Clear Roles, Clean Hours

Team management in OpenSpindle is the system for setting up roles and permissions, adding staff, assigning people to projects and machines, tracking hours against jobs, and monitoring overtime and productivity. It replaces paper timesheets, spreadsheet hour logs, and the all-or-nothing access problem that comes with generic shop software that was not built for the different roles inside a fabrication shop.

Yes. OpenSpindle uses role-based access so owners, foremen, operators, and admins each have the right level of access. Owners can view financials, cost data, and all settings. Foremen manage day-to-day tasks and approvals. Operators see their task queue and log time without touching anything else. You decide what each role can view or change.

Yes. Dashboards show total hours worked, overtime accumulation, and task completion by person and role. You can see when someone is approaching overtime before it happens and rebalance work or adjust the schedule. Over time the data shows which operators or teams are most productive per job type, which informs staffing decisions and helps you have honest performance conversations.

Operators access a simplified task view and log time with a single tap to start, pause, or complete a task. The interface shows only what they need to see: the tasks assigned to them and simple controls. Manager-provisioned logins mean operators do not need to self-register or manage an account. Many shops have operators who have never used shop software before using it confidently within their first day.

OpenSpindle is not a payroll system, but it captures clean, job-level time data that can be exported for payroll processing. Admins can review hours, flag overtime anomalies, and export a report for their payroll provider at the end of each pay period. The goal is to eliminate the manual step of collecting, reconciling, and transferring timesheet data that currently sits between the floor and the paycheck.

You can assign a person to multiple projects, but they can only be actively clocked into one task at a time. If they switch tasks, the previous task timer pauses automatically. This means the time data stays accurate at the job level even when workers are juggling multiple assignments across a shift.

Hours logged by operators roll directly into the job costing view in the project management module. Each person's hourly rate, set in their team profile, is used to calculate real labor cost per task and per job. This means the profit or loss view on any project reflects actual labor spend rather than an estimate, which is typically where margin surprises are hiding.

OpenSpindle supports owner, admin, foreman, and operator roles with distinct permission sets for each. Owner and admin roles have full visibility including financials and settings. Foreman roles can manage tasks, approve work, and see project status without touching billing or account settings. Operator roles are task-focused with no access to financial or administrative data.

Team members can be assigned to multiple machines, stations, and projects. Their queue on any given day reflects the tasks assigned to them regardless of which machine or station is involved. When they clock into a task, the time logs to that job whether they are at the router, the bench, or the finishing station.

Adding a new team member takes a few minutes: create the account, assign a role, set the hourly rate, and connect them to their initial station or project. Their access, task queue, and time tracking are live immediately. As the shop grows, you can create additional roles or adjust permissions across the team without rebuilding the system, which means the structure scales with you rather than requiring a software change every time you hire.