Focus Administrator

How do I use Push Notifications with Self Service?

Enable Push Notifications to let your team know when their Absence Requests have been actioned.

How do I check on Working Time Directive compliance?

Check your compliance with the Working Time Directive by running this report.

How do I get started with the Calendar?

Everything you need to know to navigate your way around employee Calendars.

How do I prevent ‘buddy clocking’ in Self Service?

An quick but effective way of stopping employees clocking for one another.

How do I get Help in Focus?

Learn how to do a variety of tasks by utilising the Help Assistant.

How do I import a budget to the Rota?

Users can easily import daily or weekly budgets to the Rota, saving the time and effort of inputting the figures manually.

How do I set up a password policy?

Decide how passwords are managed, from how secure they are to how often they need changing.

How do I turn on Two Factor Authentication?

Learn how to quickly turn on Two Factor Authentication, adding an extra level of security to your login process.

How do I create Users with limited permissions?

When you create Users in Focus, you have a huge amount of control over which parts of the program they have access to, and what they can do with their access.

How do I create a new Location?

Locations are used as a filter in certain parts of Focus, such as User Rights and Roll Calls.

How do my team let me know if they are unavailable to work?

To help with your Rota planning, you can easily set up a system that allows employees to request not to be rostered on specific days.

How do I get started with Cost Centres?

Hours are allocated to Cost Centres in order to see how much time and money is being spent on a particular department, project or process.

How do I view several weeks of Timesheets at the same time?

In Focus, you have the option of viewing up to 6 weeks of Timesheets at the same time.

How do I assign different pay values to Rates?

Learn how Rate Factors and Gross Hourly Pay work together and how they affect an employee's timesheet.

How do I use a tablet as a clocking terminal?

With Shared Device Mode turned on, all employees can share the same tablet to securely clock in or out.

How do I record a non-working notice period (Garden Leave)?

Learn how to create an appropriate absence reason and how to apply this to employees who are not working their notice period.

How do I convert someone’s Holiday Type from Hours to Days?

In Focus, annual leave can be earned and spent in either hours or days. Learn how to convert from one to the other.

How do I allow employees to modify the exact number of hours they are requesting off?

Modifying the hours request is a simple Self Service Profile permission.

How do I use Absence Types and Absence Reasons?

Explaining how to create new Absence Types and Absence Reasons makes it much easier to demonstrate how they are applied day-to-day.

How do I track Public Holiday balance separately to Personal Holiday balance?

By default, Focus begins with a single Leave Channel, called ‘Personal’, which is used to track employees’ holiday entitlement.

How do I set up Focus to use decimal time instead of hours and minutes?

For companies who wish to use decimal time instead of hours and minutes, changing between the two options is straightforward.‍

How do I set up different Rates?

Rates appear throughout Focus from creating your Shift Rules and managing timesheets to booking absences and reporting.

How do I set up an Employee to be included in the Rota?

Setting up an employee to use the Rota is done in the Rules tab of the Employee Form.

How do I set a new starter's holiday balance?

In Focus, you need to set a yearly allowance before making adjustments in order to set an employee’s pro-rata allowance.

How do I see what changes other Users have made in Focus?

The Audit Log records changes made by all Users.

How do I protect Focus from edits before a certain date?

In order to help preserve employee’s historical data, there is an option in Focus to restrict Users from making changes before a specified date.

How do I prevent employees from requesting more Absence than their entitlement allows?

This is easily achieved by turning off the ‘Request More Than Allowed’ setting in Self Service Profiles.

How do I prevent employees from making short notice absence requests?

In order to ensure that you have enough cover in place, you may wish to set a minimum notice period that employees have to give when making absence requests.

How do I manage lateness when employees work flexible shifts?

A flexible shift is defined as one where times are manually added to the Rota instead of allocating a Shift Rule.

How do I make sure First Aiders are getting scheduled?

Scheduling First Aiders is done in the Drafting Bench and is as simple as adding a regular shift requirement.

How do I make an adjustment to someone’s holiday balance?

Adjusting someone's holiday balance is easy to manage from the Absence Tab of the Employee Form.

How do I let my team carry forward holiday balance?

Carrying forward holiday is easily achieved in the Absence tab of the Employee Form,

How do I change the day the week starts on?

In Focus, the default start of the week is Monday. If you need to change this to meet your own requirements, it is a straightforward process.

How do I make sure a Fire Marshall is scheduled when needed?

Scheduling Fire Marshalls can be done with the Drafting Bench and is as simple as adding a regular shift requirement.

How do I customise Exception colours?

Using customised colours is a useful tool in helping to differentiate between the various Exceptions when viewing Calendars, Timesheets and the Availability screen. 

How do I create and share custom Employee Reports?

Employees Reports can be created to contain a variety of information from staff contact details to who the First Aiders are in the workplace.

How do I create an Absence Reason?

An Absence Reason is the reason a Focus User gives to something happening.

How do I create a Weekly Rule?

Weekly Rules are used to make adjustments to overtime and are applied after all Shift Rules have been applied.

How do I create a basic Self Service Profile for Web Browser users?

Self Service Profiles are sets of rules and permissions that control what employees can see and do within Self Service.

How do I assign Weekly Rules to Employees?

Weekly Rules can apply rate changes or overtime based on hours worked over a week.

How do I allow employees to edit their own Timesheets?

Giving employees the ability to edit their own Timesheets is a straightforward process, applied in their Self Service Profile.

How do I add Employee Photos to Focus?

Upload employee photos to help manage large workforces.

How do I add Payroll Pay References to Employee Records?

Pay References are what some Payroll Software Packages (eg. Sage) use to assign the hours worked from Focus to the correct pay amount.

How do I set an Employee's leaving date?

See where to tell Focus about an Employee's leaving date.

How do I create a system for approving Timesheets?

Approving Timesheets is a way of checking and confirming that all the information (clockings, rates, overtime, shifts etc) is correct before being processed by payroll.

How do I create a new Group?

Use Groups in Focus to compartmentalise your team, manage group absences and more.

How do I create and use Work Schedules?

Work Schedules in Focus are a great way to schedule predictable working patterns. Learn how to use them.

How do I create Users with restricted access to Employees?

Create Users that can access the employees they need to, based on Groups, Locations, Projects, or any other requirement.

How do I keep track of company equipment that my team uses at home?

Use custom fields to track company equipment assigned to your team.

How do I create a basic Self Service Profile for App users?

Create profiles that define what your employees can do in Self Service

How do I create Fire Alarm Roll Calls?

Create interactive checklists for your Fire Officers to use as Roll Calls in the event of an evacuation.

How do I use Group Actions to make changes to Employee Records?

Use Group Actions to apply changes to whole groups of Employees in one go.

How do I set up Focus to use the Available Shifts feature?

Build Rotas using the Drafting Bench then share them with your team, allowing them to let you know which shifts they'd like to work.

How do I import employees?

Import your employees from a csv file.

How do I create a system for authorising overtime?

With a few simple steps create a system where overtime will be flagged for approval before it is processed to payroll.

How do I set up a ‘No Show’ Workflow and what is it used for?

Create instant triggers to alert your supervisors and department heads of any no shows within their team.

How do I set up a ‘Clocked IN Late’ Workflow and what is it used for?

Create automatic reports for your team leaders and department heads about any persistent lateness issues.

How do I create custom Employee Date Alert Workflows?

Create triggers that inform you of crucial dates approaching: licenses expiring, insurance to renew, probation ending and more.

How do I create a Shift Rule?

Shift Rules are the building blocks of your team schedule - learn how to harness their power.

How do I turn on Budgets to use within the Rota?

Turning on budgets within the Rota will help you plan with an eye on your staffing costs.

How do I get started with Workflows?

Workflows are custom reports and alerts that allow you and your leadership team to keep informed and up to date.

How do I create and manage User Defined Fields?

User Defined Fields allow you to add your own fields to the Employee Form, to collect the data important to you.

How do I create and assign Workflow Profiles?

Create Workflow Profiles to control which Focus Users receive which reports and alerts.

How do I assign the same Absences to multiple employees?

Use Absence Profiles to assign the same set of Absences (Bank Holidays, Company Shutdown etc) to groups of employees.

How do I use Employee Templates?

Employee templates are a great way to get new team members set up quickly in Focus.

How do I set up a Geofence?

Draw an area on the map to define a Geofence, an area where your team must be inside before they can perform a valid clocking.

How do I create Cost Centres?

Cost Centres can be used to keep track of wage spending, assigning employee time to particular departments, projects or processes.

How do I create a Restricted Administrator?

A Restricted Administrator can create new Users from a subset of their own User Permissions.

How do I create a new Skill?

Skills are used to declare a single requirement for a certain shift within the Rota.

How do I assign team members to Geofences?

Choose where your team can clock in and out from by assigning them to Locations with Geofences.

How do I assign Skills to employees?

Assign Skills to Employees to track their progress and help your rota builders ensure they have the right people in place.

How do I use templates within the Drafting Bench?

Work with templates to quickly define your scheduling needs for the week.

How do I set up a Focus Wave Reader?

Add your Focus Wave to your Focus System and get up and running in no time.

How do I create and use Skill Sets?

Use Skill Sets to create complex requirements for Rota Shifts, to ensure you have all the skills you need in the place you need them.