# Track time, breaks and where people clock in

> Crews clock in on their phones, Timesheets shows each week's hours with breaks paid your way and where people clocked in, and Pay adds up hourly and piece pay for your payroll.

Your crew clocks in and out on their phones. **Timesheets** collects everyone's hours week by week, for a crew lead or the office to approve, and **Timesheets → Pay** adds up what each person is owed for your payroll service. You decide whether breaks are paid, and whether Crewtavo saves where people are when they clock in and out.

## Clock in and out

The clock is at the top of **My day**, and of **Timesheets** for the current week.

- **Start timer** clocks you in. Pick **Driving**, **Shop time**, **On break** or **Other work**, or on **My day**, a visit that's under way.
- **Switch** moves the clock to something else without stopping it. On **My day** it lists the visits under way, so you can clock back onto one after a break.
- **Stop** clocks you out.

Starting a visit (**Start** or **Start visit**) also clocks you onto it, and **Complete visit** clocks you off it.

A clock left running for hours sends a reminder. If it's still running much later, Crewtavo stops it at the end of that working day, and the entry shows **Check end time** until it's approved.

### Clock in the whole crew

A crew lead with two or more people sees a **Crew clock** card on **My day**:

- **Clock everyone in** puts the whole crew on a visit, **Driving** or **Shop time** at once. **Clock in 2 more** catches up anyone who isn't on yet.
- **Switch** moves everyone on the clock to something else, like **On break** for lunch, then back onto the visit after.
- **Clock everyone out**, or clock one person in or out from their row.

Each person's time lands on their own timesheet.

## Choose how breaks are paid

An owner or admin sets this for the whole business:

1. Open **Settings → Company** and find the **Time clock** card.
2. Pick under **Breaks**:
   - **Paid if 20 minutes or less** (the default). A short rest break counts as paid time; a longer one, like lunch, doesn't. This follows federal rules.
   - **Always paid**. Every break counts, lunch included.
   - **Never paid**. No break counts as paid time.
3. Choose **Save company settings**.

On **Timesheets**, a break that isn't paid shows as "0.75 h unpaid", and each person's weekly total leaves it out and shows "+ 0.75 h unpaid breaks" beside it. **Timesheets → Pay** shows the unpaid breaks and says which rule it used, and **Metrics → Team** counts **Paid hours** only.

:::caution
Federal rules say rest breaks of 20 minutes or less must be paid, so check before choosing **Never paid**. Your state may have its own rules on breaks and meal periods. This isn't legal advice: check with your state's labor department or your accountant.
:::

## See where people clock in and out

Crewtavo saves where each phone is at the moment someone clocks in and out, and nowhere in between. It's on unless you turn it off: an owner or admin can switch **Save where people are when they clock in and out (the office and crew leads see it on Timesheets)** in the **Time clock** card under **Settings → Company**.

Your crew sees "Clocking in and out saves where you are, for the office." on their clock. The first time, their phone asks to share their location. If they say no, or the phone can't find itself within about 10 seconds, the clock still starts or stops, and the entry says why there's no place.

On **Timesheets**, each entry shows where it started and stopped:

| It says | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| "In: at the job" | Within about 200 meters (650 feet) of the visit's or job's address, allowing for the phone's accuracy. For shop time, it says "at the shop", going by your shop address in **Settings → Company**. |
| "Out: 2.1 mi from the job" | How far from the job (or the shop) they were. |
| "In: see map" | There was no job or shop address to compare with. |
| "(rough location)" | The phone was unsure of its location, by more than about 500 meters. |
| "location turned off" | They said no to sharing their location. |
| "no location found" | The phone couldn't find its location in time. |
| "phone can't share location" | The phone or browser can't share a location at all. |
| "(Luis's phone)" | Someone else clocked them in or out, like a crew lead clocking in the crew. |

Click a place to open it in Google Maps.

Who sees the places:

- Owners, and admins and office staff whose role has **Approve timesheets (crew leads: their crew's)**: everyone's.
- A crew lead: their crew's, but not their own.
- Everyone else: none, their own included.

A place is saved with the clock as it starts or stops, so time added by hand has none, and fixing an entry's times keeps the places it had. With the switch off, Crewtavo saves no new places.

## Review and approve time

**Timesheets** shows one week at a time, a card per person, with each day's hours and each entry. A total over 40 hours shows how much is over.

- **Approve all**, or **Approve** on one person, approves the week's finished entries. A crew lead whose role has the area approves their crew's time, but not their own. The starter **Foreman** role doesn't have it: add **Approve timesheets (crew leads: their crew's)** to it in **Settings → Roles** if your foremen should approve.
- **Add time** adds an entry by hand. An entry's menu has **Edit**, **Remove approval** and **Delete**.
- **Download as spreadsheet**, in the page's menu, saves the week with **Paid hours** beside **Hours**, and **Clock-in location** and **Clock-out location**. It's there for owners, admins and office staff with the area.

Forgot to clock in or out? Anyone can fix their own time: open **Timesheets**, choose **Add time**, or **Edit** on the entry, as long as it isn't approved yet. A crew lead can do the same for their crew. Once time is approved, only the office can change it.

Everyone sees their own time on **Timesheets**. Crew leads also see their crew's, and owners, admins and office staff see everyone's.

## Pay your team

**Timesheets → Pay** shows each person's pay for a pay period: **Last week**, **This week**, **Last 2 weeks**, **This month**, **Last month**, or any dates. It's for owners, admins and office staff whose role has **Job costs and profit**.

- Approved hours at each person's **Labor cost / hr**, set in **Settings → People**. Unpaid breaks show beside their hours.
- Hours over 40 in a week show for your payroll service. The amounts are at straight time.
- Piece pay for work done on jobs in the period, if they have any (below).
- Time not approved yet, and clocks still running, are flagged.

**Download** saves the period as a spreadsheet, with **Hourly pay at their rate**, **Piece pay** and **Total pay** for each person, ready for your payroll service.

Once you've paid people, choose **Mark paid** and pick **How they were paid**: **Direct deposit**, **Payroll service**, **Check**, **Cash** or **Other**. Crewtavo doesn't send money. Everyone's time has to be approved first. Their time and piece pay in that period are then locked, so what was paid stays on record. **Take back paid** unlocks it.

### Piece pay

Someone on your team can earn per square, per job or per day as well as, or instead of, by the hour.

1. In **Settings → People**, choose **Piece rates** under the person's **Labor cost / hr**, then **Add a rate**: **Per square or unit**, **Per job** or **Per day**. It's there for owners, and for admins whose role has **Job costs and profit**.
2. On a job, under **Sub and crew pay**, choose **Add pay**, then **Someone on your team**. Their rates fill in the lines, and you can change them.
3. Choose **Agree to this pay**. It's marked done by itself once the visits it covers are complete, or with **Mark work done**.

Work done goes into their pay period for the day it was finished, as **Piece pay** under **Timesheets → Pay**. Piece pay also counts in the job's costs. For paying the businesses you hire, see [Work with subcontractors](https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/subcontractors/).

:::note
A subcontractor whose page has **Uses the clock** on shows on **Timesheets** for your records, but never under **Pay**: they're paid by the job.
:::

Source: https://crewtavo.com/docs/team/timesheets-and-pay/ (last updated 2026-10-28)