Plain Tracker Pro documentation
Thank you for using our product! We strive to make Plain Tracker be as easy to use as possible, anyway we still have some help files, please have a look here if you are stuck with something. If any question remains, please feel free to contact us!
Table of contents
- Installation
- Create and manage worker accounts
- Set up front end interface
- Admin clock dashboard
- View and modify time records view
- Export time records
- Date and time settings
Installation
- Download the latest Plain Tracker Pro version.
- Extract the zip archive on your computer.
- Use an FTP application, an online file manager or your hosting control panel to copy the plaintracker-pro folder to the wp-content/plugins folder on your server.
- Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
- Visit Plain Tracker > Administration to configure the plugin.
User management
You will need to create worker accounts for people of your organization who will be clocking in and out. You will need to select an existing Wordpress user of your site and mark them as a worker. Adding a new worker is straightforward - go to Plain Tracker > Administration > Workers, then click Add new.
The worker basic details like full name and email address will be reused from Wordpress details. You can also provide additional details like phone number and short description.
Front end interface
Place the shortcode [plaintracker] on any page or post.
This will instantly turn your site into a clock in portal for your employees.
Admin clock dashboard
Admins can quickly clock in a worker.
Admins can see who is currently clocked in and clock out workers if necessary.
Admin time records view
Plain Tracker comes with a configurable time records list view for admins.
You can configure the date period to display (days/weeks/months), for example 2 weeks or 6 days.
Then you can take advantage of the quick navigation buttons on top of the view to go the next or the previous date period.
The time records list includes a filter by employee where you can select one or more workers to display their time records only.
Below the time records list there is the table with the totals with breakdown by worker and grand total for all workers during the selected time period.
Export time records Pro
The download module lets you download the list of time records as a CSV file. You can later use this file for backup or archiving purposes, or further process it with office spreadsheet software like MS Excel, LibreOffice, Google Sheets, and others.
Go the the Time records page, adjust the filtering options according to your requirements. You will see the list of time cards matching your selected options. Below the list you will find the Download button.
You will get the CSV file with the thorough information of your time cards. This file will contain the following columns:
- worker
- payroll_date
- clock_in
- clock_out
- duration
The downloaded file will be conveniently named like time-records-StartDate-EndDate.csv, for example time-records-20240609-20240616.csv. If you get to the list of time cards from a worker's detauls page, the file name will also contain that filtering option, for example timerecords-worker123-20240609-20240616.csv. This will help you know the content of the file by its name.
Date and time settings
By default, Plain Tracker comes with the setting to display date and time to the US time formatting preferences. For example, current date and time would look something like this: 5 Apr 2025 11:06am.
Date and time format
In various parts of the plugin all the date and time values are formatted according to these default settings.
Perhaps this will not work for everyone. So, you can easily change the formatting for your date and time display in Plain Tracker WordPress employee attendance management system. In the WordPress admin panel, go to Plain Tracker > Settings > Date and Time. You will see the settings form for all the time realated options.
For example, let's change it to the German date and time format like 05/04/2025 11:06. Choose the appropriate options in the date and time settings form, then click Save to apply the new settings.
Now the date and time values will be displayed formatted according to the new settings.
The first day of the week
Almost all countries in North and South America start their week on Sunday, while countries in Europe and Oceania overwhelmingly start on Monday. Roughly half the countries in Africa and Asia are on team Sunday, the other on team Monday.
You can set your preference in Plain Tracker > Settings > Date and Time > Week Starts On
This setting will affect your time log browsing and reporting pages when you choose the Week period.