Creating and Editing a Punch Management Policy

This article is a concise guide to creating and editing Punch Management Policies in the Citadel web portal. Whether you're establishing new policies or making updates, we provide step-by-step instructions and best practices for effective punch management within your organization. Remember, while a user profile can have only one Punch Management Policy, the policy can encompass multiple punch options for streamlined time tracking.

To complete the steps in this article, you must be an administrator or have the necessary view and/or edit permissions enabled. If you believe you should be able to complete the steps and are not able to, reach out to your account administrator to discuss updating the settings for your Role.

All changes made to a policy will apply to all users assigned to that policy. 

Create a new punch management policy:

1. Log into your Citadel web portal. 
2. Click on Policies in the side menu.
3. Go to the Punch Management section.
4. Click Add New. 
5. Enter a Policy Name for your policy. This name will appear in the list of policies when assigning them to users or departments.
6. Adjust the following settings:
   • Maximum Shift Length – The maximum number of hours a person can work in one shift.
   • Day Changes At – This is the time when the work day changes.
   • New Shift Starts After – The number of hours that must lapse after an employee punches out before they may start a new shift.
   • Allow Time Clock Punch – Enable an employee to punch at a time clock.
   • Allow Web Punch – Enable an employee to punch from their computer on the Citadel Cloud. If enabled, the option to Add and Assign IP addresses will populate allowing you to set up web restrictions. 
   • Allow Department Transfer – Enable employees to transfer between departments.
   • Allow Smartphone Punch – Enable employees to create punches using the Citadel smartphone app. If enabled, the option to Add and Assign Geolocations will populate allowing you to set up location restrictions for smartphone punches. You will also be able to enable Unrestricted Offline Punches. 
7. Click Save to create the policy.

Edit a punch management policy:

1. Log into the Citadel web portal.
2. Click on Policies in the side menu.
3. Go to the Punch Management section.
4. Select the policy you want to edit. 
5. Edit/update the policy.
6. Click Save to update the policy.

Enable smartphone punching and set geolocation restrictions:

The Citadel mobile app allows remote workers to punch in and out from their smartphones. If you want to limit their punches to specific locations, you can set up geo-location restrictions.

1. Log into the Citadel web portal.
2. Click on Policies in the side menu.
3. Go to the Punch Management section.
4. Select the policy you want to update.
5. Under Punch Permissions, set Allow Smartphone Punch to Yes.
6. Click +Add a Geo-Location under the Available Geo-Locations section.
7. Enter a Location name.
8. Set the address of the location.
9. Set the allowable punch radius. The minimum distance available is within 1/2 mile of the address. 
10. Click the checkmark to add the geolocation to the policy.
11. Repeat steps 6 through 9 for additional locations. 
12. Click Save to update the policy.

Enable web punching and set IP address restrictions:

Web punching allows remote workers to clock in and out from a web browser on their computer or mobile device. If you want to limit their punches to specific computers/locations, you can set up IP address restrictions.

1. Log into the Citadel web portal.
2. Click on Policies in the side menu.
3. Go to the Punch Management section.
4. Select the policy you want to update.
5. Set Allow Web Punch to Yes.
6. Click + Add an IP address in the Available IP Addresses.
7. Enter a name for the IP address.
8. Set the IP address (IPv4) or click Use current IP address to auto-populate the IP address of the computer you are on.
9. Click the checkmark to add the IP address to the policy. 
10. Repeat steps 6 through 8 for additional IP addresses. 
11. Click Save to update the policy.