Features / Kiosk

An employee time clock app for any tablet

Put a tablet by the door and your whole crew can clock in, take breaks and clock out with a couple of taps. Staff need no computer and no email address, and you no longer collect paper sheets or type them up at the end of the week.

Standard plan, $4 a person a month. Kiosk-only staff $1 each. 7-day free trial of the Pro plan’s features, no credit card needed.

Punchly time clock kiosk with nine staff on the name list: six working, one on a break and two clocked out
The basics

What a time clock kiosk is

A kiosk is a shared screen at a workplace where people clock in and out. It does the job of a punch clock or a sign-in sheet, but the hours go straight into your time tracking, already added up and ready to approve.

Punchly’s time clock software runs in a web browser, so the kiosk can be an old tablet, a spare phone or the computer at the front desk. There is no special hardware to buy.

Setup

Set up a time clock in three steps

Setting up a kiosk takes three steps, and nothing has to be installed.

Create a kiosk. Give it a name such as “Front door” and choose the project its hours belong to. If you track breaks, pick where break time goes as well.

Pair a tablet. Punchly shows a one-time link and a QR code. Open the link on the tablet or scan the code with its camera. The tablet needs no login.

Your team clocks in. Each person taps their name and presses Clock in.

Creating a kiosk in Punchly with its project, PIN, photo and sign-out settings
One employee's kiosk screen in Punchly with today's hours, Clock in and Start break
On the tablet

Clock in, take a break, clock out

The kiosk screen has a tile for every person who can use it. A green dot means working and an amber dot means on a break, so a supervisor walking past can see who is in without asking.

Each action takes one tap, and the screen goes back to the name list by itself, ready for the next person, so a line at the start of a shift keeps moving.

One tap for each action: Clock in, Start break, Finish break, Clock out.

Hours on screen: each person sees their own total for today and this week.

Breaks kept apart: break time is recorded separately and never counts as work.

Identity checks

Know it is really them

The weakness of any shared time clock is one person clocking in for another. Punchly gives you three ways to make that hard, and you choose how strict to be.

Personal PIN. Each person chooses their own PIN, 4 or 6 digits long as you set for the workspace, and types it at each action. After five wrong tries the kiosk locks them out for a few minutes.

Personal QR code. Staff hold their own code up to the tablet’s camera and the kiosk opens their screen. Print the codes as cards or email them, and replace a lost card with a new one; the old code stops working at once.

Photo at every clock action (Pro plan). The kiosk takes a picture at clock in, clock out and breaks for a manager to check. Staff agree to it the first time, and you choose how long photos are kept, from 30 days to a year. Punchly does not run face recognition.

Manager PIN. A supervisor can clock in someone who forgot their PIN, and every use is recorded and marked in reports.

Sheet of personal QR code cards for kiosk staff, ready to print in Punchly
An employee holding a QR code card up to a Punchly kiosk while it checks the code
Kiosk photos in Punchly: the picture taken at each clock in, clock out and break for one kiosk and day
No email needed

Made for staff who have no email

Shop, site and warehouse teams often have no work email, and you should not have to create one just so they can clock in. Add them as kiosk-only people. They cannot log in to Punchly, but they appear on the kiosks you assign them to.

Kiosk-only people cost $1 a month each, and every plan with kiosks includes five at no extra cost. That keeps a time clock affordable for a team that is mostly hourly staff.

Payroll

Hours go straight to timesheets and payroll

A clock-in at the kiosk is an ordinary time entry. It shows up everywhere else in Punchly without anyone typing it in again, which is where a tablet beats a paper sheet.

Timesheets and approvals for each person’s week.

Attendance report with start, finish, breaks and overtime for every day.

Reports by project or person, filtered by kiosk when you want one site, exported to Excel or PDF.

Punchly kiosks list showing each kiosk, its staff and who is clocked in right now
Pairing a tablet with a Punchly kiosk using a one-time link and QR code
Admin controls

You stay in control

Several kiosks, one for each door, site or shop.

Choose who can use each kiosk: everyone, or certain people and groups.

The kiosk signs itself out. A paired tablet stays signed in for the time you set, from 4 hours to 7 days. When that time is up, anyone still clocked in is clocked out, an admin is told, and the tablet is paired again to carry on.

Lost tablet? Revoke the device and it stops working at once.

Decide who can set up tablets: admins only, or project and team managers too.

Paper or kiosk

Paper sign-in sheet or a kiosk?

A paper sheet costs nothing to start, but somebody has to read the handwriting, add up the hours and type them into payroll every week, and nobody can check who really wrote the times. A kiosk records the exact minute, adds up the hours as they happen, shows who is in right now, and hands payroll a finished report.

Who uses a kiosk

Shops, cafes and restaurants

With staff on shifts who share one device.

Construction sites and workshops

Where nobody sits at a computer.

Warehouses and factories

That need a time clock at each entrance.

Clinics and offices

That want a simple record of who was in the building.

Questions people ask

Something else on your mind? Our team answers from inside the app and by email.

Any tablet, phone or computer with a web browser and an internet connection. There is nothing to buy from Punchly and no app to install on the kiosk device.

Kiosks are part of the Standard plan at $4 a person a month. Staff who only clock in at a kiosk cost $1 a month each, and the first five are included. Photo capture needs the Pro plan.

Each person has their own PIN or their own QR code, and on the Pro plan the kiosk can take a photo at every clock in, clock out and break for a manager to review. A QR card can still be handed to someone else, so ask for a PIN or a photo where that matters.

Yes. Add them as kiosk-only people. They need no email and no login; they tap their name on the kiosk.

An admin sets the right end time on that person’s entry. As a backstop, when the tablet’s sign-in period ends (4 hours to 7 days after it was paired), anyone still clocked in is clocked out and an admin is told.

A manager can clock them in or out with the manager PIN, which is logged. An admin can also clear the PIN so the person chooses a new one.

Yes. A person can be assigned to several kiosks, for example two sites, and their hours from all of them add up in one timesheet.

Yes, if they are full members. The kiosk, the phone app and the web all feed the same timesheet, so a team can mix them.

No. The photo is stored for a manager to look at. Punchly does not recognize or compare faces.

Replace the paper sign-in sheet this week

Create a kiosk, pair a tablet and have your team clocking in today.