Skip to main content
Nobody types a password into the ReclaimTime client. It works out who is logged in to Windows, asks the backend which ReclaimTime account that is, and signs in as that account. This page covers what it looks up, what it does when the lookup fails, and how to fix the account so it succeeds.

​
What the client sends

At startup the client builds one identifier from Windows and sends it to the backend. The identifier is lowercased before it is sent. Case in Windows makes no difference.
The user principal name is what whoami /upn returns on the machine. It often matches the person’s email address, but it does not have to. When a login fails, that difference is usually the reason.

​
What the backend matches on

The backend looks for exactly one account where SSO is enabled and any one of these matches the identifier:
  1. The account’s username
  2. The account’s Windows username field
  3. The account’s email
If it finds one, the client signs in as that account. If it finds none, the login fails.
SSO must be ticked on the account. An account that matches perfectly on every field but has SSO switched off is not returned, and the client reports the user as not provisioned. This is the single most common cause of a client that never appears in the dashboard.

​
What the employee sees

In the default locked configuration there is no login window. A single status dialog appears, titled ReclaimTime and the installed version number, and closes itself five seconds after a successful sign-in. While it is trying:
Single Sign-On Pending Username: DOMAIN\username Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Attempting to connect…
When it works:

The sign-on dialog after a successful sign-in. It closes itself after five seconds.

Once it has closed, a locked client has no window at all. Opening ReclaimTime again from the Start menu does not show an interface, it just brings this dialog back, which is how somebody checks whether the client is signed in. When it does not:
Single Sign-On Failed! Reason: the error Windows Username: DOMAIN\username Windows Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Please provide the above details to your System Administrator for assistance.
The two lines the administrator needs are Windows Username and Windows Email. The email line only appears when Windows supplies a user principal name. A screenshot of this dialog is all a helpdesk ticket needs to contain.

​
What the messages mean

There is a third message that is not a sign-on failure at all. The account signed in correctly, but the organisation it belongs to has no licence:

Sign-in succeeded, but the organisation has no licence assigned

Nothing about the account will fix this one. Contact us to have the licence put on the organisation.

​
The client keeps trying

The client does not give up after a failed sign-in, and the employee does not need to do anything once the account is fixed. So the sequence for a helpdesk is: create or correct the account, then wait. Within five minutes the client signs in on its own and the person appears in the dashboard. There is no need to restart the client or the machine, and no need to reinstall.
A person who has just been created will not show activity immediately even after a successful sign-in. The client uploads a session for the first time after about a minute of visible time, and the dashboard hides rows younger than 15 minutes, so allow up to 20 minutes before treating a new user as broken.

​
Checklist for a user who never appears

  1. Ask for a screenshot of the sign-on dialog. It gives you the exact Windows username and email the machine is sending.
  2. Find the account in Workforce. If there is none, create it. See Accounts.
  3. Check that SSO is ticked.
  4. Check that the account’s email, or its Windows username field, matches what the dialog showed.
  5. Check that the account has an organisation and a role of Standard.
  6. Wait five minutes, then look at the Versions page. The person moves off Never seen as soon as the client signs in.
Checked against ReclaimTime client 8.0.0.9 and dashboard V3 on 5 September 2026.