Introduction
In today’s fast-paced work environment, time management is crucial for both employees and HR teams.
To streamline shift-based attendance and ensure employees are punctual, uKnowva HRMS offers an enhanced Virtual Biometric Plugin that sends smart reminders to users based on their allocated shifts.
These reminders can help reduce missed punch-ins and ensure that attendance records remain accurate and consistent.
With this feature, employees will receive a notification before their shift begins, and if they fail to punch in, a follow-up reminder will be sent after a set duration post shift start.
This article explains in detail how to enable and configure smart reminders as per shift in uKnowva HRMS using the updated plugin.
Step 1: Installing the Updated Virtual Biometric Plugin
To begin setting up smart reminders, first ensure that your system is running the latest version of the Virtual Biometric - Attendance Tracker plugin.
Click on the “+” icon located on the top navigation bar of your uKnowva dashboard.
From the options that appear, choose “Extension Store”.
This will open a new window displaying all available extensions.
Use the search bar to find “Virtual Biometric Plugin”, and once located, click on it and install the updated version.
This plugin is essential as it introduces the smart reminder functionality based on individual shift timings
Step 2: Configuring the Plugin Settings
Once the plugin is successfully installed, click on your profile icon located at the top-right corner of the screen and select “uKnowva Configuration” from the list of options.
In the configuration panel, navigate to the Plugin Manager from the left-hand menu and search for “Virtual Biometric - Attendance Tracker.”
Click on the plugin to open its configuration window.
Within this pop-up, you’ll find a variety of settings related to smart reminders. Begin by enabling the “Smart Reminder on basis of shift time” toggle button.
You can also choose which user groups should be excluded from receiving reminders. Specify the notification channels, such as email or SMS, through which the users will be alerted.
You will also see fields where you can customize the reminder message text that is sent via SMS.
The most important configuration involves defining the time in minutes before a shift begins when the reminder should be sent.
Similarly, you can set a time in minutes after the shift has started for users who still haven’t punched in. Make sure all values are entered in minutes.
Once all fields are configured as needed, click the “Save” button to apply your settings or choose “Cancel” if you do not want to save the changes.
Step 3: Setting Up Cron Jobs for Reminder Functionality
After the plugin configuration is complete, you need to set up cron jobs to ensure the reminders are triggered automatically. Share the following two URLs with the uKnowva server team:
https://{{yourinstancename}}.uknowva.com/api.php/system/usercheckin/sendEmailMinBeforeShiftStart
https://{{yourinstancename}}.uknowva.com/api.php/system/usercheckin/sendEmailMinAfterShiftStart
Ask them to set up cron jobs for these URLs to run every 1 to 5 minutes, with 1 minute being ideal for the most accurate results. Once these crons are in place, uKnowva will start sending smart reminders to users who have been assigned shifts, notifying them about upcoming shifts or missed punch-ins accordingly.
Please note that only users who have a shift allocated to them will receive these reminders. Additionally, you can choose to disable the average punch-in time-based smart reminders by turning off the “Enable Smart Punch-in reminder” feature in the plugin configuration.
Conclusion
That’s it!
You’ve now successfully configured smart reminders based on shifts in uKnowva HRMS.
By following this setup, your employees will receive timely notifications to punch in, helping improve attendance accuracy and shift compliance.
If you have any questions or need additional support, feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..