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Remote

Remote is time tracking for remote and hybrid teams. People track time on Projects tasks or People time codes from a desktop agent, the web or the mobile app. Tracked time pre-fills the People weekly timesheet, which stays the timesheet of record: the employee reviews and submits, the manager approves, and approved hours flow on to Projects billing and People payroll. What else is captured, if anything, is set by a policy per team, and every employee can see everything held about them.

Who uses it​

  • Employee: tracks their own time, handles idle prompts, reviews and submits the timesheet, and sees their data on the My data page.
  • Manager: approves manual time and work-from-home requests, reviews timesheets and sees live status for their reporting line, plus screenshots or live view only where the policy allows.
  • Remote admin: sets policies, app categories, geofences, pay rates and retention, and reads the audit log. Admins can be limited to legal entities or locations.
  • Tenant admin: the only role that can enable microphone clips.
  • HR admin, payroll admin and project manager: use attendance, payroll hours and project time reports.

Before you start​

  • Your company is set up in Thoshika and Remote is switched on for it.
  • People is on: employees, managers, teams, shifts, holidays and weekly timesheets come from People.
  • Projects is on if you want people to track against projects and tasks and bill clients from approved hours; otherwise People time codes are used.
  • Documents is on if you want employees to e-sign the monitoring policy; otherwise an in-app acknowledgement is used.
  • You have decided, with legal advice where needed, what your company will and will not monitor.

Set up​

  1. Default policy. Review the company default: working hours (IST, with People weekly offs and holidays), idle threshold and action, activity levels, app and domain tracking, screenshot mode (off, blurred or full), retention periods and who may see screenshots.
  2. Team policies. Create policies for teams, roles or individuals where they need different rules. The most specific one applies. For example, a team can use Remote for timers and timesheets only, with tracking off.
  3. Sensitive and excluded apps. Check the excluded list (banking, password managers, health, personal messaging, phone dialers) and add any of your own.
  4. App categories. Mark apps and domains as productive, neutral, unproductive or meeting for the company, with team overrides.
  5. Pay rates (optional). Set hourly or contract rates for staff paid by the hour.
  6. Geofences (optional). Add office or site geofences if you want opt-in automatic start on mobile.
  7. Policy notice. Publish the policy. Each covered employee acknowledges it before any tracking starts. A new version that adds monitoring needs a fresh acknowledgement.
  8. Install the desktop agent. Employees download it, sign in with a short code approved in the browser, and see a tray icon whenever tracking is on. The desktop agent is in early access: installers are not yet signed and do not update themselves, so ask us for the current build for your operating system.

Key workflows​

Track a working day​

  1. Start the timer on a project and task (or a time code) from the tray, the web or the phone. Switching tasks splits the entry.
  2. When you return after being idle, choose keep, remove, meeting or break.
  3. Pause whenever you need to. Nothing is tracked while the timer is off or outside working hours.
  4. Review your day: tracked time, activity, apps and any screenshots. Delete a screenshot within the grace window if needed; that slot's time is removed.

Submit and approve the timesheet​

  1. At the end of the week, open your People timesheet. Remote has filled in net hours per project and task, rounded to the quarter hour.
  2. Adjust anything that is wrong; Remote never overwrites a cell you changed. Submit.
  3. Your manager approves in People. Approved billable hours reach Projects billing, and hourly or contract hours reach payroll.

Add time you could not track​

  1. Create a manual time request with the date, times, project and reason.
  2. Your manager approves it and the entry is added.

Record a work-from-home day​

  1. Raise a WFH request for the dates; your manager approves it.
  2. On those days, your first and last activity become your attendance punches in People.

Run team stand-ups​

  1. Set up daily questions or a weekly check-in for a team and choose its Sangam channel.
  2. People answer when prompted; answers are posted to the channel as a digest.

India specifics​

  • Defaults are built around the DPDP Act 2023: notice and acknowledgement before tracking, the least data needed, short retention, and rights to access, correction, erasure and grievance.
  • There is no hidden mode and no keystroke content, clipboard, email or chat capture, and no webcam photos. Sensitive apps are never recorded.
  • Screen clips, live screen view and microphone clips are off by default. Microphone clips can be switched on only by a tenant admin and only for employees who have signed a separate consent, which they can withdraw at any time. Take legal advice before enabling any of these.
  • Payroll inputs for hourly and contract staff go into People payroll for India.

Works with other apps​

  • People: timesheets, attendance, shifts, holidays, leave and payroll.
  • Projects: projects and tasks for the timer, and billing from approved hours.
  • Books: client invoices raised through Projects billing.
  • Sangam: presence, work status, stand-up digests and live screen view.
  • Documents: e-signed policy acknowledgements and microphone consent.
  • Analytics: daily time and usage figures.
  • The mobile app offers the timer, manual time, clock-in with PIN or an optional selfie, opt-in GPS while the timer runs, and manager approvals.

Next steps​