Tip 22: How to allow employees to check in and out, and then automatically calculate their total work hours
Hi everyone,
Keeping accurate track of employee hours is crucial to smoothly running business. So this week, we wanted to go over how you can automate this whole process using Zoho Creator. With this tip, you'll learn how to set up a page that will make it easy for your employees to check in and out, and help you track their work hours on a daily basis.
To do this, let's create a sample application called Attendance App, and show you how you can use it to track the total work hours of each of your employees.
Application flow
- Employees can check in and out by simply clicking on a button
- Once the employee checks out, the total working hours will be calculated and updated in the admin report
- Managers and administrators can then monitor the total work hours of each employee on a daily basis
To do this, we need to create the following components:
- Attendance form used to record the check in and check out times
- Dashboard with check in and check out buttons, and two reports
- A way for users to be given access to the application
- A report for employees to view their check-in and check-out times
- A report where the admin can view the details of all employees
Step 1: Create the attendance form
First, we need to create the attendance form to record the times. This form can be hidden, as the check-ins and check-outs are automatically recorded by clicking on the buttons on the page.
Fields on the attendance form:
- Email (Email field)
- Check-in time (Date-Time field)
- Check-out time (Date-Time field)
- Total time (Single line field)
- Status (Drop down field)
Step 2: Create functions for the check in and check out buttons
Now, let's create the two functions we need to record the check-in and check-out times. All you need to do is go to Workflows, click New Functions, and add some code snippets.
Function 1: To record the check-in time
The Check In button on the page calls a function, which adds a record to the attendance form. Use the below code to create the checkintime function:
- void login.checkintime()
- {
- fet = Attendance_form[Check_in_time == today &&Email == zoho.loginuserid];
- // This condition is to prevent an employee from checking in multiple times on the same day.
- if(fet.count() == 0)
- {
- new = insert into Attendance_form
- [
- Added_User=zoho.loginuser
- Email=zoho.loginuserid
- Check_in_time=zoho.currenttime
- Status="Checked In"
- ];
- } .
- // This adds a record in the attendance form, which captures the logged-in employee's email and the current time, and sets the status as "Checked In".
- openUrl("https://app.zohocreator.com/ownername/attendance-app/report-embed/User_report?zc_SecHeader=false&Email=" + zoho.loginuserid,"iframe","zohoview");
- // OpenURL will help you refresh the user-based report (embedded in the page) to display only the login-based entries.
- }
Function 2: To record the check-out time
Now, let's create a function that helps us record the check-out time. The Check Out button captures the check-out time, fetches the record containing the check-in time of the corresponding user, and calculates the total working time, which is the difference between the check-out and check-in times in the hours:minutes format.
- void login.checkouttime()
- {
- fet = Attendance_form[Check_in_time == today && Check_out_time == null && Email == zoho.loginuserid];
- //This condition checks the record based on the logged-in user and today's date, which has the check-out time as null. It avoids multiple check-outs and ensures the record is added by the corresponding user.
- if(fet.ID > 0)
- {
- fet.Check_out_time=zoho.currenttime;
- mil_sec = (fet.Check_out_time - fet.Check_in_time);
- actual_minutes = mil_sec / (1000 * 60);
- //1000 -> mill sec to sec, 60 -> sec to min
- mins = actual_minutes.toLong() % 60;
- // % 60 -> Exclude Hours
- hours = (actual_minutes / 60).toLong();
- // 60 -> min to hour, % 24 (optional) -> Exclude Days
- time_string = hours + " : " + mins;
- fet.Total_time=time_string;
- fet.Status="Checked Out";
- }
- else
- {
- // This part handles cases where the user checks in for a night shift, and by the time they check out, the date will have changed. In this case, we use zoho.currentdate.subDay(1) to get the previous date's record. This will be executed only if there isn't any matching record for today's date.
- fet1 = Attendance_form[Check_in_time == zoho.currentdate.subDay(1) && Check_out_time == null && Email == zoho.loginuserid];
- if(fet1.ID > 0)
- {
- fet1.Check_out_time=zoho.currenttime;
- mil_sec = (fet1.Check_out_time - fet1.Check_in_time);
- actual_minutes = mil_sec / (1000 * 60);
- //1000 -> mill sec to sec, 60 -> sec to min
- mins = actual_minutes.toLong() % 60;
- // % 60 -> Exclude Hours
- hours = (actual_minutes / 60).toLong();
- // 60 -> min to hour, % 24 (optional) -> Exclude Days
- time_string = hours + " : " + mins;
- fet1.Total_time=time_string;
- fet1.Status="Checked Out";
- }
- }
- openUrl("https://app.zohocreator.com/<workspaceName>/attendance-app/report-embed/User_report?zc_SecHeader=false&Email=" + zoho.loginuserid,"iframe","zohoview");
- // And this code refreshes the user-based report on the page to display the filtered login-based record with the updated check-out time and the total time.
Step 3: Add the buttons to the dashboard and link them to the functions
Once you've created both functions, you need to create two buttons—Check In and Check Out—on your dashboard, and link the function to these buttons. When a user clicks on them the function is executed and the time is captured.
To do that follow these steps:
- Go to the page builder.
- Drag and drop a button onto the page builder, and you'll see a new window appear, where you can add other elements.
- Choose the Action type you want to perform—in this case, Execute function.
- Choose the function that needs to be executed (refer to the screenshot below).
- Create both buttons and repeat these steps.
Step 4: Add the reports to the dashboard
Admin dashboard:
To track employee working hours
This dashboard will help the admin keep track of employee work hours. Apart from the two buttons on the page, there are two reports, which are embedded using an HTML snippet.
- The list report will dynamically display records based on the logged-in user (for example: if Employee A is logged in, they can only view their own times).
- The Kanban report will list all the users who've checked in on that day, and it can only be viewed by the admins of the application.
Now let's embed these two reports on the dashboard. To do that, we need to drag and drop the HTML snippet onto the page builder and write the script below:
- <%
- {
- a = "https://app.zohocreator.com/ownername/attendance-app/report-embed/User_report?zc_SecHeader=false&Email=" + zoho.loginuserid;
- %>
- <iframe name='zohoview' height='400' width='100%' frameborder='0' scrolling='Auto' src='<%=a%>'></iframe>
- <%
- if(zoho.loginuserid == zoho.adminuserid)
- {
- %>
- <div elName='zc-component' viewLinkName='Admin' params='zc_Header=true'>
- Loading View...</div>
- <%
- }
- }
- %>
In the code above, we're embedding the user report using an iframe, so that the user report (iframe) is automatically refreshed after a user clicks on Check In or Check Out. We've also hidden the secondary header present on the user report by setting up zc_SecHeader=false to prevent users from manually adding or modifying the record from the report. The logged-in user filter can be directly applied on the report, or by using the parameter "Email=" + zoho.loginuserid" in the URL.
The admin report is added using a DIV tag, and is displayed only to the account's super admin using the if condition. if(zoho.loginuserid == zoho.adminuserid)
If required, we can add other non-admin emails using the criteria below to make the admin report available for those particular users:
The admin will also have the option to check out users, in case they forget at the end of their shift.
Admin report
The Kanban report is created using the status field, which is a dropdown field, and you can add the code in On Update of the Status Field.For example, when the admin drags the record from the Check in time column to the Check out time column, the user will be automatically checked out.
You need to choose Edited for Run when a record is while creating the workflow.
Below is the script you need to write in On Update of the Status Field, so that when the record is dragged and dropped to the Check out time column on the Kanban report, the check-out time will be captured.
- if(input.Status == "Checked Out" && input.Check_out_time == null)
- {
- input.Check_out_time = zoho.currenttime;
- mil_sec = (input.Check_out_time - input.Check_in_time);
- actual_minutes = mil_sec / (1000 * 60);
- //1000 -> mill sec to sec, 60 -> sec to min
- mins = actual_minutes.toLong() % 60;
- // % 60 -> Exclude Hours
- hours = (actual_minutes / 60).toLong();
- // 60 -> min to hour, % 24 (optional) -> Exclude Days
- time_string = hours + " : " + mins;
- input.Total_time = time_string;
- }
We've also added a filter to the admin report, that will allow the admin to view all the employees who checked in and out for the day. And, if required, you can edit it by week or month, depending on your requirements.
Note: We will soon roll out the hoursBetween function, which can be used to find the difference between the check in and check out times. This function will return the difference of hours between the given start and end date-time values.
We hope this tip was useful for you! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below, and we'll be happy to address them for you!
Access your files securely from anywhere
New to Zoho Recruit?
Zoho Developer Community
New to Zoho LandingPage?
Zoho LandingPage Resources
New to Zoho Survey?
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho CRM Plus?
Deliver unforgettable customer experiences
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Zoho Marketing Plus?
Everything you need to run your marketing
New to Bigin?
Topic Participants
Sejal Dattani
Muhammad Umar Akram
Sejal Dattani
jsantander
akshay motihar
Sticky Posts
ANZ In-Person Zoho User Group Meetups: Focusing on Zoho Creator & Zoho Flow (September 2024)
Hello, Zoho Community! Calling all Zoho users in Australia! We're thrilled to announce the next series of Zoho User Group (ZUG) Meetups, continuing the success of our previous sessions. These meetups are a great opportunity to learn, network, and engage[SESSION ENDED] Ask the Experts #07| Live Q&A: Building workflows with Blueprint in Zoho Creator |
Hello, Post the release of Zoho Creator Blueprint last month, we're happy to tell you that we'll be launching a new 'Ask the Experts' session on 16th September (Thursday) this month focussing on creating blueprints in Zoho Creator. The session will beZoho Creator Community Webinars | October - November 2020 [Completed]
Hello everyone, I’m happy to announce that Zoho Creator is hosting a new Community Webinar Series starting this October. This series is a learning initiative aimed at our developer community, where every session will take spotlight use cases focused onCommunity Learning Webinar - Zoho Creator Blueprint & other release updates | July 29, 2021
Dear developers, This June, the Creator team unveiled a slew of updates including UI enhancements to the Detail View of reports, an new capabilities in Data Import and Connections, and most important of all, the release of Blueprint in Creator. CustomizeCommunity Learning Webinar: Delve deep into the core concepts of Zoho Creator | 17th June, 2021
Dear developers, Every customer has unique business needs and unique problems to solve. To be able to give solutions to these problems, to get over any stumbling blocks and to be able to build applications expeditiously that tailor to specific needs,
New to Zoho TeamInbox?
Zoho TeamInbox Resources
Zoho CRM Plus Resources
Zoho Books Resources
Zoho Subscriptions Resources
Zoho Projects Resources
Zoho Sprints Resources
Qntrl Resources
Zoho Creator Resources
Zoho CRM Resources
Design. Discuss. Deliver.
Zoho Show Resources
Get Started. Write Away!
Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.
Zoho CRM コンテンツ
-
オンラインヘルプ
-
Webセミナー
-
機能活用動画
-
よくある質問
-
Ebook
-
-
Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho サービスのWebセミナー
その他のサービス コンテンツ
Nederlandse Hulpbronnen
ご検討中の方
Recent Topics
【開催報告】 大阪 ユーザー交流会 2025/11/20（木）Zoho CRM Plus 活用のアイデアとデータの“見える化”
皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 11/20（木）に、大阪 ユーザー交流会を開催しました。本投稿では、その様子をお届けします。 当日の登壇資料などもこちらに共有しますので、参加できなかった皆さまもご参照ください。 （Zoho 社員セッションの登壇資料については、11/28(金)に開催予定の東京回の開催報告で共有いたします） 今年2回目の開催となる大阪 ユーザー交流会では、株式会社KDDIウェブコミュニケーションズ 山田さんによる Zoho CRM Plus の事例セッションのほか、「ZohoEvery rating counts: Shaping customer experience
We are back to that beautiful time of the year. It is the season to reflect, be thankful, and appreciate everything that has happened throughout the year. Thanksgiving is a time we connect with our family, friends, and relatives to strengthen relationships,How to remove duplicate contacts
Custom Field for Subscription
Hi, I can't find a way to add a custom field (to contain a license key generated from our software) against a subscription? Is the only place to add this information in the Invoice module (as custom field for invoice)? When a customer views his subscription via the customer portal, there appears no way to display a license key for them? The invoice is not the natural place to store a license key for a particular subscription, so where else can this be stored and displayed?Custom View and Custom Fields on Zoho Books
Hi, I have some custom fields on Estimates and Invoices. I also use Custom Views so I can have a lot of information at a glance. I want to include my custom fields as columns in my custom views of estimates / invoice, but it looks like is not possible.Dropdown data depends on filters in another field.
In my quote form I have a lookup field called Reseller that pulls from Accounts. I would like it to pull from Accounts, but only those accounts with an account field 'Type' where that is 'Reseller'. Does anyone know a way to do this? Similarly, I'd likeIs it possible to adjust the web browser tab title (when a ZoHo Desk ticket is opened)
Hi All, When I open a ZoHo Desk ticket in a web browser, the tab title (text that appears at the top of the browser tab) uses the logic: *company icon picture* (xxxx) #ticket number - company name See below (highlighted in red) for reference. CompanyCollections Management: #7 Common Mistakes during Payment Collection
Payment collection may appear straightforward in most cases. Still, as your customer base expands and transaction volume increases, it becomes clear that even small inefficiencies can lead to delayed payments, increased support load, or even revenue loss.Rename Record Summary PDF in SendMail task
So I've been tasked with renaming a record summary PDF to be sent as part of a sendmail task. Normally I would offer the manual solution, a user exports the PDF and uploads it to a file upload field, however this is not acceptable to the client in thisRecruit API search
Hi all, Attempting to call the search api endpoint from Postman using the word element as mentioned in api docs Search Records - APIs | Online Help - Zoho Recruit When making the call to /v2/Candidates/search?word=Saudi receive response of { "code": "MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND",Text/SMS With Zoho Desk
Hi Guys- Considering using SMS to get faster responses from customers that we are helping. Have a bunch of questions; 1) Which provider is better ClickaTell or Screen Magic. Screen Magic seems easier to setup, but appears to be 2x as expensive for United States. I cannot find the sender id for Clickatell to even complete the configuration. 2) Can customer's reply to text messages? If so are responses linked back to the zoho ticket? If not, how are you handling this, a simple "DO NOT REPLY" asCustom Field in Zoho Projects pulling into Analytics
We have a client that we have built our their new business process using Zoho Projects, and we have build a lot of custom fields with their their Projects where they are capturing specific data points that we want to be able to track and pull data, asMarketer's Space - Holiday season email marketing tips you should know
Hello Marketers! Welcome back to another post in Marketer's Space! 'Tis the season—that time of the year everyone eagerly anticipates. While most look forward to relaxing, marketers will be super-busy from late November to early January. Mistakes canZia Competitor Alerts made easy with Zia's suggestions
Hi everyone, In addition to the existing manually added competitors, Zia will now find your competitors for you - instantly. Earlier, you had to identify competitors through research manually, support tickets, or tradeshows—a time-consuming process thatAdd Custom Field Inside Parts Section
How to Add Custom Field Inside Parts Section in Workorder like Category and Sub- CategoryZoho CRM Community Digest October 2025 | Part 2
Hello Everyone! From new mobile capabilities and smarter integrations to real-world workflow fixes and developer insights, all the highlights from the second half of October is covered right here. Let’s dive in. Product Updates: Zoho CRM Mobile Updates:Understanding Zoho Contracts
Effective contract management relies on systems that are structured, organized, and reliable. Every feature, workflow, rule, and restriction in Zoho Contracts are designed the way they are to ensure consistency, compliance, and control across every stageTip of the Week #76– Automate your inbox during vacation in Zoho TeamInbox
When you're on vacation or away from your desk, the last thing you want is for important emails to be missed or left unanswered. The good news is, you can easily set up rules in Zoho TeamInbox to assign incoming messages automatically to a teammate who'sDomain restriction for User Management actions in Zoho One
Greetings, Zoho One Admins! To strengthen account security further and safeguard user management settings, we are imposing domain-based restrictions for user account-focused admin actions in Zoho One. In addition to password reset of user, organizationZoho Mail iOS app update: Signature
Hello everyone! In the latest version(3.1.7) of the Zoho Mail app update, we have brought in support to create, edit and remove signature within the app. You can create signature from the compose screen as well as from within the Settings module(insideDesktop app doesn't support notecards created on Android
Hi, Does anybody have same problem? Some of last notecards created on Android app (v. 6.6) doesn't show in desktop app (v. 3.5.5). I see these note cards but whith they appear with exclamation mark in yellow triangle (see screenshot) and when I try toApproval Button in Subform
Hi Team, I’m working on a subform-based requirement where users will submit requests, and these requests must go through approval by multiple team managers. Each line item in the subform needs to be individually approved or declined based on the user'sSetting checkbox value on template in Sign from Creator
Good day, Please help me understand how do I set a tick from a checkbox in Creator into a checkbox on a Sign template. Below is the only values on the Sign template and the code from Creator, "field_boolean_data": {}, "field_date_data": {}, "field_radio_data":Zoho Projects - Unread Comment Icon
Hi Projects Team, It would be great if there was a notification I con on the comments icon so it's easy to see which tasks have new comments. Something like a red circle with a number of unread comments would be great. Thanks for considering my feedZoho Projects - Update Feed via API
Hi Projects Team, Please consider adding an API to allow update and retrieval of messages to the Feed. Thank youAutomated log-out/session end
I'm concerned about security of our data. Is it possible to set an automatic time-out for user sessions on Zoho CRM, after a certain period of inactivity or when the session reaches a certain duration (12 hours perhaps)?Subform auto populate values
Hi Team, I’m trying to retrieve values from Zoho People using API functions and dynamically populate them into a subform. For example, I’ve created a form with several fields that users will fill out. Based on their input, I need to fetch records fromWhat is New in CRM Functions?
What is New in CRM Functions? Hello everyone! We're delighted to share that Functions in Zoho CRM have had a few upgrades that would happen in phases. Phase 1 An all new built-in editor for better user experience and ease of use. ETA: In a couple of days.Gantt Chart - Zoho Analytics
Are there any plans to add Gantt Charts capabilities to Zoho Analytics?WhatsApp Calling Integration via Zoho Desk
Dear Zoho Desk Team, I would like to request a feature that allows users to call WhatsApp numbers directly via Zoho Desk. This integration would enable sending and receiving calls to and from WhatsApp numbers over the internet, without the need for traditionalIdentify long running sync jobs/tables
My sync process causes strain on my production database and I'd love some tools/alerts to help me identify which tables are taking the longest. The current screen only shows 3 tables at a time and truncates the last fetch time so that it is very cumbersomeTemporarily rate limited due to IP reputation.
We have suddenly started receiving the following Mail Delivery Status Notification: Diagnostic-Code: 4.7.650 The mail server [136.143.184.12] has been temporarily rate limited due to IP reputation. For e-mail delivery information, see https://aka.ms/postmasterAutomatically CC an address using Zoho CRM Email Templates
Hi all - have searched but can't see a definitive answer. We have built multiple email templates in CRM. Every time we send this we want it to CC a particular address (the same address for every email sent) so that it populates the reply back into ourAssociate emails from both primary and secondary contacts to deal
We need to associate emails from multiple contacts to a deal. Please advise how this can be achieved. At present, only emails from primary contacts can be associated. ThanksNew integration: Zoho Sign for Zoho Projects
Hey there! We’re excited to announce the brand-new Zoho Sign integration for Zoho Projects! With this integration, users can now send documents for signatures, track their progress, and manage approvals—all without leaving Zoho Projects. This bridgesUpdate to attachment display in ticket threads
This enhancement will provide faster access for support teams and end-users, significantly boosting productivity for everyone. Get ready for a more efficient and satisfying experience! Immediate benefits Faster ticket rendering reduces wait times andNarrative 15: Blueprint - Automate, guide, and transform your support processes
Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series Narrative 15: Blueprint - Automate, guide, and transform your support processes Even organizations that deliver quality products and services can face low customer satisfaction when theirDifferent MRP / Pricing for same product but different batches
We often face the following situations where MRP of a particular product changes on every purchase and hence we have to charge the customer accordingly. This can't be solved by Batch tracking as of now so far as I understand Zoho. How do you manage it as of now?Batch/lot # and Storage bin location
Hi I want to ask for a feature on Zoho inventory I own a warehouse and I've gone through different management software solutions with no luck until I found Zoho, it has been a game changer for my business with up to the minute information, I'm extremely happy with it. It's almost perfect. And I say Almost because the only thing missing for me (and I'm sure I'm not alone) is the need of being able to identify the lot number of my inventory and where it is located in the warehouse. Due to the natureZOHO BOOKS - RECEIVING MORE ITEMS THAN ORDERED
Hello, When trying to enter a vendor's bill that contains items with bigger quantity than ordered in the PO (it happens quite often) - The system would not let us save the bill and show this error: "Quantity recorded cannot be more than quantity ordered."Next Page