Guides  ·  Exhale Time & Attendance

Can staff clock in on their own phone?

Short answer

Yes. Clocking in on a personal phone is now the standard way to record attendance in care, and it costs nothing in hardware. What matters is that the app captures the time and location at the tap, works with no signal, records only what it needs, and that you have told staff plainly what is collected. A wall terminal proves someone was at the wall; a phone proves who, where and when.

What the phone needs

Any Android or iPhone from the last several years. Location permission while the app is in use. A data connection at some point in the day, through mobile data or Wi-Fi, so records can upload. It does not need signal during the shift itself; see what happens with no phone signal.

What is tracked, and what is not

This is the question staff will ask, so answer it before they do. The app reads the location at the moment of a clock in or clock out, and during a journey if the carer starts mileage tracking. That is all. It does not run in the background through the day, it does not record where they went at lunch, and it stores nothing from the phone itself. Every entry the system holds about a person is visible to that person on their own screen.

Staff who do not have a smartphone

There are always one or two. Three options work: a shared device kept at the site that anyone can clock in on with their own login; the manager clocking the person in from the office against the rota, recorded as a manual entry; or, for a large site, one inexpensive tablet by the door. None of these need a contract or a terminal supplier.

The GDPR points, briefly

  • Have a written policy that says what is collected, why, and for how long it is kept.
  • Your lawful basis is usually the employment contract and your legal obligations, not consent, but tell people anyway.
  • Collect the minimum. Location at the tap, not all day.
  • Let people see their own records. A good app does this by default.

Compared with a wall terminal

A terminal costs money, sits in one place, and proves that a card or a finger was at that place. It cannot prove who held the card, cannot cover a home visit, and cannot record mileage. A phone app does all three, costs nothing to roll out, and puts the timesheet on the carer's screen so the numbers are never a surprise on payday. Stop chasing timesheets shows what changes for the office.

The product behind this guide

See it working on your own rota

Everything above is how Exhale Time & Attendance already works. A demo takes about twenty minutes; bring the thing you find most annoying about your current setup.

See Exhale Time & Attendance →
  • Clock in on their own phone, no hardware to buy
  • A geofence proves they were on site
  • Works with no signal and uploads later
  • One click from the week to payroll

Questions people ask alongside this one

Straight answers

Yes. Each person logs in with their own account, clocks in, and logs out. The record is tied to the login, not the handset.

There is no legal requirement to provide a device for clocking in, and the app uses a negligible amount of data. Many providers still offer a shared device for those who prefer not to use their own.

Yes. Each site has its own geofence. The clock in records which site the person was inside, so split shifts across two homes are counted correctly.

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Talk it through with the people who built it

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