How to clock in and out in VICIdial

Clocking in and out in VICIdial takes about ten seconds once you know where the link is. The Timeclock is its own small application, separate from the dialer, so punching in is not the same action as logging into the agent screen. This is the practical flow: where to click, what to enter, and what happens if someone forgets to punch out.

The Timeclock records one span of paid time per shift, regardless of how many times an Agent logs into the actual dialer afterward. For why the two are separate at all, see Timeclock vs login session. This page is just the punch flow.

Find the Timeclock link

There are two doors into the same Timeclock, and either works:

• At the top of the VICIdial agent login screen, the screen where agents normally enter their user and password to start dialing.
• At the top of the VICIdial Administration interface, useful for managers and anyone who clocks in but does not dial.

Click that link and you land in the Timeclock app itself, which is a deliberately plain screen with just enough on it to punch in or out.

Punch in

1. Open the Timeclock from the link at the top of the agent or admin login screen.
2. Enter the same VICIdial user login and password the agent uses for the dialer.
3. Confirm the login. The Timeclock records the punch-in time and opens a new record.
4. Go back to the agent login screen and log into the dialer as normal to start taking calls.

That punch-in is the start of one continuous span. Nothing the agent does inside the dialer after that, switching campaigns, going on break, or even logging out of the agent screen and back in, stops the Timeclock. The clock keeps running until they explicitly punch out.

Punch out

At the end of the shift, the agent returns to the Timeclock the same way, through the link at the top of the login screen, and logs out of the clock. That stamps the punch-out time and closes the record. The span now has both a login and a logout, and the total hours are calculated. Only a closed record like this can later be corrected by a manager; a still-open one cannot be edited until it is closed.

It is worth telling agents plainly: logging out of the agent screen is not punching out. Many people assume closing the dialer ends their clock. It does not. The two are separate, which is the whole reason this flow exists.

The flow at a glance

The diagram traces a normal day, punch in, work, punch out, plus the forgot-to-punch-out path.

flowchart TD
  A[Open Timeclock link] --> B[Enter user and password]
  B --> C[Punch in, record opens]
  C --> D[Log into agent screen and dial]
  D --> E{Remembered to punch out}
  E -- Yes --> F[Open Timeclock and punch out]
  F --> G[Record closed with hours]
  E -- No --> H[Timeclock End of Day force logout]
  H --> I[Record closed and marked AUTOLOGOUT]

If an agent forgets to punch out, the day does not run forever. A system setting called Timeclock End of Day force-logs-out everyone still on the clock, because no record can be longer than 24 hours. A record closed that way is marked AUTOLOGOUT, which is a clear flag that a manager may need to correct the real end time later.

Making it mandatory

If you do not want to rely on agents remembering the punch-in link, you can require it. A User group setting forces members of that group to clock in before VICIdial lets them into the agent interface, so the punch-in becomes step zero of every shift. That toggle is covered in how to force Timeclock login, the wider picture is in the cluster overview, and a related agent setting is the agent callback user option. Either way, a clean punch in and out is what keeps your hours-worked numbers, and any Disposition-based productivity report sitting next to them, trustworthy.

If you would rather not run the server behind all this, VICIfast provisions a hardened VICIdial box with the Timeclock ready in under 40 seconds. See our pricing for plan details.