Switch From QR Sign-In to the Kiosk Mid-Event

Thirty volunteers show up at once, a line forms at your QR poster, and phones are slow to load the scanner. You want to set a tablet by the door and let people tap their name instead. You can, and nobody loses time doing it. Here are the questions you actually have in that moment, answered straight.

If I switch to the kiosk, does someone already clocked in stay clocked in?

Yes. The way a person started their shift has nothing to do with whether they are on the clock. A worker who scanned the QR code and tapped in is now an open time entry, same as any other. Switch the room to a shared-tablet kiosk and that entry keeps running untouched. When they leave, they tap their name on the tablet to clock out, even though they started by scanning a code.

That works because workers do not have accounts. There is no profile to migrate and no session tied to one device. Every clock-in and clock-out is just a record against a worker's name, and the name is the same whichever way it was entered.

How do I actually make the switch during the event?

Open the tablet to the kiosk, and leave the QR poster up if you want both running at once. The two modes are not an either/or setting you have to toggle. Your workspace can accept clock-ins from a kiosk, a scanned QR code, and personal links at the same time. The full walkthrough of how to move between QR mode and the kiosk covers the setup step by step.

In practice, when the door line backs up, you open the kiosk on a tablet and point the next arrivals at it. People mid-scan finish on their phones. New arrivals tap the tablet. Nothing resets, and your count of who is on the clock stays accurate across both.

Will the two methods create duplicate entries for the same person?

No, as long as each person uses one method per punch. Kangaroo Clock records exactly what happens: if someone scans in and later taps out on the tablet, that is one entry with a start and an end. A duplicate only happens if a person clocks in twice without clocking out in between, which is the same risk you have with any single method. The fix is the same too. Watch the live dashboard, which shows everyone currently on the clock, and you will spot a double entry before the event ends.

What happens to a worker who scanned in but never clocks out?

Their entry gets closed automatically at a set cutoff, not at the current time, so a forgotten clock-out never inflates the hours you report. If a volunteer scans in at the QR poster, works the shift, and walks out without touching the tablet, the auto-close behavior closes that entry at its start time plus your cutoff. You do not come back Monday to someone showing a 46-hour shift because they forgot one tap.

This is why switching methods mid-event is low risk. Even if the handoff is messy and a few people never clock out on the right device, the numbers stay honest.

Can I switch back to QR-only after the rush is over?

Yes. Put the tablet away and the kiosk stops being an option in the room; the QR poster keeps working. There is no cleanup step and nothing to reconcile. Anyone still on the clock from the kiosk rush stays on the clock, and they can finish their shift by scanning the poster to clock out or by whatever method is in front of them when they leave.

A common pattern for a half-day event: QR poster only during a slow morning, tablet added at the door for the midday wave, tablet put away in the afternoon. The hours report at the end does not care which stretch a given punch came from.

Does mixing methods mess up my export?

No. The method a worker used to clock in is not a column that splits your report. Your CSV export uses the same stable schema regardless of how each entry started, including a distinct-worker count so you can see how many individual people were there. One person who scanned in once and tapped out once is one row, counted once, whether or not the room switched modes while they worked.

If you need to slice the report by program or role rather than by sign-in method, use tags on entries and worker groups on people. That gives you filtered totals by event or crew, which is usually what a grant report or a shift split actually needs.

Should I just run both from the start of the next event?

If you expect a crowd, yes. Running a tablet and a QR poster together from the beginning means the first rush never becomes a line. The QR code is great for people who arrive spread out or who prefer their own phone. The kiosk is faster when a group lands at once. There is no extra cost to using both, because pricing is flat and never per-location or per-device: free for your first 500 recorded hours, then $10 a month or $100 a year for unlimited people.

To test the flow before a real event, try the kiosk on any tablet you already have and watch the dashboard update as you tap in and out. When the setup fits how your crew arrives, point them at both methods and let people pick whichever is closer.