First-time Setup
After installing the plugin, work through these steps before connecting the iOS app or printing badges. Getting the foundation right saves time later.
1. Company details
Go to MBS Attendance → Settings and fill in the Company section:
- Company name — appears on payslips and ID badges
- Company logo — appears top-left on payslips and badges. Upload via the WordPress media library. PNG with transparent background recommended.
- Address, phone, registration number — printed on payslips below the company name
- Brand colour — the header and footer colour on payslips and badges. Use your company colour.
A logo that is wider than it is tall works best on payslips. Aim for roughly 300×80 pixels at minimum. The system auto-scales it to fit.
2. Create departments
Go to MBS Attendance → Departments → Add Department. Create one department per site or area. For example:
- Farm Site A, Farm Site B, Farm Site C — for remote locations
- Coffee Shop, Farm Stall, Admin — for areas within the main building
For each department, set:
- Work week length — how many days per week staff in this department work (1–7). Used for leave day counting and overtime calculations.
- Shift start / Shift end — default shift hours. Used for auto-generating missed clock-outs and bulk clock-in defaults.
- Pay period start day — the day of month when the pay period begins. Day 1 means 1st to 31st. Day 16 means 16th to 15th of the following month.
All department settings can be overridden per employee. A department might default to 5-day weeks but one employee might work 6 days — set that on their employee record and it takes precedence.
3. Add employees
Go to MBS Attendance → Employees → Add New Employee for each staff member. The essential fields are:
- First and last name
- Department — assign them to the department you created above
- Pay type and rate — hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly
- PIN code — 4 to 6 digits. Used as a fallback if facial recognition or badge scanning is unavailable
For facial recognition, upload three photos of each employee — front-on, slight left turn, slight right turn — and tick the POPIA consent checkbox. Without consent, facial recognition is disabled for that employee.
South African law requires employee consent before storing biometric data. The consent checkbox documents this. Employees can still clock in using PIN or QR code without giving consent.
4. Roles and capabilities
Go to MBS Attendance → Roles to review the default roles:
- Admin — full access to everything including revoking leave and deleting interest records
- Supervisor — can clock staff in/out, submit and cancel leave, run bulk clock-ins
- Employee — minimal access, suitable for staff who have app access
You can create custom roles and enable or disable individual capabilities using the toggles on each role. Assign a role to each employee on their employee record.