Two different situations can leave a shift stuck open with nobody able to close it: someone genuinely forgets to clock out, or someone is removed from the team (or loses shop access) while they're still on the clock. Either way, an open shift is invisible to payroll — SalesThumb only counts hours on entries that actually have a clock-out time. This article covers how to spot a stuck shift on the Time Clock page and close it out with the correct end time as a manager.
Two ways a shift gets stuck
Archived mid-shift. From the Operations tab's Staff & roles card (sidebar → Growth & Marketing → Operations → Staff & roles), the row's Remove action really archives the person rather than deleting them — the confirm prompt says it plainly: "Archive [name]? They'll no longer appear in the team list or mobile app." The same thing happens if you open Edit on that page and uncheck Visible in shop (uncheck to archive). Do either one while the person is still clocked in, and they lose the ability to close their own shift — their kiosk PIN stops working and their app access goes away, so there's no self-service path left for that entry. It just sits open.
Forgotten, not archived. Sometimes nobody archives anyone — a tech just walks out at the end of the day without tapping Clock Out (or the kiosk's Clock Out button). SalesThumb doesn't auto-close that shift. If it's still open more than 16 straight hours after they clocked in, it's treated as stuck even though the person is still a completely normal, active team member.
Where to spot it: Time Clock → Team Status
Open the Time Clock page — sidebar → Growth & Marketing → the Operations tab → the Time clock card, or press Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Windows) and type "time clock." The Team Status card lists everyone currently clocked in, oldest shift first, each with a colored dot and badge:
- Green dot, Working — a normal open shift.
- Amber dot, Break — clocked in and currently on break.
- Red dot, Stranded — this person's shop membership has been archived while the entry was still open.
Only the archived case gets the red badge and an explanatory line under their name: "Archived while still clocked in. This shift won't be counted in payroll until someone closes it with the time they actually finished." A merely-forgotten shift past the 16-hour mark still shows the ordinary green Working badge — there's no separate visual flag for that case. The only sign anything needs attention is that the repair controls below have quietly appeared under an otherwise normal-looking row.
Closing the shift
The repair controls only show up for someone with permission to manage the time clock (see "Who can do this," below), and only on rows that actually qualify — archived, or open more than 16 hours. You won't see them under techs who are just normally clocked in for today's shift.
1. Open the Time Clock page and find the person in Team Status. 2. Under their row, you'll see a date/time field and a Close shift button. 3. Click into the field and pick the time they actually finished. The picker won't let you choose anything before their real clock-in time or after the current moment — both ends are locked to real bounds, not just suggested ones. 4. Click Close shift. The button reads "Closing…" while it saves.
Once it succeeds, that row disappears from Team Status (the list only ever shows open entries), and the shift shows up as a normal closed entry in the shop's hours summary and history from then on — it now counts toward payroll like any other shift.
If something's wrong with the request, an error message appears in a small red box above Team Status instead of silently failing. The two you're most likely to hit:
- "That shift has already been closed." — someone else beat you to it. The employee clocked out themselves in the meantime, or another manager already closed it.
- "That end time gives a [X]-minute shift, but [Y] minutes of break are already recorded on it. Check the end time — AM/PM is the usual culprit." — this fires when the end time you picked would make the shift shorter than the break time already logged against it. It's almost always a 12-hour clock slip (11:00 AM instead of 11:00 PM); re-check the time you entered and try again.
What happens to breaks
If the shift was left on break when it got stuck — the last thing the app knows is that the person tapped Break and never tapped End Break — closing it treats that break as running all the way to the end time you supply, and subtracts it from the paid total. SalesThumb only stores one running break total per shift rather than the timing of each individual break, so if the end time you pick actually falls after an earlier break that had already finished, there's no way for the close action to know that break shouldn't still count — it will subtract more break time than was really taken. Pick the real end time as accurately as you can; there's no way to adjust the break math separately from it.
Who can do this
Closing someone else's shift takes the same shop permission most other manage-level actions in SalesThumb use — Owner, Admin, and Manager have it by default; Technician, Front Desk, and Service Writer don't. If your shop has customized shop-level permissions from Settings → Team → Permissions, whatever that grants for time-clock management is what actually decides who sees the repair controls, not just the role name on its own. It's enforced on the server, not just hidden in the UI — the same permission also gates editing the Staff Schedule — so it's a real access boundary rather than a convenience toggle.
Need help? Email info@roffik.com.
Frequently asked questions
Q: It's only been a few hours since someone forgot to clock out — can I close their shift right now?
A: Not yet, unless they've also been removed from the team. The repair controls only appear once a shift has been open for more than 16 straight hours, or the person's membership has been archived — whichever happens first. Before that, either they clock themselves out, or you wait.
Q: How do I close a shift for someone I already removed from the team?
A: Open the Time Clock page — their row shows a red Stranded badge and an explanatory banner. Underneath it, pick the time they actually finished in the date/time field (it's bounded to their real clock-in time through right now) and click Close shift.
Q: Why can't I pick a time before this person clocked in, or a future time?
A: The field enforces both bounds directly — the earliest you can pick is their actual clock-in time, and the latest is the current moment. An attempt to save outside that range is rejected with an error rather than silently accepted.
Q: I tried to close a shift but got an error about break minutes — what does that mean?
A: It means the end time you chose would make the shift shorter than the break time already logged on it — almost always a 12-hour AM/PM slip. Re-check the time and try again; SalesThumb won't save a shift with more break time recorded than total time worked.
Q: Who's allowed to close someone else's shift?
A: Owner, Admin, and Manager have this permission by default; Technician, Front Desk, and Service Writer don't. It's enforced on the server — the same permission gates Staff Schedule edits too — so it's a real access boundary, not just a hidden button.