Staff Attendance
Attendance records when staff clock in and clock out, straight from the shop's POS phone or tablet. Staff tap Attendance, pick their name, type their PIN and, when asked, take a selfie. You see who has arrived, who is late and the monthly summary in the Dashboard, without a paper attendance book or a WhatsApp group.
Attendance arrives in the round 35 release and is available from the Growth plan. Shops that do not switch it on see no change, apart from the new Attendance menu.
Attendance is for shop staff (the people who sign in to the POS). It is not the same as Cashier Shifts (opening and closing the cash drawer at the POS), and not the same as member check-in for classes or a gym.
Before you start
Staff clock in on an enrolled POS device, with their staff PIN. So first:
- Enrol the shop's POS device. See Enrolling a POS device.
- Set a PIN for every staff member who needs to clock in. See Setting PINs.
- To check location, fill in the branch location (latitude and longitude) on the Branches page.
The attendance Settings tab shows how many devices are enrolled and how many staff have a PIN, so you can see what is still missing.
Switching attendance on
Open Operations > Attendance (right below Staffs), go to the Settings tab and switch on Enabled. While attendance is off, staff cannot clock in or request leave.
The Attendance page has six tabs: Today, Summary, History, Schedule, Leave and Settings. The number of leave requests waiting for you shows as a badge on the Leave tab.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Selfie required | Off | When on, clocking without a photo is refused. When off, a photo can still be taken |
| Location check | Flag only | Off, Flag only or Refuse. See Location |
| Radius | 150 m | 30 to 2,000 metres from the branch location |
| Late grace | 10 minutes | 0 to 120 minutes |
| Early-leave grace | 10 minutes | 0 to 120 minutes |
| Auto-close | 14 hours | 4 to 24 hours after clocking in. See Forgotten clock-outs |
| Keep photos for | 90 days | 7 to 365 days |
| Breaks | Off | Shows Start break and End break at the till |
| Allow clocking from any device | Off | Staff may clock in from My attendance on a phone that is not enrolled. Handy for field staff, but easier to cheat |
| Annual leave, leave days a year, leave year | On, 12 days, Calendar year | Each staff member's annual leave balance. See Annual Leave |
In Staff data you fill in each staff member's join date and, if needed, a leave quota of their own. The join date is used for annual leave and THR.
Work schedule
The schedule tells attendance who should work and when. Without a schedule staff can still clock in, but nothing counts as late or overtime (the record is Unscheduled).
Shift templates
On the Schedule tab, create shift templates such as Morning 08:00–16:00 and Evening 14:00–22:00. Each template has a name, start time, end time, break (minutes, for information only) and a colour.
- An end time equal to or earlier than the start time means the shift crosses midnight. For example Night 22:00–06:00 ends the next morning.
- A template you switch off no longer shows in pickers, but existing schedules keep it.
- A template still used by a weekly schedule or by an upcoming date change cannot be deleted. Change those schedules first.
Weekly schedule and date changes
- Weekly schedule: for each staff member, pick a shift for each day from Monday to Sunday, or leave it empty for a day off.
- Change one date: for one staff member on one date, pick another shift or a day off, with a note if needed (for example a shift swap). This beats the weekly schedule for that date only.
- The schedule calendar shows up to 6 weeks at once, including approved leave.
Which date a record belongs to
All times use the shop time zone. A clock-in belongs to the shift whose window contains it, from 3 hours before the shift start until the shift end.
- A shift that crosses midnight belongs to its start date. Someone on the Night 22:00–06:00 shift who clocks in at 00:30 is still recorded for the day before.
- Without a matching shift, the record is for today and marked Unscheduled.
- A clock-out never moves the date.
How staff clock in at the till
Staff clock in in the POS app, on an enrolled device:
- On the PIN screen (or the lock screen), tap Attendance.
- Pick your name and type your PIN.
- Tap Clock in or Clock out (and Start break / End break when breaks are on). When asked, take a selfie with the front camera.
Clocking in from the PIN screen does not change who is signed in at the till, so the cashier on duty is not interrupted. A wrong PIN counts exactly like a normal PIN login: too many wrong tries lock that person or the device for a while. See Attempt limits.
The staff menu has My attendance: today's attendance, your own history and leave requests. The full steps are on Staff Attendance at the POS.
When the internet drops, the clock event is kept on the device and sent once it is back online. Such records are marked sent later. The device time is used when the event arrives within 24 hours; later than that, the server time at arrival is used.
A staff member can have only one open clock-in. A second clock-in before clocking out is refused ("already clocked in").
Selfie and location
Selfie
The selfie is optional unless you switch on Selfie required. The front-camera photo is made smaller before it is sent. The first time staff take a selfie, they see a notice that the photo is proof of attendance and is deleted automatically after the retention period. Records without a photo are marked no photo.
Location
The till sends the phone's location when clocking. Etalasse works out the distance to the branch location. A record is outside the shop area when that distance, minus the GPS accuracy (at most 100 m), is still more than the radius.
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Off | The location is stored when sent, never checked |
| Flag only (default) | The record is accepted but flagged: outside shop area, fake location (a mock-location app on Android) or no location |
| Refuse | Clocking is refused without a location, outside the radius, or with a fake location |
GPS inside a shophouse, a mall or a building is often off by 50 to 200 metres. In Refuse mode, staff who really are in the shop can fail to clock in. Start with Flag only, check the flags for a few days, and only then consider a wider radius or Refuse mode.
A branch without a location is never checked, and its records are marked branch without location. The location used is the till's branch, then the staff member's branch, then the shop's main branch.
Late, early leave and overtime
The grace only decides whether it counts. When it counts, the minutes count from the shift time, not from the end of the grace.
| Rule | Example (shift 08:00–16:00, 10 minutes grace) | |
|---|---|---|
| Late | Clocked in more than the grace after the start | In at 08:09: not late. In at 08:14: late 14 minutes |
| Early leave | Clocked out more than the grace before the end | Out at 15:55: not counted. Out at 15:40: left 20 minutes early |
| Overtime | Every minute after the shift end, no grace | Out at 16:05: 5 minutes overtime |
| Worked time | Clock-out minus clock-in minus breaks | 08:14 to 16:05 without a break: 7 h 51 min |
Unscheduled records have no late, early-leave or overtime minutes. Clocking out while on a break ends the break first.
Forgotten clock-outs
A record still open longer than Auto-close (default 14 hours after clocking in) is closed by the system and marked auto-closed:
- the clock-out is set to the shift end, when there is a schedule;
- without a schedule, the clock-out is set equal to the clock-in, so worked time is 0 minutes.
Etalasse deliberately does not guess hours nobody confirmed. Look for the auto-closed flag on the History tab, ask the staff member when they really left, then edit the record.
Editing records
Owners and Admins fix records on the History tab:
- Edit the clock-in, clock-out, break minutes or note. An open record can be closed by filling in the clock-out.
- Add a manual record for staff who forgot to clock in at all. A record that overlaps another record of the same staff member is refused.
- Delete a wrong record. It does not really disappear: its status becomes void and it only shows with the void status filter.
Every change needs a reason (3 to 255 characters), for example "forgot to clock out, the till was off". Late, early-leave, overtime and worked minutes are recalculated, and the record is marked edited (new records are marked manual). The record detail shows the change history: before and after, who, when and why. Nobody can edit or delete this history; it can only grow.
Today, summary and export
Today shows the number of staff scheduled, present, late, before start time, missing, on leave, off, unscheduled and flagged, then one row per staff member. The Present count includes late staff; Late is the part of them who were late. Pick a branch at the top right when the shop has several branches.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Present | Clocked in that day (late staff included) |
| Late N min | Clocked in, and late, for example Late 14 min |
| Before start time | Has a shift, the start time plus grace has not passed yet |
| Missing | Has a shift, the start time plus grace has passed, no clock-in yet |
| Absent | A past day with a shift, no record and no leave |
| Permit / Sick / Leave | An approved request covers that date |
| Off | No shift |
| Scheduled | An upcoming date with a shift |
| Unscheduled | A clock-in on a day without a shift. Counts as present, with no late or overtime minutes |
Summary counts per staff member for a period (at most 62 days): scheduled, present (late included), late (times and minutes), absent, permit, sick, leave and off days, worked time, overtime, early leave and the number of flagged records.
History lists every record (at most 62 days at a time). Filter by staff member, branch, flag (for example auto-closed or outside shop area) or status. Open a record to see the selfie, the distance to the shop, the device and its change history.
Want to pay salaries from this summary? The Payroll menu (Pro plan) uses days present, lateness, absences, hours worked and overtime from attendance.
Export CSV is available for the summary and the history. Times in the file use the shop time zone. Export files never contain photos or photo links.
Permit, sick and leave
Staff request Permit (izin), Sick (sakit) or Leave (cuti) from My attendance in the POS: start and end date, a note, and a photo attachment if needed (for example a doctor's note).
- One request covers at most 31 days, and the start date can be at most 30 days in the past.
- A request that overlaps another pending or approved request is refused.
- Staff can cancel their own request while it is still pending.
On the Leave tab, an Owner or Admin opens the attachment, then Approves or Rejects it with an optional note. Only pending requests can be decided. You can also record leave for a staff member directly in the Dashboard (for example when they called in); it is approved at once. Annual leave (cuti) recorded this way is also checked against the staff member's balance.
Approved leave turns that day's status into Permit, Sick or Leave instead of Absent.
Each leave (cuti) request also shows the staff member's balance, and Etalasse asks first when it is bigger than what is left. In the list, requests show the calendar days and the work days they use. See Annual Leave. Permit and sick days are never limited by the balance.
Photos and privacy
A selfie is the staff member's personal data. That is why:
- Photos are kept in private storage, never behind a public link. The Dashboard opens them with a temporary link valid for 15 minutes.
- Photos are deleted automatically after the retention period (default 90 days, 7 to 365). The record stays, with a note that the photo was removed. Leave attachments are deleted 365 days after the leave end date.
- Etalasse does not use face recognition. The photo is only evidence for you to look at.
- Photos and PINs are not written to the Activity Log, are not in export files, and cannot be read through MCP or an AI assistant.
- Staff only see their own records in My attendance, without photos.
Tell your staff that attendance uses a selfie and their location before you switch it on.
Plans and roles
| Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clocking, the Today board, schedules, settings, edits, new leave | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reading the summary, history, CSV export and leave list | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
On the Free plan the Attendance menu shows as locked with an upgrade prompt. Clocking in at the till also needs staff PINs, which also start at Growth. After a downgrade the history stays readable: Summary, History, Export CSV and the Leave list stay open (read-only), and staff still see their own history in My attendance. Growth is needed again for clocking in and out, the Today board, schedules, changing settings and editing records.
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Owner, Admin | Everything on the Attendance page: settings, schedules, summary, edits, leave |
| Cashier, Kitchen | Clock in at the till and use My attendance (own clocking, own history, leave). They cannot open the Attendance page |
An Admin can clock in at the till only when Allow Admin PIN is on in PIN settings. The Owner is the shop account, not a staff member, so the Owner does not clock in. The Owner's Cashier in the Dashboard app does not show Attendance or My attendance.
MCP tools
An AI assistant can read attendance: the today board, the summary, the records, the leave list and leave balances (staff_attendance.today, .summary, .records, .leave_list, .leave_balances). Editing records, schedules and settings, and approving leave, are Dashboard-only. Photos are never sent to an AI assistant. See Tool Surface.