How to set up QR code attendance at a kiosk

How kiosk QR attendance works

The kiosk tablet displays a QR code that changes every few seconds. The employee opens the attendance app on their own phone and scans it, and the punch is recorded against their name with the time and the kiosk it came from. Because the code rotates, the employee must be standing in front of the tablet to scan a live code. Tying each employee to one registered phone closes the other gap, where someone logs in as a colleague on a second phone. For phones whose camera cannot scan, a short typed code shown under the QR does the same job.

Where kiosks work well

Kiosks suit places where staff come through one entrance and nearly everyone carries a smartphone: retail stores and malls, restaurant kitchens, hospital wards, school staff rooms, warehouses and construction site offices. They also help where fingerprints read poorly, and where staff prefer not to touch a shared device. They suit less well at large gates with hundreds of people arriving at once, where a queue forms behind anyone whose phone is slow, and in workforces where many people do not carry a smartphone.

Setting up the tablet

Use a basic tablet on a wall or desk mount at eye level, near the entrance and away from direct sunlight, which washes out the screen. Plug it in permanently, keep the screen awake, and give it a reliable connection, with mobile data as a backup for Wi-Fi. Lock the tablet to the kiosk screen so nobody uses it for anything else. Name one person at each site, such as the store manager or front desk executive, as the kiosk owner who checks each morning that it is on and working.

Limits and fallbacks

Every kiosk setup has bad days. Plan for them in advance and write the fallback into the attendance policy, so site managers do not improvise a different answer at each location and HR does not have to rebuild a missing day from memory at month end.

• Tablet off or broken: the site owner records punches in a register and sends it to HR the same day.
• Network down: employees note their time and raise a correction once the connection returns.
• Employee without a smartphone: use a biometric device or a supervisor register for that person.
• Lost or changed phone: HR approves the new phone before the employee can punch from it.
• Queue at shift change: add a second kiosk at the same entrance rather than widening grace.

Step by step

1. Decide kiosk locations. Pick one kiosk for each entrance staff use, and add a second where many people arrive within a few minutes, such as a store opening shift.
2. Prepare and mount the tablet. Fix the tablet at eye level near the entrance with permanent power, a reliable connection and the screen kept awake. Lock it to the kiosk screen.
3. Create the kiosk and link it to the site. In ZeniaHR, Kiosk Punch shows a QR code that changes every 30 seconds, with a typed code for phones that cannot scan. Each kiosk can be tied to a check-in spot with an optional location check, up to 50 kiosks per company.
4. Install the app and register phones. Employees install the attendance app and punch from their own phone. With phone binding in ZeniaHR, the first phone is approved automatically and a later phone needs HR approval.
5. Show staff how to scan and type. At a short briefing, have each person scan once and use the typed code once, so nobody learns it for the first time on a busy morning.
6. Run a week alongside the old method. Keep the register or machine for a week and compare daily punches. Fix gaps, such as staff whose phones do not scan, before switching the old method off.
7. Name a kiosk owner at each site. One person checks each morning that the kiosk is on and runs the fallback register on bad days, sending it to HR the same evening.

Frequently asked questions