How setup works, how the kiosk behaves, how hours reach QuickBooks, and what happens to your data.
MetalTrack:Time posts hours as QuickBooks time activities, so your QuickBooks plan has to include time tracking. That means QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced. Simple Start and Essentials don't include time tracking, and QuickBooks Desktop isn't supported, because this connects to QuickBooks Online.
Most businesses are clocking in the same day, and the setup itself takes under 10 minutes. You create your account, add a card for your free trial, connect QuickBooks Online, choose who clocks in, and pair a tablet. There is nothing to install on your computers and you do not need an IT person.
Sometimes. If the sign-up page asks for an invite code, enter the one you were given: it sets your starting employee limit and the length of your free trial. If the page does not ask for one, create your account directly and it starts with the standard employee limit and free trial. Either way, you can raise your employee limit later from the Employees page in your portal.
Yes, new accounts start with a free trial, with or without an invite code. A code sets the trial's length. You add a card during setup, and you are not charged until the trial ends. You can cancel any time. See the pricing page for what it costs afterward.
No. Employees never sign in to anything. They clock in by typing a clock number on the kiosk tablet. You run everything else from the web portal.
A tablet and a Wi-Fi connection. Any iPad or Android tablet with a current browser works, including one you already own. Open time.metaltrack.net/kiosk/ on it, enter your Business ID and a pairing code, and the keypad appears.
On an iPad, use the free MetalTrack:Time app from the App Store. It keeps the screen awake, keeps taking punches if the Wi-Fi is down when it starts, warns you when the battery runs low, and recovers on its own after an outage.
Any other tablet uses its browser: open time.metaltrack.net/kiosk/, add it to the Home Screen so it opens full screen with no address bar, and the first time it shows the exact steps for your tablet. Both show the same kiosk screen.
15 minutes, and it works once. If it expires or has already been used, create a new one in your portal. After several wrong tries the tablet asks you to wait a few minutes before trying again.
Yes, for as long as it is in use. Each time the tablet contacts MetalTrack:Time, its 30-day window starts over. A tablet that sits unused for 30 days asks for a new pairing code the next time you open it.
Employees keep clocking in. The tablet saves each punch on the device, tells the employee it was recorded, and sends it as soon as the connection returns. A saved punch keeps the time it was tapped, not the time it finally arrived, for outages of up to 7 days.
While offline, the tablet still recognizes clock numbers from a saved copy of your employee list, which it refreshes every 15 minutes while connected. It saves each punch, and when the punch arrives MetalTrack:Time records it as a clock-in or a clock-out, whichever is next for that person. Waiting punches are stored in the tablet's browser, so do not clear its website data until it has reconnected.
The Time Card lets employees check their own hours at the kiosk. They type their clock number, then tap the round clock button at the bottom of the screen instead of the checkmark. The card lists each in and out for the week, the hours for each, and the week's total. A shift still in progress shows as “still in”.
Weeks run Monday to Sunday. The arrows step back up to 3 earlier weeks. The card is read-only and closes itself after a few seconds with no taps.
From your portal, open Kiosks and click Remove next to the tablet. It stops working right away and asks for a new pairing code the next time it connects. You can also do it at the tablet: touch and hold the line at the bottom of the kiosk screen that says “long-press here to unpair” for a few seconds, then confirm.
As many as you need. Your plan includes a set number of kiosks, and each additional tablet you pair is added to your bill as soon as it pairs, prorated for the rest of the billing period. Removing a tablet takes it off your next bill. Current rates are on the pricing page.
Yes. Open Kiosks in your portal, then Kiosk branding. You can show your logo (PNG or JPEG, up to 512 KB), your company name, or nothing at all, and choose a dark or light screen. Tablets pick up the change the next time the kiosk page loads and every 15 minutes after that.
Yes. Once you are signed in, the clock-in sheet is a one-page, large-print guide to clocking in, ready for the wall beside the kiosk. It carries your company name, and your logo if you show one on the kiosk. The clock numbers list prints every active employee with their number, for the office.
Each time someone clocks in and then clocks out, MetalTrack:Time creates one time activity in QuickBooks Online for that employee, with the real start and end times. A normal day with a lunch break becomes two time activities, one before lunch and one after. A shift that runs past midnight stays a single time activity, dated the day it started. There is nothing to re-type.
Usually within a few minutes of clocking out. Hours are sent when a shift ends, not while someone is still on the clock. If QuickBooks cannot be reached, MetalTrack:Time keeps trying and holds on to the punches until they arrive. Nothing is deleted before it reaches QuickBooks.
Open QuickBooks in your portal. It shows whether the connection is healthy, when the last sync ran, how many entries are waiting, and any that hit an error. The Archive lists every entry that reached QuickBooks, and you can export it as a CSV file or a PDF report.
The one you choose under Settings, in the Time zone section. Every clock-in and clock-out, automatic clock-outs, the Time Card, and your reports use it, and QuickBooks receives each time activity in that zone. Set it when you sign up. Until you do, MetalTrack:Time uses Eastern time.
Turn on Automatic clock-out in Settings. You can clock everyone out at a set time each day, after a maximum number of hours, or both, and you can set a shorter limit for one person on the Employees page. Those clock-outs are sent to QuickBooks like any other.
Without it, a shift that nobody closes stays open and is not sent. If the person clocks out within 18 hours (or your maximum shift length, if you have set one), the whole stretch is recorded as one long shift. After that, their next punch at the kiosk is a clock-in, not a clock-out, and you can add the missing time in QuickBooks.
Fix it in QuickBooks. Open the employee's time activity and change its times, or add a time activity for time that was never punched. Once a shift has been sent, MetalTrack:Time does not send it again, so your correction stays.
No. MetalTrack:Time records the hours worked and sends them to QuickBooks exactly as they happened. It does not apply overtime rules, premium rates, or pay calculations. Review the hours in QuickBooks, then handle overtime and payroll the way you do today.
Kiosks keep taking punches and MetalTrack:Time holds the hours. Reconnect from the QuickBooks page in your portal and the waiting hours are sent on the next sync. QuickBooks expires a connection that goes unused for a while, so we email you before yours is due to lapse.
From QuickBooks. You do not type employees into MetalTrack:Time. On the Employees page, choose Add employees and pick people from your QuickBooks employee list. Contractors, vendors, and time-tracking-only team members are not part of that list, so they cannot be added. To add someone new, create them in QuickBooks first, then use the re-check button in the picker.
The number an employee types on the kiosk keypad to clock in. Each person you add gets the lowest free number automatically (1, 2, 3, and so on), and you can change anyone's number on the Employees page. Numbers are digits only, each number belongs to one person, and the keypad takes up to 8 digits.
They ask the office. You can see every number on the Employees page, or print the clock numbers list (sign-in required).
On the Employees page, suspend them. They can no longer clock in, their number is kept, and their seat is freed so you stop paying for them. If you would rather clear them out, remove them once their last hours have reached QuickBooks (until then the portal asks you to suspend them instead, so no hours are lost). Removing only affects MetalTrack:Time, and QuickBooks is untouched. Hours already sent to QuickBooks stay in QuickBooks either way.
People marked inactive in QuickBooks are tagged “inactive in QuickBooks” on the Employees page. MetalTrack:Time leaves them as they are until you act, so suspend or remove anyone who has left.
Your account has an employee limit, set when you sign up. Raise it any time with Add more employees at the bottom of the Employees page. Raising the limit costs nothing by itself, because you are billed only for active employees. Suspended employees do not count.
A flat monthly rate plus a small fee for each active employee, with a set number of kiosks included. The exact numbers are always on the pricing page, where you can price out your own team.
Right away, prorated for the rest of the billing period. Adding an employee or pairing a tablet raises your bill immediately, and removing one lowers your next invoice. You are billed monthly by card.
Yes, and there are no contracts. Open Billing in your portal and choose Manage billing / update card to cancel, update your card, or see your invoices.
Each month is paid in advance. Canceling stops the next charge, and your kiosks keep working until the end of the billing period you have already paid for. We do not refund part of a paid period, except where the law requires it.
Everything keeps working while your card is retried and we email you. If it is not resolved after a grace period (usually 7 days), the account is paused: kiosks stop accepting new punches and the portal becomes read-only: you can still see everything and open a support ticket, and fixing billing switches it all back on. Punches already collected are kept, and hours already collected continue to sync to QuickBooks during the grace period.
Only what a time clock needs:
Raw punches are deleted 7 days after the shift has been sent to QuickBooks. Nothing is deleted before it reaches QuickBooks. The shift record behind your Archive is kept for the history length on your plan: one month is included, and six or twelve months are available as an add-on from the Archive page.
No. Because raw punches are kept for such a short time, QuickBooks Online is your system of record and you are the record keeper. Applicable law may require you to keep time records for years, so keep your QuickBooks entries, and export your Archive if you want a copy outside QuickBooks. The details are in the EULA.
Every connection to MetalTrack:Time, from a browser or a kiosk, is encrypted. Employee names, clock numbers, QuickBooks connection tokens, and two-factor secrets are encrypted at rest with a key unique to your business. Each business's data is kept separate from every other business's at the database level. Every kiosk is individually authorized, and each request it makes is signed and checked. Backups are encrypted before they leave the server. You can add two-step verification to your portal sign-in from Settings.
It reads your employee list and company information, and it writes time activities. We do not sell your data or use QuickBooks data for advertising. You can disconnect at any time with Sign out of QuickBooks on the QuickBooks page, or from within QuickBooks, and our access is revoked. The Privacy Policy has the full detail.
Cancel any time from the Billing page. Canceling stops the next charge, and your kiosks keep working until the end of the billing period you have already paid for. Before that period ends, export what you want: the Archive downloads as a CSV file or a PDF report, and the hours already sent to QuickBooks stay in QuickBooks. After the period ends, your account and everything in it are deleted automatically once a wind-down period has passed. You can email support@metaltrack.net at any time to ask for a copy of your data or for your account to be deleted.
Email support@metaltrack.net, or start a free trial and look around.
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