Punching from approved phones

How it works

1. HR opens Capture controls under Policies in Settings and sets Each person can punch only from approved phones to yes.
2. ZeniaHR asks HR to confirm, explaining that the next phone each person punches from becomes their approved phone.
3. Each phone is recognised by the app session it signed in with, and the first phone after the switch is approved automatically.
4. A punch from any other phone is refused with a message that it is a new phone and HR must approve it, and the phone joins the list waiting for HR.
5. HR filters the phone list by Waiting, Approved, Revoked or All, and approves or revokes each phone. The card shows how many phones are waiting.
6. Binding covers app punches and kiosk punches; punches that HR records and biometric punches are not affected.

What you can set

• Phone binding switch: on or off for the whole company, on the capture controls card.
• First phone after switching on: approved automatically.
• Any later phone: waits for HR approval before it can punch.
• Revoke: the person cannot punch from that phone until HR approves it again.
• Phone list filters: Waiting, Approved, Revoked and All.
• Covers: app punches and kiosk punches.

Why binding phones matters

Location checks prove where a phone was, not whose hand it was in. Two colleagues at the gate could punch for a third who is still at home, if they have his login. Tying each person to one approved phone makes that much harder, because the absent person's punch would have to come from his own phone. It also gives HR a clean list of which phone each employee uses, which helps when a phone is lost or replaced.

Worked example: a lost phone at a Ludhiana hosiery unit

A Ludhiana hosiery unit switches phone binding on for its 160 workers on 1 October, and over the next two days each worker's first punch approves their phone automatically. On 9 October, machine operator Harpreet Singh loses his phone on the bus. He buys a new one, signs in to the ZeniaHR app and tries to punch in at 8:55 am. The app tells him this is a new phone and HR must approve it.

HR sees 1 phone waiting on the capture controls card, checks with his supervisor that Harpreet is at the gate, approves the new phone and revokes the lost one, so nobody can punch from it. Harpreet punches in at 9:04 am, and because the unit's grace runs to 9:10 am, he is still on time.

Running phone binding day to day

Phone binding adds one small daily task for HR: approving new phones. Most requests arrive in the first week and whenever people change phones. A few simple habits keep the queue short, the workers punching on time and the supervisors out of HR's office.

• Check the waiting phones first thing each morning, before shifts start.
• Confirm with the supervisor that the person is really at work before approving a new phone.
• Revoke a lost or sold phone the same day.
• Use a kiosk with its location rule at busy gates, since binding covers kiosk punches too.

Frequently asked questions