Automating Attendance Tracking with Zoho Cliq Developer Platform

I wish remote work were permanently mandated so we could join work calls from a movie theatre or even while skydiving! But wait, it's time to wake up! The alarm has snoozed twice, and your team has already logged on for the day.

Keeping tabs on attendance shouldn't feel like guiding a flock of rebellious sheep. Hence, let's automate check-in and check-out notifications using the Zoho Cliq Platform Schedulers and the Zoho People API, eliminating the guesswork in attendance management and reducing the risk of errors associated with manual monitoring.

How does this solution benefit a business?

1. Real-time reminders reduce instances of ghost check-ins and ensure accurate recording of everyone's logged hours.
   
2. Essential for attendance tracking, payroll accuracy, compliance with labour laws, and audits.
   
3. The entire team stays informed, fostering a cohesive workflow that eliminates the need for micromanagement.      
   

Pre-requisites:  

Before beginning to script the code below, we must create a connection in Cliq with Zoho People. Once a connection is created and connected, you can use it in Deluge integration tasks and invoke URL scripts to access data from the required service.

Create a Zoho People default connection with any unique name with the scopes - ZohoPeople.Attendance.ALL , ZohoPeople.forms.ALL and ZohoPeople.leave.ALL

ⓘ Document for reference : Connections in Cliq 

 

How to obtain or locate the channel unique name in Cliq?

• Navigate to the top right corner of the channel and locate the three dots. Click it.

• In the menu that appears, select "Channel info" and a pop-up will open, displaying detailed channel information.

Hover over the "Connectors" section and click it. Under "API Parameters," you will find the Channel ID and unique name.

We need to create two schedulers, specifically one for check-in and another for check-out.

1. After a successful login in Cliq, hover to the top right corner and click your profile. Post clicking, navigate to Bots & Tools > Schedulers.
   
2. On the right, click the "Create Scheduler" button.
   
3. To learn more about schedulers and their purposes, refer to the Introduction to Schedulers.
   
4. Create a scheduler using your preferred name. Specify the following details: the scheduler name and a description.  
   

1. For the recurring period, choose the type "Weekly." Select Monday through Friday and set the time of execution to 11 AM or any other time that aligns with your company's check-in time, or customise the recurring period based on your specific use case.
   
2. Finally, click "Save & edit code" and paste the following code.
   

1. currentDate = zoho.currentdate;
2. currentDateString = currentDate.toString("dd-MMM-yyyy");
3. fromIndex = 1;
4. toIndex = 200;
5. // Get all active users
6. users = zoho.people.getRecords("employee",fromIndex,toIndex,{},"{CONNECTION_LINK_NAME}");
7. usersList = List();
8. usersList.addAll(users);
9. iterations = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25};
10. // Get All Employees ( 4000 MAX )
11. if(users.size() == 200)
12. {
13. for each  iteration in iterations
14. {
15. fromIndex = fromIndex + toIndex;
16. toIndex = toIndex + 200;
17. users = zoho.people.getRecords("employee",fromIndex,toIndex,{},"{CONNECTION_LINK_NAME}");
18. if(users.size() > 0 && users.size() == 200)
19. {
20. usersList.addAll(users);
21. }
22. else if(users.size() > 0 && users.size() < 200)
23. {
24. usersList.addAll(users);
25. break;
26. }
27. else
28. {
29. break;
30. }
31. }
32. }
33.  
34. // Get all the employees checkedin from the morning.
35. getAttendenceEntries = invokeurl
36. [
37. url :"https://people.zoho.com/api/attendance/fetchLatestAttEntries?duration=240"
38. type :GET
39. connection:"{CONNECTION_LINK_NAME}"
40. ];
41. latestAttendanceRecords = getAttendenceEntries.get("response").get("result");
42. checkedInUsers = List();
43. for each  userRecord in latestAttendanceRecords
44. {
45. checkedInEmployeeEmail = userRecord.get("emailId");
46. checkedInUsers.add(checkedInEmployeeEmail);
47. }
48.  
49. // Get all the employees who applied for leave both approved and pending ( Remove PENDING to exclude only the leave approved employees )
50. leaveApprovedEmployees = invokeurl
51. [
52. url :"https://people.zoho.com/api/v2/leavetracker/leaves/records?from=" + currentDateString + "&to=" + currentDateString + "&dateFormat=dd-MMM-yyyy&approvalStatus=[APPROVED,PENDING]"
53. type :GET
54. connection:"{CONNECTION_LINK_NAME}"
55. ];
56. info  leaveApprovedEmployees;
57. leaveApprovedEmployeesList = List();
58. for each  member in leaveApprovedEmployees.get("records")
59. {
60. leaveApprovedEmployeesList.add(member.get("EmployeeId"));
61. }
62. info leaveApprovedEmployeesList;
63.  
64.  
65. // Add the users to yet to checkin list if they are not checked from the morning and not applied for leave
66. usersYetToCheckIn = list();
67. for each  user in usersList
68. {
69. employeeEmail = user.get("EmailID");
70. employeeId = user.get("EmployeeID");
71.     employeeStatus = user.get("Employeestatus");
72. if(!checkedInUsers.contains(employeeEmail) && !leaveApprovedEmployeesList.contains(employeeId) && employeeStatus.equals("Active"))
73. {
74. usersYetToCheckIn.add(employeeEmail);
75. }
76. }
77.  
78. // Mention the list of users in the channel.
79. if(usersYetToCheckIn.size() == 0)
80. {
81. info "No users were found yet to checked-in at 11 PM today. Great to see everyone wrapping in on time! ✅";
82. }
83. else
84. {
85. usersYetToCheckInString = "";
86. for each  user in usersYetToCheckIn
87. {
88. usersYetToCheckInString = usersYetToCheckInString + "[" + user + "](mail:" + user + ") \n";
89. }
90. usersYetToCheckInString = usersYetToCheckInString.subString(0,usersYetToCheckInString.length() - 2);
91. response = Map();
92. card = Map();
93. card.put("title","Employees who haven’t checked in yet ( " + usersYetToCheckIn.size() + " )");
94. card.put("thumbnail","https://i.pinimg.com/originals/85/e9/f3/85e9f3f5ac31fc5aab586e208297f43d.gif");
95. card.put("theme","modern-inline");
96. response.put("card",card);
97. response.put("text",usersYetToCheckInString);
98. info zoho.cliq.postToChannel("{CHANNEL_UNIQUE_NAME}",response);
99. }
    

1. Now, let's follow the same steps and create a scheduler for checkout reminders. Under the recurring period, choose the type as "Weekly." Select Monday through Friday and set the time of execution to 7 PM or any other time that aligns with your company's checkout time, or customise the recurring period based on your specific use case.
   
2. Click "Save & edit code" and paste the following code.
   

1. attendanceResponse = invokeurl
2. [
3. url :"https://people.zoho.com/api/attendance/fetchLatestAttEntries?duration=600"
4. type :GET
5. connection:"{CONNECTION_LINK_NAME}"
6. ];
7. info attendanceResponse;
8. todayDate = zoho.currenttime.toString("YYYY-MM-dd");
9. latestAttendanceRecords = attendanceResponse.get("response").get("result");
10. usersWithoutCheckout = list();
11. if(latestAttendanceRecords.size() > 0)
12. {
13. for each  userRecord in latestAttendanceRecords
14. {
15. userEmail = userRecord.get("emailId");
16. dailyEntries = userRecord.get("entries");
17. for each  dailyEntry in dailyEntries
18. {
19. if(dailyEntry.containsKey(todayDate))
20. {
21. todayEntryDetails = dailyEntry.get(todayDate);
22. attendanceLogs = todayEntryDetails.get("attEntries");
23. for each  logEntry in attendanceLogs
24. {
25. if(!logEntry.containsKey("checkOutTime"))
26. {
27. usersWithoutCheckout.add("{@" + userEmail + "}");
28. }
29. }
30. }
31. }
32. }
33. }
34. usersWithoutCheckoutString = usersWithoutCheckout.toString("\n");
35. if(usersWithoutCheckoutString.trim().length() == 0){
36. usersWithoutCheckoutString = "No users were found checked-in after 7 PM today. Great to see everyone wrapping up on time! ✅";
37. }
38. response = Map();
39. card = Map();
40. card.put("title","List of users who remain checked in ( " + usersWithoutCheckout.size() + " )");
41. card.put("thumbnail","https://media.tenor.com/Hd8nLZZTPRYAAAAi/alarm-clock-alarm.gif");
42. card.put("theme","modern-inline");
43. response.put("card",card);
44. response.put("text",usersWithoutCheckoutString);
45. info zoho.cliq.postToChannel("{CHANNEL_UNIQUE_NAME}",response);
    

Wrapping up and checking out for the day, hopefully

Whether you're from HR, tired of chasing attendance logs, or an enthusiastic team lead trying to increase your team's visibility and adjust workload accordingly, Cliq Platform's schedulers are essential and ensure that accurate tracking is consistent and compliance is maintained. Additionally, this would be scalable to handle organizations of any size.

If attendance tracking is a binge-watchable series, what plot twist would these reminders add to your team's script? Let us know in the comments below!

• Topic Participants

• Harsha SS

  

• Ram Freedman

  

• Sticky Posts

• Cliq Bots - Post message to a bot using the command line!

  If you had read our post on how to post a message to a channel in a simple one-line command, then this sure is a piece of cake for you guys! For those of you, who are reading this for the first time, don't worry! Just read on. This post is all about how

• Add Claude in Zoho Cliq

  Let’s add a real AI assistant powered by Claude to your workspace this week, that your team can chat with, ask questions, and act on conversations to run AI actions on. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it, step by step, with all the code

• Automating Employee Birthday Notifications in Zoho Cliq

  Have you ever missed a birthday and felt like the office Grinch? Fear not, the Cliq Developer Platform has got your back! With Zoho Cliq's Schedulers, you can be the office party-cipant who never forgets a single cake, balloon, or awkward rendition of

• Automate attendance tracking with Zoho Cliq Developer Platform

  I wish remote work were permanently mandated so we could join work calls from a movie theatre or even while skydiving! But wait, it's time to wake up! The alarm has snoozed twice, and your team has already logged on for the day. Keeping tabs on attendance

• Customer payment alerts in Zoho Cliq

  For businesses that depend on cash flow, payment updates are essential for operational decision-making and go beyond simple accounting entries. The sales team needs to be notified when invoices are cleared so that upcoming orders can be released. In contrast,

• Recent Topics

• CRM Cadences - working timesThe Friday afternoon? The next Monday morning? Not at all?

  I think I’m writing saying that cadence emails are only sent during the organisations set working hours in CRM. So if a particular email is set to send for example in three days and that lands on a Sunday (when working hours are not operational) when

• CRM Cadences - working times

  I think I’m right in saying that cadence emails are only sent during the organisations set working hours in CRM. So if a particular email is set to send for example in three days and that lands on a Sunday (when working hours are not operational) when

• Cannot find zpuid for Zoho Projects user

  I'm using the Zoho Projects v3 API to create a task. The task is created successfully, but in order to assign the task owner, the "Create a Task" API also requires the zpuid of the task owner. Unfortunately I cannot find any user-related API calls that

• Devis et factures multipage coupées

  Bonjour, je suis sur Zoho invoice et je rencontre un problème sur mes devis et factures lorsqu'ils dépassent 1 page. je me retrouve souvent avec des lignes coupées ou le sous total page 1 et le total page 2. j'aimerai savoir s'il existe une possibilité

• Zoho Desk View Open Tickets and Open Shared Tickets

  Hi, I would like to create a custom view so that an agent can view all the open tickets he has access to, including the shared tickets created by a different department. Currently my team has to swich between two views (Open Tickets and Shared Open Tickets).

• Custom Related List Inside Zoho Books

  Hello, We can create the Related list inside the zoho books by the deluge code, I am sharing the reference code Please have a look may be it will help you. //..........Get Org Details organizationID = organization.get("organization_id"); Recordid = cm_g_a_data.get("module_record_id");

• Add the same FROM email to multiple department

  Hi, We have several agents who work with multiple departments and we'd like to be able to select their names on the FROM field (sender), but apparently it's not possible to add a FROM address to multiple departments. Is there any way around this? Thanks.

• How does SKU work when selling products in parts in Zoho Inventory

  Hello everyone, Zoho Inventory does not understand the physical cutting of the piece.. It only tracks quantities of the unit (like feet ). So when you sell part of an item, the system simply reduces quantity for that SKU. Assume that i have a 50 ft long

• Zoho Meeting - Feature Request - Introduce an option to use local date and time formating

  Hi Zoho Meeting Team, My feature request is to add an option for dates to be displayed in the users local format. This is common practice across Zoho applications and particularly relevant to an application like Zoho Meeting which revolves around date

• Incorrect Functioning of Time Logs API (Version 3)

  We need to fetch the list of time logs for each task for our company internal usage. We are trying to achieve it by using the next endpoint: https://projects.zoho.com/api-docs#bulk-time-logs#get-all-project-time-logs Firstly, in the documentation the

• System Components menu not available for Tablet to select language

  I have attached a screenshot of my desktop, mobile, and tablet menu builder options. I am using 2 languages in my application. Language Selection is an option under the System Components part of the menu, but only for my desktop and phone(mobile). My

• Cannot give public access to Html Snippet in Zoho Creator Page

  Hi, I created a form in Zoho Creator and published it. The permalink works but I want to override the css of the form. (style based URL parameters is not good enough) So I created a page and added an Html snippet. I can now override the css, which is

• How can Outlook 365 link back into Zoho Projects so meetings and events in Outlook calendar show in Zoho?

  We use Outlook 365 for our emails and diaries and have integrated Zoho Projects with Office 365. One challenge we face is getting Zoho Projects to recognise when we have meetings and events in Outlook and not allow project managers to assign tasks over that period. Is there a way to resolve this? Thanks

• IMPORTANT: It doens´t show full article name on search - Should add line break

  When we search for articles, it doesn´t show the full name. There should be a line break so the user can see the full article name, otherwise the user can´t know if that´s the article he/she is looking for. This is very important, otherwise the user has

• IMPORTANT: It doesn´t search for letters with portuguese characters.

  Some of my articles have for example the word "vídeo". But if I search for "vídeo" it doesn´t find them. If I search for "video" it does find them. Idealy, it should find the articles either way. But if I have to choose, it would be better to find the

• On Edit Validation Blueprint

  Hello, I have a notes field and a signature field. When the Approve button is clicked, the Signature field will appear and must be filled in. When the Reject button is clicked, the Notes field will appear and must be filled in. Question: Blueprint will

• Zoho Invoice en Navarra (Spain)

  Hola, ¿Alguien usa Zoho Invoice en la Comunidad Foral de Navarra? En Navarra tenemos un sistema tributario diferente y no aplica Verifactu (la Hacienda Foral de Navarra ha anunciado su alternativa, NaTicket, pero no ha informado cuándo entrará en vigor).

• Conect chat of salesiq with zoho cliq

  Is there any way to answer from zoho cliq the chat of salesiq initiated by customers?

• Emails from Zoho are getting blocked due to Zoho IP address being blacklisted

  This is the info I got from my hosting provider – please address this issue immediately. I don’t expect this from such a big household name. Every single invoice I have sernt it not being received by my clients, all being blocked. All of a sudden. As

• agentid : Where to find?

  I've been looking around for this agenId to check for the total ticket assigned on a specific agent url :"https://desk.zoho.com/api/v1/ticketsCountByFieldValues?departmentId=351081000000155331&agentId=35108xxxxxx132009&field=statusType,status" type :GET

• Zoho DataPrep integration with OpenAI (beta)

  We are thrilled to announce Zoho DataPrep's integration with OpenAI. The public beta roll-out opens up three features. Users who configure their OpenAI Organizational ID and ChatGPT API key (Find out how) will be able access the features. The features

• Ability to Attach Record-Specific Files Automatically in Workflow Email Templates

  Currently in Zoho CRM, email templates allow attachments to be added, but these attachments are static and remain the same for every recipient. There is no straightforward option to automatically attach a file that is stored within the specific CRM record

• Restrict employees to take only one day holiday from a multi-day festival holiday

  Hi everyone, I have a requirement related to Optional/Festival Holidays in Zoho People. For example, in the month of May there are three optional holiday dates: May 11, May 12, and May 13. Employees can choose one of these days as their optional holiday.

• AI Bot and Advanced Automation for WhatsApp

  Most small businesses "live" on WhatsApp, and while Bigin’s current integration is helpful, users need more automation to keep up with volume. We are requesting features based on our customer Feedbacks AI Bot: For auto-replying to FAQs. Keyword Triggers:

• Related lists New option in missing

  hi I have created quite a few modules and added as related lists to my main module. Some have new, some dont I can not see why?

• Setting total budget hours for a specific project

  Hi there, I work on a lot of projects that have fixed budget hours. Is there a way to enter the total budgeted hours so i can track progress and identify when hours have been exceeded. I see in the projects dashboard there is a greyed out text saying

• Clone entire dashboards

  If users want to customize a dashboard that is used by other team members, they can't clone it in order to customize the copy. Instead they have to create the same dashboard again manually from scratch. Suggestion: Let users copy the entire dashboard

• Introducing Formula Fields for performing dynamic calculations

  Greetings, With the Formula Field, you can generate numerical calculations using provided functions and available fields, enabling you to derive dynamic data. You can utilize mathematical formulas to populate results based on the provided inputs. This

• Getting started with Zoho PDF Editor

  Hello users, If you are new to Zoho PDF Editor or aren't sure of its full potential, then this article is for you. Zoho PDF Editor is a free online PDF editing tool, that allows you to upload and edit PDFs, insert text and images, add fillable and e-signature

• Zoho Projects - Cloning a task does not trigger task workflow when created

  Hello! I have a Project where my team uses a set of tasks from a tasklist as templates, so we could simply clone it and drag it to another list in kanban view to avoid creating a new one from scratch. The process works well, but after cloning it the new

• Purchase Orders not in sequence

  I am unable to sort by Purchase Order Numbers. I can only sort by date; however, the PO numbers aren't in the order they were entered. This was not the case prior to today.

• Sharing Tickets to a team within a department

  Hi there, We have a need for one department to be able to share tickets to a specific team within a department, I'm wondering if this is possible? All the shared tickets are going into the 'Shared Tickets' view for the whole department but is there a

• Placeholder format in Number field does not reflect Max Digits configuration

  When the Max Digits (Maximum digits of number) property is set to a smaller value (for example, 2 digits), the placeholder in the input field still displays a 7-digit format (#######). The same behavior can also be observed in Decimal and Currency field

• Internal Fillable Contract with Zoho Writer (Before Sending to Client)

  Hi everyone, I’m trying to automate the following process in Zoho CRM and would appreciate some guidance. Process: When a Deal moves to a specific stage, CRM triggers an automation. CRM sends a contract template to an internal team member so they can

• Date/time displayed in ZohoCRM does not match date/time of entries in ZohoForm

  Hello there, we use a ZohoForm as a worksheet, i.e. users use it to track start time, break and stop time for every working day. The ZohoCRM org time zone is set on GM -4, so is the Time Zone in the Date&Time section in ZohoForm (see attachment). Despite

• Update Existing Records greyed out in Free Version

  Trying to update records from an Excel sheet, and not getting the option to update. Only option is to add as new accounts. All documentation I can see says update should be an option! Accounts, Leads, Contacts, all the same.

• Dynamically Populate Picklist Values from Another Module Using Client Script

  I am working in Zoho CRM and trying to dynamically populate a picklist field in the Partners module using values stored in another custom module. I have two modules: 1. Partners Module Field: Partner_Type_Pick Field Type: Picklist 2. Partners_Type Module

• Add zoho calendar to google calendar

  Hi I keep seeing instructions on how to sync Zoho CRM calendar with google calendar but no instructions on how to view Zoho calendar in my google calendar.

• Zoho Community Digest : Jan 2026 | Part 1

  Hello Everyone! Staying in the loop with Zoho's latest product updates and features across the vast Zoho Community Forums can be a real challenge. We get it. With over 50+ applications, each with its dedicated forum, it's easy to miss out on important

• World date & time format

  Hello, Is there a timeline to get the worldwide used date and time format ? I mean not the american one... I mean day month year, and 24 hours clock. Regards

• Next Page