Configure attendance rules and late clock-in alerts

Attendance Rules control when clock-in opens and how attendance is classified. Use them to reflect your program’s attendance policy.

Open Attendance Rules

1. Go to Settings → Organization → Options.
2. Open Scheduling, then Attendance Rules.
3. Review the groups below and change the values you need.

Use an account with permission to manage these settings. Program / Organization Unit options can override organization rules. An unset program value inherits the organization’s value; an unset organization value uses the EMCE default. The student’s organization and program determine their attendance timing rules, including when the event is at a partner location.

Clock In & Arrival

Setting	Effect	EMCE default
Clock-in availability before start	How early students can clock in.	30 minutes
On-time arrival window before start	How far before the start an arrival still counts as on time. Earlier permitted punches count as Early.	0 minutes
Late-arrival grace after start	How long after the start an arrival still counts as on time. Later punches count as Late.	5 minutes

For example, with the defaults, a punch exactly five minutes after the start is on time; a punch after that is late. Clock-in availability must open at or before the on-time arrival window. If a change would make those settings inconsistent, EMCE explains which boundary to adjust first.

Clock Out & Departure

On-time departure window before end allows a departure shortly before the scheduled end to count as on time. Earlier departures count as early.

Classify Late Clock Outs is off by default. Turn it on and set Late-departure grace after end to classify clock-outs after that grace period as late. The grace period also determines when an outstanding clock-out becomes Missing Clock-Out. A saved grace period has no effect while late classification is off.

See Understanding clock-out status for examples and the labels shown on records and reports.

Changes can affect historical labels

Timing labels use the current effective rules. Changing a rule can relabel earlier attendance, but does not change saved punch times, actual attended hours, or the history of corrections.

Location Warnings

Enable location warnings to warn when a clock punch is outside the configured range. Warnings do not block the punch. The default range is 150 meters.

For a particular site, open its Schedule Location settings and set Location warning range override. Leave it blank to use the inherited range. Your organization’s override does not change another organization’s range for the same shared site.

Location accuracy can make an assessment uncertain or unavailable. Review the evidence rather than treating a warning as proof of absence. See How location tracking works.

Absences

Require Absence Classification requires staff to select Excused or Unexcused when recording an absence. Older absences may remain unspecified until staff reclassify them.

See Manage attendance records, absences, and corrections for recording or clearing an absence without removing a student from the roster.

Enable faculty late clock-in alerts

There are two steps: the organization makes alerts available, then each faculty member chooses whether to receive them. Both settings start off.

1. In the organization’s Attendance Rules → Faculty Alerts, enable Allow Faculty Late Clock-in Alerts. This availability setting belongs to the organization, rather than an individual program.
2. Each faculty member opens their own Notification Preferences using the gear in the Dashboard Notifications widget.
3. Select at least one cohort to monitor, then enable Late clock-in alerts. The preference cannot be enabled with an empty cohort selection.
4. Allow push notifications for EMCE on the device receiving the alerts.

Alerts concern students who are still missing a clock-in after the late cutoff. A student who has already clocked in late does not trigger a new missing-clock-in alert. Students marked absent or removed, and cancelled occurrences, are excluded.

Each faculty member receives at most one aggregate alert per event occurrence for their selected cohorts. If the monitored students have different program cutoffs, the alert waits for the latest applicable cutoff. The notification opens the event’s attendance roster; its lock-screen text does not list student names. Being an attendee on the event does not subscribe someone to these alerts.

Faculty can change their monitored cohorts or turn off their preference at any time. Turning off the organization setting stops these alerts for everyone.