Setting up the Hubstaff Corporate App
The Hubstaff corporate app allows organizations record team productivity on company-managed/owned devices in the background.
This feature is only available on Enterprise plans.
Table of contents
- Account provisioning
- Creating a corporate automatic tracking policy
- Download the provisioning profile
- Installation
- Frequently asked questions
- Troubleshooting
Account provisioning
Account provisioning refers to the process of adding team members without the need for a confirmation email. This makes it more convenient for corporate customers to add single users or in bulk. To learn more about how to do this, click here.
Operating system usernames
For the corporate application to work, you’ll need to make sure that the os_username field for each user located on the Members page (People > Members > User > Info tab > OS_username field) is set correctly based on each users computer login name as this is what Hubstaff Corporate application will use during the silent MDM process.
The os_username should not contain the domain.For example, if you open the command line on Windows, you will see
C:UsersMyUser>and the value that you need to use is MyUser.
Here is a real-world example: if the operating username is “marto,” the command line should read:
C:Usersmarto>
Creating a corporate automatic tracking policy
After creating users, you’ll need to add them to a corporate automatic tracking policy. To add a new policy:
Step 1
First, navigate to Settings & Policies > General.
Step 2
Next, go to the Timer & Tracking tab, click Add policy, then choose For company-owned computers.
Step 3
Fill in the following:
- Policy name
- Teams/members
- Automatically add new members to this policy (optional)
- Timer start/stop rules
- All time – records activities as long as there is computer activity.
- Fixed schedule – record activity based on a custom fixed schedule.
- Shifts – record activity during scheduled shifts.
- Don’t start timer until first activity – this means the recording won’t start until there is any detected keyboard/mouse activity.
- Days of the week and start/stop times – set the days and times the timer will start tracking time.
- Starting project – this is the project activity will be logged into when the timer starts.
Hit Save to commit your changes.
Download provisioning profile
Hubstaff supports mass deployment which provides you an easy way to install the application across your organization. Additionally those installations can be mass configured using an enterprise profile removing the need to manually configure each installation.
Only a few steps are needed in order to setup Hubstaff Corporate application on the member’s company owned computer
Step 1
Make sure you have team member/s added with the os_username provided (as it is set up on their computer)
Step 2
Download device provisioning profile that needs to be installed on each member’s computer by navigating to Settings & policies > Enterprise > Device Provisioning > Download.
Installation
Regardless of what MDM system you prefer, you need to follow a few steps in order to set up member’’s computer.
Step 1
Download the enterprise.profile from the previous step.
Step 2
Install Hubstaff Corporate application.
Download Corporate App
Step 3
Put the enterprise.profile into this location:
- MacOS -> /Users/Shared/Hubstaff/
- Linux -> <InstallationDir>/
- Windows -> <InstallationDir>/
Step 4
Finally, re-login member in the OS so Hubstaff Corporate app can automatically start and pick up settings.
After these steps Hubstaff Corporate application will be running in the background and reporting the activity data according to the web settings.
Frequently asked questions
How we can download generated Corporate installer?
The installer can be downloaded here https://app.hubstaff.com/download/corporate. If you prefer to do mass deployment follow the steps here.
What is the application installation/setup flow?
Install the app using downloaded installer and follow Admin UI wizard. For mass deployment – follow instructions.
Does the end user need to interact with the Hubstaff Corporate application?
The end user does not have to interact with the application. At most, the system admin will need set up the application locally. for Linux and macOS admin will need to take care of OS-level permissions IF permissions-related features are crucial.
What if no OS-level permissions were granted on macOS?
In order to track user data (e.g., screenshots, applications and URLs) OS level permissions need to be granted otherwise, the data will not be reported to the server.
What is the difference between Personal and Company-owned policy?
Personal policy will be applied to Standard application instances, while Company-owned policies will be applied to the Corporate application instances. This means that IF by any chance you have a member running Standard app but only the Company-owned policy is set-up, then we cannot expect the Standard app instance to follow Company-owned policy.
We deployed the app but we don’t see any activity being reported. Why is this?
Common reasons for this is that some details of the setup are incorrect, such as a wrong OS username, inconsistencies in the Standard/Corporate installation, as well as chosen policies. If you still need help, please contact us.
Is it possible for end-user to see the Corporate app in task manager?
Yes, the end-user can terminate the watchdog + app in which case no data will be reported to the server.
Do you support mass deployment tools?
It depends on the MDM being used. Currently, we support MDM setup for Windows via InTune.
Troubleshooting
Antivirus/Firewall issues
While installing the Hubstaff application, you may receive specific errors from your anti-virus application or firewall. To resolve these issues, please contact your antivirus/software provider or refer to their designated instructions on how to add applications to the exception list.
Here are a few examples: