When a kiosk is the right call
Plenty of teams don't want phones out on the floor. Maybe it's a kitchen, or a warehouse, or you've got staff who'd rather not use their own phone for work. A tablet by the back door solves it. Everyone clocks in at the same spot, in the same way.
You also don't need to buy anything special. An iPad or any tablet with a browser will do. We'd mount it somewhere you can see it, because that's the cheapest deterrent against clocking in for a friend.
Setting it up
- On the tablet, sign in as an admin and open Settings, then Store kiosks.
- Choose Pair this browser and pick the store.
- The tablet now shows the PIN pad. It stays that way until you unpair it.
Pairing takes about a minute. You can remove a paired tablet from Settings if it's lost or replaced, and it stops working right away.
What employees do
They type their PIN. That brings up their name and buttons to clock in, start a break, end a break or clock out.
There's no sign-in for them to remember beyond the PIN, and no app to install.
Protection against guessing
A shared screen invites people to try PINs. So it's limited:
- After 5 wrong PINs within a minute, the kiosk pauses for a minute.
- After 10 wrong in an hour, owners get an alert.
- There's a hard cap of 60 attempts an hour per device.
You can also set a minimum PIN length for kiosks under Settings, then Security. A PIN by itself only identifies someone on a paired kiosk. On the web, people also need their phone number or email.
Mixing kiosks and phones
You don't have to pick one. Clock-in rules are set per person, so you might have:
- Floor staff who can only use the kiosk
- Managers who can use a phone at their store
- Drivers or field staff who can clock in anywhere
Everything lands on the same timesheet, so payroll doesn't care how a punch got there.
A few practical tips
Put it where a manager walks past. A kiosk in a back hallway no one visits doesn't stop much.
Give everyone their own PIN and explain why. Their hours decide their pay, so make it clear the PIN is theirs to keep private.
Keep it plugged in. It sounds obvious. A dead tablet at 6 a.m. means a line of people texting you.
Have a backup. Allow managers to clock in by phone, so the morning doesn't stop if the tablet does.
Check it after a change. If you replace the tablet or clear its browser data, pair it again. A quick test punch from a manager tells you it's ready.
What it costs
The kiosk is part of the Operations hub on every plan, including Free. There's no per-device fee, so a second tablet at the same store costs nothing extra. The number of stores you can use is set by your plan: 1 on Free, 3 on Basic, 10 on Advanced, and no limit on Expert.