
You do not have to wait on the page. The line underneath reads "Clock-in is saving in the background." — you can move around Joby while it finishes.
Take a break
- Press Break. The card turns amber and shows On Break with its own counter.
- Optionally type into the Break notes (optional) box — lunch, supply run, whatever it was.
- Press Back from Break to start working again.
Break time is counted to the second and comes off the hours before pay is worked out. Take as many breaks as you like in one shift; they are added together. The break counter survives a page refresh, so closing the tab by accident does not lose it.
Clock out
- Press Clock Out. If you are still on a break, it is ended for you.
- A Clock Out window opens showing your total break time, any break notes, and a warning if a job timer is still running.
- Fill in Notes (optional) — the box asks "What did you work on?".
- Press Clock Out to confirm. Break notes and clock-out notes are saved together on the entry, separated by a vertical bar.
Set someone's pay (owners and admins)
- Go to Settings›People›Time Tracking.
- Open the Team Pay Rates tab.
- Find the person and press the pencil button at the end of their row.
- In Pay Basis, choose Hourly or Fixed amount per day.
- For hourly, fill in Hourly Rate ($), Overtime Rate ($) and Overtime After (hours/day). For daily, fill in Daily Rate ($).
- Press Save Pay Rate.
Stop forgotten shifts running forever (owners and admins)
- Go to Settings›People›Time Tracking›Team Pay Rates.
- At the top is the Maximum Shift Length card. Type a number of Hours between 0.5 and 24 — 12 is a common choice.
- Press Save.
Leave the box blank to switch it off. While it is blank the card warns "No limit set — a forgotten clock-out keeps counting."
Fix or add an entry (owners and admins)
- Go to Settings›People›Time Tracking›Time Entries.
- Use the arrows either side of the month name to reach the right month, and the All team members drop-down to pick one person.
- To correct a row, press the pencil in the Actions column. Change Clock In, Clock Out, Break (minutes) or Notes, then press Save Changes.
- To create a missing shift, press Add Entry, pick the Team Member, set Clock In and Clock Out, add a break and notes, then press Add Entry.
- To remove a row, press the bin button and confirm. The message warns that it cannot be undone.
Time one job (Pro and Growth)
- Open the job from Work›Leads and go to its Time tab.
- Press Start Lead Timer. If your shift is already running the note reads "Your shift stays running while this lead timer tracks the lead." If you were not clocked in, this clocks you in and links the shift to that job.
- Type into the work notes box while you are on site if you want a record.
- Press End Job Timer when the job is done.
Get the numbers for payday
- Go to Reports›Time Tracking Report in the left menu.
- In Report controls, pick a Date Range — Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month or Custom Range — and a Team Member if you only want one person.
- Read Team Member Breakdown. The bottom row totals hours and pay for everyone in the range.
- Press Export Time Tracking to download it as a spreadsheet.
For a month-by-month file with GPS and job columns, use the CSV button on Settings›People›Time Tracking›Time Entries instead.
How to check it worked
- Clocked in: a "Clocked in!" message appears, the card turns green with a pulsing dot, and your name shows up in the Working Now card with how long you have been on.
- Break counted: while you are clocked in the card shows a "Break taken:" line, and the Clock Out window repeats the total before you confirm.
- Clocked out: a "Clocked out!" message appears, the card goes back to "You are not clocked in", and a new row appears at the top of Recent Entries with your hours, rate and pay filled in.
- Rate saved: "Pay rate updated" appears and the person's Rate column changes from Not set to an amount, with a Hourly or Daily badge next to it.
- Entry corrected: "Entry updated" appears, the Hours and Pay recalculate, and a small edited badge shows next to the Source badge on that row.
- Shift limit saved: "Maximum shift length saved" appears and the warning about no limit disappears.
- Job timer running: the job's Time tab shows "Lead timer running" with a green dot, and the Time Clock page shows a Job timer #1234 badge under the counter.
- GPS proof captured: the line under the button reads "GPS and ZIP proof captured." and the entry gets In / Out map links in the GPS column of the Time Entries table.
Common mistakes
"My clock-in disappeared"
You are looking at a different company. An amber banner at the top of the Time Clock page says so and offers Go there to clock out. Until you do, that shift keeps counting.
Setting the rate after the shift
The rate is copied onto the entry the moment someone clocks in. Set rates before people start working, or you will be editing history later.
Expecting overtime to price itself
Pay on an entry is hours worked times the ordinary hourly rate. The overtime fields record what you agreed — they do not re-price a long day for you.
Counting job timers as wages
A job timer measures the job, not the payslip. Those rows show No payroll and $0.00, and are left out of the payroll totals on purpose.
- Reading Daily rows as unpaid. When someone is on a fixed daily amount, the first finished shift of that day carries the whole day's pay and every other shift that day shows "Included in daily pay". Add the day up, not the rows.
- Assuming the export covers everything. The CSV button on the Time Entries tab writes out the month and filters currently on screen — not your whole history. The buttons on the report export that report's date range.
- Deleting instead of correcting. Editing keeps a record: the original clock-in and clock-out are kept, along with who changed it, and the row is marked edited. Deleting leaves nothing behind and cannot be undone.
- Being surprised by the "edited" badge on new entries. An entry you create with Add Entry is marked as edited straight away, because a person typed it rather than a clock recording it. That is normal.
- Setting the shift limit too tight. The limit closes a shift at the exact moment it was reached, not when it was noticed. Set it above your longest genuine day or you will be correcting entries every week.
- Turning on live tracking without telling anyone. Joby makes you tick a confirmation that you are allowed to enable it and have given the required notices. That box is your responsibility, not a formality.
More detail (9)
What you see on the Time Clock page
The clock card
Grey with a Clock In button when you are off, green with a running counter when you are on, amber with a Back from Break button when you are on a break.
Today
Everything you have already finished today, added up. A shift still running is not counted here until you clock out.
Week of ...
A small bar per day, Monday to Sunday, with the week's total underneath. The arrows step back and forward; Now returns to this week.
Working Now
Everyone in your company currently on the clock, with how long they have been on. The card is hidden when nobody is clocked in.
Recent Entries at the bottom covers your last 14 days, newest first, with columns for Date, Clock In, Clock Out, Break, Hours, Rate, Pay and Notes. A shift that has not ended shows a green Active badge instead of a clock-out time. On a phone the same information is shown as cards, and pulling down the page refreshes it.
This table is yours alone. Other people's hours and pay never appear here — only their names in the Working Now card.
Pay rates and how pay is worked out
Rates live on Settings›People›Time Tracking›Team Pay Rates. The table lists every active team member with their Worker Type (Office Agent or Field Worker), Pay Basis, Rate and Overtime Rate. The pencil at the end of the row opens Edit Pay Rate.
Hourly
Fill in Hourly Rate ($). Pay on a finished shift is the hours worked, after breaks have been taken off, multiplied by that rate.
Overtime Rate ($) and Overtime After (hours/day) are also on this window, and the report has an Overtime column. Be aware of what they actually do: they record the terms you agreed with that person so everyone can see them, but Joby does not split a long day into normal and overtime pay for you. The Pay figure is always hours times the ordinary hourly rate, and the Overtime column stays blank for ordinary clock-in and clock-out entries. Check long days yourself before you pay them.
Fixed amount per day
Choose Fixed amount per day and fill in Daily Rate ($). The window explains it: "Paid once per company-local workday, even when the worker clocks in more than once."
In the tables, the first finished shift of that day carries the whole daily amount. Any other shift the same person works that day shows Included in daily pay in the Pay column instead of a second payment. Overtime fields are hidden for daily people — they do not apply.
Why old entries keep their old rate
The rate is copied onto the entry at the moment of clock-in, so a raise never quietly rewrites last month's payroll. The window says so: "Rate changes apply to new entries. Completed payroll history keeps its original rate."
There is one deliberate exception. If someone worked finished shifts while they had no hourly rate at all, then the first time you save an hourly rate for them, those rateless finished shifts are filled in with it and their pay is worked out. This tidy-up only applies to hourly pay, and only to entries that never had a rate — it never overwrites an entry that already has one.
Maximum shift length
People forget to clock out. Without a limit, a shift keeps counting for days and turns into a payroll argument. The Maximum Shift Length card at the top of Settings›People›Time Tracking›Team Pay Rates fixes that.
- Enter between 0.5 and 24 hours, or leave it blank to switch it off.
- Joby checks for overlong shifts every quarter of an hour and closes them at the moment the limit was reached — not the moment it was noticed. A 12-hour limit on a shift started at 7am closes it at 7pm, whatever time the check runs.
- A note is added to the entry saying it was automatically clocked out at the limit, and the Source column on that row reads auto_clock_out instead of manual.
- Any job timer running inside that shift is closed at the same moment, so a job timer can never outlive the shift it belongs to.
The person still gets the credit for the hours they actually worked — an admin can edit the clock-out time afterwards if the real finish was different.
Job timers
A job timer answers "how long did this job take, and what did that labour cost?" It is separate from the shift that pays somebody. You need a Pro or Growth plan, or a trial, and the role needs the Time tab switch under Settings›Team Roles›Lead tabs.
Open the job and go to its Time tab. Three cards at the top show Lead Hours, Working Now and GPS Proofs, and below them is the start button.
- Already clocked in? Start Lead Timer runs a second stopwatch inside your shift. Your pay keeps running from the shift; the job timer just measures the job.
- Not clocked in? The same button clocks you in and ties that shift to the job.
- One job at a time. Start a timer on another job and the button is disabled with "Working another lead" and the number of the job you are already on.
- Ending. Press End Job Timer, or just clock out of your shift — the job timer is closed with you and gets the note "Ended automatically when shift clocked out".
- Never paid twice. Job timer rows are marked Lead timer with No payroll underneath, and they are excluded from payroll hours and pay everywhere.
Time on a job does feed the job's costs. For people paid hourly, each finished job timer adds a Labor line to that job's Expenses tab — hours worked at the hourly rate recorded on the entry — so job profit reflects the work that went into it. An admin can remove that line and it will not come back. Workers on a fixed daily amount get no labour line, because a day's pay cannot be fairly split across jobs.
Managing everyone's entries
Settings›People›Time Tracking›Time Entries is the admin view of one month at a time. Five cards across the top summarise it: Payroll Hours, Job Hours (Pro and Growth only), Total Pay, Avg Hours/Office Agent and Working Now.
Narrowing the list
Month arrows, an All team members drop-down, and a Search lead box that matches job number, customer name, company, address, city, state or job type.
Editing and deleting
The pencil opens Edit Entry; the bin asks to confirm. Hours and pay are recalculated as soon as you save.
GPS column
On Pro and Growth, In and Out links open the exact spot in Google Maps. Rows without it read No GPS.
CSV
Downloads the rows currently filtered, named after the month, ready to open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
The table columns are:
- Team Member — photo and name.
- Type — Shift (counts towards pay) or Lead timer (does not, and shows No payroll underneath).
- Lead — the job this row is linked to, if any. Click it to open the job.
- Date, Clock In, Clock Out — to the second. A shift still running shows an Active badge.
- Break, Hours — break time and the hours left after it.
- Rate — per hour or per day, exactly as it was when the shift started.
- Pay — the amount for this row, or "Included in daily pay".
- GPS — map links for clock-in and clock-out (Pro and Growth).
- Source — manual for a normal clock-in, auto_clock_out when the shift limit closed it, plus an edited badge if somebody changed it.
- Actions — edit and delete.
Long months are paged 50 rows at a time. The spreadsheet you download carries all the same information plus whether each row counts towards payroll, the pay basis, whether the daily payment landed on that row, and the notes.
The Time Tracking Report
Reports›Time Tracking Report is the read-only view for anyone whose role has Reports switched on. It does not let you edit anything, which makes it the safe one to share with a manager.
The Report controls card at the top holds Date Range (Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, Last Month, Custom Range) and Team Member. Picking Custom Range reveals two calendar buttons, From and To. A badge shows the exact dates you ended up with.
Time Tracking Report tab
- Four cards — Total Hours (with the number of clock entries), Labor Cost, Team Members with tracked time, and Avg Hours/Member.
- Hours Trend — a bar chart of clock-in hours. The drop-down switches between View by Day, Week and Hour, and a Peak box calls out the busiest bar.
- Team Member Breakdown — Team Member, Total Hours, Overtime, Rate, Total Pay and Entries, with a bold Total row at the bottom. This is the table most people actually hand to payroll.
- Clock Entries — every individual row behind those totals: Team Member, Lead, Clock In, Clock Out, Break, Hours, Pay and, on Pro and Growth, how many GPS proofs that row has.
- Export Time Tracking — downloads the range you are looking at.
Lead Time Report tab
This second tab needs Pro or Growth (a trial counts). On other plans it shows an upgrade panel instead. It groups job timers by job rather than by person:
- Cards for Lead Hours, Leads, Sessions, Active and GPS Proofs.
- A table of Lead, Address, Office Agents, Sessions, Active, Hours, Labor, GPS and Last Time, with the job number linking straight to the job.
- Export Lead Time for the same thing as a spreadsheet.
GPS proof and live locations
These are two different things and it is worth keeping them apart.
GPS proof
Two snapshots per shift: where the person was when they clocked in, and when they clocked out. Included with Pro and Growth. Nothing is recorded in between.
Live location tracking
A moving map of a worker while they are clocked in. Switched on per person, billed per person per month, and only while they are on the clock.
GPS proof
When someone clocks in or out, Joby tries to record the spot and, where it can, the postcode or ZIP. On a job timer it also compares that against the job's own postcode so you can see at a glance whether the person was at the address. The line under the button tells you what happened: "GPS and ZIP proof captured.", "GPS proof captured. ZIP unavailable." or "GPS unavailable. Time will still be saved."
On a Starter account the line reads "GPS and ZIP proof are available on Pro and Growth. Time saved without proof." — the hours are still recorded normally.
Live location tracking
Open Settings›People›Time Tracking›Live Locations. It needs a paid Pro or Growth plan; it is deliberately not available during a trial, because each person you switch on is charged.
- Price — the header shows the cost per worker per month, how many people are switched on, and the monthly total.
- Switching someone on — flip the switch on their row and confirm. You must tick a box confirming you are authorised to do this and have given the notices and obtained the consents your law and company policy require.
- What the worker sees — the first time they clock in after being switched on, they get a plain-language notice explaining live tracking, with links to the Privacy Policy and Terms, and must agree before the shift starts. If they do not want to be tracked, the notice tells them to contact their manager rather than clocking in.
- The map — pins for each tracked person currently clocked in, a line showing their route, accuracy and battery level, and a LIVE or STALE badge depending on how fresh the last reading is.
- How long it is kept — the Live GPS history setting keeps route points for 7, 14 or 30 days, then deletes them. Time records and the clock-in and clock-out GPS proof are separate and stay.
- Only on the clock — tracking stops the moment the person clocks out.
Your company remains responsible for its own employee, contractor, personal-device, privacy, wage and hour, and staff monitoring policies before using any of this.
Clocked in at another company
If your login covers more than one company, a shift belongs to the company you were in when you started it, and it can only be ended from inside that company. Without a warning, the Time Clock page for company B would just show a Clock In button and it would look like the shift had vanished.
So an amber banner appears at the top of the Time Clock page: "You're still clocked in at another company", with the company name, when the shift started, and a Go there to clock out button that switches you across. Do that before you start a new shift — the old one keeps counting until you close it.
Who can see what
Anyone with the Time Clock tab
Clock in and out, take breaks, and see their own last 14 days with their own rate and pay — plus the names of whoever is on the clock right now.
Roles with Reports
Everything in Reports›Time Tracking Report, for everybody, including hours, rates and pay — but no editing.
Owners and admins only
Settings›People›Time Tracking — rates, the shift limit, editing, deleting, adding entries by hand, and live location seats.
Roles with the Time tab
The Time tab on a job, for starting and ending job timers. Switched on under Settings›Team Roles›Lead tabs.
Records never cross between companies. Each company's entries, rates and reports stand on their own, and switching company switches everything you can see with it.