QR code attendance kiosk

How it works

1. HR turns Kiosk punching on in Capture controls under Policies in Settings, then adds a kiosk with a name such as Main gate and, if needed, its check-in spot.
2. On the entrance tablet HR opens Kiosk Punch, picks the kiosk and taps Full screen, which keeps the tablet awake where the browser allows it.
3. The screen shows a large QR code that changes every 30 seconds, with the same code in a short typed form, such as 12-482913, underneath.
4. The employee opens the ZeniaHR app, taps Punch and scans the QR code or types the short code. The punch is saved with the source kiosk.
5. ZeniaHR accepts the current code and the one just before it, so each code works for 30 to 60 seconds. Someone who keeps typing wrong codes is blocked from typed codes for a while.
6. When phone binding is on, the punch must come from the person's approved phone. When the kiosk location rule is on, the phone must be inside the check-in spot.

What you can set

• Kiosk punching: on or off for the company.
• Kiosks: up to 50 per company, each with a name and an optional check-in spot.
• Kiosk punches need location: yes or no. The kiosk's own spot is used when it has one, otherwise the person's spots.
• Punch only from approved phones: when switched on, it covers kiosk punches as well as app punches.
• Revoke a kiosk: its screen stops showing codes and codes already on screen stop working at once. Add a new kiosk to start again.
• Code timing: a new code every 30 seconds; the current and the previous code are accepted.

Why a changing code beats a printed QR poster

A QR code printed on a wall is the same every day. Anyone can photograph it and punch from home or from the tea stall outside. A rotating code solves that, because a picture is useless after a minute. The location rule closes the next gap: a colleague at the gate cannot read the short code to someone still on the bus, because the phone has to be inside the spot. Phone binding closes the last one, since the punch must come from the person's own approved phone.

Worked example: one tablet at a Surat textile unit

A Surat weaving unit runs a Morning shift from 6 am to 2 pm and an Evening shift from 2 pm to 10 pm, with 90 workers on each. HR mounts one tablet at the gate as the kiosk Gate 1, tied to the check-in spot Factory gate, with the kiosk location rule and phone binding both on. From 1:50 pm the Evening shift starts arriving and the Morning shift starts leaving, so about 180 punches pass through the same screen in 20 minutes.

At 1:58 pm a worker photographs the screen and sends it to a friend who is still at home. When the friend tries the code at 2:05 pm it fails twice over: the code has changed many times since, and his phone is outside the Factory gate spot. Workers with older phones that cannot scan type the short code instead. A supervisor who loses his phone gets the new one approved by HR the same day, and HR records his punches until then.

Setting up the kiosk

A kiosk is only as reliable as the tablet behind it, so treat it like any other piece of gate equipment and give one person the job of checking it at the start of each shift. A dead tablet at 6 am means a queue at the gate and a pile of corrections later in the month.

• Keep the tablet on charge and fixed at chest height near the gate, out of direct sunlight.
• Tie each kiosk to a check-in spot and turn the location rule on for gates that face a public road.
• Switch phone binding on so each worker punches only from their own approved phone.
• Decide how staff without a smartphone will be marked, for example a biometric machine or HR recording their punches.
• Revoke a kiosk at once if its tablet goes missing, then add a new one.

Frequently asked questions