Staff Attendance System: Attendance. Marks itself.

Staff attendance system: questions schools ask.

• What is a staff attendance management system?

  A staff attendance management system is school software that records when every teacher and staff member comes in and leaves — from a biometric machine, a check-in on their phone or the office. Inkwelly then marks who is late or not in yet, keeps leave balances and hands the month's payable days to payroll.

• How do teachers mark their attendance in Inkwelly?

  Three ways, and a school can use them together: check in from the Inkwelly app at the gate, punch on a biometric machine, or have the office mark the day. Every punch lands in the same register, and the board shows how each one was captured.

• How does phone check-in stop proxy attendance?

  It works only inside the circle your school draws around its campus, and refuses fake-location apps and weak GPS. The punch time comes from our server, not the phone. With Face Lock on, the front camera must see the right person, live, before the check-in counts.

• What is Face Lock?

  An optional face check for phone check-ins. Staff register their face once in the app and an admin approves it; at check-in the app asks them to turn their head a random way, and the punch counts only when the face matches. A school can start with a practice period, and if a check fails, staff can ask an admin to approve it at the original time.

• Which biometric machines work with Inkwelly?

  A machine connects with its own device key, and staff are matched to their number on the machine. Machines that only talk to their own PC software, like Matrix COSEC, send punches through a small bridge we set up on the school PC. Tell us your machine's make in the demo and we'll check it.

• How is late marked?

  Each department has an in-time and a grace period — Teaching late after 8:00, say, and the office after 8:45. A staff member can also have their own timing. Anyone who punches in after that is marked late by itself, with the minutes late.

• Does coming late cut salary automatically?

  No. Late days are counted and listed in the late tracker, and you can record a rule like “3 lates = half a day”, but Inkwelly doesn't cut pay for lates by itself today. Absent days, unpaid leave and half days are what payroll counts as loss of pay.

• Can different departments have different timings and week-offs?

  Yes. Each department has its own in and out time, grace, week-offs (like the 2nd and 4th Saturday), check-in window and leave approvers — and any person can have their own timing or week-off on top.

• How do staff apply for leave?

  In the Inkwelly app: pick the leave type — it shows how many days are left — choose the dates and a reason, and apply. The approver sees the balance before and after and who else in the department is off, and the staff member gets a notice once it's approved.

• How are leave balances kept?

  You set up leave types like CL, SL and EL once, then give each staff member their days for the session — for everyone at once, by department, or copied from last year, with a share for mid-year joiners. Approved leave moves days from pending to used.

• What if a teacher forgets to check in or out?

  They send a missed-punch request from the app with the right time, and the office approves it. Days worked on a holiday or week-off and on-duty days away from school are requested the same way.

• Does staff attendance work with payroll?

  Yes. The salary days report gives working, present, paid leave, loss of pay and net payable days for every staff member, and Inkwelly Payroll reads the same attendance when it runs salaries. Lock the month once salaries are done and nothing can change under it.

• Can the principal see who hasn't come yet?

  Yes. The board shows who is on time, late, on leave and not in yet, refreshes every two minutes, and lists who's not in yet — with how late they are — next to Call and Mark. A WhatsApp briefing with the absent, on-leave and late names arrives at the time you choose.

• Do staff get reminders to check in?

  Yes, if your school switches them on: a reminder at their start time and a last call before the late time — only on days they haven't checked in, never on holidays, week-offs or leave. They come on the app, WhatsApp, SMS or email, as your school chooses.

• What reports does it make?

  The A3 monthly register with signature lines, the salary-linked attendance summary, the late and short-leave tracker, and the leave balance report in Excel or PDF, plus a raw day-by-day export in Excel — for any month.

• Can we bring in our old staff attendance?

  Yes. Download a sheet with your staff already filled in, add each day's code — P, A, L for leave, LT for late, HD, OD, WO or H — and import it. A dry run checks every row first. Or send us your register and we'll do it, at no cost.

• Can I ask Inkwelly AI about staff attendance?

  Yes, on plans with Inkwelly AI. Ask “aaj kaun nahi aaya?”, “who came late most this month?” or “Anjali ki kitni CL bachi hai?” in English, Hindi or Hinglish. It can also mark attendance or approve leave — only after you tap Approve.

• Is it available in Hindi?

  Yes. Inkwelly works in English and Hindi, and check-in reminders, the face check and the principal's briefing come in Hindi too.

• How much does Inkwelly's staff attendance system cost?

  Staff Attendance is in every plan, from Lite at ₹49 per student per year (GST extra). Plans run ₹49–₹199 per student per year, with ₹0 migration, training and setup.