A clocking policy can let somebody’s phone clock them in as it reaches a workplace and out as it leaves, or ask them first. Two switches have to be on: you arm the workplace, and the person arms their own phone. Until both are, nothing is recorded by itself.
It is part of the Pro plan. On another plan the arrival and departure controls sit there
inert, behind Upgrade to Pro.
Arm the workplace
1
Open the policy
Go to Policies → Clocking and open the policy covering the people you want. The section is
always there, whatever the policy does about capturing location: the boundary it watches is its
own, not the one a GPS punch is judged against.
2
Switch Automatic clocking on
The control is three-way, like the rest of the clocking settings. Switch on arms these
people, Switch off keeps them clocking by hand whatever a broader policy says, and leaving
it alone lets other policies decide.
3
Say what arriving and leaving do
When they arrive and When they leave each take Clock in or Clock out, Ask,
or Nothing. Ask sends a notification carrying one button and records nothing until the
person presses it.
4
Say how far out the boundary sits
Watched radius is how far from a workplace counts as being there, in metres. A policy that
already sets an allowed radius for GPS opens on that number, so arming an existing policy asks
you for nothing you have said once.
5
Set the two waits
Arrival dwell is how long somebody must stay before arriving counts, and Departure grace
how long they must be away before leaving counts. These are what stop a walk past the depot
opening an entry and a step outside closing one.
6
Decide about unscheduled arrivals
With Clock in even when no shift is scheduled off, an arrival counts only within Shift
window minutes of a rostered shift.
The phone is theirs to arm
Arming a workplace does not arm a phone. Only the person carrying it can let the app watch where they are, and they do that under Settings → Profile, as Clock me in and out automatically. Clocking in and out is the page your team reads to do it. Their record under People shows where they stand: Automatic clocking reads Off, On since a date, or Paused where their phone shares its location only while the app is open. You cannot switch it on for them. Or ask Begin AI (Cmd / Ctrl + J):Is automatic clocking switched on for Kadri Tamm?
An armed workplace that never clocks anybody in usually means nobody there has switched it on yet.
Check the people under People before you go back to the policy.
Reading an automatic punch
The entry carries Automatic as its source and says which edge it was, arrived or left. Its activity trail spells the same thing out: “clocked in automatically on arriving at Tallinn office”. It is never set to Needs review for being outside the allowed area. An arrival is inside the workplace by definition and a departure is outside it, so that flag would land on every automatic punch. An arrival your clocking policy would otherwise block is refused instead, and no entry is created at all.Next
Clocking in and out
What your team sees on their phone, and how they switch it on.
Settings and policies
The rest of the clocking policy, and the other rules that change an entry.
Still need help?
Contact support
Email the Begin team and we’ll get back to you.
Ask Begin AI
Open the AI assistant and get instant answers based on these docs.