Kiosk & Clock-In

How the Kiosk Works

The clock-in flow at a TempClock kiosk: badge, face match against the badge holder, the result screen, and exactly what happens to clocks when the internet fails.

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Overview Clocking In Clocking Out and Breaks PIN and Not Enrolled Speed Settings Which Site Is Recorded When the Connection Drops Offline Clocks Sent Later Related Guides

Overview

Badge first, then the face.

The kiosk runs on a tablet at the site entrance: an Android tablet with the TempClock kiosk app, or an iPad or laptop in the browser. A worker says who they are with their badge, and a face match checks it is really them. The screens are in English, Polish, Romanian or Lithuanian, and switch to the worker's own language after their badge is entered.

Before you start

Clocking In

What the worker sees.

Start

The worker taps the screen and chooses Worker. Visitors and contractors have their own buttons. Sites in express mode skip this choice and start on the badge screen.

Badge

On Enter your badge number they type their badge number or tap Scan badge and hold up the QR code on their badge card. At an express site with Scan QR badges automatically on, the camera is already looking: the worker just holds the badge up, with no tap, and the face check starts. The badge must be held within about 35 cm of the camera and held still for a moment; a badge further away shows Hold your badge closer to the camera. and is not read, so a badge in the queue behind or a QR code across the room is ignored. Clocking with NFC or RFID cards is coming soon. Forgot badge number? finds it with a face check, or sends it to the worker's email.

Face

The kiosk greets them by first name and asks them to look straight at the camera. The photo is checked against that client's enrolled workers. The clock goes ahead only if the best match is the badge holder, at or above the client's threshold. If it is someone else, the kiosk says the face does not match the badge and shows no identity.

Result

The kiosk shows Clocked in with the time, hours this week and the next shift. The result stays for 4 seconds by default and can be tapped to skip.

Note

In our production measurements the face match took a median of 0.36 seconds. We plan on about 4 workers a minute per kiosk at a busy shift change, and confirm it with a timed trial at your site.

Clocking Out and Breaks

Same start, different action.

When a worker who is already clocked in comes back, the kiosk offers Clock out or Start break (and End break during a break). The result screen shows the time worked. In express mode a clock-out goes straight through without the break choice. A second scan within 2 minutes is refused as Already done, so nobody clocks twice by accident.

PIN and Not Enrolled

For anyone who does not use face clock-in.

After entering their badge, a worker can tap Use PIN instead. Each PIN clock takes a photo and is flagged for review. Per client, PIN can be allowed, set to supervisor check, or switched off. See Using PIN Fallback.
A worker with no face enrolled sees Face not set up. They can tap Email me a set-up link to enrol on their phone, or Skip and use my PIN where PIN clocking is allowed for the client.
If the face-matching service cannot be reached, the kiosk says face recognition is paused, switches to PIN (or to the paper sign-in sheet where PIN clocking is off), and your administrators are alerted.

Speed Settings

Per site, on Kiosk setup.

Agency console: Sites > Kiosk setup. Client dashboard: Sites > Kiosk setup. Each site card has these settings, saved with Save kiosk settings.

Setting Effect
Express mode Badge screen first, face check at once, and a straight clock-out with no break choice.
Scan QR badges automatically Express sites only. On by default. The badge screen reads a QR badge as soon as it is held up to the camera, with no tap, and the kiosk returns to it ready for the next worker after each clock. A badge still held up after its clock is not read again until it has been lowered. Only a badge held close to the camera (within about 35 cm) and seen in two frames in a row is read; the tapped Scan badge reads any code at once. The keypad works alongside it, and workers who must answer a survey or pick a cost code still see those screens.
Skip the Worker / Visitor / Contractor screen Starts every visit at badge entry. Visitors use Visitor or contractor? on the badge screen.
Result screen How many seconds the result stays: 4 by default, from 0.5 to 15. The worker can tap to skip.

Which Site Is Recorded

Where the hours land.

The clock is recorded at the site of the worker's booking, or the kiosk's own site if they have no booking, so hours land on the right site even when workers move between sites. The kiosk's location is checked against that site's geofence and the distance is kept with the clock.

When the Connection Drops

Nobody has to stop working, and no clock is lost.

What happens What the worker sees
The face matched, but the clock could not be sent Saved. The clock is kept on the tablet with the time the worker actually clocked, and sent when the connection is back.
The kiosk cannot reach the server to check a badge or a face This kiosk is offline. Use the paper sign-in sheet. The screen clears by itself when the connection returns.
A PIN clock with no connection The PIN cannot be checked, so PIN clocks are never saved for later. The worker uses the paper sheet.

The kiosk header shows how many clocks are waiting to send. Paper sheets are keyed in afterwards on Backfill. A tablet with 4G mobile data is for a site with no usable Wi-Fi. Android switches to mobile data only when the tablet has no Wi-Fi connection: if the site Wi-Fi is up but the internet behind it is down, the tablet stays on the Wi-Fi, and so cannot reach the server, unless the Wi-Fi is switched off or forgotten on the tablet.

Offline Clocks Sent Later

Checked again on arrival, so nobody is paid twice.

Saved clocks are sent oldest first, so a worker's clock-in always arrives before their clock-out. The server records the time the worker clocked, not the time it arrived.
A saved scan within 2 minutes of a clock already recorded for that worker is a double tap. It is not written again.
A saved clock-in that clashes with a shift already on record (for example one a supervisor added by hand) is not written. It is listed on Time & Pay > Exceptions under Exceptions > Offline conflicts, where you Add as shift or Dismiss it. The worker sees Already recorded.
A clock the server refuses (for example older than 72 hours, or outside the site fence) is kept on the tablet as failed, never thrown away. Later clocks for the same worker that were waiting behind it are held too, so a clock-out cannot turn into a false clock-in.
Failed and waiting clocks show per tablet on Sites > Kiosk fleet, where a super admin can retry or clear them. See Kiosk Fleet and Offline Recovery.
Setting Up a Kiosk
Kiosk Fleet and Offline Recovery
Kiosk Devices and Badges
Handling Exceptions
Agency go-live checklist
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