COBI.time - User Manual for the Administrator

The following information is intended to assist the administrator in setting up COBI.time for the employees. It is intended to provide all the necessary information for using this software in the time recording management process.

The manual is divided into the following sections:

• General Settings
  • Device configuration
  • Language settings
  • View

• Administrative Functions
  • Working time models, public holiday and absence management
  • User Management
  • Import of employees from SAP Business One
  • Setting up individual employees
  • User Groups
  • User Rights
  • System Settings
  • Audit Logs
  • Teams / Team Hierarchies

If you enter the domain name with /start you get the configuration mask of COBI.time.

Example: https://cobitime-url/start

Here you have the option of setting how you want to log in. Select the preferred configuration and click on Save.
The administrator usually logs in with the username and password.

In the Terminal Mode, you can also define the duration for which the mode should remain active.
During installation, the default administrator credentials are automatically set to username: “admin” and password: “admin”.
When logging in for the first time, you will be prompted to change the password accordingly.

To enable PIN entry in COBI.time, an activation password is required.
This feature adds an extra layer of security for the login process.
The password is entered once to ensure secure authentication.
See: PIN Activation

You also have the option of selecting your preferred language to work with. You will find this function in the top right-hand corner.
COBI.time is currently available in German, English and France.

COBI.time can be operated in both dark and light mode. The slider for changing the view can also be found in the top right-hand corner, to the left of the language selection.

How to set up COBI.time for employees?

Once all general settings have been selected, you can now log in to COBI.time as an administrator and you will see the following dashboard.

The administration module is located on the left-hand side, which you can expand by clicking the arrow on the right.

The dashboard is divided into 3 areas:

You start with the sub-module “Working time models” in which basic information must be created respectively entered.

The following view opens, which is divided into 3 areas:

1. Working Time Models

• Daily Time Model
• Weekly Time Model
• Automatically Weekly Time Model

2. Public Holiday Management

• Import of public holidays

3. Absence Management

• Creation of various reasons for absence

The basis for a weekly working time model is a daily model, where an employee's target working time is defined for one day. The day of the week does not matter if, for example, the employee works 8 hours from Monday to Thursday and only 6 hours on Friday.

To do this, click on the “Add daily time model” button and the following screen appears.

The time model description should be clear so that it does not lead to confusion or ambiguity later on.
By enabling the Flexitime option, you can define a separate Target Working Time that differs from the working time period determined by the start and end time.
For example, you may define a working time range from 05:00 AM to 10:00 PM, which would normally represent 17 hours.
With Flexitime enabled, you can instead define a target working time of only 8 hours.
Employees can then freely record their working hours within the defined time window, as long as they meet the required target working time.
Then enter the start (coming) and end (going) of the working time. There are two options for the break regulation: you can define the length of the break, for example 1 hour, or you can enter fixed break times. This variant is often used for warehouse or production employees, i.e. these break times can be booked automatically in COBI.time, regardless of whether the break was taken or not. The prerequisite for this is that the “Automatically post break times” function is activated later in the weekly time model.

Once all the required and relevant information has been entered in the daily model, the planned working time is automatically calculated and automatically displayed in the top right-hand corner. This daily structure is saved using the “Add daily time model” button (bottom centre).

For non-working days, a day model is usually created with a start and end time of 00:00, resulting in a target working time of zero hours, i.e. COBI.time does not expect any time bookings on these days.

Below are two examples for an 8-hour day of office work and 8 hours in production.

Daily model example office:

Daily model example production:

Important Information:
The fixed break times defined in the daily model are truly fixed. This means: If an employee starts work outside the defined time frame, the break will no longer be booked automatically. In contrast, within the weekly model, the exact time does not matter. Breaks are always based on the employee’s actual attendance time.

Once all the daily time models have been defined, you can now create the corresponding weekly time models. Again, click on the “Add weekly time model” button and you will see the following screen.

Again, you should make sure that the model name is clear and cannot lead to confusion. Once the model name has been assigned, click in the weekday column, e.g. Monday, to display the selection list of daytime models that you have created in the previous step. Now select the corresponding day model for each day of the week. Once this has been completed, the weekly working time is calculated automatically and displayed in the top right-hand corner.

You can also activate five additional options in the bottom section of the weekly time model:

If this function is activated, an employee's negative time account is automatically reset to zero hours at the beginning of the month. In practice, this is used for temporary employees, for example.

If this function is activated, an employee's positive time account is automatically reset to zero hours at the beginning of the month. In practice, this is used for temporary employees, for example.

The system is currently configured to automatically deduct 15 minutes after 6 hours of work, and another 15 minutes after 9 hours. These values can be customized for individual users. (It is planned that administrators will be able to adjust these settings themselves in the future.)

If this function is activated, the employee's time account is automatically reduced if the employee either logs in before or logs out after the agreed end of working hours. For example, if the employee has an agreed start time at 8.00 am and logs in at 7.30 am, half an hour is automatically deducted before the start of work.

Weekly time models can be deactivated if required.

• Deactivated models can be reactivated at any time.
• They must no longer be actively assigned to an employee when they are deactivated.
• In the overview, deactivated models are displayed with a grey background.

Using the toggle “Show deactivated weekly time models”, these models can be shown or hidden.

Below is an example of a weekly working time model for a classic 8-hour office day (40-hour week):

You also have the option of adding an automatic weekly time model which could be relevant for trainees/students, for example.

After clicking the “Add automatic weekly model” button, you will see the following screen.

Firstly, you assign a clear description and secondly, the period for which the model should be valid. The following screen then opens:

In the first window, you have the option of excluding periods in which the trainee is required to come to the company, such as during school holidays.

You can now start to edit the individual weekdays according to the school days, the school time entered is declared as working time. In the second column, you can use the drop-down menu to set the frequency in which the trainee is in school on these days. If school lessons only take place on one day every second week, the first booking date must be entered.

The following is an example of a trainee who has school on Tuesdays every week and on Wednesdays every other week from 8:00 to 14:00. This means that 6 hours are credited to the trainee's time account at 14:00 on the respective school day.

It is important to know that an automatic weekly time model can only be activated together with a weekly time model from the previous module. This means, for example, that the trainee has a 40-hour week and is required to attend school on two days. According to the previous example, however, only 6 hours (instead of 8) are credited to the time account for the school days.

It is now at the decision of the company on how this compensation is to be made. For example, the trainees could come into the company after school hours or make up for the missing hours by collecting overtime.

As soon as a daily time model is assigned to a weekly time model and this is already in use for time bookings, it is no longer possible to change these models.

If an employee changes their planned working time, a new time model must be created and reassigned to the employee in the user management. The old time account must be closed, see chapter User management.

An automatic weekly model only works in conjunction with a “normal” weekly model. As soon as there is no booking for a certain day according to the planned working time, COBI.time uses the automatic weekly time model as a basis and the time (e.g. school time) is booked automatically.

The automatic weekly time model is suitable for all employees who are away from the office on regular days, e.g. trainees, dual students, etc.

The management of public holidays is another option in COBI.time. Public holidays should be imported at the beginning of the year. Furthermore, you should make sure that no user is online when you want to carry out the process, as all time accounts are updated during the import.

To do this, click on the “Import public holidays” button and the following window will open:

Once the federal state has been selected, the list with the corresponding public holidays appears. These must then be confirmed again by ticking the box at the top left of the “Name” field. If you do not want to import all of them, you must tick the boxes individually.

Public holidays for other countries can of course be added on request.

Then click on the “Import” button, COBI.time asks whether you really want to save this change.

After confirmation, the imported public holidays appear in the dashboard in the Public Holiday Management module. If a company has locations in different federal states, you have the option of importing public holidays from several federal states. To do this, select another federal state and click on the “Import public holidays” button once again. These can then be assigned to individual employees based on location in the user management (see chapter user management). The same applies to every other country with different federal states.

The Absence Management module already includes five predefined absence reasons, which can be deactivated at any time.

See the yellow box in the “Requestable” column. Additionally, you can define any number of new absence reasons. To do this, click the *Plus Button* in the upper-right corner, define an absence reason (no longer than 20 characters), assign a color code, and click *Save Absence*.

• Custom Icons:

By clicking on the icon in the respective row, a dropdown menu opens. Here, you can select an appropriate icon to visually represent the absence reason.

• Unpaid Absence:

Using the checkbox Unpaid Absence, you can define whether the absence is considered unpaid. If this option is activated, the corresponding time is automatically deducted from the employee’s working hours.

Import of Users from SAP Business One

Once you have made these basic settings or created all working time models, you can start setting up the employees. To do this, please go to the next module, User Management.

First of all, the employees must be imported from SAP Business One. Employees who are to use COBI.time must be marked as “active” in SAP Business One, see the following screenshot of employee master data in SAP. The employees do not have to be licensed SAP Business One users. It is not possible to create employees directly in COBI.time.

To import the employees from SAP, click on the “SAP Import” button in the bottom right-hand corner.

A list of employees is displayed from which you can select which employees are to be imported from SAP Business One. To do this, tick the box to the left of the name. Then assign a one-time start password and click on the “Import user” button located in the centre at the bottom.

Important: If an employee does not have an SAP user code, you should add one manually in the “SAP user code” column, otherwise employees cannot be imported.

Once the employees have been successfully imported, they appear listed in the user management module and can be edited or set up accordingly.

The following view is displayed for each employee:

The following explanations according to the subdivisions 1 to 5 in the view above.

1. The SAP user code is used as the username when logging in.

2-3. The assigned teams and managers are initially imported from SAP Business One and displayed accordingly in the overview. However, you have the option of changing the manager via the selection list. ATTENTION: If the manager is changed in COBI.time, this is not imported back into SAP Business One. This function has been designed to be flexible as the manager in SAP is not necessarily the person who authorises absence requests. You also have the option of assigning a deputy here.

4. Federal state - Here you have the option of assigning the employee the federal state for the respective work location if a company operates across several locations.

5. Actions This is where the actual employee set-up begins. The following functions are available:

Reset Password

Here you can reset the employee's password if it has been forgotten. Click on the symbol to open the employee list, select the relevant employee and the following screen appears.

You assign a new password for the employee and they are requested to change the password again when they log in, provided that you have ticked the box “Reset password on login”.

RFID Chip Login

This function can be used to activate RFID chips with a corresponding RFID chip reader. This is used, for example, in production or warehouses where employees log in and out on a tablet with COBI.time in terminal mode.

Deactivation of Users

This function can be used to deactivate employees, for example when they leave the company. When the icon is clicked, a window pops up asking whether the user should really be deactivated.

Deactivated users can be displayed at any time using the slider at the top right of the search field.

Editing

Clicking on the “Edit” icon opens a view for the employee, which is divided into 3 tabs.

• User right
• Time model
• Vacation account

In general, the user PIN is displayed under the employee name, which can be passed on to the employee accordingly. Note: The PIN cannot be changed by the employee when logging in.

You also have the option to jump to the “Reset password” function in this view.

Tab User Rights

Authorisation and viewing rights are assigned to the employee in the User rights section. A detailed explanation appears when you click on the question mark behind the description.

The following authorisations can be assigned:

By clicking on the “Time model” tab, you get the following view:

You can assign the corresponding time model to the employee here by clicking in the “Time model” field; a list opens with all the time models that have been created. Once the appropriate model has been selected, enter the start value in hours. This start value usually comes from a previous time recording system. Otherwise it is also possible to enter the start value as zero. Note: Here you must pay attention to the format, for example 3:00 hours.

Finally, select the date from which the employee should start to use COBI.time and save the “Time model” tab using the “Save” button.

Please note: Time accounts must be closed when an employee leaves or changes of the weekly time model takes place. To do this, call up the relevant employee in the user management, select “Edit” and click on the red cross to the right of the weekly time model designation, see image below.

You can now select and save the closing date when the employee leaves. If you want to change the weekly model, click on “Create new time account” and select the new time model from the drop-down list, assign an hourly start value and the start date and save.

Note: When changes are made to the time account, the stored date will be adjusted retroactively.

Automatic Time Model

Once you have assigned a time model to an employee, you can now add an automatic weekly time model in the same way, e.g. for trainees. After assigning the regular weekly working time model, a second option for the automatic time model appears. The selection list of previously created models is displayed when you click in the “Automatic time model” field. The rest of the procedure is the same as above.

Tab Vacation Account

The employee's holiday account is created in this tab. The annual leave days are entered in the start screen. The start value is calculated pro rata for the respective month, depending on when COBI.time becomes operational or when the employee joins the company during the current year.

After the annual leave days have been saved, you can now also enter the remaining leave from the previous year and thus receive the employee's total leave entitlement shown in the last field as remaining leave. The new starting holiday is calculated automatically at the end of the year.

If you then move the mouse pointer in this column, a window is displayed with information on how this remaining leave is made up, see example below.

User Roles

In the third sub-module, User Roles, you will find an overview of all employees and the user rights that have been assigned so that you can check again whether these have been assigned correctly. Rights can be activated or deactivated by simply clicking in the boxes. If changes are made in this view, they must be finally saved by clicking on “Save” at the bottom right below the table view.

You will also find the legend for the user rights in the top right-hand corner, where you can take another look at the associated functions.

To access the general settings of COBI.time, click on the Settings module.
The following window will be displayed.

IMPORTANT: All settings made here apply to all employees.
The exception is the authorisation to book projects, which is activated for the entire company in this setting and then assigned to individual employees with the “Project times” user right in the user management.

The General tab contains global settings that affect the appearance and behavior of the COBI.time application.

Logo
The default COBI.time logo can be replaced with a company-specific logo. Click Select File and upload the desired image.

Notification Language
Defines the language used for system notifications and messages. Supported languages are englisch (en) and german (de).

Default Setting for Country/State
Specifies the default federal state or region that is automatically assigned when creating new employees. This setting is used for public holiday and calendar-based calculations.

Team Source Mode
Defines which data source is used for team-related information within COBI.time. Depending on the system configuration (COBI.time or from SAP Business One).

Show Cost Center
Determines whether cost center information is displayed throughout the application. When enabled, users can view and use assigned cost centers in relevant areas.

Require Location Selection
Forces users to select a location when recording working times. This ensures that all time bookings are assigned to a valid location.

Automatic Location Detection by RFID
Enables automatic location assignment based on detected RFID information. This can reduce manual user interaction and improve booking accuracy.

Absence Type for Sickness Rate KPI
Defines which absence type is used when calculating sickness-related KPIs and reports. Typically, the absence type Sickness is selected.

Save Settings
Changes only become effective after clicking the Save button.

Version Information
The currently installed COBI.time version is displayed in the lower-left corner of the screen.

The Security tab contains security-related settings for the COBI.time system.

Reset Admin Password
Use the Reset Password button to reset the password of the COBI.time administrator account.

After clicking the button, a new administrator password can be generated and applied immediately.
The new password can then be used to log in with the administrator account.

This function should only be used by authorized system administrators.

Important
After resetting the administrator password, ensure that the new credentials are stored securely and are only made available to authorized personnel.

The Time Management tab contains settings that control how users can manage and correct their time bookings.

Users can close open booking
Determines whether users are allowed to manually close open time bookings.

If this option is enabled, users can end bookings that are still open and complete their working time records independently.

Automatic closing of open bookings
If this option is enabled, an employee in terminal mode will no longer be prompted to correct the time if they did not clock out properly the previous day.
Instead, the open booking will automatically be closed with the last booking time + 1 minute as soon as the employee logs in again the next day.
This function is only active in terminal mode and is intended to speed up the login process and avoid unnecessary occupation of the terminal.

Hide comment field by time correction
Controls whether the comment field is displayed during time correction bookings.

If enabled, users can submit time corrections without entering or viewing a comment. If disabled, the comment field remains visible during the correction process.

The Projects tab contains settings that control the integration and behavior of the project management module within COBI.time.

Activate booking on projects from the project management
Enables users to record working times directly on projects managed in the Project Management module.

When activated, project-related time bookings can be assigned to project management projects.

Activate authorization system for projects from the project management
Enables the project authorization system.

When activated, users can only view and book projects for which they have been granted the necessary permissions. Project assignments are managed through the user permissions within COBI.time.

Display financial projects name by project management
Displays the names of linked financial projects within the Project Management module.

This setting can improve transparency by allowing users to identify the corresponding financial project directly from the project overview.

Activate posting to financial projects
Allows users to create time bookings for financial projects.

When enabled, financial projects become available as booking targets during time recording.

Allow Project Comments
Allows users to enter comments when creating project bookings.

Project comments can be used to provide additional information about the performed work and are stored together with the project booking.

The Service Calls tab contains settings that control the integration of service calls within COBI.time.

Activate booking on service calls
Allows users to record working times directly on service calls.

When enabled, service calls become available as booking targets during time recording.
This allows time spent on customer service activities to be tracked and evaluated separately.

Activate the authorization system for service calls
Enables the permission system for service calls.

When activated, users can only view and create bookings for service calls they have been granted access to.
The assignment of permissions is managed through the user rights configuration within COBI.time.

The Business Trips tab contains settings that control the behavior of business trip, work errand, and doctor visit functionalities within COBI.time.

Show 'business trip' button by time recording
Determines whether the Business Trip button is displayed in the time recording interface.

When enabled, users can start and manage business trip bookings directly during time recording.

Show 'business trip' button for time recording only if a business trip is approved for that day
Restricts the visibility of the Business Trip button to days on which an approved business trip exists.

This helps ensure that business trip bookings can only be created in accordance with approved travel requests.

Enable work errand functionality in time recording
Enables the Work Errand function within time recording.

When activated, users can record periods during which they temporarily leave the workplace for business-related purposes.

Enable doctor visit functionality in time recording
Enables the Doctor Visit function within time recording.

When activated, users can record doctor appointments separately from standard working time and other absence types.

The Calculation tab provides a function to recalculate all time accounts within the COBI.time system.

Recalculate Time Accounts
The Start Recalculation button initiates a complete recalculation of all employee time accounts.

This function re-evaluates all existing time bookings, absences, time models, and account balances based on the current configuration and calculation rules.

Start Recalculation
Click Start Recalculation to begin the recalculation process.

Depending on the amount of data in the system, the process may take several minutes to complete.

Warning
This action starts a full recalculation of all time accounts or the selected employees in the system.

The recalculation process can be resource-intensive and may temporarily affect system performance.
Therefore, it is recommended to execute this function outside of peak operating hours whenever possible.

The Audit Logs module enables administrators to track and review all relevant changes and activities within COBI.time.

Every logged action is stored with a timestamp, user information, affected object, source, and additional details. This provides complete transparency and allows changes to be traced and audited whenever required.

The filter area can be used to narrow down the displayed audit entries.

User
Filters entries by the user who performed the action.

Target User
Filters entries by the user whose data was affected by the action.

For example, an administrator may edit time bookings or master data belonging to another employee. In this case, the administrator is stored as the User and the employee as the Target User.

Object
Filters entries by the affected object type.

Examples:

• Time Booking
• Time Account
• Absence
• User
• Project

Action
Filters entries by the performed action.

Examples:

• Created
• Modified
• Deleted
• Recalculated

Source
Filters entries by the origin of the action.

Available sources:

• Web
• Mobile

IP Address
Allows searching for actions performed from a specific IP address.

From / To
The date filters can be used to limit the displayed audit logs to a specific period.

Reset Filters
Clears all active filters and displays all available audit log entries again.

Each audit log entry contains detailed information about a specific action.

Created On
Displays the date and time when the action was performed.

User
Displays the user who performed the action.

Target User
Displays the user whose data was affected by the action.

Action
Describes the action that was performed.

Examples:

• Working time model created
• Time booking modified
• Time accounts recalculated

Object
Displays the affected object type.

Source
Indicates whether the action was performed through the web application or a mobile application.

IP Address
Stores the IP address from which the action was executed.

Message
Contains a short description of the logged action.

Details
The Details button provides additional information about the selected audit log entry.

Depending on the action, additional information may be available, such as:

• Previous and new values
• Modified fields
• Affected objects
• Date and time of the change
• Executing user

The Export button allows administrators to export the currently filtered audit log entries.

All displayed records, including their associated details, can be exported for further analysis, reporting, or documentation purposes.

Audit Logs can be used for various purposes, including:

• Tracking changes to time bookings
• Reviewing modifications to working time models
• Analyzing time account recalculations
• Monitoring administrative activities
• Supporting internal audits and compliance requirements
• Troubleshooting and root-cause analysis of unexpected changes

The Audit Logs module therefore provides a complete history of all relevant activities performed within COBI.time.

The Teams module allows administrators to create and manage teams within COBI.time.

Teams can be used to group employees according to the organizational structure of the company.
This helps simplify administration, reporting, and team management throughout the system.

New teams can be created using the Create Team button.

The following fields are available:

Team Name
Enter a unique name for the team.

Examples:

• Sales
• Production
• Warehouse
• Administration

Description
Optionally, a description can be entered to provide additional information about the purpose or responsibilities of the team.

Parent Team
This field can be used to create team hierarchies.

If a parent team is selected, the newly created team will become a sub-team of the selected parent team.

Example:

• Company
  • Sales
  • Production
  • Warehouse

This allows even complex organizational structures to be represented clearly within COBI.time.

Save
Saves the newly created team.

Cancel
Discards all entered information and closes the creation dialog.

The Teams Overview section is located on the left side of the screen.

All existing teams are displayed here.

Search
The search field can be used to quickly find existing teams.

The list is automatically filtered while typing.

After selecting a team, employees can be assigned to that team.

This allows employees to be grouped into departments, divisions, or other organizational units.

Team assignments can be used for purposes such as:

• Organizing the company structure
• Filtering reports and evaluations
• Managing team leaders and employees
• Providing a better overview of departments and business areas

Changes to team assignments are immediately available throughout COBI.time and can be used in all relevant modules and reports.

The currently active Team Source Mode is displayed in the top-right corner.

Depending on the system configuration, team information can either be maintained directly within COBI.time or provided by an external system.

Examples:

• COBI.time
• SAP Business One

If COBI.time is selected as the team source, teams can be created and managed directly within this module.

The Team Hierarchies module provides a visual representation of the organizational structure of all teams maintained within COBI.time.

It allows administrators to view, manage, and analyze relationships between parent teams and sub-teams.
This helps create a clear organizational structure and simplifies the management of departments, business units, and reporting lines.

The Tree View section on the left side displays all teams in a hierarchical structure.

Parent teams can be expanded or collapsed to display or hide their sub-teams.

This provides a quick overview of the overall organizational structure.

Search
The search field can be used to quickly locate a specific team within the hierarchy.

Matching teams are automatically highlighted while typing.

The Hierarchy Inspector displays detailed information about the currently selected team.

Team Name
Displays the name of the selected team.

Team Path
Shows the complete hierarchy path of the selected team.

Example:

• Production / Sales

This allows administrators to quickly identify the location of a team within the organizational structure.

Parent Team
Displays the parent team assigned to the selected team.

If no parent team is assigned, the selected team is considered a top-level team.

Sub-Teams
Displays the number of directly assigned child teams.

Members
Displays the number of employees currently assigned to the selected team.

The Direct Sub-Teams section displays all teams directly assigned beneath the selected team.

If no child teams exist, COBI.time will display a corresponding information message.

This overview helps administrators quickly identify reporting structures and organizational relationships.

The Hierarchy Overview section provides an alternative view of the selected team and its position within the organisation.

For each team, the following information is displayed:

• Team name
• Hierarchy path
• Number of assigned employees

This overview makes it easier to understand the structure of larger organizations with multiple levels of teams.

The currently active Team Management Source is displayed in the upper-right corner.

Depending on the system configuration, team information can either be managed directly within COBI.time or synchronized from an external system.

Examples:

• COBI.time
• SAP Business One

If COBI.time is configured as the team management source, team hierarchies can be maintained directly within the Teams module.

Team hierarchies can be used for various organizational purposes, including:

• Structuring departments and business units
• Defining reporting structures
• Managing team leaders and employees
• Improving organizational transparency
• Supporting team-based reporting and evaluations
• Creating multi-level organizational structures

The Team Hierarchies module provides administrators with a centralized overview of the entire organizational structure maintained within COBI.time.