---
title: Automated Labor Logging
description: Capture/track labor hours spent on CACFP and administrative tasks and support monthly review/approval workflows.
---

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# Automated Labor Logging

### What is automated labor logging?

The Labor Log feature allows you to turn on automated labor logging for your staff. When this is enabled:

- Staff is prompted to check in for the day upon login. They may also opt to do this later or mark themselves as ABSENT.
- Once staff checks in, activities assigned to their role will be logged automatically to their labor log, based on their standard work duration and, in the case of CACFP Labor, meal times.
- Your staff may access their labor log and make changes to the default activities logged for their work day to ensure accuracy.

**Note:** Your sponsor may restrict you from configurating these details.

### Enter Labor Details for Users

Before you enable automated labor logging, enter your staff's normal working hours in their User profile. Be sure to also add their hourly wage for the log to automatically calculate CACFP Labor Costs.

You must have **View/Modify Center Staff** permissions and **View/Manage Labor Detail** permissions to update this information.

1. From the menu to the left, click **Administration** and select **User Permissions**.
2. Click the pencil icon next to the user to edit.
3. In the **Labor Details** section, complete the following: 
     - Normal Start Time
     - Normal End Time
     - Hourly Wage ($)
4. Click **Save**.

### Enable Automated Labor Tracking

1. From the menu to the left, click Administration and select User Permissions.
2. Click the Labor Log Configuration tab.
3. Set the **Enable automated labor tracking?** toggle to **Yes**.

### What Happens Next?

Once you've turned on automated labor tracking, your staff will be prompted to check-in for the day or mark themselves absent. The current time on the device they are using will display in the message that appears.

- **Yes, Check in:** This will check the user in for the day, using their check-in time as their "start" for the day. Any activities assigned to this user will be added to their labor log for the day.
- **Check-in Later:** This will clear the prompt to check in for the day and prevent it from showing again until the next day. Users who choose this option will be marked ABSENT by default. However, they may access their log and update it at any time during the work day.

![check-in prompt](https://knowledge.kidkare.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Knowledge%20Base%20Import/check-in%20prompt.png?width=670&height=263&name=check-in%20prompt.png)

### How do you calculate activity duration?

The activity log consists of two activity types: CACFP Labor and Administrative Labor. Since CACFP labor must be associated to a meal service, there will always be a meal assigned to that task.

1. **CACFP Labor is tallied first.** Since CACFP Labor is reimbursable, these hours are calculated first. KidKare uses meal times, the employee's check-in time, and the employee's standard work hours to determine whether the employee was present for meal service. Let's look at an example: 
     1. Clara's normal start time is **7AM** and her normal end time is **5PM**, which makes her normal working duration **10 hours**.
     2. Clara is assigned to meal service for **Breakfast** from **8AM-9AM**, **Lunch** from **12PM-1PM**, and **PM Snack** **3PM-3:30PM**.
     3. She checks in to work at **7:30AM**. Since she usually works **10 hours**, KidKare assumes she will be checked in until **5:30PM (17:30 - 7:30 = 10)**.
     4. Because we assume she is checked in between **7:30AM and 5:30PM,** KidKare logs the following activities for Clara: 
            1. Breakfast Meal Service 8AM-9PM
            2. Lunch Meal Service 12PM-1PM
            3. PM Snack Meal Service 3PM-3:30PM
     5. Clara has a total of **2.5 hours** of CACFP Labor logged for the day.
2. **Administrative Labor is calculated second.** Because we are tacking labor automatically, KidKare uses the following equation to determine administrative labor duration: **Total Work Hours - Total CACFP Labor Hours**. Following our example: 
     1. In addition to her CACFP tasks, Clara also is responsible for inputting new enrollment forms. Her role is assigned to the **Enrollment Data Entry** activity.
     2. Clara's total work duration is typically 10 hours.
     3. 10 hours - 2.5 hours **= 7.5 hours**
     4. 7.5 hours of administrative labor is added to Clara's log for the day.

### How are overlapping CACFP Labor Tasks counted?

In some cases, a user may have multiple tasks assigned to the same meal. For example, Kitchen Staff may be assigned to both meal preparation and meal cleanup for Lunch.

Automated logging assumes that these tasks are both completed within the Lunch meal window. So, even though there are two lines—one for Meal Preparation and one for Meal Cleanup—only one hour is counted.

Staff may edit their daily logs to reflect the correct start and end times for a specific activity to ensure each are counted correctly.

### How does center staff ensure these logs are accurate?

We recommend that center staff review their logs daily to ensure that the information captured is correct. Users may edit logs for their current day regardless of permission settings. To edit beyond that, however, users must have the **Edit Past Labor Logs** permission set to **Yes**.

### What happens if there are missing meal times?

In the event that critical time information is not present, users will be directed to their log upon check-in to manually input times for each of their assigned activities.

 

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