Biometric clocking: the low-cost, high-tech way of controlling attendance
Clocking staff in and out using a biometric app on a mobile phone or tablet may sound like science fiction – but in fact a growing number of employers are finding that biometric attendance recording is a surprisingly cheap and highly secure way of controlling exactly who is attending their premises and when.
What is biometric attendance recording?
Biometric clocking options use software that compares an individual’s unique biological characteristics – such as facial features, voice or fingerprints – with a pre-saved version and checks for a match. The result is stored electronically, along with the date, time and location of the clocking, and transferred automatically to your easyLog timesheet system. It sounds simple – and it is.
With biometric attendance monitoring you not only get a foolproof record of the date, place and time of attendance but also confirmation of each employee’s identity. This is particularly useful in high security workplaces or when you want to be sure that staff are not fraudulently clocking in on behalf of a fellow worker. Biometric clocking apps for smartphone and tablet are also ideal for clocking staff in hygienically because there is little or no physical contact.
Turn phones and tablets into low-cost biometric clocking devices
easyLog’s biometric attendance recording apps turn smartphones and tablets into flexible clocking devices without the outlay associated with purchasing and maintaining a dedicated terminal. Our biometric mobile apps also have the advantage of enabling employees to clock in and out via their own phone, independently and remotely, without risk of fraud.
Geo Clock With Photo works by taking a photo on the device’s camera when an employee clocks in or out and verifying it with facial recognition software. This information is combined with geolocation data, such as GPS coordinates, to provide a tamperproof record of identity, location, date and time.
The Geo Clock With Photo app is easily downloaded and installed on an employee’s Android or Apple smartphone via the appropriate app store for self-clocking. Alternatively, it can be installed on a tablet so a supervisor can record the attendance of staff as they arrive and leave. A tablet can also be wall-mounted to provide a fixed clocking device using either Geo Clock With Photo or easyLog’s Face Log app.
Fixed biometric clocking options that put you in control
Face Log is an attendance app designed specifically for tablets in a fixed location. Like Geo Clock With Photo, Face Log supports facial recognition using a photo taken with the device’s in-built camera and clockings are backed up with geolocation data. But, unlike Geo Clock With Photo, Face Log will not accept a clocking if the image doesn’t match, ensuring an extremely reliable attendance record. Face Log also works on voice recognition, speech activation and manual photo identification, if that suits you and your staff better.
For those requiring a traditional fixed terminal with the reassurance of biometric identification, fingerprint is often the most practical answer. easyLog provides a choice of devices, including the highly versatile uFace multi clocking terminal, which offers facial as well as fingerprint recognition. uFace can also be used with radio-frequency identification (RFID) fobs or cards, if required.
We also offer online and offline (SIM-based) fingerprint-only readers for those looking for an affordable but dependable biometric option that suits a variety of workforces and locations.
Find out which attendance solution is best for your staff and sites
If you want to know more about any of our biometric attendance systems, visit our dedicated clocking website or contact us to talk to one of our team.
Get on top of track and trace with QR code attendance recording for cleaners
In the post Covid-19 world, the demands on record keeping by cleaning contractors have increased massively, with track and trace capability an essential element in preventing the onward transmission of infection. A cleaning service provider will not only need to prove employee attendance at the site but also potentially the areas, buildings and even individual rooms or offices that their cleaners entered.
Thankfully, easyLog has a simple, easy-to-implement, low-cost solution based around smartphone QR code scanning technology.
Cleaners record arrival and leaving times simply by scanning a QR code
QR codes are available from numerous free-to-use websites. Multiple QR codes can be created, each representing a specific location. Cleaners then use easyLog's easily installable Location Clock app on their Apple or Android smartphone to record their arrival and leaving time, simply by scanning the QR code placed at each location.
The attendance records are then transferred into easyLog’s eLog timesheet and attendance software module. The software is web browser-based, meaning that it can be accessed on any smartphone, tablet or laptop that has an internet connection – just like a website. So records can be viewed on the move by busy owners or managers without the need to return to an office.
Web browser-based software from just £20 per month
And with business costs increasing from the measures now needed to protect workforces and ensure best practice, you’ll be pleased to hear that this complete easyLog solution starts from as little as £20 plus VAT per month for up to 15 employees, including support, training and branding the app with your company logo and colours.
If you want to know more, visit our cleaning management website or contact us to talk to one of our team.
Sleep-in shifts: No longer a nightmare
Last week’s Supreme Court ruling that employers are only required to pay night-time carers minimum wage rates for the hours that they are active, rather than the entirety of a sleep-in shift, will doubtless have caused a big sigh of relief in the care sector – not least because it has removed the prospect of huge back payments.
Calculating carers’ sleep-in pay just got more complicated
The subject of sleep-in pay has been ping-ponging around the courts since 2014. But although an overarching principle has finally been established, the devil is always in the detail – and employers are still left with a range of complicated options when it comes to paying carers for sleep-ins.
Rota software that handles the difficult calculations for you
Through long experience with clients in the supported living and residential care sectors, easyLog has developed functionally-rich rota software that takes the hard work out of paying staff at both single and hourly payment rates, even within an individual overnight shift.
The software supports pay schemes where carers are paid at different rates for working with more challenging service users and for working in more remote locations. And it’s all instantly calculated, clearly presented and exportable into a wide range of third party payroll software products, such as Sage and Xero.
Find out more
Please contact us if you'd like more information on easyLog's software for care providers or visit our dedicated web pages for supported living and care home operators.
Site Supervisor: the app that lets you manage cleaning and property maintenance jobs on site
As a supplier of attendance monitoring and scheduling software to cleaning and property maintenance contractors, we are only too aware that these customers tend to do as much, or more, of their work outside the office as sitting behind a desk.
With this in mind, easyLog has developed Site Supervisor, a low-cost app for tablets and smartphones that enables managers to be more effective and productive on site – by inspecting and recording progress on existing contracts and creating estimates for prospective jobs, as well as sharing details with colleagues and clients via email. The app can also be used by staff to log completed tasks and add optional notes and photos so you can track exactly what is being done and when.
Manage inspections and estimates anywhere, online or offline
The Site Supervisor app can be used online and offline, so is suitable for all kinds of site and location, including premises with no internet connection.
With Site Supervisor, you can:
- Submit a repair request for a property and view previous requests
- Authorise new maintenance tasks
- Produce maintenance job sheets
- Sign-off and archive maintenance work requests
- Record a site inspection check list using dropdown menus, flagging up alarms if necessary
- Email details of inspections quickly and easily to colleagues and clients
- View work reports over a selected period and share them by email
- Estimate site cleaning and maintenance job times using a scoring system
- View the latest updated estimates
- Record actions as they are being done and add notes and pictures
Site Supervisor works on Android, Apple and Windows tablets and smartphones and can be easily customised to suit your company’s specific business practices. The app is ideal for commercial cleaning contractors, property maintenance companies and other organisations that need a straightforward and reliable way of keeping building maintenance records.
Talk to one of our team
For more information about the easyLog Site Supervisor app, or any of our staff attendance and scheduling products for cleaning and property maintenance companies, talk to one of our team on 01892 834406 or visit our cleaning management website.
Hygienic QR code attendance recording – at a very affordable price
If your staff are concerned about recording their attendance on a traditional clocking-in terminal shared by multiple employees, there is an alternative – easyLog’s low-cost, simple-to-implement QR code clocking app.
Covid-safe clocking in with a smartphone
Using their own smartphone – and therefore ensuring a Covid-safe approach – each employee scans a QR code to identify their location and record the time and date of their attendance. QR codes are free to download from multiple websites and, after laminating, can be placed anywhere indoors or outside.
The easyLog Location Clock app is downloaded free by your staff from the online stores and is automatically set up for use simply by entering two numbers when prompted. The app can be branded with your company logo and colours so presents a professional image to both your customers and employees.
No IT skills required and anti-fraud measure built in
The attendance records are automatically passed into easyLog’s eLog timesheet management software module to swiftly produce reports by employee, client, job function, etc, across any date period for the time spent at any site. This web browser-based software can be accessed on any device with an internet connection and is run on a cloud platform, so no IT skills or overhead are required.
And, if you think someone might copy the QR code and scan it from the comfort of their bed, there are a number of anti-fraud measures in the system to ensure any abuse is quickly identified.
Above all, in these testing times, you’ll be pleased to hear that this complete easyLog solution starts from as little as £20 plus VAT per month for up to 15 employees, including support, training and company branding of the app.
Find out more
Contact one of our team on 01892 834406 or send us an email if you would like to know more.
Show clients that cleaning is being done with a QR code attendance app
Many things have changed since the pandemic struck. But even during periods of lockdown commercial premises have still had to be cleaned – often using new, more time-consuming processes. This has placed additional pressure on contract cleaning companies not only in terms of implementing more stringent sanitising routines but also in demonstrating to clients that all their Covid hygiene requirements have been met.
easyLog’s QR code attendance app, Location Clock, is simple, low-cost tool that can help by providing firm evidence of exactly who is attending which location and when. This ensures that your cleaners’ timesheets are accurate and you have dependable tracking information if required, as well as enabling you to reassure clients that cleaning regimes are being conducted as requested.
And, because the app is loaded onto each cleaner’s smartphone, your employees can clock in and out hygienically without using clients’ phones.
Track cleaning of individual rooms and work zones
The app is used to read a free-to-download QR code on arrival at a work location. Any number of unique identifying codes can be used, so the system can record cleaners’ visits to individual rooms, work zones, equipment or even a particular route around a building, depending on your clients’ requirements.
The Location Clock app creates a foolproof record of the employee, site, date and time, which is automatically sent back to the easyLog software. Reports can then be generated and shared with clients by email to show that their cleaning regimes are being followed correctly.
The attendance app is suitable for cleaning and maintenance contractors of all sizes and is available with flexible pricing models based on employee or monthly clocking numbers.
Find out more
easyLog’s Location Clock app is one of a number of software products designed to help cleaning and maintenance contractors manage site visits and timesheets, staff rotas, job estimates and inspections. For more information, contact one of our team on 01892 834406, request a callback or send us an email.
Facial recognition – for hygienic and fraud-proof staff clocking
Recording attendance presents a far higher risk of virus transmission if staff are sharing a traditional terminal – which provides businesses seeking a fraud-proof clocking method with a dilemma.
If a fingerprint or hand reader is used by everyone, a strict cleaning regime needs to be implemented to ensure the well-being of staff and maintain their confidence in a safe workplace.
Should a company decide to install a proximity card or tag-reading terminal to avoid physical contact, then more traditional concerns come into play – such as whether staff are swapping cards or tags to fraudulently record the attendance of a fellow worker who is not actually there.
App-based attendance recording: low-cost, hygienic, tamper-proof
easyLog has for some time offered its clients app-based attendance recording that converts an employee’s smartphone into a hygienic, safe and reliable clocking device. Low-cost and easily implemented, these apps have various features that prevent an employee from falsely recording their attendance, including identifying the GPS coordinates where the clocking was made and recognising if the time on the phone has been tampered with.
Now easyLog has moved this technology even further ahead with its Geo Clock With Photo app for Android and Apple smartphones. This app takes a photo – like a selfie – when an employee records their attendance and automatically verifies it as genuine by biometric facial recognition. It combines this function with geolocation data, so both identity and location are confirmed in one record, providing total assurance that the attendance record is genuine.
Also available for tablets
This app is also available for a tablet to allow a site supervisor to record the attendance of individuals as they arrive – thereby maintaining a safe and hygienic clocking process – or as a wall-mounted device for recording entry and exit from a site.
If you want to be sure that an attendance record is genuine or you maintain a site that demands very secure management of the personnel who are allowed in, easyLog’s Geo Clock With Photo app may be the low cost answer to your needs. And with contact limited to each handset user – or, in the case of a tablet, a particular supervisor – you can be confident that you are reducing the risk of spreading infection too.
Find out more
Contact one of our friendly team on 01892 834406, request a callback or email us your enquiry.
Facial recognition apps make clocking in as easy as taking a selfie
When it comes to attendance recording, few options are more foolproof than biometric devices. But even low-cost fingerprint readers and hand scanners require a level of up-front investment that may be beyond some employers – especially in the current economic climate. But if you want the rigour of biometric staff clocking without the hassle of dedicated devices, there is an answer and it is literally staring you in the face – an easylog facial recognition app for tablet or smartphone.
Evidence of identity that cannot be faked
Our facial recognition attendance apps are particularly useful because they provide evidence of the identity of an employee making a clocking, along with time, date and geolocation data – so it is impossible for someone to clock in on somebody else’s behalf or from a different location. They are simple to use and install and can be downloaded from the Google and Android online stores, just like any other app.
easylog is currently offering two flexible facial recognition clocking app options – Face Log and Geo Clock With Photo – although we are constantly developing our attendance software range.
Face Log – the always on, fixed clocking option for tablets
This clocking app is for Android tablets and uses the front camera, so we recommend it is wall-mounted for convenience and security. As it is always online, it requires a reliable internet connection at all times. The facial recognition software compares, in real time, a photo taken during clocking with stored images of the employee. Clockings are only accepted if there is a match and are backed up by geolocation data, providing an extremely reliable “there and then” attendance record proving identity, date, place and time.
Face Log can also create clockings through voice recognition and manual photo identification. These options work in the same way as the facial recognition system, with clockings only passed if staff are recognised by the software. There is a further option of speech activation, although this is not biometric and so does not confirm the identity of individual employees.
Geo Clock With Photo – the fast and portable clocking app for tablet and phone
This fast and convenient app works with Android and Apple operating systems on smartphones and tablets. Front and back cameras can be used and it can work offline as well as online, so it is ideal for both fixed and variable locations with inconsistent internet connectivity, such as building sites.
To create a clocking, the facial recognition software takes a photo of the employee with the device’s inbuilt camera and combines this with geolocation data, date and time. Clockings are always accepted, even if the device is offline, and a record is stored showing whether the employee passed or failed the identification. If there is no internet connection at the time of clocking, the photo is transferred to the server when the device is back online, or the next time a clocking is made, and an identification is made retrospectively.
What happens to the clockings?
Clockings from all our apps are converted into an instant employee attendance record, which is automatically sent to our web browser-based software supplied as part of the solution. You can then produce detailed or summarised timesheets across any period per employee and location, deduct unpaid periods and export any report into Excel at the touch of a button.
Find out more
easyLog offers a wide range of apps, attendance recording technologies and software. Talk to one of our team today on 01892 834406, request a callback or email us your enquiry.
Clocking in with a QR code: cheaper than chips!
The business world emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic will undoubtedly be very different from the one that entered the crisis. It will be even more cost-conscious, given the additional overheads of making and keeping premises safe for employees and visitors, and staff will have a heightened awareness of hygiene, with frequently touched surfaces and equipment requiring regular and scheduled cleaning. Work is also likely to be more flexible in terms of where and when it is conducted, with split shifts and staggered start times – and, as a result, monitoring staff hours and calculating pay will be more complex and require greater input and control.
Smartphone attendance apps for the new normal
In line with our reputation for supplying low cost, robust and practical employee time management solutions, easyLog has ensured that its range of QR code-based attendance recording apps meet all the requirements of hard-pressed employers coming to terms with the new normal.
From just £20 per month plus VAT for a system covering up to 15 employees, staff can record attendance at a single or multiple sites using their own (or company-issued) smartphone and easyLog’s Location Clock App.
Simple to download from the major stores and install, the app automatically scans and recognises a QR Code that is defined per location. It converts this into an instant employee attendance record and sends this to the e-Log web browser-based software application supplied as part of the solution. This produces detailed or summarised timesheets across any period per employee and location, can deduct unpaid break periods and export any report into Excel for further analysis.
QR codes – the low-cost solution that covers all the bases
- Low cost – just over £1 per month per employee for the cloud-based solution. easyLog provides software support as required, online training and daily backup. No up-front, one-off set up and training costs – everything you need is included in the monthly amount. The minimum contract length is 12 months with one-month cancellation. Simple, clear and straightforward.
- QR codes are free to generate and download from many websites. Your only cost is the paper and ink for printing.
- Hygienic – employees use a smartphone which is always under their control, so there are no health concerns about multiple staff touching an attendance recording device and how clean and safe that unit remains.
For more information about attendance recording with QR codes, you can read this case study.
Find out more
easyLog offers a wide range of apps, attendance recording technologies and software. Talk to one of our team today on 01892 834406, request a callback or email us your enquiry.
Two-for-one app records visitor as well as employee attendance
Knowing which employees and visitors are in your building at any time is important, even in normal circumstances. In the present pandemic, however, this information – and the possible need for it to be available to health authorities in the event of local Covid-19 cases – has become a heightened issue for many more workplaces, including those with smaller numbers of staff.
easyLog, the innovative provider of low-cost attendance management and staff scheduling systems, has delivered yet again with a value for money, tablet-based attendance solution that records both staff and visitor arrival and departure data.
The system works with standard Android tablets, such as those made by Samsung and Asus, and a local wireless connection – or a SIM card if used on a remote site, for example in the building industry. The app enables both employees and visitors to record their attendance by presenting a tab for each: reducing investment in hardware and software while also simplifying implementation and operation.
Simple and accurate two-in-one attendance logging
Employees select their name from a dropdown list and are asked to enter a PIN as confirmation. They then indicate by clear buttons if they are starting or leaving work. The app confirms the name of the staff member and the date and time of attendance. Importantly, if the employee has made a mistake – for example, by recording another ‘in’ clocking when they are about to leave the building – the app will question their action and ask them to confirm if their attendance record is correct. A simple step that helps reduce management involvement and produces comprehensive timesheet reports accurately and swiftly.
Visitor details are entered prior to their visit through the e-Log timesheet software, together with the name of the person they are due to meet. As e-Log is a web browser-based software application this can be done on any device – PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone – with a connection to an internet browser. This enables easy access and last-minute adjustments to be made by busy managers who may have infrequent access to office administration systems.
On arrival, the visitor is presented with a dropdown list of visitors for that day from which they select their name to confirm their arrival and again on departure. Should the visitor not have been pre-registered, they can enter their name and who they are seeing using the on-screen keypad on the tablet. Visitor details are held in the software for future use thereby simplifying the process of arranging further meetings.
Low-cost solution includes our browser-based software
Prices start from just £20 plus VAT per month for an organisation employing up to 15 staff. This includes the app, e-Log timesheet and visitor software, supply of a managed cloud platform with daily backup (meaning you don’t need to worry about implementing the software on your own PCs or network) and installation. We even provide an on-line training session to show you round the software and help you get operational as quickly and smoothly as possible. And that monthly cost includes telephone access to our help desk in case you have any questions or technical issues in the future.
Innovative, simple, low-cost and easy to use. Why not call or email us for further information?