The goal of the punch clock feature is to have an accurate presence time for your workers, allowing to accurately understand how much time they are at the shop floor (either producing or not).

Using this feature isn’t mandatory: if the punch clock is not used, the system will consider the shift for each worker. This is a valid approach for simpler scenarios, where workers rarely enter or leave the shop floor before or after the scheduled time. However, if that’s not the case, you should consider increasing the quality of your data by using the punch clock feature.

For example, if the employee’s shift ends at 04:00 PM and production lasted until 05:30 PM, the time spent on production records will not be counted unless the worker explicitly informs the system he was present at the shop floor until 05:30 PM by using the punch clock feature.

Therefore, when using the punch clock button, it's possible to tell the system that the Entry or Exit time is not the one in the schedule but the one just punched. There are two different modes to use the punch clock record feature:

You can see below how both work to understand which one better suits your needs.

This punch clock mode requires punch clock records to work in pairs: every record for “IN” has to have a record for “OUT”, and vice-versa. The time between the two records is considered presence time for the worker, whereas the time outside these “IN” and “OUT” pairs is not considered presence time.

When using this mode, the system will first assume the punch clock record type as “IN”. Same occurs in case the worker’s last punch clock record made was an “OUT”. Similarly, the system will assume the punch clock record as “OUT” if the last punch clock record was “IN”.

This mode provides some extra flexibility: the punch clock records can be made in an isolated manner, in case the worker is not following his/her shift on a particular moment of the day. When tapping on the punch clock tablet button, the system will always ask the worker if he/she is punching in or out.

Considering the punch clock record type, the system will afterwards extend/shrink the shift on that day. You can see below some examples.

Let’s consider a shift from 08:00 AM - 12:00 PM and 01:00PM - 05:00 PM:

See below a summary of differences between the two modes:

FAQ

1. Is it possible to force workers to punch in before producing?

Yes. This behavior can be set by your account manager. Autodesk Fusion Operations allows you to define one out of three different behaviors:

The major difference between modes (2) and (3) is related with forcing or not punching in if the worker starts production after the start of his schedule. Let’s consider a shift from 08:00 AM - 05:00 PM, and the worker starting production at 09:20 AM:

Mode (3.) does not force a punch clock record to be made, whereas (2.) does. As a consequence, the time between 08:00 AM and 09:20 AM will be counted as presence time for mode (3.), whereas it won't for mode (2.) This is because the punch clock record at 9:20 AM is forced with mode (2.), which makes the system consider that the worker was not present until then.

2. How can I introduce lunch time and other breaks?

Lunch breaks can be defined on the worker shift, as you could see on the example above. It’s also possible to add further breaks, such as 08:00 AM - 09:45 AM / 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM / 01:00PM - 03:15 PM / 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM. If no punch clock records are made, the 60 minutes lunch time along with the 15 + 15 minutes breaks will be deducted from the presence and work times.

However, when a worker punches anytime during the day, you should take a look at the impacts that may bring:

3. Are there any other ways to introduce lunch breaks?

Yes. Lunch breaks can also be modeled using downtime records. You should create a downtime reason code with only the “reason code for workers” tick box active.

4. How can I inform the system that the worker is absent?

In case a worker is not present during one or more days, we recommend you to insert a downtime record for the workers (or set of workers) that aren’t present. This downtime record should have a downtime reason code with “calendar” and “reason code for workers” tick boxes active.

5. Are there any other alternatives in case the worker changes the shift, or has a shift recurrency?

Yes, that’s possible to set by using the shift changes feature. Take a closer look at it in this article.

6. What does the tick box “Combine punch with worker shift” on the punch clock records stand for?

This box is automatically ticked in the moment the workers punch in and out if the punch clock mode in force is "combining the punch clock record with the worker shift". If the opposite mode is active, the tick box won't be ticked. Please note that reversing the punch clock mode will not update previous punch clock records.

7. Should I take into consideration any further scenarios?

There is one use case that you must beware: regardless of the shift, in case the worker punches out, the system will consider the worker is not present during the rest of the day. This is valid for both punch clock modes.

Therefore, if a worker returns to the shop floor, he must always punch in from that moment onwards. Let’s consider the same scenario as before, with the shift 08:00 AM - 12:00 PM and 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM.

Therefore, in case the worker gets back to work after punching out, an “IN” punch clock record is mandatory for Autodesk Fusion Operations to count his presence time.

Reach out to our live chat or to your account manager in case you need help to set up your shifts. Need help? Request a Fusion Operations expert to contact you here.