We launched Blip back in April 2018 across the UK and have now had over 10 million clock in's globally!

What is Blip?

Blip is our handy mobile app that lets you easily track your employees’ working hours and check their clocking locations on the go. Just fire up the app to see who’s in, who’s off and who’s on a break.

• Blip makes logging your employees working hours easy, here's how:
• Create multiple locations and easily track where your staff have worked during the day.
• Keep an eye on your employees’ breaks and make sure they’re getting enough downtime.
• Let employees' set reminders so they never forget to clock in, clock out, or take a break.
• Put your staff in control of logging their work hours to take the pressure off you and free up your time.

How does Blip work?

Now you know what Blip is and how it works, let's talk about how to get started. The first step in setting anything up can be daunting but with this simple guide, you'll be up and running in no time!

1. Setup your locations. This is where your staff will be clocking in and out, it could be their home address, in your office or at another site.
2. Get your staff to download the app on their phone and log in using their BrightHR details to get started. 
3. See real-time updates on whether an employee is clocked in, clocked out or on a break. You can even export this as a spreadsheet straight from your phone!

Locations

The first step to getting Blip setup is to creating your locations, you can have as many of these as you like. 

Setting up a location is easy, all you have to do is head to the 'More' tab at the bottom of your app and select 'Locations'.

In here you'll have a pink plus button, just tap that and enter the address you want to set up a location for.

Once you've selected your address you'll have a quick form to fill in, just enter in the name of the address, the address details and select the radius - this is the virtual boundary around your location that your employees have to be within in order to clock in.

Public & Private Locations

At the bottom of your location setup page you'll be able to select whether this location is public or private here's a simple breakdown of what this means.

**Top Tip: Not going to be using geo-locations? Tap the 'Hide fence' box when setting up your location to make this location QR code only.

Now you're done! Just tap the pink tick to confirm and add your location and don't worry you can go in at any time and edit the location details.

Clock-in Settings

To enable specific clock-in settings, tap the settings section and then the company settings tab.

You can enable a few options for how you would like your employees to be able to clock in either as a group or by specific employees. Here are the options available to select from...

Flexible Clock-in

If your employees aren't working at the same predefined locations then you can set up flexible clocking, this allows the employee to clock in or out from anywhere.

Onsite Clock-in

This option will ensure that your employees can only clock in using a geo-fence or QR code to ensure they're in the location you have set up on Blip.

Flexible Clock-out

This option combines the two above by allowing the employee to clock out if they're outside a geo-fence or without a QR code. This option is designed for if the employee forgets to clock out with the normal method and prevents the admin needing to adjust shifts etc.

Either select the setting for all employees or use the 'Select employee permissions' option to assign individual permissions based on the above.

Clocking-in

Now that you've got locations added and have enabled flexible clocking for any employees that don't have a set working location you're ready to start clocking in and out.

1. A mixture of the above methods can also be enabled in settings with the 'Flexible clock out' option allowing users to clock in with a QR code or geo-fence only, and geo-fence, QR code or flexible clock in if outside the fence to allow clock out for employees that may have forgotten to clock out when leaving.

Clocking Employees in & out

If your employee has forgotten to clock in or out you can do this on their behalf.

To clock an employee in, just head to the ‘Who’s in’ section on the app and tap on the pink plus button. You’ll then be able to select who you want to clock in and which location you’d like to clock them in to.

To clock an employee out, go to the ‘Who’s in’ section of your app and select the employee you want to clock out. Then hit the ‘Clock out user’ button.

**Top Tip: Use the filter at the top of the page to view clocked in / out by team or location.

Adding Shifts for a Past Date

Need to add shifts for a past date? No problem! 1. Just head to 'More' and select 'History' to get started.  2. Now tap the people icon at the top and choose which of your employees you'd like to add a shift for. 3. Then just hit the plus button, add a start date and time and an end date and time.  4. Tap the tick at the top to save and add this shift.

Editing shifts is super simple and can be done in a few quick steps, let's take a look at this in a little more detail. 

How to Edit a Shift

1. Head to the 'More' section of your app and then tap History.
2. Tap the people button at the top and select the employee you'd like to edit shifts for from the list.
3. Tap the calendar button and select the date of the shift you'd like to edit.
4. Select the shift you'd like to edit and tap the pink arrow in the right-hand side.
5. Add the new shift start or end time and tap the tick at the top to save your changes.

Shift Adjustments

To save you some time, on blip, employees can also request an adjustment to their clocking in and out times, which you can then approve or decline - in a tap!

**Top tip: You can even tap the pencil on the requested clock in or out times to make any changes necessary before approving or declining the request.

Adding Breaks

Employee forgotten to record their break? No problem!

1. Head to 'More', open up 'History' and find the shift you'd like to add a break to. 
2. Open this up and hit the 'Add break' button.
3. Enter the start date and time, end date and time then select the tick at the top of the screen - simple!

So your employees have started using the app to record their working hours, surely there should be an easy way to view this, right? We think so too. Let's take a look at how you can generate reports directly from your Blip app.

Blip Timesheet Report

Alternatively, you can download this information in a CSV file from the Reports section of your BrightHR account. 

Generate a Blip History report showing you how many hours each employee has worked. Or a Timesheet report to see a full breakdown of each shift clocked into within your chosen date range as well as scheduled shifts on rotas and / or working time patterns.