Attendance sounds simple: who came to work, and when. In practice it's one of the most disputed parts of HR — and the foundation of accurate payroll. The right method depends on where your people work.
The common options
Paper registers
Cheap and familiar, but easy to fill in on someone else's behalf, hard to consolidate, and every entry has to be typed up for payroll.
Biometric devices
Fingerprint machines reduce proxy attendance at a fixed location. But they need hardware at every entrance, can fail or queue at shift change, and don't work for people who aren't physically at that door.
Face-match on mobile
Employees check in with a selfie on their phone, and the system matches it against their registered photo. No extra hardware, and it works anywhere the employee has their phone.
GPS geofencing
Check-in is only allowed when the phone is inside a defined area around the office or site. Combined with face-match, it confirms both who checked in and where.
Tablet kiosk mode
A single tablet at the entrance acts as the check-in point — useful where not every worker has a smartphone, like factories and warehouses.
Matching the method to your team
| Team type | Good fit |
|---|---|
| Office staff | Face-match on mobile with geofence, or kiosk at reception |
| Factory / warehouse workers | Kiosk mode at the gate, shift rosters |
| Field sales and service staff | Face-match with GPS location at each visit |
| Multiple branches | Geofence per branch, one central dashboard |
| Mixed teams | Different methods per group, in one system |
What matters beyond check-in
- Shifts and rosters — rotational and night shifts need proper rules for late marks and overtime.
- Regularisation — a clear process for employees to correct a missed punch, with manager approval.
- Payroll link — attendance should flow directly into salary calculation, without re-typing.
- Privacy — tell employees what's captured and why, and keep biometric data secure.
How PeopleNest handles attendance
PeopleNest supports face-match verification, GPS geofencing and tablet kiosk mode, along with rotational shift rosters — and attendance feeds directly into payroll. You can use different methods for different teams in the same company. See our guide on why attendance-synced payroll reduces errors.