Category: Employee App

All your questions about the employee app are answered here. Please remember that our SYNCrew team is always happy to get involved to directly help your employees.

Worker Portal

Most SYNCrew users use the app in the field, but many companies have at least a few people in the office and want to have them log hours in SYNCrew as well. This feature allows those users to add hours from a web browser.

Enable Access

Access to the Worker Portal is on a worker-by-worker basis so you can enable only for those who need it. To enable access, go to their worker profile in the Admin section and check the boxes circled to allow the appropriate level of access for that user. Click Save.

If the Worker is ALSO an admin user, you can link the accounts together. Doing this will allow them to log into the admin portal and quickly go to their worker portal by going to the menu shown at right so they can manage their own hours.

To set up this connection, go to the person’s admin account and click “Link worker.” Then search for their worker account and click save.

How to use

Once a Worker is set up, they can access the portal by going to www.syncrew.com and clicking “employee login” at the top-right. Then they log in with the same phone number and password they use to log into the app. You can reset it for them if they have forgotten it.

Once they log in, they will have several options (these can vary a bit based on the level of access provided in their settings). They can track in real-time, add time in the past, or edit past hours.

Track in Live Time: Some users will want to track hours as they work. To do that, they can select the project and skill (circled in red below) and click “start working.” The screen will then show a clock for how long they have been at work and they can change task, clock out, or even upload a photo.

Add past time: The easiest way to add past time is to do it while clocked out. When the user is clocked out, they will see the information and buttons circled at the bottom of the screen shown below.

To add time, pick the day you want to add by clicking on the blue box with the date. To see a different week, click the arrows to the left or right of the blue boxes to go to the next week. Once you have the day selected, pick the project, skill (plus any optional fields your company has), select the number hours and minutes for that task. Once that is complete, click one of the buttons to add the hours:

  • Add hours in beginning: Adds hours before the earliest event. For example, if the hours currently show 9am to 3pm, using this option to add an hour will add the time from 8am to 9am.
  • Add hours at end: Adds hours at the end of the currently entered hours. In the example above, this hour would be added from 3pm to 4pm.

You can enter more time by following the same process.

Edit time: Sometimes time needs to be edited after the fact. Doing so can be done for prior days only (so you cannot do this “today”). To edit the time, simply click on the time shown in the “Total” colum (circled in red below) and change the time in the pop-over that opens.

How to close your account

First off, we will certainly be sorry to see you go! Before you go through the effort to cancel, here are two things that have helped many clients get SYNCrew working above expectation again:

1) Ask support: Email support@syncrew.com with what you want SYNCrew to do. Most requests for new features or questions about whether SYNCrew can do something they saw in another app are already available and it’s just a matter of changing the configuration.

2) Check your plan: To accommodate the wide variety of clients on SYNCrew, we have different plans to ensure each client gets all the features they need, without paying for those that they do not need. Have a look at our current plans:

View Current Plans

Finally, if you are sure you wish to close your account, you can email support@syncrew.com with that request and they help you out.

Cancel service.

SYNCrew Forms Overview

This article has some overview information and a video of how the forms look on the app. To jump in to how to create a form, jump over to SYNCrew Forms: How to set up.

SYNCrew Forms are a powerful way to capture information from the field. Like everything with SYNCrew, the information and photos are organized and saved forever so you can always find the form when you need it most. As always, please contact us with your needs so we can help you set up exactly the forms that will eliminate your paper-chasing!

How does it work:

  • Set up forms: Forms are configured by an admin user (email your forms to support@syncrew.com and we’ll help set them up). You may have many different types of forms
  • Employees complete forms: Employees select which form they need to fill in and complete it on their phone
  • When a form is submitted: Once the employee submits a form, the following happens automatically:
    • Emails will be sent to contacts for the projects, emails set up for that form type
    • Forms become searchable in Reports –> Custom forms report
    • Forms and data are saved forever and can be exported to spreadsheets, pdfs, or viewed on screen

What kind of data can a form capture? Below are the types of information that can be collected and each type can be used many times in the same form

  • Signatures: Collect employee, customer, or other signatures directly in the app
  • Dates: Pick any calendar day
  • Time of Day: Pick any time of day
  • Check Boxes: The user check put a check-mark in a box (usually to mark completion of a task)
  • Text: Text or numbers can be entered
  • Pick Lists: a pre-set list of options. For short lists, all options are displayed while long lists allow you to search (2 to thousands of options supported). You may allow user to select multiple options or only one option
  • Worker List: This is like the pick list but pre-populates the list of workers in your system
  • Headings: There are two kinds of headings that can be used to group things together within the form
  • Photos: Photos can be added to any of the above data types. Photos for each item can be optional, required, or not available to take

Since the forms are 100% customizable, clients are using them for many different things and you can use it for anything you traditionally used a paper form for. Here are a few examples:

  • Customer acknowledgement of work
  • Employee vacation or sick time request
  • Material request
  • Tenant chargeback form
  • Walk-through inspection report form
  • Customer and employee signed daily work log report
  • Security company incident report form
  • Pool cleaning and chemical reading log
  • Expense reimbursement
  • Mileage reimbursement forms
  • Company phone use acknowledgement

Email your current paper form to support@syncrew.com so we can help get rid of the paper!

SYNCrew Forms: How to set up

Forms are easy to set up. To edit or create any form, click “settings” in the left navigation, then click “Custom Forms.” The following assumes you are already there.

How to create a new form:

  1. Click “New Custom Form” at the top of the page
  2. On the pop up, enter the name of the form and, optionally, one email address (you can add more emails while editing the form later)
  3. Click “Save”
  4. Now follow the steps to edit forms below

Setting up Forms

This refers to the options at the top of the forms setup page

  1. Enable: This option just enables or disables the form. If there is a check box showing, the form is enabled.
  2. Send to project email: When this option is selected, completed forms will be sent to the email(s) that are listed for the Project. You can see these emails by clicking “edit project” from the project profile page.
  3. Email address for completed form: Whenever a form is completed, these emails will receive the form.
  4. Name: This is the name that shows up on the form list in the app and admin portal
  5. Project: This setting managed when the form can be seen by workers in the field. If you want the form to appear both clocked in and out, you just need to copy the form once completed and set the copy to have different project settings
    1. Clocked in project: The form will show anytime a user is clocked into any project (as you are now)
    2. Single project: The user will see the form when they are clocked into ONLY that selected project. They will also see that form if you select “allow user to see while clocked out” AND they search for that project.
    3. Allow user to select: These forms will only be seen while the user is clocked out. 
  6. ALWAYS CLICK “UPDATE” AFTER EDITING THESE SETTINGS OR THEY WILL NOT BE SAVED

Adding and editing form fields

This section shows how to add data elements to forms and change the options for photo requirements and reordering

To add a new element:

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see a drop-down menu and submit button (circled in green in the image above)
  2. Click the menu and select the option you want. You can read the various field types at this page: http://www.syncrew.com/faq/app/syncrew-forms-overview/
  3. Click “submit”
  4. A form will open where you need to put some text in the Label. This label is what will show on the form and each label on a form needs a unique name. Click “Save” once you complete the label.

Editing a data element: Click the “edit” button next to the label, at the right site of screen. Make whatever edits you desire in the pop up and click Save. One trick for elements that have lists (like “pick lists”) is that you can enter multiple items at one time separated by commas. So “Option1, Option2, Option3” will create three separate options.

Changing Order: The screen shows the elements in the order they will appear on the Worker app and also on emails and PDFs. To cahnge the order, click the blue up or down arrow at the far right of the element. This will cause the element to move by one slot in the list. To go multiple spaces, just click the button multiple times.

Removing a data element: Simply click the “remove” button next to the element you with to remove. Once removed, the element will no longer show up on newly completed forms but it will be there for forms that were completed before it was removed.

If you have any trouble, please contact your account manager or support@syncrew.com

Other links:

Importing Projects

If you want to add more then a few projects, it can be easier to add with our import tool. If you just want to add a single project, see here.

1) Go to Settings in the left navigation and select “Import”

2) Select “Projects” to import from the menu at the top-right

3) On the next page that loads, click the icon next to Select CSV (circled in red below). It will open your computers file system to select the file you wish to import. Then click “Start import.” You can also click to download a header file if you need (circled in green).

4) The next screen will show you all the projects you are loading. You can update any addresses that did not map as you expected by updating the addresses or moving the pin on the map. You can also delete a location by clicking the red “X”

5) Once you review everything, scroll to the very bottom and click “Finalize import”

Pre-Start: Getting SYNCrew set up


1) Add projects: You can email us a list of addresses to import for you or you can click the link to see how to add directly. Add Projects


2) Add employees: You can email us a list of names and cell phone numbers so we can add, or you can click the link to see how to add users directly. Please note that worker accounts will receive a text message with login info as soon as you create the account so let your team know its coming and please don’t do in the middle of the night! Add users


3) Pick a start date: We recommend a few days before the start of your next payroll so your crew can install the app and try it out. If they have any trouble, they can reach us at 415-968-1593 for help. On the first day, we recommend sending a text to each employee reminding them to get started! If you share the start date with us, we’ll check in on everything as well!

4) Get started and let us know how things are going! If you have any trouble or questions, you can reach us at the info below or check out our help website HERE.

Officially open 8am to 5pm Pacific time, but text or email outside those hours are often answered when urgent. Please note that mornings and lunch time are the highest call times so please just leave a message and we’ll always get back to you within a few minutes.

Employee location is showing far away

Location is a fairly complicated issue and the SYNCrew team is always happy to help you look into any issues or questions you may have by contacting your account manager or our support team at support@syncrew.com.

There are a number of honest reasons why an employees reported location could be incorrect but hiding location is also a way that many employees have tried to cheat on their hours! This is another place where SYNCrew photos prove their worth – if the clock in or out in question has a photo of the job that you can identify, then that proves they were there, regardless of what the GPS position says.

Some notes about location: SYNCrew asks the phone for its latest location, but does not make the user wait. If the location is not ready right away, the app just takes the last-reported one location so that there is no waiting EVER to clock in. Many apps have “loading” screens that exist solely to make the users wait while the phone determines its location, but our product team decided it was better to let people get to work since we also have the photograph to prove location.

SYNCrew shows you the GPS status on the Teams page, see HERE for more info.

Here are some common reasons that location is slower:

  • Android Locations settings: Android phones have a few ways and we see “GPS only” selected fairly often because people think it will be more efficient for the battery (its not!). In this mode, for example, it can take up to three minutes with a clear view of the sky for it to work. Ideally, it would be set to “high accuracy mode.”
  • Wifi is off: Employees do this a lot to save battery, but its actually the main way that phones determine their location! When the phone is in “high acuracy mode” it will mainly use wifi to determine the phones location, so if wifi is off, you are practically in GPS-only mode.
  • Location is turned off: This is a quick setting that a log of people will flip off if they are not using it to save battery life. How much this helps save battery is not clear, but we see it often.
  • Old Phones:  Sometimes older phones just get really slow at reporting their location. There is not technical reason for this, but if its a really worn out phone, they often have trouble determining their location.

Late Clock Out

Every so often, a Worker forgets to clock out at the end of the day. When that app believes that has occurred, it gives the Worker an opportunity to clock out at an earlier time to prevent their being clocked in for 24 hours or longer. The app alerts the Worker that it believes they forgot to clock out and asks the Worker to enter the time and date that they stopped working and explain what happened.

Since this happens after-the-fact, there is no photo taken and SYNCrew places the image below in place of the picture so its easy to see when this occurs. The GPS coordinate is taken from where the employee is at the time the late clockout is entered.

Reset password for Worker app (also how to resend the app download link)

In the event that an employee forgets their password, it can be reset in one of the following two ways:

Reset from Admin portal: In most cases, Workers will just reset their password using the link in the app (described below). If they do not see that or it does not work for them (most often because the phone number in SYNCrew does not match what they are entering), they may ask an Admin to reset their password and this is how to do it:

  1. Click “Settings” in the left navigation panel and then click “Manage Users” from the sub-men.
  2. Find the user you wish to reset the password for. For larger companies, we use the browsers search feature (usually CTRL+F) and type the name.
  3. Click on that users name to open their profile.
  4. Click “Reset Password” at the bottom of the page (you may need to scroll).
  5. Type the same password in both fields on the next page and click “Save”
  6. A text message with the new password will be sent to the Worker automatically with the link to download that app and their password.

Reset from the app: Workers can reset their password directly form the app. On the login screen, there is a “reset password” button. When they click this button, the app will ask them to enter their phone number. If the phone number is assigned to an active worker they will receive a text back with a new password to log in with.

Types of Worker Accounts

There are different kinds of Worker accounts. When you create a new Worker account, you are asked what to select a “Worker type.” Below is a description of each type and also a how they are different. Workers may be switched from one user type to another at any point when the worker is clocked out.

  1. Hourly Worker:  Hourly Worker is the standard Worker type and is automatically selected since this is how the majority of SYNCrew Workers are set up. Hourly workers use a specific phone to clock in, clock out, take meal breaks, snap pictures, and view their hours worked. See more about Hourly Worker Type.
  2. Non-Hourly worker: Non-hourly workers can use the mobile app primarily to collect photographs and share their current location. They are not able to see their time worked, take meal breaks or change tasks to track milage and travel time. See more about Non-Hourly Worker Type.
  3. Manager: Manager Workers use the app to track their own time and breaks and are able to take pictures. They can also add and view time for themselves and Managed workers both from the app or by logging into work.syncrew.com See more about Manager Worker Type.
  4. Managed Worker: Managed worker accounts are for employees who do not use the app and have their hours entered by an administrator or a Manager Worker (described above). See more about Managed Worker Type.

Below is where you select the Worker Type in when editing a Worker account: