Activity Status introduces a fresh approach to tracking the work status of employees, whether they’re actively working, on a break or taking lunch breaks, all while staying signed into a site for safety purposes.

For organisations looking for a streamlined way to record and report working hours separately, the ability for employees to switch between these statuses provides a convenient and efficient method for categorising daily activities. When it's time to compile and export this data, Activity Status simplifies the process of excluding unwanted statuses from your calculations.

If you're looking to use Time & Attendance for precise time tracking, the ability to create custom Activity Statuses and seamlessly switch between them unlocks robust project tracking capabilities.

In this section, we'll guide you through the process of updating your Activity Status throughout the day, using this tool to generate more detailed reports, and even creating your own unique statuses.

When enabling Time & Attendance, we’ll automatically create the following Activity Statuses for all selected groups:

To amend these, or create your own custom Activity Statuses, go to Manage > Time & Attendance on the online portal and select the Activity status tab.

Here you can click on a status name to edit existing Statuses, or click Add status to create your own. When editing or creating a Status, you can select the group (or groups) that the status applies to, name it, and assign a colour that will appear in Companion and the Timesheets report:

You can also choose to include the status in hours worked, or set the status as a default upon sign in for the group.

To change the order in which the Activity Statuses appear in Companion, click and drag the dotted icon next to a status name.

When it’s time to update your Activity Status, it’s as simple as opening Sign In Companion on iOS, Android or the web, and tapping the button that appears under your profile photo on the Today tab. By default it will show as Working (see Customising activities for information on how to change the default).

When you tap this button, a list of available Statuses will appear. To select a new Status, tap it from the list. You’ll be returned to the Today tab where the new Status and Status colour will appear.

Each time you change your Status, the current time will be recorded.

Since Activity Statuses are designed to help you categorise your time while signed in, you’ll only see the option when you’re signed in to a physical or remote site.

If you’d like repeat visitors to be able to update their activity status from the Kiosk app and have Local device management enabled, go to General settings in the app and scroll down to toggle on Activity statuses

If you are managing your Kiosk settings via the Portal, (IE have Local device management turned off), you can do this from the Portal by heading to Manage > Sites > Select site > Kiosk tab and scrolling down to the Time & Attendance section and selecting Allow visitors to update their activity status on the kiosk

If you tap the Welcome screen in Sign In App, and then Tap to get started, select the group you’re signing in to, and search for your name you will see the activity status options. Tap one of these options to be signed in with a different activity status. If you don’t change the activity status your status will be updated with your default activity status. In the example below, this is Working:

When you tap Sign out, you will be signed out and you’re not given the option to change your activity status. If you need to change your status during the day and you don’t want to sign out, you can tap the Welcome screen, select the magnifying glass in the top right corner, search for yourself, tap your name, and then change your status from the list provided:

If you use QR codes or RFID tags to sign in/out, the sign in experience is just the same, you will be signed in with your default activity status unless you select a different status. On sign out the experience is slightly different, because we know which group you’re in, a status change option is presented on sign out. This allows you to change your status when you present a QR code / RFID tag the second time. If you don’t select an activity status you will be signed out - there is a countdown to show how long you have before the sign out is completed.

Please contact [email protected] if you’d like some guidance on using QR codes or RFID tags. You can also read about Sign In App Tap here, this allows you to use RFID tags with Sign In App.

To see how changing Activity Status affects the timesheet data you’re recording, head over to the Attendance reports section in the online portal. If you’ve familiar with our existing Timesheet report and its recent improvements, you’ll feel right at home here. If this is your first time using this report, each horizontal ‘pill’ shape represents a sign in for that particular employee. Filters at the top help you select dates and break the data down by site, group, activity, and working hours:

With Time & Attendance enabled, Activity Status information is overlaid on the existing report and a new Activity filter appears. Each Activity is represented on the bar by its associated colour and hovering your mouse over a particular coloured section will show more detailed information, including the sign in and out times, site name and Activity duration.

To filter the report, click the Activity filter and select one or more Activity Statuses. The coloured bars will update and the totals on each line will be recalculated to only include those hours spent on the selected Activity Statuses.

When you’re ready to export the data, click the Export button at the top right corner of the screen. Your previous filter options will be pre-selected. Confirm the filter options, date range and personal fields to include on the export. When you’re ready, click Export in the bottom right corner of the window and a CSV will start downloading.

Timesheet exports for groups that have Time & Attendance enabled including the ability to filter by activity type and to switch between different formatting options. These filtered results will be applied to your exported report.

As easy as it is to change Activity Status, people will inevitably forget from time to time, particularly if it’s a new process being introduced for the first time and habits are yet to form. Fortunately, it’s easy for employees to request changes and ensure their timesheet reports remain accurate at all times.

From Sign In Companion, tap the calendar (2nd) tab at the bottom. Navigate to the date of the record you wish to edit and tap on the card that shows the sign in time for that day. A new window will appear that shows each Activity Status change, as well as the start and end times for each sign in.

Under each sign in record, tap Request changes to bring up the edit view. From this view you can amend the sign in or out time, update Activity Status changes and add new ones. You are then asked to provide a reason for the changes before you can tap Submit request.

You can configure the system to require approval in the web portal for any requested changes to timesheets, or you can let your employees make the changes directly.

The permission for whether an employee can make the change without approval is controlled by a toggle switch in the group or members companion app permissions.

You can set a default for the group, or you can control which individuals within a group can do this. You will find this setting in the web portal at:

(For group default) - Manage > Visitor groups > Select repeat group > Companion

(For individual member) - People > Select repeat group > Select member > Companion

Permission: Can change timesheet without approval

If a user or group does not have this permission to make their own changes, their manager will be notified via email:

The email will contain a link to click where they can review the change request before approving or declining:

You also have the option to update timesheets directly within the Timesheet report itself. Click into any sign in record, then click the Edit record button at the bottom of the window that appears. You can make all the same changes you can via Companion, but changes made directly to the Timesheet don’t have to be approved.

When enabling Time & Attendance, we’ll automatically create the following Activity Statuses for all selected groups:

To amend these, or create your own custom Activity Statuses, go to Manage > Time and attendance > Activity status on the online portal.

Here you can click on an existing status to edit the details, or select Add status to create a new status. When editing or creating a Status, you can select which group the status applies to, give the status a name, and assign a colour that will appear in Companion and the Timesheet report. You can also choose to include the status in hours worked, and/or set the status as a default on sign in.

To change the order in which the Activity Statuses appear in Companion, click and drag the dotted icon and the change will automatically save for you.

If you’re looking to use Activity Status to record hours spent on project work, you’ll likely be creating and archiving Statuses often. You can make a status inactive when editing the status, and this allows you to continue to report on the data captured, while preventing any future records from being logged against this status.

To set a status as inactive, simply click the status name icon to edit it, and toggle off 'This status is Active' before clicking Save.

You also have the option to delete an Activity Status, however unlike making the status inactive, deleting permanently destroys all associated data.

Continue on to our Leave Allocation help guide to set up leave allocation per group!
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We hope you've found this guide useful but if you have any questions please contact our support team at [email protected]