Glossary
Terms you'll see across FabWise, defined in one place. Useful when reading help articles, talking to support, or decoding the admin UI.
Why this exists
FabWise uses specific words for specific concepts, and several of them have non-obvious meanings (legal terms from FLSA, internal model names that leaked into the UI, terms with similar-sounding but different cousins). This glossary pins down the canonical meaning.
If you see a term in another help article and aren't sure what it means, look it up here.
Time tracking and shifts
Shift
A single instance of a worker being on the clock. Has a scheduled start/end (from the schedule template) and an actual start/end (from kiosk taps), plus any breaks, tasks, and review state.
Captured time (capture)
What the worker tapped at the kiosk. Immutable. Once a tap lands in the database, it never changes. Stored as actual_start_time, actual_end_time, etc.
Final time
What counts for pay. Starts equal to the captured time, but can be adjusted by a supervisor. Stored separately from captured time so the audit trail is intact. This is the value that flows to payroll.
Supervisor adjustment (correction)
A supervisor's edit to a shift's final times, recorded with the actor's name and timestamp. Lives alongside the captured time, doesn't overwrite it. The named principle: "Capture is immutable; correction is first-class."
Shift intent
What the worker said about their timing when they clocked in. Values:
- On time — within the rounding window of scheduled start
- Early waiting — arrived early, wants the shift to start at scheduled time
- Started early — arrived early, working from now
- Late arrival — past scheduled start, confirms current time
- Forgot to clock in — was already working, missed the tap; record as scheduled start
Intent drives which time (captured vs. scheduled) becomes the final time for pay.
Rounding
The grace window around scheduled start/end where the kiosk treats early/late as on time. FLSA term (§785.48). Default is a few minutes in either direction; configurable per account.
Hours worked
FLSA term (§785) for time that legally counts as compensable. Not necessarily the same as the time on the clock — includes things like required pre-shift activities and excludes bona fide meal breaks.
Net hours
Actual time on the clock minus break time. The value that flows to the payroll export.
Net payable hours
Same as net hours.
Compensable time
FLSA term for time that counts as hours worked. Used in legal contexts.
Workweek
FLSA term for a fixed, recurring 7-day period used to calculate overtime. FabWise uses Sunday–Saturday; not configurable.
Overtime
FLSA pay classification: hours actually worked beyond 40 in a workweek, paid at 1.5x. FabWise tracks hours; your payroll provider calculates overtime pay.
Extra time
FabWise term (not FLSA). Minutes worked beyond the scheduled shift — early starts plus late ends. A business concept for "unplanned" hours, distinct from legal overtime. A worker can have extra time without overtime, and overtime without extra time.
Bona fide meal period
FLSA term (§785.19) for unpaid meal breaks of 30 minutes or more where the worker is fully relieved of duty.
Personal time
Worker's term in FabWise for unpaid time off the clock during a shift (appointment, errand, phone call). Not a meal break; not paid.
Unscheduled shift
A shift the worker started without one being on their schedule. Allowed at the kiosk but typically flagged for review.
Ready for payroll
A shift's state when it has final times set and isn't flagged for review. Only ready-for-payroll shifts appear in the payroll export.
Auto-approval
The shift inspection's verdict that nothing unusual happened — the captured times become the final times, no supervisor review needed. Clean shifts skip the review queue.
Flagged for review
The inspection's verdict that something stood out (late arrival, missed meal break, missed clock-out, exceeded max length, etc.). Goes to the supervisor's review queue.
Scheduling
Schedule (template)
A weekly pattern of work hours: Monday's hours, Tuesday's hours, and so on, plus shift type and meal break info per day.
Schedule entry
One day's worth of the schedule template. Seven of these per active schedule.
Effective schedule
The schedule actually used for a worker, resolved at runtime as user.schedule || user.department.schedule. A direct user-level assignment wins; otherwise the department's schedule applies.
Department schedule
The schedule assigned to a department. Used as the default for every worker in the department, unless a worker has a personal override.
Personal schedule (schedule override)
A schedule assigned directly to a specific worker, overriding their department's schedule. Set on the User edit form.
Shift type
A label on a scheduled day — "Regular," "Overnight," "Swing," etc. Used for reporting and for shift behavior (e.g., overnight shifts that cross midnight).
Rebuild schedule
The action of regenerating future shift records from the current schedule template. Triggered automatically when a schedule changes, or manually from Manage Schedules.
Users, roles, and access
User
A person in FabWise. Includes both shop floor workers and office team (admins, supervisors, managers).
Worker
Common term for a shop floor user — someone who clocks in at the kiosk, tracks time, doesn't access the admin panel.
Office user
A user whose work location is "Office" — admins, supervisors, managers. Doesn't necessarily mean they don't work the shop floor; just that they have access beyond worker level.
Account Owner
The highest-permission role. Can do anything, including billing and deleting the account.
Admin
Full operational access. Manages users, settings, shifts, jobs. Can't delete the account or change billing.
Manager
Shop-floor management. Can review shifts and run reports across the shop. Can't change account settings.
Supervisor
Reviews shifts for their direct reports. Limited to their assigned workers.
Tracks time
A flag on a user — if true, they can clock in at the kiosk and have shifts. Hourly workers always track time; salaried office users usually don't.
PIN
A 4-digit number that identifies a worker at the kiosk. Per-user, unique across the account, hashed in storage.
Passkey
A WebAuthn credential used to sign in to Workstation or the admin panel. Tied to a specific device. Replaces passwords.
Enrollment token
A one-time link or QR code that lets a worker register a passkey on their device for Workstation access. Expires 10 minutes after generation.
Jobs and job costing
Customer
A company you do work for. Has one or more Contacts and one or more Jobs.
Contact
A specific person at a Customer.
Job
A specific project for a Customer. Has stages, quotes, tasks, costs, and an eventual final invoice.
Lead
An incoming quote request from the public Customer Portal. Becomes a Customer + Contact + Job when you convert it.
Stage
A job's position in its lifecycle. The seven stages are: Inquiry → Quote → Scheduled → Production → Quality → Delivery → Complete.
Hold (job hold)
A separate state from stage. Pauses work on a job (waiting on customer, vendor delay, etc.). Blocks new task tracking until removed.
Quote
A priced proposal sent to a customer for a job. Has revisions and an accepted state.
Invoice
The final bill issued to a customer for completed work.
Change order
A revision to a quote or invoice when scope or pricing changes mid-job.
Deposit
A partial payment received before work is complete.
E-acceptance
Customer signs off on a quote electronically through a FabWise link. Triggers job to advance from Quote to Scheduled.
Tasks
Task
A worker's time-on-task record during a shift. Belongs to a user, a shift, a labor code, and either a job (external task) or an internal code (internal task).
Labor code
A category of work — "Welding," "CNC," "Setup," "Inspection." Admin-defined. Workers pick one when starting a task.
Internal code
A category of non-customer work — "Shop cleanup," "Training," "Meetings." Time tracked against an internal code doesn't load onto a customer job.
Internal task
A task with internal_task: true — work that's not for a customer. Uses an internal code, no job.
External task
A task with internal_task: false — work on a customer job. Has both a labor code and a job.
Active task
The task a worker currently has running. One per shift, per worker. Starting a new task ends the previous one.
Rate snapshot
The worker's hourly rate captured at the time a task is logged, stored in a JobUserRate record. Used so the job's cost picture stays historically accurate even when the worker's rate changes later.
Portal and customer-facing
Customer Portal
Your shop's public page at fabwise.app/shop/your-slug. Includes capabilities, photos, hours, a quote request form, and an optional careers page.
Portal slug
The URL part you control — your-shop-name in fabwise.app/shop/your-shop-name. Set in Customer Portal settings.
Public listing
A toggle in the Customer Portal that controls whether your portal appears in the public FabWise shop directory. Off = portal still works via direct link, just not listed.
Careers page
A sub-section of the Customer Portal where you post job openings and receive applications. Toggleable independently of the rest of the portal.
Job posting
An open hire listing on the Careers page. Different from a "Job" (customer project) — same word, different concept.
Applicant
A person who applied to a job posting via the Careers page.
Kiosk and Workstation
Kiosk
The shared shop-floor tablet where workers tap to clock in, take breaks, and clock out. PWA installed on an Android tablet or iPad.
Workstation
The per-worker private app at workstation.fabwise.app. Used for task tracking, viewing schedule, reading messages from supervisors.
Device pairing
The process of linking a physical kiosk tablet to a FabWise account. Admin generates a 6-digit code; worker (or admin) enters it on the tablet.
Device enrollment
The process of registering a passkey on a worker's personal device for Workstation access.
PWA
Progressive Web App — a website installed to look and feel like a native app. Both the kiosk and Workstation are PWAs.
Misc
FLSA
Fair Labor Standards Act — the US federal law that defines hours worked, overtime, meal breaks, and recordkeeping. FabWise captures records that comply with FLSA; your payroll provider applies FLSA pay rules.
Pay period
The recurring time window (weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly) you run payroll for. Set in Settings → Scheduling.
Capture immutability
Named principle: "Capture is immutable; correction is first-class." What the worker tapped never changes; corrections live alongside, with full audit attribution.
One capture, two interfaces
Named principle: kiosk and Workstation are different presentation layers over the same data model. A tap on either should produce the same record (within their respective allowed actions).
Where to find more
- For features and how they're used — the relevant help article (e.g., Shift Review for the shift review workflow)
- For pay/legal questions — your payroll provider or an employment lawyer; FabWise doesn't give legal advice
- For terminology not in this list — ask support; we'll add it