⏱️ S3 Punch — How-to
Recording your work time on the phone, step by step.
📲 1. Get the app on your phone
S3 Punch replaces ClockShark. You use it the same way you use the QC app: it lives on your home screen and works even with a weak signal.
- Open apps.s3tecllc.com (Field OS) and sign in with your usual login. Tap the S3 Punch card.
- When the banner "Install S3 Punch as an app" appears, tap Install. If it doesn't show: Android → Chrome menu ⋮ → Add to Home screen. iPhone → Share ⎋ → Add to Home Screen.
- The first time you clock in your phone asks for Location. Choose Allow while using the app. This is how the app confirms you're at the job.
- After your first clock-in the app offers Turn on reminders. Tap it and allow notifications: you'll get a nudge on the phone if you forget to clock out.
- From now on open it from the amber clock icon on your home screen, not from the browser.
Don't see the S3 Punch card? Only W2 employees get it. Ask your manager if you should have it. If you were just given access, sign out of Field OS and sign back in once.
🕗 2. Your day: clock in, clock out
There are only two punches. Clock in when you arrive on site at your first job. Clock out when you're done. Everything in between, driving to the next job, waiting, working, is on the clock. You do not punch each job.
Clock in (arriving at your first job)
- Open S3 Punch. Under Right now it says Not on the clock. Tap 🛠️ Clock in.
- Your route for today loads (the same jobs as on the QC app). The job you're standing at shows ✓ on site and is usually already selected. Other jobs show how far away they are.
- Check the Line of business (DirecTV is the default; pick Viasat / DropBury when that's the job).
- Was the drive to this job longer than an hour? Type the extra minutes over the hour in the commute box (75-minute drive → 15). Shorter drives: leave it blank.
- Tap Clock in. The big timer starts.
⚠ "You're not on site" shows in red when your phone is more than about 0.3 mi from the job's address. You can still clock in (e.g. picking up gear first), but your location is recorded and your manager will see the distance. If it's wrong because your phone's GPS is off, turn Location on and try again.
During the day
Nothing to do. Drive to the next job, work, drive again: it's all on the clock. If you open the app it shows how long you've been clocked in and where you clocked in.
Clock out (done for the day)
- Tap ⏹ Clock out.
- Was the drive home longer than an hour? Type the extra minutes over the hour (90-minute drive → 30). Otherwise leave it blank.
- Tap Clock out now. The timer stops.
Split days (early job, then a gap, then more jobs)
Clock out when you're done with the early job and going home; clock in again when you arrive at the next one. Two clock-ins in a day is normal. Only the time between clock in and clock out is paid.
Reminders
If you're still clocked in but your route shows no job left, or it's past 8 PM and you're still on the clock, the app nudges you (a notification on the phone, an email with your manager copied, and a banner in the app with a Clock out button). If you really are still working, ignore it.
A normal day looks like7:40a 🛠️ Clock in · SMITH, J ✓ on site
(+15 min commute, 75-min drive)
4:40p ⏹ Clock out
(+30 min commute home, 90-min drive)
Paid: 9 h on the clock + 45 min commute extra.
What you see on screen
- Right now: clocked in or not, since when, and the running timer.
- Today: your clock-ins and commute extras. Tap one to fix it.
- Week: Fri–Thu hours per day, regular vs overtime, commute extra.
- online / offline chip and pending sync (N) if punches are waiting for signal.
📏 3. The rules
- Clock in when you arrive on site at your first job, not when you leave home. The app records where your phone is.
- Clock out when you're done. A clock-in left open past 12 hours is flagged and your manager has to fix it.
- Commute rule: the first hour of driving to your first job and home from your last job is on you. Only the part over one hour is paid, and you enter just that part (75 min → 15).
- Punch live. Time typed in afterwards is flagged for your manager.
- Warehouse, training, meetings, PTO are added with Add time; they're paid.
- One clock-in at a time. Clock out before you clock in again.
- Payroll week is Friday → Thursday. Overtime starts after 40 paid hours in that week.
- Once your manager approves a week, it's locked. If something is wrong after that, tell your manager; they can reopen it.
🛠 4. Fix a mistake or add time
Wrong clock-in or clock-out time, wrong job
- Under Today (or open the day from the week list) tap the entry.
- Change the type, line of business, date, start, end, activity # or note.
- Type why you're changing it (required — your manager sees it). Tap Save.
Forgot to clock out
Tap the open entry, put in the real clock-out time, say why, Save.
Forgot to clock in (or the phone was dead)
Tap + Add time, type On the clock, date, start and end, the reason, Save. Added time is marked manual so your manager knows it wasn't a live punch.
Forgot the commute minutes
+ Add time → type Commute over 1 h → the date → To the first job or Home from the last job → the extra minutes → reason → Save. It attaches to that day's clock-in / clock-out.
Warehouse, training, meeting
+ Add time → pick the type → date, start, end → Save.
PTO / day off
+ Add time → type Paid Time Off → the date → start 08:00, end 16:00 (or the hours you were told) → reason "PTO" → Save.
Delete an entry
Tap the entry → type the reason → Delete. (Nothing is really erased; managers keep the history.)
Edits are marked edited and show your reason. That's normal; it just tells your manager to look at it.
📅 5. Your week and approvals
The week card shows Friday to Thursday. Use ‹ › to look at other weeks. Tap a day to see its blocks.
| You see | It means |
|---|
| open | You're still clocked in on that day. |
| approved | Your manager approved it. You can't change it any more. |
| needs fix + red banner | Your manager sent the week back. Read the reason in the banner, fix the blocks, and they'll review again. |
| not synced on a block | Saved on your phone, waiting for signal. It uploads by itself. |
After your manager approves, you'll be given a printed timecard for the week to sign, same as before.
❓ 6. FAQ
- No routed jobs show when I tap "Clock in".
- The route feed updates every 30 minutes; if your route changed just now, wait a bit. You can pick No job / other work, clock in, and fix the job # later (tap the entry → Activity #).
- I got a "don't forget to clock out" reminder but I'm still working.
- Ignore it. It fires when your route shows no active job left; your manager is copied so they know you're still on the clock.
- The app says "no location".
- Location is off for the app or for the phone. Android: Settings → Apps → Chrome / S3 Punch → Permissions → Location → Allow. iPhone: Settings → Privacy → Location Services → Safari → While Using.
- No signal at the job.
- Punch anyway. The app keeps it on the phone (pending sync) and uploads when you're back in coverage. Don't reinstall the app while punches are pending.
- My phone died / I switched phones.
- Sign in on the new phone; your week is on the server. Anything that hadn't synced from the old phone is lost, so add it with Add time I forgot.
- I get "This day is approved".
- Your manager already approved it. Ask them to reopen the week if something is wrong.
- The app looks old / a button is missing.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Update app.
👥 Managers: what you get
Open the Punch Dashboard card on Field OS (or punch.s3tecllc.com/manager). You see the W2 techs assigned to you in the Manager Console; admins see everyone; exec sees everything read-only. Techs never see the dashboard.
You'll be asked to approve every tech's week, fix punches when needed, and hand payroll a CSV plus signed timecards. Everything below is what the tech guide above doesn't cover.
🗓 Managers: the weekly routine
- Daily (1 minute): open the dashboard, glance at the team grid. Anyone on the clock late in the evening forgot to clock out (they've already been nudged, and you were CC'd on the email); anyone with a red flag deserves a look while it's fresh.
- Friday morning: press ‹ to go to the week that just ended (Fri–Thu). Click each tech → review flags → Approve week or Send back with a reason.
- Once everyone is approved: Export CSV (approved) for payroll and Print timecards (approved); have each tech sign theirs.
- After payroll: nothing. Approved weeks stay locked. Use Reopen only if payroll needs a correction.
Approve week is greyed out while the tech is still clocked in. Either the tech clocks out, or you edit the clock-in and give it an end time.
🚩 Managers: reading the team grid and the flags
The grid shows per tech: status, regular / OT / drive / PTO hours, hours per day (a day in amber has a flag), and the flags for the week. The KPI tiles on top total the team. Click a row to open the tech.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|
| to review | Has time, not yet approved. |
| on the clock | Clocked in right now (or never clocked out). |
| approved / sent back | Your decision for that week. |
| no time | Nothing recorded that week. |
| Flag | What happened | What to do |
|---|
| edited | Tech changed a punch after the fact. The reason is shown in italics on the row. | Read the reason. Occasional edits are normal; a pattern isn't. |
| manual | Entry was typed in, not tapped live (includes PTO, warehouse, commute added later). | PTO: confirm it was approved. Clock-ins: ask why it wasn't punched live. |
| nogps | Phone location was off when they punched. | Tell the tech to allow Location (FAQ above). Repeated = coaching. |
| offsite | Clocked in more than 0.3 mi from the job. The distance is shown next to the start time; the 📍 opens the spot in Google Maps. | Ask. Picking up gear or a gate at the road is fine; clocking in from home is not. |
| nudged | The tech got a clock-out reminder (no active job left on the route, or past 8 PM local) and was still clocked in. You were CC'd. Hover the badge to see when. | If he clocked out soon after, fine. If the shift ran on for hours after the nudge, fix the clock-out time. |
| van | Only for techs with a ClearPath unit: the van's first arrival at the first job differs from the clock-in by more than 20 min, or a clock-in exists on a day the van never moved. | Compare the van line on the day header (first move, at 1st job, last move) with the punches. |
| long | A clock-in over 12 hours, or still open. | Almost always a missed clock-out. Fix the clock-out time. |
Techs without a van never get a van flag; the phone punch and the offsite check are what you have for them.
✅ Managers: reviewing, editing, approving
Reviewing a tech
Click the tech. Each day is a header row (day total, van summary if any, flags, approve day) followed by its entries (clock-ins, commute extras, PTO…) with start / end / minutes / regular / OT, the tech's note and reason, flags and status. Times are shown in the tech's local time.
Editing or adding a block
- Click edit on the entry (or + Add entry for a missing one).
- Change what's needed; give your reason (required). Save.
- The entry is marked edited, and the history at the bottom of the edit window shows who changed what, when, and why. Nothing is ever silently overwritten.
Approve / send back / reopen
| Button | Effect |
|---|
| Approve week | Marks every finished entry approved and locks the week. The tech sees approved and can't edit. Needed before the CSV export (approved) and timecards. |
| approve day (on a day header) | Approves just that day; useful mid-week. The week still needs Approve week at the end. |
| Send back | Requires a reason. The tech gets a red banner with your reason and the week shows needs fix. Re-review after they fix it. |
| Reopen | Unlocks an approved (or sent-back) week so the tech or you can change it. Re-approve afterwards. |
Rule of thumb: approve only after the flags on that week are explained. A flag doesn't block approval, it's there so you look.
💵 Managers: payroll export and timecards
How hours are computed
- Paid time = clocked time (clock-in to clock-out) + commute extra (only the minutes over one hour, to the first job and home from the last) + Warehouse + Training + Meeting + Other + PTO. No lunch deduction.
- Payroll week Friday → Thursday. Regular up to 40 h, everything after that in the week is overtime, split in the order the entries happened (same method ClockShark used). PTO counts toward the 40, exactly as the ClockShark export did.
- Entries store the tech's own time zone, so a Central-time tech's 8:00 is 8:00 on his timecard.
Export CSV
Export CSV (approved) gives payroll only approved entries; Export CSV (all) includes everything. The columns are the same as the ClockShark export (EmployeeFName … Approved) with four extra columns at the end: Type, Activity, Note, Flags. "Customer: Job" uses the same codes as before (DirecTV:DirecTV Work, DirecTV:Drive time, DirecTV:Paid Time Off, ViaSat …), so existing payroll spreadsheets keep working.
Wet-sign timecards
- Print timecards (approved) prints one page per approved tech for the selected week (or open a tech and click Print timecard for just that one). In the print dialog you can also Save as PDF.
- Each page lists every entry, day totals, regular / OT / total paid, who approved it and when, a certification line and two signature lines.
- Tech signs, you sign, file it with payroll the way you did with the ClockShark cards.
🔧 Managers: giving access and troubleshooting
Giving a tech S3 Punch
- The tech must already have a Field OS login (invited through the Manager Console like for QC).
- Ask an admin to add the tech to the w2 role. Only W2 employees get it; contractors don't use S3 Punch.
- The tech must be assigned to you in the Manager Console (same assignment used for QC); otherwise their time doesn't appear on your dashboard.
- The tech signs out of Field OS and back in once; the S3 Punch card appears. Point them to section 1 above.
Troubleshooting
- A tech isn't in my team grid.
- Either not in the w2 role, or not assigned to you in the Manager Console. Admins can check both.
- Approve week is disabled.
- The tech is still clocked in (see the amber note under the KPIs). Have them clock out, or edit the clock-in with an end time.
- A tech says he never gets reminders.
- He didn't tap "Turn on reminders" (or blocked notifications). Android: Settings → Apps → S3 Punch → Notifications → allow. The email reminder still goes out either way.
- Hours look wrong for a Central-time tech.
- Times are shown in the tech's local time; check the dates rather than the clock times.
- The tech says they punched but I don't see it.
- Their phone hasn't synced (no signal). Ask them to open the app in coverage; pending sync at the top drains by itself.
- I approved the wrong week.
- Click the tech → Reopen, fix, approve again. Everything is in the history.
- Exported CSV is empty.
- You used approved before approving anyone, or the wrong week is selected.
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