What to do when an employee forgets to clock out

1. Find the original record

Check the employee, work date, location, clock-in, recorded finish, breaks and review status. Identify whether the finish came from the employee, the scheduled shift end or an automatic estimate.

Keep the original context available. If the roster says 16:00 but the employee stayed to complete a closing task, replacing the missing time with the roster would erase the question you need to resolve.

2. Confirm what actually happened

Ask the employee for the real start and finish, including any break. Check a shift note or another appropriate work record if the account is unclear. Record the local date as well as the time, particularly for an overnight shift.

Do not silently turn uncertainty into a confirmed time. Keep the exception visible while it is investigated, and handle pay deadlines and recordkeeping through your business’s applicable process. This is an operational review checklist, not a rule for delaying wages.

3. Check for a duplicate or overlap

Look for another punch or an existing correction covering the same work. Two individually plausible entries can count the same hours twice. Check other locations too when the employee works across sites.

For example, a Tuesday night shift ending Wednesday at 06:00 can overlap a second punch recorded Wednesday at 05:45. Settle which record represents the work before approving either entry.

4. Record the correction and the reason

Enter the confirmed times and break, and explain why the original record changed. Preserve the original estimate and identify the reviewer. Use an independent reviewer for a manager’s own hours.

A useful reason is specific enough to explain the change later: which date was affected, what information was checked and why the new time is supported. Avoid unnecessary personal details in a time-record note.

5. Review the whole week before handoff

Confirm that corrected hours appear once in the weekly total. Review other estimated clock-outs and outstanding missed-punch requests. For salaried employees, review attendance separately from the fixed salary calculation.

If a file was already prepared, regenerate it after the correction and reconcile the relevant totals through your payroll process. Shift Hub marks unconfirmed estimates for review; a new pilot’s payroll approvals and exports stay disabled until its pay rules and handoff are validated.

A correction note you can adapt

Copy these fields into your approved employee-record system. Keep the completed note with the time record, and leave employee details out of demo forms or public messages.