An automated attendance system is searched for by a small employer who is tired of doing the same sum by hand: the lead records the event, someone looks up the policy, someone adds the points, someone checks the window, someone notices the employee is near the threshold, and someone drafts the write-up. Each of those steps is arithmetic or lookup, and each is done differently by whoever does it. Automation is the right word for taking those over. It is the wrong word for the decision at the end, which is whether the next conversation is a reminder or a final warning. This page says which steps an automated attendance system takes over and which it must leave alone, with the free tools on this site doing the arithmetic now, with no account.
Scoring: the event gets the policy's points, every time
The first automation is the simplest and the one most worth having. The policy is five numbers, on this site's worked example 1 point per unexcused absence, 0.5 per tardy, 2 per no-call, a threshold of 8 and a 12-month window. An automated attendance system applies the first three to every event the moment the lead records it, so a tardy is half a point in March and in June and whichever lead took the roll. The inconsistency that makes write-ups fail is not that the policy was harsh; it is that it was applied unevenly, and a system that scores automatically removes the unevenness. The attendance points calculator on this site does this on the page from a policy typed in.
The window and the total: points age out on their own
The second automation is the rolling window. Points earned twelve months ago leave the total today, and in a spreadsheet nobody remembers to remove them, so the employee is carried at 7 when they are at 5. An automated attendance system recomputes the total on every date it is asked: an employee with a no-call from thirteen months ago and two tardies since is at 1 point, not 3, and the system should say so without anyone checking a date column. The room under the threshold follows from the total; with 1 point in the window there is room for seven more, and the system should be able to say which single event would use it up.
The reminder and the write-up draft: automated up to the signature
The third automation is the reminder at the threshold: when an employee's total reaches a number the policy sets, the lead is told before the shift, not after the termination. The fourth is the write-up draft, which cites the events, the points each scored, the total in the window and the policy paragraph that sets the threshold, ready for the conversation. Both are lookups the system can do because it holds the record; the guide to choosing attendance tracking software on this site says what that record must keep. RollCallWorks Pro does all four for a crew, at a flat price, and stops at the draft.
The step an automated attendance system must never take
The decision. Some absences score nothing by law however the policy reads, and only a person can know that the absence on the fourth was protected leave under the FMLA or an accommodation under the ADA; the Department of Labor's and the EEOC's pages linked below describe each. A system that terminates at the threshold automatically will terminate someone whose absence was excused and never marked, and the write-up it drafted will be the evidence. The automation ends at the draft, with the excused event held at zero and its reason attached, and the lead decides whether the conversation is a reminder or a final warning.
Questions people ask about automated attendance system
What does an automated attendance system automate?
Four things: scoring every event with the policy's points, keeping the total in the rolling window current as points age out, reminding the lead when an employee nears the threshold, and drafting the write-up that cites the events and the policy paragraph. The decision at the end stays with a person.
Does automation require a time clock or biometrics?
No. The event can be recorded by the shift lead's roll call at the start of the shift; the automation is what happens to the event afterwards. The free tools on this site do the scoring and the window from a policy typed in, with no hardware.
What does an automated system cost a small crew?
The suites charge per user per month: Deputy Lite is $5, Core is $6.50 and Pro is $9 per user per month in USD. RollCallWorks Pro is $6.50 per month for the whole crew, flat, and automates the four steps above for the record it keeps.