Clocking In Systems for Small Businesses

A clocking in system records when staff start and finish work. For a café, restaurant or small shop it does three jobs: it shows who is in, it gives you the hours to pay people correctly, and it gives you a record if a pay question ever comes up. This guide compares the main types of clocking in system, what they cost, the rules on records in the UK, and how to choose one for a small business.

Why use a clocking in system?

If you have one or two staff on fixed hours, a rota and a good memory might be enough. Once you have part-timers, changing shifts and overtime, a clocking in system pays for itself in a few ways:

• Accurate pay. You pay for the hours worked, not the hours planned. Staff who stay late get paid for it, and nobody is paid for a shift they left early.
• Less time on payday. Hours are already added up, so payroll takes minutes instead of an evening.
• A record for the minimum wage. You need records that show every worker was paid at least the National Minimum Wage.
• Labour cost you can see. You can compare the hours worked with the day's sales while there is still time to change next week's rota.

The main types of clocking in system

Paper timesheets or a signing-in book

Staff write their start and finish times in a book or on a weekly sheet.

• Cost: almost nothing.
• Good for: one or two staff.
• Watch out for: times rounded to the nearest half hour, forgotten entries filled in later, and handwriting you can't read. Someone still has to add it all up.

Card or punch clocks

A wall-mounted machine that stamps a card or reads a swipe card or fob.

• Cost: a machine from about £50 to a few hundred pounds, plus cards.
• Good for: sites with many staff starting at once, such as a factory.
• Watch out for: "buddy punching", where one person clocks in for another with their card. Basic machines still need someone to type the hours into payroll.

Fingerprint and face recognition terminals

A terminal that recognises a fingerprint or face.

• Cost: a few hundred pounds per terminal, often with a monthly software fee.
• Good for: stopping one person clocking in for another.
• Watch out for: data protection. Fingerprints and face scans are biometric data, a special category of personal data under UK GDPR. In 2024 the Information Commissioner's Office ordered a leisure company to stop using face and fingerprint scanning to check staff attendance, because staff weren't offered a real alternative. If you use biometrics, you need a clear reason, a data protection impact assessment and an alternative for staff who don't want to use it.

Time clock apps

An app on staff phones or a shared tablet. Some use the phone's location to check staff are at work when they clock in.

• Cost: typically a monthly fee per user or per business.
• Good for: teams that work across sites or out of the building.
• Watch out for: location tracking, which staff should be told about, and a separate system from your till, so you still compare hours and sales by hand.

A time clock built into your till

Staff clock in and out on the same till or tablet they use for sales, each with their own PIN.

• Cost: often included in the till's monthly price.
• Good for: cafés, restaurants and shops where everyone passes the till at the start of a shift.
• Watch out for: shared PINs. Each person needs their own, and you should change a PIN if it is shared.

What the law says about records

There is no single law that says you must use a clocking in system, but several rules mean you need reliable records of hours:

• National Minimum Wage. You must keep records showing you have paid at least the minimum wage, for six years.
• Working time. You need records showing workers haven't worked more than 48 hours a week on average, unless they have opted out in writing, and records for night workers.
• Rest breaks. Workers aged 18 or over are entitled to a 20-minute break when they work more than 6 hours. A clocking in system that records breaks shows you are giving them.
• Holiday pay. For workers with irregular hours or part-year contracts, holiday entitlement is now worked out from the hours they actually worked, so accurate hours matter.
• Tips. Since October 2024, tips must be shared fairly and recorded. Many businesses share them by hours worked, which needs a record of hours.

Rounding

Some systems round clock-in and clock-out times, for example to the nearest 15 minutes. Be careful. If rounding means a worker is regularly paid for less time than they work, it can take their pay below the minimum wage. HMRC treats time a worker is required to be at work as working time, so if staff are expected to arrive ten minutes before a shift to set up, that time should be paid.

A worked example: what lost minutes cost

Here is an illustration of why exact times matter, with a café team of 6 people working 5 shifts a week each.

Rounding against staff. Say paper timesheets are always rounded to the shift times on the rota, and staff in fact stay an average of 10 minutes after each shift to clean down. Over a year:

• 6 people × 5 shifts × 50 weeks = 1,500 shifts
• 10 minutes × 1,500 = 250 hours of unpaid work
• At £12.71 an hour, that is £3,177.50 of pay owed to staff, and a minimum wage risk for you.

Rounding the other way. If times are rounded generously instead, and each shift is paid 10 minutes more than worked, you pay £3,177.50 a year for time nobody worked.

Either way, a clocking in system that records the real times takes the guesswork out, for you and for your staff.

How to choose a clocking in system

Ask these questions:

1. Where do staff start their shift? If everyone passes the till, a till-based time clock is the simplest. If staff work out of the building, an app may suit better.
2. Does it record breaks? You need to show unpaid breaks were taken.
3. Can a manager correct a mistake? Someone will forget to clock out. You need a way to fix it, with a record of the change.
4. Does it stop buddy punching? Personal PINs are usually enough for a small team, without biometrics.
5. Can you export hours for payroll? Look for a spreadsheet export your payroll provider can use.
6. Does it show labour cost against sales? This is where a time clock linked to your till helps most.
7. What does it cost each month? Compare a separate app per user with a time clock already in your till.

How it works in Café QR

Café QR's time clock is part of the till, so staff clock in where they already work.

• Clock in or out on the till. From Clock in or out in the till's menu, or on any phone signed in to Café QR. Each person uses their own PIN on a shared till, so nobody clocks in for someone else by accident.
• Breaks recorded. Staff start and end breaks on the till. Breaks are unpaid and come off the shift, and a break still running at clock-out ends there.
• Managers can correct shifts that were forgotten or left open.
• Hours, pay and labour cost. Managers see the hours and cost for each person over the last 14 days, with labour cost as a percentage of sales.
• Rota and tips together. Plan the week's rota with planned cost, and share tips by the hours each person clocked.
• Timesheet export as a spreadsheet for payroll.

The time clock and rota are in the POS plan at £39 per venue a month, or the "Till and cash-up" add-on at £15 a month on Order & Pay. There is no per-user fee. See how the time clock and rota work.

Related reading

• Free Staff Rota Template for Cafés (Excel Download)
• Service Charge and Tips: What UK Law Says
• How Much Does an EPOS System Cost in the UK?