A clocking in system with no machine

You probably don't need a machine

Search for a clocking in system and most of what you find sells hardware: fingerprint readers, face scanners, card readers, clock cards. That made sense when the only shared device in the building was the one on the wall. Now every member of staff carries one in their pocket.

For a small team on regular weekday hours, a printed QR code by the door does the same job. Nothing to buy, install, or fix when it breaks, and nothing to replace when someone loses a card.

How it works for a 10 to 15 person team

1. Add your staff. Type or paste the names once. Most offices do it in one sitting.
2. Print the poster. Kangaroo Clock makes a printable QR poster for your workplace. Put it by the door or the kettle.
3. Staff scan it. The first time, they scan with the phone camera and pick their name. After that the phone remembers them, so it's one tap to clock in and one tap to clock out. No app to download, no account, no password.

You see who's in right now on the dashboard. If someone doesn't have a smartphone, or you'd rather have one fixed spot, run a shared tablet by the door as well: staff tap their name to clock in. You can use both at once (QR poster or tablet: which to use).

We call them workers in the app by default. You can change that to staff, team, or whatever your place says, in Settings.

Do you need a clocking in machine?

Sometimes, yes. Be honest with yourself about which of these is you:

• A machine makes sense if staff can't carry phones on the floor (some food production and secure sites), if many of your staff don't have a smartphone, or if you need a fingerprint or face to prove who clocked in. Kangaroo Clock doesn't do fingerprints or faces, and we don't plan to.
• A poster is enough if you know your staff, they carry phones, and what you actually want is accurate hours without paper timesheets or a spreadsheet someone fills in on Friday.

The middle ground is a tablet by the door with a PIN: each person picks their own four-digit PIN, and the tablet asks for it at every clock-in (how the PIN works).

When someone forgets to clock out

Someone will. Out of the door at five, phone in a bag, shift still running. Kangaroo Clock closes forgotten shifts for you and puts each one in your review list, so you can fix the end time if you know it.

Out of the box, a shift closes 12 hours after it started. For a team with regular hours, change that in Settings to a set time each day, a little after your usual finish. With a 6pm close time, a forgotten clock-out records a normal day instead of 12 hours, and the next morning's scan clocks them in as usual (setting up auto-close).

What you see at the end of the week

The reports page shows total hours for any date range, day by day, and you can narrow it to one person. Dates show the UK way round. One click downloads a CSV (a spreadsheet file) of every shift, with start and end times and hours, ready for whoever does payroll.

That's the whole job. Kangaroo Clock doesn't do rotas, payroll, holiday requests, or GPS tracking. It records when people clocked in and out and hands you clean hours.

Price

Free for your first 500 recorded hours. After that it's $10 a month or $100 a year, for the whole workplace, however many staff you add. Prices are in US dollars; your card provider converts it.

Be aware a full-time team of ten records about 400 hours a week, so for a staffed workplace the free hours are a trial of a week or two, not a free plan. We email you at 200 hours so it doesn't come as a surprise. Clocking in never stops working because of billing. Full pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What is a clocking in system?

A way of recording when each member of staff starts and finishes work. Traditionally that's a machine on the wall with cards, fingerprints, or faces. It can also be software: staff clock in on a phone or a shared tablet, and the hours are totalled for you.

Can staff clock in on their own phones?

Yes. With Kangaroo Clock, staff scan a QR poster with their phone camera and pick their name the first time. After that the phone remembers them, so clocking in is one tap. There's no app to download and staff don't need an account.

Do I need a clocking in machine for a small business?

Not usually. If your staff carry smartphones and you know who they are, a QR poster or a shared tablet records hours just as well, with nothing to buy. A machine is worth it if phones aren't allowed where people work, or you need a fingerprint or face to prove who clocked in.

What happens if someone forgets to clock out?

The shift is closed automatically and put in your review list so you can correct it. By default that happens 12 hours after the shift started. You can set it to close at a fixed time each day instead, such as 6pm, which keeps a forgotten clock-out close to the real hours.

How much does a clocking in system cost?

Hardware systems cost the machine plus, often, a monthly software fee per person. Kangaroo Clock has no hardware and no per-person price: free for the first 500 recorded hours, then $10 a month or $100 a year for the whole workplace.