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Checked against the product · 2026-10-05

Your First Day — Signing In

Start here. This guide takes you from the invitation email to a working sign-in on your computer and your phone, in about fifteen minutes. After that, the Mobile App guide and the Timekeeping guide take over.

For: everyone with a new Arcvue account · Time: ~15 minutes · You'll need: your invitation email, a computer, and your phone.

Step 1 — Find your invitation email​

Your company creates your account; you do not sign yourself up. When it does, Arcvue sends you an email headed Your Arcvue account is ready. It holds the three things you need:

In the emailWhat it is
Sign-in addressYour company's own Arcvue web address, ending in .arcvue.ai.
UsernameWhat you sign in with. Your work email address works too.
Temporary passwordA one-time password for your first sign-in only.

The temporary password is for you alone, so do not forward the email. You replace it with your own password during your first sign-in (Step 4).

If you already had an Arcvue account, you get an email headed Your Arcvue sign-in details instead. It has no temporary password: sign in with the password you already use, and skip Step 4.

No email? Check your junk folder first. If it is not there, ask your administrator to check the email address on your account.

Step 2 — Sign in on a computer first​

Do your first sign-in on a computer, not your phone. You will scan a code off the computer screen with your phone in Step 3.

  1. Open the Sign-in address from the email. The Sign in to Arcvue button in the email opens the same page.
  2. Enter your Username or email and the Password from the email.
  3. Select Sign in.

Step 3 — Set up two-factor authentication​

Arcvue requires a second factor, so every sign-in needs a six-digit code from an app on your phone as well as your password. You set this up once, now.

Before you start, install an authenticator app on your phone from your phone's app store. Microsoft Authenticator and Google Authenticator both work, as does any app that shows six-digit sign-in codes.

The computer now shows a panel headed Set up two-factor authentication:

  1. Scan this with your authenticator app. In the authenticator, add a new account and scan the QR code on screen. If you cannot scan it, use Or enter this key by hand: Copy key copies the key so you can paste it in, and changes to read Copied so you know it worked.
  2. Enter the 6-digit code it shows, meaning the code your authenticator now displays for Arcvue.
  3. Select Finish setup.

If the code is refused, it is almost always your phone's clock. Codes change every 30 seconds and are checked against the exact time. Wait for the next code, and set your phone's date and time to update automatically.

The key stays the same until setup finishes, so if you sign in again partway through, the Arcvue entry you already added keeps working. Do not add a second one. If the page says it timed out, select Back to sign in and sign in again. Closing the page part-way works the same way: your next sign-in brings the setup back with that key.

Step 4 — Choose your own password​

Replace the temporary password before you do anything else. Somebody else chose it, and it arrived by email.

Arcvue asks for this with a panel headed Choose your own password, shown in place of the app. If you find yourself in Arcvue without seeing that panel, open the same form yourself: select your name at the top right of the page, then Change password. Either way:

  1. Current password: the temporary password from your email.
  2. New password: at least 8 characters, different from the temporary one.
  3. Confirm new password: type it again.
  4. Select Set password and continue on the panel, or Update password on the Change password page.

Arcvue confirms with Your new password is set. on the panel, or Password updated on the page. From then on the temporary password no longer works. Use your own password on the computer and on your phone.

On the panel, Sign out leaves without changing anything, and the same panel appears the next time you sign in.

If you sign in on your phone first, the app opens Change password straight away, because nothing else will load until the temporary password is replaced. If you close it, an amber banner stays across the top — Change your password to continue — with a Change password button that opens the form again. The banner goes away once your new password is set.

Step 5 — Install Arcvue Mobile on your phone​

The app is Arcvue Mobile. Install it with the link for your phone:

After installing, open the app once, close it completely, then open it again. The first launch after an install can run an older version of the app while it downloads the current one. The update takes effect the next time you open the app.

Step 6 — Sign in on your phone​

The phone's sign-in screen asks for three things:

FieldWhat to enter
OrganizationThe first part of your sign-in address, before .arcvue.ai. If your address is https://acme.arcvue.ai, enter acme, or paste the whole address. The app remembers it.
UsernameYour username or your work email address.
PasswordYour own password from Step 4.

Select Sign in. The app then asks for your Authenticator code. Enter the six digits your authenticator shows and select Verify, or press Enter. A code you paste works too, with or without the space in the middle. On the phone app you are signed in as soon as the sixth digit is in. Back to sign in returns you to the first screen.

Then check the name at the top of the Home screen. It is the organization you are signed into, and it should be your company. If it is not, you typed a different Organization: sign out (the icon at the top right of Home) and sign in again with the right one. Everything you record goes to the organization named there, so check it once now.

If you signed in on your phone before your computer​

That works too. The phone walks you through the same setup as Step 3, on a screen headed Set up two-factor authentication:

  • Open my authenticator app hands the key straight to the authenticator on the same phone, so there is nothing to scan. If that does not work, use Or enter this key by hand; press and hold the key to copy it.
  • Type the code into Code from the app and select Turn on two-factor.

If the app says You're set up. Sign in with your password and a fresh code., setup worked but the 30-second code changed before sign-in finished. Sign in again with a new code.

If you have not chosen your own password yet (Step 4), do it now, before anything else: Settings → Change Password. Enter the temporary password as your Current password, then your New password (at least 8 characters) in both boxes, and select Update password. A password change on the phone or the computer counts for both.

Until the temporary password is replaced, Arcvue refuses everything else. On the phone, Change Password opens by itself when you sign in, and a bar across the top of every screen says to change your password, with a Change password button, until you do. On an app that has not picked up the latest update, the screens say they couldn't load instead, even though your connection is fine. Either way, this is why.

Step 7 — Turn on Face ID or Touch ID​

After one sign-in with your password, the phone offers Use Face ID / Touch ID on the sign-in screen, and asks for it automatically when you open the app. You then unlock Arcvue with your face or fingerprint instead of retyping your password and a code.

If you see Sign in with your password once to enable Face ID / Touch ID., sign in with your password once and the option turns on.

Step 8 — Check that Arcvue has you right​

Open the Settings tab on your phone. The card at the top shows your name, email, role and company, plus your division if your company uses divisions.

If any of it is wrong, tell your administrator. Your role decides which screens you can open.

If you forget your password or username​

Both sign-in screens have Forgot password? and Forgot username?.

You choseYou enterSelect
Forgot password?your username or work emailSend reset link
Forgot username?your work emailSend my username on the web, Send username on the phone

The reset email holds a link. Open it, enter your New password twice, and save. The link expires, so if it has stopped working, request a new one rather than retrying the old one.

For more detail on passwords and two-factor authentication, see Account Access.

Signing out, and a lost phone​

  • Sign out on the phone is the icon at the top right of the Home tab. You can sign back in with Face ID or Touch ID.
  • On the computer, select your name at the top right of the page, then Sign out. Change password is in the same menu: enter your current password and the new one twice, and Update password. When it saves, Back to Arcvue returns you to where you were, still signed in.
  • Forget this device, at the bottom of Settings on the phone, signs you out completely and turns off Face ID and Touch ID on that phone. Use it before you give a phone away or replace it.
  • Lost or replaced your phone? Ask your administrator to reset your two-factor authentication. Your next sign-in then walks you through setting it up again, as in Step 3. While you still have the old phone, you can move two-factor to a new one yourself: Settings → Two-Factor Authentication → Set up again issues a new setup key. Add it to the authenticator on the new phone, enter the code it shows, and select Enable.

When something looks wrong​

What you seeWhat to do
The sign-in fails with a password you know is rightOn the phone, check Organization against your sign-in address. It is the part before .arcvue.ai.
The six-digit code is refusedWait for the next code, and set your phone's clock to update automatically.
You no longer have the phone your authenticator is onAsk your administrator to reset your two-factor authentication, then set it up again.
A screen says it cannot match you to an employee recordYour sign-in works, but your account is not linked to your personnel record yet, so there is no timesheet to show. Ask your administrator to link it. Signing out and back in does not fix this.
The phone signs you in, then every screen says to change your password, or says it couldn't loadYou are still on the temporary password. Change it in Settings → Change Password (Step 6).
A screen from this guide is missing on the phoneClose the app completely and open it again (see Step 5).
The invitation's temporary password does not workUse Forgot password? to send yourself a reset link. It goes straight to you, instead of through somebody else.