Tracking modes: Plan / Clock / Hybrid

Tracking modes in Shiftdesk

Shiftdesk supports three modes of time tracking. Which one fits your company depends on the industry, the culture of trust and the legal requirements.

The three modes compared

Mode	Description	When it makes sense
planbased	The schedule is the time tracking. When publishing, time entries are created automatically from the shifts. There is no clocking.	Office teams with trust-based working time, small practices, mini-job structures without a time clock
clockbased	Only clocked times count. The app, a web terminal or a kiosk record start, break and end. The schedule serves only as a reference.	Hospitality, retail, logistics — anywhere actual attendance counts
hybrid	When publishing, plan entries are created. As soon as someone clocks, the clocked times override the plan. If nobody clocks, the plan stays.	Mixed operations: administration works plan-based, service clocks; or part-time with occasional attendance requirements

Example scenarios

Example 1 — Plan-based: A tax firm with 8 employees. Nobody clocks, everyone works according to the schedule. When publishing on Sunday, the time entries for the whole week are created automatically.

Example 2 — Clock-based: A restaurant with 25 employees. On arrival everyone clocks in via the app, and clocks out again at the end. The schedule is only the expectation — payroll is based on the clocked times.

Example 3 — Hybrid: A care facility. Administration works plan-based, the care staff clock. If a nurse does not clock, the plan value is taken over automatically — but the manager reviewed all "noclock" cases the next day.

Where do I set the mode?

Go to Settings → Time tracking. You can set the mode on four levels:

1. Organization (default for everyone)
2. Location
3. Department
4. Employee (individual case)

The most specific configuration wins — an employee setting beats the location setting.

Clocking is done via the mobile app or at the tablet time clock.

Changing the mode

When you change the mode, the new setting applies from the chosen effective date. Existing entries are not converted retroactively. Ideally schedule the change for the start of a month.

Continue with Snap-to-shift and rounding and Break modes.