How to Set Up Users | Standard Time®

Navigate to Users

All user and workgroup management lives in one place. From the Standard Time® Home screen, click Users. The Users page opens showing a tree view with your company at the top and all existing workgroups and employees nested beneath it.

Navigation path:

Open Standard Time®.
From the Home screen, click Users.
The tree view opens with your enterprise (company) as the root node.

If you have just installed Standard Time®, the tree will show only the company row. Your first task is to create workgroups to match your department structure, then add individual employees inside those workgroups.

The Users Tree: Enterprise → Workgroups → Users

Standard Time® organizes employees in a three-level hierarchy. The enterprise is the top-level node — it represents your company. Under the enterprise you create workgroups that correspond to your departments, teams, or shifts. Individual users live inside those workgroups.

Org chart: enterprise at top, three workgroups (Engineering, Production, Administration), nested sub-workgroups (Machining, Assembly) under Production, and individual users under Engineering and Administration — Standard Time® mirrors your company's org chart. Create workgroups for each department, nest sub-workgroups for teams or shifts, then add users inside each workgroup.

Workgroups are not just for display — they determine what employees see in the time entry views and make it easy to filter reports by department. You can create as many levels of nested workgroups as your org chart requires.

Tip: You do not have to mirror your full org chart exactly. Many shops use a flat structure with a few broad workgroups (e.g., Shop Floor, Engineering, Office) and place all employees inside the appropriate workgroup. Nested sub-workgroups are most useful when you have many employees across multiple shifts or cost centers.

Creating Workgroups

A workgroup represents a department, team, or any logical grouping of employees. You create workgroups by right-clicking on any node in the tree and choosing New Workgroup. To create a top-level department, right-click on the enterprise (company) row.

Four-step flow: Open Users → Right-click Enterprise → New Workgroup → Right-click Workgroup → New User → Set Admin and Rights — The full setup flow: open Users from Home, right-click the enterprise to create a workgroup, right-click the workgroup to create a user, then configure rights.

Steps to create a top-level workgroup:

Open Home > Users.
Right-click the top-level row (your company name — the enterprise).
Choose New Workgroup from the context menu.
A new workgroup row appears in the tree. Type the workgroup name (e.g., Production, Engineering).
Press Enter or click away to save.

Users page showing the enterprise tree with workgroups and employee rows, including Active and Admin columns

Tip: The Active column in the Users grid controls whether an employee can log in to Standard Time®. Newly created users are active by default. Uncheck Active to disable a user account without deleting any of their historical time log data.

Tip: Workgroups can be nested to faithfully describe your company's org chart. Right-click any existing workgroup and choose New Workgroup to create a sub-group beneath it — for example, Machining and Assembly inside a Production workgroup.

Nested Workgroups for Your Org Chart

You can create workgroups inside other workgroups to reflect a more detailed org chart. For example, a Production workgroup might contain sub-workgroups for Machining, Assembly, and Quality. Right-click on any existing workgroup to add a nested workgroup beneath it.

Steps to create a nested workgroup:

Right-click an existing workgroup (not the enterprise).
Choose New Workgroup from the context menu.
The new workgroup appears as a child of the one you right-clicked.
Name it to reflect the team or shift (e.g., Machining, Night Shift).

Nesting is unlimited — you can have as many levels as your org chart requires. In practice, one or two levels of nesting is enough for most shops: a top-level department workgroup and an optional sub-group for shifts or cost centers.

Keep it simple. Start with a flat workgroup structure and add nesting only when you have a clear reporting or filtering reason to do so. Every level of nesting you add is another level employees and managers will encounter when filtering reports.

Creating Users

Users are individual employee accounts. Each user belongs to exactly one workgroup. You create a new user by right-clicking a workgroup and choosing New User, or by selecting the workgroup and clicking the green + button in the toolbar.

Method 1 — Right-click:

Right-click the workgroup you want to add the employee to.
Choose New User from the context menu.
A new user row appears inside the workgroup. Type the employee's name or username.
Fill in any other required fields in the Properties panel that opens on the right.

Method 2 — Toolbar + button:

Click the workgroup row to select it (so the toolbar knows where to add the new user).
Click the green + button in the toolbar at the top of the Users page.
A new user row is created inside the selected workgroup.
Type the employee name and fill in the Properties panel.

Username vs. Display Name: The username is what employees scan on the shop floor — keep it short and easy to encode in a barcode (no spaces, all caps is a common convention, e.g., JSMITH). The display name can be the employee's full name for readability in reports.

Administrative Rights

After creating a user, consider whether they need Administrative rights. The Admin column in the Users grid shows a checkbox for each employee. Administrators can access all pages, change settings, create and edit projects, manage other users, and view all employees' time logs. Regular employees have access limited to their own time entry and the shop floor scan page.

Common conventions used by Standard Time® shops:

Admin checked: Plant managers, supervisors, project managers, HR — anyone who needs to edit projects, run company-wide reports, or manage other users.
Admin unchecked: Shop floor workers, machinists, assemblers — employees who only need to scan barcodes and view their own time logs.

To set or change Administrative rights:

Open Home > Users.
Locate the employee row in the tree.
Check or uncheck the Admin checkbox directly in the grid row.
The change takes effect immediately — no save button required.

Tip: Grant admin rights sparingly. Every administrator can change project settings, delete time logs, and modify other users. For a shop with 20+ employees, a single administrator or a small group of two or three is usually sufficient.

Superuser right: Within the User Rights popup (User Experience → Rights), there is a Superuser option. A Superuser can see all projects in Standard Time® — even projects they are not assigned to. This is useful for senior managers or executives who need full visibility across every job without being individually added to each project. Regular administrators only see projects they are assigned to; Superusers see everything.

Fine-Tuning Access with User Rights

For more granular control than a simple admin on/off switch, Standard Time® provides a Rights property inside the User Experience section of each user's Properties panel. Clicking Rights opens a checkbox list where you can enable or disable specific features for that employee — independent of whether they are an administrator.

To open User Rights:

Open Home > Users.
Click the employee row to open the Properties panel on the right.
Scroll down to the User Experience section.
Click the Rights property. A popup checkbox list opens.
Check or uncheck individual rights to control exactly what this employee can access.
Close the popup — changes are applied immediately.

The Rights popup lets you give a non-administrator selective access to specific areas — for example, allowing a team lead to view all time logs without granting full admin access to project settings. You can also restrict an administrator's view when you want to limit visibility to specific modules.

Typical rights combinations for a shop floor operation:

Shop floor worker: Rights to Scan Barcodes and their own time entry only — no project editing, no reports.
Team lead: Rights to view Time Logs for all employees in their workgroup, plus Scan Barcodes.
Project manager: Full admin with Rights to all project management pages, resource allocation, and Gantt charts.
Plant manager: Full admin — all Rights checked.

Video Walkthrough

Watch this video for a complete walkthrough of setting up users and workgroups in Standard Time® — from opening the Users page to configuring admin rights and printing employee barcode labels.

Printing Barcode Labels for Employees

Every employee who works on the shop floor needs a personal barcode label — a badge or card they scan first every time they start or stop a timer at the Scan Barcodes page. The barcode encodes the employee's username exactly as it appears in Standard Time®. When scanned, it identifies the employee and begins their session.

Three sample employee barcode label styles: one using a short username (JSMITH), one using an employee ID (EMP-1042), and one using a longer name (KWILLIAMS) — Barcode labels can use the employee's username, ID number, or any unique identifier — as long as it matches exactly what Standard Time® has on file for that user.

Standard Time® can generate and print barcode labels directly from the Users page. You can print a single label or a batch for all employees at once. Labels can be printed on standard Avery label sheets, laminated badge cards, or adhesive wristbands — whatever works for your shop environment.

Steps to print barcode labels from Standard Time®:

Open Home > Users.
Select the employee (or select all users to print a batch).
Look for the Print Barcodes or label print option in the toolbar or right-click context menu.
Choose your label format and print.
Laminate and distribute to employees — one label per person.

Username matching is not case-sensitive. The text encoded in the barcode just needs to match the username in Standard Time® — JSMITH, jsmith, and JSmith will all resolve to the same employee.

Tip: For shared scan stations (common in high-turnover areas), consider printing a wall chart with all employee barcodes — one per row — so any employee can scan their name from the posted sheet without carrying a personal badge. This works well in break rooms, time clocks, or assembly areas where the scanner is mounted on a stand.

Related guide: Shop Floor Barcode Scanning — How It Works covers exactly what happens after the employee scans their username barcode — the full sequence of scanning a work order and task to start a timer, using CLEAR on shared stations, and scanning STOP to end the session.

Deactivating Users

When an employee leaves or changes roles, resist the urge to delete their account. Deactivating keeps the account intact so all historical time logs remain reportable — payroll audits, job costing, and warranty claims all depend on that data staying tied to the right person.

Deactivate, don't delete. Deleting a user removes their account permanently and can orphan historical time log records. Deactivating simply hides the account from the scan station and active views while preserving every time entry, expense, and task assignment the employee ever created. You can run reports against a deactivated user at any time.

Uncheck Active

The quickest way to deactivate a user is to uncheck the Active checkbox in their Properties panel. An inactive user cannot log in to Standard Time® and will not be recognized at the Scan Barcodes station — scanning their barcode produces no result.

Steps to deactivate a user:

Open Home > Users.
Click the employee row to open the Properties panel.
Uncheck the Active checkbox.
The change takes effect immediately — no save button required.

Move Deactivated Users to an Inactive Workgroup

Unchecked Active accounts still appear in the Users tree alongside your current employees. Create an Inactive workgroup and drag deactivated employees into it to keep your active views clean. Managers only see current staff at a glance; the Inactive workgroup is always one click away when historical records are needed.

Setting up an Inactive workgroup:

Right-click the enterprise (top-level row) and choose New Workgroup.
Name it Inactive.
When an employee leaves, uncheck their Active property, then drag their row into the Inactive workgroup.
To view former employees, expand the Inactive workgroup in the tree.

Filtering By User

The Users page includes a Filter panel — open it via View > Filter — that lets you narrow the user list by workgroup, name, active status, or other criteria. Instead of scrolling through a long tree, select a workgroup in the Filter panel to instantly show only the employees in that department. This is especially useful in larger shops where the full tree spans dozens of employees across many workgroups.

To filter the user list by workgroup:

Open Home > Users.
Click View > Filter to open the Filter panel.
Select a workgroup from the filter tree. The user list updates immediately to show only members of that workgroup.
To clear the filter, click All Users or remove the selection in the Filter panel.

Tip — Timer filter: The Filter panel includes a Timer section that lets you filter users by whether they currently have a timer running. Filter to has a timer running to see every employee actively clocked in right now. Filter to does not have a timer running to instantly identify anyone who should be on the clock but hasn't scanned in yet. Use this view at shift start to catch employees who forgot to scan their barcode — walk up to them, confirm they are working, and remind them to scan in at the nearest station.

Practical use: Pin the Users page with the Timer filter active on a supervisor's workstation or a dedicated monitor. At a glance, the list shows exactly who is clocked in and who is not — no need to pull a report or interrupt anyone on the floor. Employees who appear in the "no timer" list during production hours are your first follow-up calls.