Quick start
Shift is built around one loop: clock in to a client, work, clock out, see what you earned. Four steps to your first shift:
- Open the Clients tab and tap Add client. Give them a name and an hourly rate. That’s all you need.
- Go to Homeand tap the big button at the bottom. Pick the client you just added. Hold the button to start the shift — the hold is intentional, so you don’t clock in by accident.
- Work. The timer stays alive in the background, across app restarts and force-quits. It doesn’t care if your phone locks or you switch apps.
- When you’re done, tap End shift. You can add a note and optionally tag scope creep. Your earnings for that shift land on Home and in Earnings.
Common tasks
Clock in to a client
Home → tap the primary button at the bottom → choose the client → hold to confirm. If you’re already planning the week in the Plantab, Shift knows which block you’re in and suggests the matching client first.
Edit a completed shift
Open the History tab, tap the shift, then tap Edit. You can adjust the start and end times, the break, the notes, the scope-creep tags, and earnings-related fields. You can’t change the client on an existing shift — start a new one instead if the wrong client was picked.
Delete a completed shift
History → tap the shift → Edit → Delete shift. Deletion is immediate and can’t be undone; your earnings rollups update automatically.
Take a break in the middle of a shift
On Home while a shift is active, tap Break. You can choose a timed break (auto-resumes after the interval) or a manual break (you tap resume when you’re back). Break time is excluded from earnings.
Plan your week
The Plan tab is a weekly grid. Tap a day to add blocks of time. You can save a week as a reusable pattern and apply it later with one tap. Days can be marked off.
Archive a client
Clients → tap the client → Archive. Archived clients stop appearing in the clock-in picker and plan surfaces, but historical shifts keep showing the real client name. You can restore or permanently delete an archived client from the archived section at the bottom of the Clients list.
Tag scope creep
When you clock out, you can tag “scope creep” — the client asked for something outside what you agreed — with a category and an impact. Tags roll up in Earnings so you have receipts next time you renegotiate.
Troubleshooting
My shift didn’t start
Shift uses a hold-to-confirm gesture on purpose. If the button didn’t fire, try again and hold a beat longer. If Home still shows no active shift after a confirmed tap, force-quit the app and reopen — your last confirmed clock-in is persisted before the button animates, so a restart will surface it if it landed.
My data is gone / I opened a fresh app
Shift stores core tracking data on your device. If you were signed in before the problem, open Settings and sign back in to check for a cloud backup. If the app looks blank after an install or an OS update, the most likely causes are: (a) the app was fully uninstalled and reinstalled before backup was active, or (b) the OS cleared app data at the user’s request. Before reinstalling in response to a glitch, email us at hello@tryfelmark.com — we may be able to help you recover from an on-device diagnostic buffer.
My active shift looks stuck
If Home shows an active shift that doesn’t match reality (for example, a clock-in from last week that never closed), open the shift on Home, then tap End shift and adjust the end time before saving. Shift lets you backdate the close to the real end time.
The clock-in modal opens empty
You need at least one client before you can clock in. Add one from the Clients tab. If you already have clients and the picker is still empty, force-quit the app and reopen; if the issue repeats, email us.
Earnings or plan numbers look wrong
Earnings are derived from your completed shifts and the hourly rate on the client at the time of each shift. Changing a client’s rate does not rewrite past shifts. If a specific shift’s earnings look wrong, open it in History and check the rate and times on the shift directly.
Plan tab shows a different week than I expected
Plan is weekly and uses ISO week numbers (weeks start on Monday in most regions). Use the week navigator at the top to move between weeks. Home always reads the currentweek’s plan, regardless of what week you’re viewing in the Plan tab.
I want my data off my device
If you are signed in, use Settings → Cloud Backup → Delete Account to remove your Shift account, cloud backup, and local Shift data from this device. You can also delete local-only data by uninstalling the app or by clearing app data from your device’s system settings.
I joined the waitlist and want off
Every email we send includes a one-click unsubscribe. You can also email hello@tryfelmark.com and we will remove you within seven days. More in the Privacy Policy.
FAQ
- Does Shift work offline?
- Yes for core tracking. Clocking in, clocking out, planning, history, and earnings work from local device data. Sign-in, cloud backup, restore, account deletion, purchase restore, and support/legal links need a network connection.
- Does it sync to the Felmark web app?
- Shift 1.0 includes optional cloud backup and restore for signed-in users. It is backup-first, not live multi-device sync: the app keeps device data as the working copy and asks before replacing local data from a cloud backup. The Privacy Policy describes what leaves the device when backup is active.
- Is there a web dashboard I can log into?
- Not in v1.0. Shift runs entirely on your phone, with optional cloud backup that you can use to restore on another device. A connected web dashboard is on the roadmap; until it ships, the mobile app is the working surface. The page at tryfelmark.com/shift is the marketing site for the app, not an editor.
- Does Shift seal each shift?
- Yes. At clock-out, the App computes a local cryptographic fingerprint of the shift and chains it to the previous sealed shift. The seal is generated and stored on your device. If you edit a sealed shift later, the change is recorded as a modification on top of the original sealed record — the seal is not silently overwritten. There is nothing to enable; it is always on for completed shifts.
- How much does Shift cost?
- Time tracking, planning, history, earnings, cloud backup, and Shift Seal are free forever. Professional ($35/year with a 7-day free trial, or $4.99/month with a 3-day trial) adds Sleep, Stress, and Scope Creep insights, Worksite + Capture confidence scoring, Shift Reports, and expanded Work Addresses. Purchases are billed through the App Store or Google Play. No Lifetime offer in v1.0.
- Does Shift track my location?
- Not unless you turn on Shift Worksite for a live shift. Worksite uses foreground location checks to compare the shift with a saved client address. It does not request background location or record a continuous route.
- Does Shift upload my photos?
- No. Shift Capture stores timestamped photo-note metadata and local photo references. Original photos stay on your device unless a future release adds an explicit sharing or upload flow that you choose.
- Does Shift collect analytics or crash reports?
- No. There are no analytics SDKs, ad networks, or crash reporters embedded in the app.
- I have an iPad. Does it work there?
- Shift v1.0 is submitted as an iPhone-focused app. It may run on iPad in compatibility mode, but the supported design target is a phone screen.
- My shift crossed midnight. Is that okay?
- Yes. A shift that starts at 10pm and ends at 4am the next morning is counted correctly. History and earnings attribute completed overnight shifts to the day they end, so the log, heatmap, and earnings totals stay aligned.
- I found a bug. What should I send?
- Email hello@tryfelmark.com with: your device model and OS version, the version of Shift (Settings → About), a short description of what you did, and what happened. A screenshot or screen recording is the fastest path to a fix.
Privacy and terms
The Shift Privacy Policy covers local data, optional account backup, account deletion, purchases, and the optional waitlist email. The Shift Terms of Use govern your use of the app itself.