9 - Configuring punch methods for your employees

Congratulations! You’ve added your employees and now we are about to go over uAttend's various punch methods! With your new uAttend system your employees can utilize several methods to punch in/out. They include web punching, smartphone punching, and of course timeclock punching. These various methods will be explained below, and we will discuss the various situations where they might be used.

Smartphone Punching

This method is great if you have employees who often work at remote locations. They simply download the uAttend app onto their phones, log in with the email address and password link to their employee profile and they’ll be able to punch in/out. There are also some safeguards in place for using mobile punching in the form of geo-restrictions. You can set up a geo-restriction so that an employee can only clock in/out if they are near their actual work site within up to a half-mile distance. However, before your employees can utilize these options there are some permissions that need to be set up in your uAttend portal, the steps below will guide you through the process of enabling smartphone punching. 

1. Log into your uAttend web portal and click on the People tab.
2. Select the employee that you want to set up for smartphone punching.
3. Enter the employee's Email Address and click the Invite User hyperlink. This will send an email with a link to set up their username and password.
4. Click on the Punch Management tab to the right of the general tab.
5. You’ll see an option called “Smartphone Punching”.
6. Click the edit button and select “Yes” Then click save.

This employee is now set up for smartphone punching and can begin utilizing it after setting up their username and password. Below I will briefly explain the permissions required to use the smartphone app and how employees log in.

The smartphone app requires that location services be enabled on the device it is being used on, this is so that when geo-restrictions are enabled the app knows if the employee is within the necessary range to be able to punch in. If they are not the app will not let them punch in.

The steps below detail how an employee logs into the mobile app.

1. They want to open either the App Store or Play Store depending on the model phone they have.
2. They will want to search for uAttend on Android and uAttend Business on Apple and download their respective app.
3. Once the app is downloaded and opened it will prompt them to enter a company ID. This can be found in the upper right corner of your uAttend web portal across from your company name.
4. They will then be prompted to enter their username and password; this can be set up in the Personal section of their employee profile if it is not already set up.
5. After entering their username and password they will be taken to the main screen on the app, depending on the status of their last punch the punch option they see will vary.
6. To perform a punch, they will hold their finger on the “Punch In” or “Punch Out” option until it turns green and they will have successfully completed a punch on the smartphone app.

Web Punching

This method allows your employees to log into an employee version of your uAttend web portal, once logged in they can punch in/out from any computer. As with the smartphone app, we have safeguards in place here also in the form of IP restrictions. This allows you to set a specific network such as your office network as the only place your employees can log in to perform a web punch, with this enable they would not be able to log in from home or another network to punch in/out. The steps below will explain how an employee will punch in/out using the web punch method. Web Punching can be set up in the Employee Services tab.

1. They will navigate to your company’s login URL.
2. They will enter their username and password, if this has not been set up it can be set up from the general section of the employee’s profile.
3. Depending on the status of their last punch they will see some punch options available.
4. They will click on the option they wish to perform, and they will get a message on-screen letting them know they performed a punch and at what time it was performed.

This method works great if the employee has a workstation/computer the utilize for their job function and if they are not near a physical time clock.

Timeclock Punching

This is the most common method used and allows employees to utilize a physical time clock to punch in/out. Depending on the model of the timeclock they will be using one of the following methods, a pin number, a fingerprint template, a face template, or an RFID badge/fob.

Depending on the model you have the setup methods are a bit different and can be found in the help article for your specific clock however, there is one method that is universally acceptable for all our clocks and that is the pin number. Below I will explain how to assign a pin number to your employees and how they use it to punch in at the timeclock. The steps below will walk you through the process of how to set up a pin number for your employees.

1. Log into your uAttend web portal and click on the People tab.
2. Select the employee you want to use a pin number.
3. Click on the Punch Management tab.
4. You’ll see an option that says “Pin”.
5. Enter a 4-digit pin number for your employee and click save.

Once that is done your employee can now punch in using their new pin number. To punch in/out with their pin they’ll simply enter the pin on the keypad of the clock and press, okay, if your model clock has a touchscreen, they’ll need to tap the screen first to bring up the pin pad.

And that covers all the different methods you can use to have your employees punch in/out of your new uAttend system. The great thing about these methods is that they can be utilized together if you choose, or you can choose the one that works best for you. The great thing about the uAttend system is its scalability, for example, you may find that one method works for you now but as your business/company grows you can implement different methods of punching across your company. Great job making it this far! In the next article we will discuss the various user profile types and what those profiles can and can’t do, see you there!

Click here to access employee guides for your employees.