Approving Time Records

Created by Mario Rodriguez, Modified on Sat, 28 Feb at 4:18 AM by Mario Rodriguez

Clinical supervisors will find a menu item labeled "Approve Time Records". (The page is also available to faculty and clinical coordinators in the Admin Panel.) There are 2 sections. The top part, ending with the "Approved Selected" button, displays all time records that have been "matched" - that is, records that have both a clock in and a clock out record filed for same day. If a program requires that students clock in and out for breaks and lunch, there may be several records per student for each day. Let's discuss several of the columns in this top area.

Time Exception Request - Sometimes a student may not remember, or be able, to clock in or out. In this case, a student will report the time of arrival or departure by filing a Time Exception. This is less preferable than clocking in and out because the time reported is subjective, whereas actual server time is used for a clock in from our system. If a student files a "time exception" rather than using the clock in page, you will see the reason the student provides in this column, as the student must always report why the clock in system was not used.

Edit Icon - You may not wish to immediately approve a time record. If you wish to annotate the record, or disapprove it, click the "Edit Icon." Note that you can change the clock type from clock in to clock out, the date, the clinical site, or add a comment to the record. You may also disapprove a record. Disapproval of a time record will generate an automated email to the clinical coordinator advising of your action. Be sure to click the "Update" button to save your changes before returning to the previous screen.

IP Name - The location at which a record was created is stored also. When possible, the location is resolved to an actual name; when we can't determine that, the location will be an Internet address. Time exceptions will not have the address of your clinical site unless they were filed at your site, whereas clock records will generally have the same or a very similar IP address. GPS has now been enabled, so instead of the IP address, you may see latitude/longitude in the Location column. If it's colored pink, that means the location of the student as reported by the smart device does not match the verified clinical site location; the student was not at your location when this was selected or may have chosen the wrong clinical site during clock-in; you may wish to investigate further. You can click on the "location pin

" to see the exact reported location from a map. See more below regarding geolocation.

Below the "Approve Selected" button at right, you may find additional records that are "unmatched", meaning that the student did not file both a clock in and a clock out for the same day. You can add a new record by clicking the plus sign at right, but we suggest that you don't...let the student take care of this problem by filing a Time Exception. At the bottom of this section, you will find

buttons. Click "Generate email notifications" to send emails to all students who have unmatched records requesting them to file time exceptions for the missing records. If the unmatched records contain the current date you are reviewing, it means students have clocked in at clinic that day and simply have not completed their work and clocked out. In this case, for current day records at the bottom, do not generate email notifications.

Your program may have opted to send you automated reminders to approve these records if someone doesn't approve them every 3 days; if you're getting these notifications and don't know why (if all records in the top area have been approved/cleared), it is likely because there are records in the bottom area that need attention.

Geolocation - a student using a smart device to clock in will be asked to share his/her geolocation. If the student denies our system access to the location, the time record will have a light orange box in the location column; when you scroll over it, you will see a message that the student denied access to geolocation.

Note that the Times-->Approve Time Records page includes a column marked "Location." The location contains the latitude/longitude of the student at clock in/out which can be displayed by clicking the location pin. A red pin denotes the location has not been confirmed by administrators as the correct location; a black location pin indicates a clinical supervisor or program administrator has verified the site on a map. A location can be approved by clicking the red pin to bring up a map; if the map location of your clinical site is correct, click the green button at the bottom of the map: "Yes, location is correct." Thereafter, 2 icons will appear when the location pin opens a map: the blue icon - the approved site location - and the green icon - the student's reported location.

If you see the pink block in the location columns, that means that the student's clock-in location does not match the verified site location. You may click the black location pin to view the map: the blue icon showing the site location and the green icon showing the student location. You may need to zoom out on the map to view both icons.