Shared Desk Tracking

Overview

In hot-desking and shared desk environments, employees don't sit at one dedicated machine. A BPO agent on a rotating shift, or a call-centre rep covering multiple desks, may log into two, three, or more different desktops in a single day, always using the same Active Directory (AD) credentials.

Most time-tracking tools record activity per device. The moment an employee switches computers, that tool treats them as a new, disconnected session. Managers are left piecing together fragments from multiple hostnames to understand one person's actual working day.

Shared Desk Tracking solves this. Flowace uses the employee's AD login as the connective thread across every hostname they touch, and rolls all of it up into one unified, employee-level activity record: the Multi Computer Activity Report.

Who this is for

• Healthcare organisations with shared workstations
• BPOs and call centres with hot-desking or rotating seating across multiple computers
• Any medium-to-large enterprise where employees do not have one dedicated desktop

Primary audience: IT/Ops leaders and workforce management teams who need one accurate, consolidated view of employee activity, regardless of how many computers or hostnames were used.

Why it matters

How it Works

Shared Desk Tracking links activity using the employee's AD login rather than the device. Here is the flow for multi hostname tracking:

1.    The employee logs into any workstation or desktop using their AD (Active Directory) credentials.
2.    The Flowace desktop app, installed on that computer, begins capturing activity and tags it with the employee's identity, not just the machine's identity.
3.    If the same employee logs into a different computer later in the day or their shift, Flowace recognizes the same AD identity and links the new session to the same employee profile.
4.    At the end of the day or reporting period, Flowace merges all sessions across every hostname used into one consolidated record: logged time, active time, idle time, and more.

Key Terms

Before you generate the report:

• Confirm the Flowace desktop app is installed and active on every shared desk or workstation.
• Confirm employees are logging in with their individual AD credentials, not a shared generic login. This is what allows Flowace to link sessions across multiple computers to one person.
• Decide your reporting period and whether you want Full Day or Shift Hours Only scope (explained below).

Step-by-Step: Generating the Report

1.    Log in to Flowace and go to Reporting from the left-hand navigation.
2.    Under Workforce Efficiency / Shared Desk Tracking, select Multi Computer Activity Report.
3.    Under Members and Teams, choose specific employees or teams, or leave the default All Members Selected.
4.    Set the Report Period using the date picker (for example, 03.07.2026 to 09.07.2026).
5.    Under Report Type, confirm Computer Summary is selected. This gives the hostname-consolidated, per-employee view across multiple computers.
6.    Choose Shift Scope: Full Day (all hours worked, including outside the shift window) or Shift Hours Only (hours within the defined shift window only).
7.    Choose Leave and Holidays handling: Include Time Off Days or Exclude Time Off Days (recommended for most reviews, since it removes non-working days from the average).
8.    Set your preferred Time Format, then click Download Report Now to export, or Send via Email to deliver it directly to stakeholders.

Figure 1. The Shared Desk Tracking report builder: select members, report period, shift scope, and leave handling, then generate the Multi Computer Activity Report.

Understanding the filters

Sample Report

Below is a sample Multi Computer Activity Report for a fictional team, using Full Day scope with time off days excluded. Names, IDs, and hostnames are illustrative only.

How to read this sample

• Emma Clarke used two hostnames on 06 Jul (WKS-NY-014 and WKS-NY-021). Her Logged Hrs of 09:12:40 is the combined total across both computers, not per machine.
• Sofia Torres shows all-zero values on 07 Jul. This typically means no session was recorded that day (for example, a day off, or the Flowace app was not running on the desktop she used).

Best Practices

• Run this report weekly for shared desk teams rather than relying on per-device reports, which will always look fragmented.
• Cross-check any all-zero rows against attendance and leave records before treating them as no work performed.
• Use Exclude Time Off Days when calculating average utilization, so weekends and holidays don't skew the numbers downward.
• Periodically audit app deployment across shared computers. One missing install can silently create gaps for every employee who uses that workstation.

FAQs

An employee shows 00:00 hrs across every column for a day. What does this mean?
No session was recorded for that employee that day. Common causes include the employee being on leave, the desktop they used not having the Flowace app installed, or simply not logging in that day. Cross-check with attendance records before drawing conclusions.

Does this report track shared or generic logins (for example, a front-desk kiosk account)?
Shared Desk Tracking is built around individual AD credentials. If multiple employees log in using one generic or shared account, Flowace cannot distinguish between them; activity will appear under whichever profile is mapped to that login. Use individual AD accounts for accurate per-employee reporting across multiple computers.

What is the difference between Full Day and Shift Hours Only?
Full Day includes every hour the employee was active, whether inside or outside their assigned shift window, which is useful for spotting overtime or off-hours work. Shift Hours Only restricts the numbers strictly to the configured shift, which is better for scheduled-hours compliance reporting.

Can I see which specific application activity happened on which hostname?
The Computer Summary view consolidates at the employee level by design. For a hostname-level, computer-by-computer breakdown instead of the consolidated employee view, use detailed reports.

Troubleshooting

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Updated on: 29/07/2026