Your time clock, without buying hardware.
Turn a tablet you already own into your time clock: each person taps their name, enters a PIN, and they’re on the record.
What everyone asks about a time clock.
For cafés, restaurants, shops, clinics, workshops and salons with staff on shifts.
What tablet do I need?
An iPad on iOS 14.5 or later, or an Android tablet with up-to-date Chrome. That’s it.
What if the internet drops?
The screen keeps taking punches at their real time and sends them when the connection returns.
Can someone clock in for someone else?
Everyone has their own PIN, with no fingerprint or photo. If one gets shared, issue a new one.
Does it run payroll?
No. It exports everyone’s hours for your accountant, and can estimate what they cost from each person’s pay.
Everyone’s hours, ready when payday is.
Pick the dates — last week, the 1st to the 15th, last month, or any range — and export everyone’s hours at once. Get a spreadsheet for payroll or your accountant, or a PDF with one page per person, ready to print and sign.
- An Excel file for payroll or your accountant
- A printable PDF, one page per person
- Pay-period ranges in one tap, or any dates you pick
Pair a terminal once, and you're done.
An admin pairs the terminal once from the app. After that, nobody who punches in needs the app at all — not even an account. The terminal updates itself, and the app shows you if one goes offline.
Scan the code
Scan the code on the screen with your phone’s camera.
Name the terminal
Front counter, back door — give it a name so you know which one you're looking at later. Rename or disconnect it whenever you need to.
Everyone's ready to punch
Everyone on your team gets a PIN automatically. Send it from the app, and members can look theirs up there too. If a PIN gets shared, issue a new one and the old one stops working.
Pairing a tablet, start to finish. See the guide with the steps written out
Every time card, all in one place.
See every member’s week update live, plus what still needs fixing and who’s waiting on an answer. Hours worked plus the shifts still scheduled show overtime coming before it happens. Alpacca warns you; your accountant still runs payroll.
- Live hours, with a shift in progress counting up
- Overtime flagged before the week is over
- Late starts, early finishes and missed shifts marked
- Add a missing clock-in or clock-out
- Approve each person’s hours once the pay period ends
The record behind every hour.
Every punch stays on the record
A correction never erases what came before it. Change a punch or cross it out, and it still shows the original, who changed it, when, and why. A punch from a terminal names the terminal that took it, and people who’ve left stay on their time cards.
- Corrections and crossed-out punches, never deleted
- Which terminal took it, and who changed it and why
- Five years of history, even for people who’ve left
Keeps punching when the wifi doesn't
Offline doesn't stop the clock. The screen keeps taking punches at their real time and sends them the moment it's back online — one it can't record stays listed on the screen so a manager can add it by hand.
- Punches keep their real time, online or not
- Syncs the moment the connection returns
- A punch it can't record stays listed for a manager
Approve the hours before payday
When a pay period ends, check each person’s hours and approve them. Approving locks nothing. If someone’s hours change afterwards, they show as changed, with the days that moved, and wait for you again.
- Who’s approved, who’s left, and what needs a fix first
- Hours changed after approval, with the days that moved
- Only managers see approvals
Know what the hours cost
Turn on labor costs and add each person’s pay, by the day or by the hour. Alpacca estimates what the week costs, overtime included. Your accountant still runs payroll.
- What each shift adds, while you build the week
- Labor cost by person for any pay period, in Excel
- Only owners and admins see pay
- A total missing someone’s pay says it’s short
Or let them clock in from their phone.
Turn on phone clock-in for everyone, or only the people you choose. Members clock in from Home in the Alpacca app, right under today’s shift. The app checks where they are as they punch and puts the street on the record. It never tracks them in between.
- Everyone, only the people you choose, or nobody
- The street each punch came from, on the record
- Clocking out always goes through, so nobody gets stuck
- In the iPhone and Android apps, not in a browser
It already knows who’s working today.
Publish the week in Alpacca, and the terminal starts from it. Whoever’s on today’s schedule is right there to tap, and anyone else searches for their name. When someone with more than one skill clocks in, the screen asks what they’re working as and puts today’s shift first.
- Today’s schedule up front, everyone else a search away
- The skill on today’s shift is offered first
- Hours broken down by skill on every time card
- Home shows who’s in, who’s late, and who isn’t in yet
Your own week, and a way to fix it.
Members with the app see their own hours for the week and which days still need a fix. Missed a punch? They ask for one, and it only counts once a manager says yes.
- Hours for the week, including today's
- Ask for a fix on a missed punch
- A fix counts only once a manager approves it
Everything else your organization runs on.
Shifts
Build next week from your usual one, publish it once, and spot uncovered shifts at a glance.
Learn moreMembers
Everyone in your organization, sorted into teams with clear access levels.
Learn moreEvents
One calendar for deliveries, meetings and appointments, with repeats built in.
Learn moreGet everyone working from the same schedule.
Try every feature free for 14 days on Essential, billed monthly. After that you pay per organization, not per person, and you can cancel anytime.