Attendance management for FMCG distributors

Salesmen: punch where the day starts

Decide where a salesman's day begins. Many distributors hold a 9:30 am meeting at the godown for scheme briefings, and salesmen punch there before leaving for the market. Others let salesmen go straight to their beat and punch at the first outlet. With the mobile app, each punch carries its GPS location, so the record shows where every punch was made, whether that was the Nashik Road market or somewhere else. ZeniaHR records attendance only: outlet calls and orders stay in your distributor management software or the principal company's sales app, and ZeniaHR does not track routes or live location.

Delivery staff: from loading to settlement

Delivery drivers and helpers start at the godown when the van is loaded, often by 8 am, and finish when the day's cash and returns are settled with the cashier, which can run past 7 pm. Both punches belong at the godown: in at loading, out after settlement. A kiosk tablet in the godown office suits this, since the code on its screen refreshes every 30 seconds and staff scan it with the mobile app. The missed punch-out alert, sent an hour after the shift ends, catches the helper who left the van and went home without settling.

Godown staff and late trucks

Godown staff in a small depot often work one fixed shift, say 8 am to 5 pm, and stay back when a company truck arrives late. A biometric device at the godown gate that pushes punches over ADMS, or the same kiosk, records both ends of the day. When a truck arrives at 4:30 pm and the loaders stay until 8 pm to unload it, their punch-out time shows the extra hours, overtime is detected overnight, and the godown in-charge approves it the next morning. Anyone who missed a punch in the rush raises a correction, which goes to the godown in-charge and then to HR.

Late rules and month close

Grace sits on each shift, so the godown shift can have 10 minutes and the salesmen's field shift 20, while the company's late rules, such as a half day for arriving more than 60 minutes late, apply to both. For salesmen, a pattern matters more than a single late morning: the top 10 most often late and the late vs on time trend in Attendance Analytics show who drifts. Before month close, the sales supervisor and godown in-charge clear corrections, and HR finalizes the month, because paid days and some incentive slabs depend on days present.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Create each depot or godown as a branch and location, with sales supervisors and the godown in-charge as reporting managers.
2. Add separate shifts for salesmen, delivery staff and godown staff in Shifts & Roster, each with its own grace.
3. Turn on the kiosk in the godown office, add a check-in spot for the godown, and switch on phone binding for field staff.
4. Set the mobile location rule so that salesmen's app punches carry GPS location wherever the beat begins.
5. In the attendance rules under Policies, decide the late steps, how many free late marks to allow and what a missing punch-out means, then test it all with the dry run on last month.
6. Clear corrections with supervisors before month end, then finalize the month so incentives and payroll use the same days.

Read more about attendance in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions