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QBTime Manager — Administrator Guide

This guide is for the people who set up and run QBTime Manager. It assumes you have never used the system before and explains every step in plain language, with the exact buttons to click.

There are two kinds of administrator:

  • Platform / DevOps administrator — the provider (you, if you run QBTime Manager for others). Manages every customer. Uses the special control panel at /platform.
  • Customer administrator — an admin for one client organization. Manages that organization's QuickBooks Time accounts, people, schedules, and reports.

If you just need to use QBTime Manager day-to-day (see who's working, manage schedules, run reports), you want the User Guide instead — this Admin Guide is about setup and management.

Throughout this guide, a "screen" is referred to by its web address path, like /app/companies. Your QBTime Manager site lives at https://qbtime.r2d2dev.com (a test copy is at https://staging.qbtime.r2d2dev.com). So "go to /app/companies" means open https://qbtime.r2d2dev.com/app/companies in your web browser.

1. The big picture (read this first)

QBTime Manager sits on top of QuickBooks Time (QBT). Your company already tracks who clocks in and out in QuickBooks Time; QBTime Manager adds easier management and automatic attendance emails (for example, a 9 a.m. email each day listing who showed up and who was scheduled but didn't).

QBTime Manager is organized in three levels:

  • Company — one QuickBooks Time account. Most businesses have one; some have several.
  • Customer — the business that owns those companies.
  • Platform — the provider who runs QBTime Manager for one or more customers (the top level, hidden from customers).

Everything you see — users, schedules, reports — belongs to one company at a time. If you manage more than one, you switch between them with the company switcher at the top of the screen.

Two rules that affect everyone:

  1. Two-factor authentication (MFA) is required. Every person who logs in must set up an authenticator app. There are no exceptions. (Section 3 walks through it.)
  2. Roles limit what you can do. A Manager can run reports and manage schedules; a Customer Admin can additionally connect companies and manage other people's accounts; DevOps manages everything across all customers.

2. What you need before you start

  • The web address of your QBTime Manager site (https://qbtime.r2d2dev.com).
  • A computer or phone with a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox — any modern one).
  • A smartphone with an authenticator app for two-factor codes. Free options: Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy. Install one from your phone's app store now if you don't have one.
  • Your login (username + password). If you're the very first administrator setting up a brand new system, you don't have one yet — see Section 4 (First-run setup). Otherwise, an existing admin creates your account and gives you a temporary password.

You do NOT need any developer tools (no PowerShell, no installing software) to administer QBTime Manager. Everything in this guide happens in a web browser. (Installing and deploying the software itself is a separate, technical task covered in the app deployment guide.)

3. Signing in and setting up two-factor authentication (MFA)

3.1 Signing in

  1. Open your web browser and go to https://qbtime.r2d2dev.com.
  2. You'll land on the sign-in page. Type your username and password, and click Sign in.
  3. If your account has MFA set up, you'll be asked for a 6-digit code — open your authenticator app, read the current code for QBTime Manager, type it in, and click Verify.

3.2 Setting up MFA (first time you log in)

The first time you sign in, after your password you'll be taken to a setup screen.

  1. On your phone, open your authenticator app and choose to add a new account (often a + button), then pick "Enter a setup key" (not "scan a QR code" — this version shows a key).
  2. On the QBTime Manager screen, you'll see a setup key (a string of letters and numbers). Type it into your authenticator app, give it a name like "QBTime Manager," and save.
  3. Your authenticator now shows a 6-digit code that changes every 30 seconds. Type the current code into the QBTime Manager screen and click Confirm & enable.
  4. QBTime Manager shows you a list of recovery codes. Save these somewhere safe — write them down or put them in a password manager. Each one lets you log in once if you ever lose your phone. They are shown only this one time.
  5. Click to continue. You're now signed in.

3.3 If you lose your phone / authenticator

On the code screen, click "Use a recovery code" and enter one of the codes you saved. Each works once. If you've used them all, ask another administrator to reset your MFA (a customer admin can do this for managers; a Global Admin for DevOps accounts).

3.4 Changing your password

Go to /app/change-password (or click your account menu). Enter your current password and a new one. The new password must be at least 12 characters and mix upper/lowercase, numbers, and symbols; very common/breached passwords are rejected. For safety you'll be signed out afterward — just sign back in.

3.5 If you're locked out

After several wrong password attempts, QBTime Manager temporarily locks the account and shows how long to wait. Wait that long, then try again. This protects against guessing.

4. First-run setup (only for a brand-new system)

Skip this section unless you are setting up QBTime Manager for the very first time and no accounts exist yet. This creates the first top-level administrator (the "Global Admin").

This step needs a one-time setup secret — a password-like string the person who installed the software created and gave you. (If you don't have it, ask whoever deployed QBTime Manager; it's described in the app deployment guide.)

  1. In your browser, go to https://qbtime.r2d2dev.com/setup.
  2. In Setup secret, paste the one-time secret you were given.
  3. Fill in the first administrator's username, email, and a strong password.
  4. Click Create administrator. You'll see a success message.
  5. Click Go to sign in, then sign in with the username and password you just created.
  6. You'll be prompted to set up MFA — follow Section 3.2.
  7. Tell whoever deployed the software that setup is done, so they can remove the setup secret (it can only be used once anyway, but it should be cleaned up).

You are now the Global Admin and can create other administrators (Section 8).

5. Customer admin: connecting a QuickBooks Time company

Before QBTime Manager can show any data, each QuickBooks Time account ("company") must be connected. This has two parts: one you do inside QuickBooks Time, and one you do inside QBTime Manager.

5.1 Part 1 — in QuickBooks Time (done once, by your QBT account admin)

QBTime Manager needs permission to read your QuickBooks Time data. QuickBooks Time grants this through its API Add-On.

  1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Time account (this is Intuit's site, not QBTime Manager).
  2. Install/enable the API Add-On (in QuickBooks Time's settings/add-ons area).
  3. It produces two values: a Client ID and a Client Secret. Copy both — you'll paste them into QBTime Manager in Part 2. Treat the secret like a password.
  4. When asked for a redirect URL (or "callback URL") in the Add-On settings, enter exactly: https://qbtime.r2d2dev.com/api/v1/companies/connect/callback

QBTime Manager cannot do Part 1 for you — only QuickBooks Time can create these credentials. If you're not the QBT account admin, ask them to do this and send you the Client ID and Client Secret securely.

5.2 Part 2 — in QBTime Manager

  1. Sign in to QBTime Manager and go to /app/companies.
  2. Under Add a company, fill in:
  3. Company name — any label you'll recognize (e.g. "North Store").
  4. Timezone — the company's local timezone in standard form, e.g. America/New_York, America/Chicago, America/Denver, America/Los_Angeles. (This controls when "today" starts and when reports send.)
  5. QBT client ID and QBT client secret — paste the two values from Part 1.
  6. Click Add company. The company appears in your list marked pending. (The secret is stored encrypted and never shown again.)
  7. Click Connect next to the company. You'll be sent to QuickBooks Time to approve access.
  8. Approve, and you'll be returned to QBTime Manager. It tests the connection automatically.
  9. The company's status becomes connected. It now appears in the company switcher and its data is available.

If the connection fails, see Section 11 (Troubleshooting).

5.3 Reconnecting or disconnecting

On /app/companies:

  • Reconnect (if the connection breaks or you changed the QBT secret): click Connect again and re-approve.
  • Disconnect: click Disconnect. This safely removes the stored access and sets the company back to pending. Your past report history is kept. You can reconnect any time.

5.4 Company settings

On /app/settings you can change the company's display name and timezone. The timezone matters a lot: all attendance calculations and scheduled report times use it.

6. Reports

6.1 Running a report by hand

  1. Go to /app/reports.
  2. Pick a date (use the Today or Yesterday buttons, or choose any date).
  3. Click Preview to see the report on screen — it lists everyone grouped as Present, Late, Absent, In progress, On leave, and Unscheduled.
  4. Click Run & send to email it to the recipients you've configured.

6.2 Setting up automatic (scheduled) reports

Scroll down on /app/reports to Scheduled reports.

  1. Click into the new-report form and enter:
  2. Name — e.g. "Daily attendance."
  3. Report type — for attendance, choose daily_attendance.
  4. Frequency — Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. For Weekly, tick the days.
  5. Time — when to send, in 24-hour format (e.g. 09:00), in the company's timezone.
  6. Recipients — the email addresses to send to, separated by commas.
  7. Click Create scheduled report.
  8. It now appears in the list. Use Disable to pause it, Enable to resume, or Delete to remove it.

QBTime Manager checks every 15 minutes and sends each report at its set local time, even across daylight saving changes. If nobody was scheduled that day, the report is skipped.

6.3 Checking that reports are working

Go to /app/status for the active company. It shows whether the QuickBooks Time connection is healthy, whether the access is expiring soon, and when a report last sent successfully. If reports stop arriving, check here first.

7. Managing users and schedules

(These are also covered in the User Guide — managers do them too.)

  • Users (/app/users): view, Add, Edit, and Archive people. Archiving a user (since QuickBooks Time has no permanent delete) stops them counting as "expected" in reports. Export CSV downloads the list.
  • Schedule (/app/schedule): a Week grid (click a day to add a shift; click a shift to edit) or a List view. Days with no coverage and overlapping shifts are highlighted. Draft shifts don't count for reporting until published.

8. Managing accounts (customer admins)

Go to /app/accounts (visible only to customer admins).

To invite someone:

  1. In the Invite an account form, enter their username, email, and a temporary password to share with them.
  2. Choose the company and role to grant:
  3. Manager — can manage users/schedules and run reports for that company.
  4. Customer admin — can additionally connect companies and manage accounts.
  5. Click Invite. Give the person their temporary password; they'll change it and set up MFA on first login.

To disable/enable someone: use the toggle next to their name. (You can't disable your own account.)

9. Platform / DevOps console (provider only)

This section is for platform-tier (DevOps) administrators. Customers never see it. It lives at /platform.

9.1 Managing customers

  • /platform lists all customers. Use the form to create a customer.
  • Click View as next to a customer to enter their context and troubleshoot. This is read-only by default and fully recorded in the activity log; a banner shows you're viewing as that customer. Click Stop in the banner to exit.

9.2 Managing DevOps accounts (Global Admin only)

On /platform/devops, a Global Admin can create new DevOps accounts and optionally make one a Global Admin (so it too can manage DevOps accounts). Rules: a Global Admin account can't be disabled by others, and there's always at least one Global Admin.

10. The activity log

/app/activity is a complete, read-only history: logins, MFA changes, company connect/ disconnect, user and schedule edits, report runs and sends, account changes, and (for DevOps) impersonation. Each entry is time-stamped and tied to who did it. Use the action filter box to narrow it down (for example, type login.success or company.connected). The log can't be edited or deleted — it's a trustworthy record.

11. Troubleshooting

I can't sign in — "Incorrect username or password." Double-check caps lock and the exact username. If you keep failing you may be temporarily locked; wait for the cooldown shown.

I can't get past the 6-digit code. Make sure your phone's clock is set to automatic time — authenticator codes depend on the correct time. If your phone is lost, use a recovery code.

The "Connect" step fails for a company. Usually one of: the redirect URL in the QuickBooks Time Add-On doesn't exactly match https://qbtime.r2d2dev.com/api/v1/companies/connect/callback; or the Client ID/Secret were typed wrong. Re-check both in Part 1, then try Connect again.

Reports aren't arriving. Open /app/status. If the connection shows an error or the token is expired, reconnect the company on /app/companies. Also confirm the scheduled report is enabled and the recipient emails are correct.

Emails go to spam or don't arrive. This is about the sending domain's email settings (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), configured by whoever set up the Microsoft 365 / email provider — not something fixed inside QBTime Manager. Ask your email administrator to verify those records.

A manager says they can't connect a company. Connecting requires the Customer Admin role. A manager can't do it — a customer admin must.

I'm a customer and I see something about "platform" or "DevOps." You shouldn't — that area is provider-only. If a link appears that you can't use, ignore it; access is enforced on the server.

12. Glossary

  • Company — one QuickBooks Time account managed in QBTime Manager.
  • Customer — the business that owns one or more companies.
  • Platform / DevOps — the provider who runs QBTime Manager; the top tier, hidden from customers.
  • MFA / two-factor / authenticator code — the 6-digit code required at sign-in.
  • Recovery code — a one-time backup code to sign in if you lose your authenticator.
  • API Add-On — the QuickBooks Time feature that produces a company's Client ID and Secret.
  • Service token — the secured access QBTime Manager stores per company to read QuickBooks Time data.
  • Draft shift — a tentative shift that doesn't count for attendance until published.
  • Archive — deactivate a user (QuickBooks Time has no permanent delete).
  • Impersonation / "View as" — a DevOps session viewing a customer's data to troubleshoot, fully recorded.