---
title: Locations
summary: 'A physical workplace address where employees work: head office, branch, warehouse, customer site. Drives cross-border tax handling and on-site terminal access.'
section: features
tags:
  - crud
  - tempus
  - foundation
  - org-structure
updated: '2026-06-17'
---

> A **location** in Tempus is a physical workplace address where employees work, such as a head office, branch, warehouse, or customer site. It tells Tempus where a clock-in or work shift took place.

## Overview

A location is an operational address, distinct from the [company](tempus_companies.md)'s legal seat. One company can have many locations, and one location can be shared by several companies. The form is minimal (name and address fields). It is then referenced from contracts, clock-in events, and work-shift definitions.

## What it does

Locations feed four parts of the system:

| Use | How it works |
|---|---|
| **Contract primary location** | Each [contract](tempus_contracts.md) names the primary workplace, the default for time-attendance and tax. |
| **Time-point location** | Recorded when an employee clocks in via a [terminal](terminals.md) or web app. |
| **Work-shift location** | A [work shift](tempus_work_shifts.md) can specify where it is rostered. |
| **Reports** | [Employee reports](employee_reports.md) can group or filter by location. |

The **country** field is the most consequential: it feeds the cross-border tax engine in payroll exports, which matters where employees commute across borders (common in Luxembourg). Set it correctly at creation.

> [!WARNING]
> Changing a location's country affects historical tax handling on reprocessing. For a location with history, create a new one instead. Note also that locations are not deduplicated by address, so clean up duplicates manually.

## See also

- [Companies](tempus_companies.md) - the legal entity (separate from operational locations).
- [Contracts](tempus_contracts.md) - where the location is named as the primary place of work.
- [Time points](tempus_time_points.md) - clock-in events that may capture a location.
- [Terminals](terminals.md) - physical badge readers installed at one location each.
- [Work shifts](tempus_work_shifts.md) - shift definitions that can be tied to a location.