Clock in

The term “clock in” refers to the way that employees — usually those paid by the hour or who work to a rota — record their arrival at work or the time they started their shift.

Historically, clocking in was done via a device called a “time clock” or “punch clock” — the latter being a machine that would punch holes into employees’ personalised timecards to show the time they began their shift so managers could pay them accordingly. At the end of the shift, staff would also “clock out” to record their finish time.

Modern clocking in systems do away with timecards and bespoke equipment, instead allowing employees to clock in and out of shifts using their own mobile phones or via a standard iPad or Android tablet running clocking-in software.