Cloud time and attendance is the same record kept somewhere other than the office PC: the employees, the shifts, the events and the points, reachable from the floor at the start of the shift, with one copy of the policy that every lead scores against. For a small employer running shifts that is the whole point, because the spreadsheet on one machine is why March and June scored the same tardy differently. What the cloud does not change is the arithmetic. A cloud based time and attendance system still has to hold the policy as five numbers and score every event by them, and this page is about the difference between the two, with the free tools on this site doing the arithmetic now, with no account.
What cloud means here, and what it changes
The National Institute of Standards and Technology's definition, linked below, is the plain one: the record is kept on a service reached over the network, on demand, from any device, rather than on a machine the employer maintains. For attendance it changes three things. The shift lead takes the roll on a phone at the start of the shift and the event is in the record before the shift ends. There is one policy, in one place, at one version, so a change to the threshold applies from the date it was made and not from whenever each lead noticed. And there is nothing to back up, because the machine that held the spreadsheet is no longer the only copy. Those three are the reasons a small employer moves; a feature list is not.
What it does not change: the five numbers and the window
A cloud based time and attendance system still has to hold points per unexcused absence, per tardy and per no-call, the threshold and the rolling window, and score every event with them. On this site's worked example (1, 0.5, 2, 8 and 12 months) an employee with one no-call and three tardies carries 3.5 points wherever the record lives, and the day the no-call ages out they drop to 1.5. The cloud puts that total in front of the lead on the floor; it does not compute it any differently. The attendance points calculator on this site works the total on the page, and the free tools do not need an account because the arithmetic is the policy's, not the service's.
Choosing cloud time and attendance for a crew of twelve
The suites sell cloud time and attendance as a clock-in app with a per-user price and the record behind it. For a crew that needs a clock, that bundle is the right shape, and the time attendance software guide on this site says what the record half must keep. For a crew that takes a roll call and needs the record reachable from every shift, the clock is the part being paid for and not used. RollCallWorks Pro is the record only, in the cloud, at a flat price for the crew: employees, shifts, points in the window and write-ups against the person, with export.
The record has to travel with its exceptions
A cloud record is read on the floor, by a lead who was not there when the absence was excused. So the excused event has to be in the record at zero points with its reason attached, or the lead will score it. Leave under the FMLA and absences that are a reasonable accommodation under the ADA are the two a small crew meets most; the Department of Labor's and the EEOC's pages linked below describe each. The cloud makes the record visible to more people; the record has to be right for all of them.
Questions people ask about cloud time and attendance
What is cloud time and attendance?
The attendance record (employees, shifts, events, points, write-ups) kept on a service reached over the network from any device, rather than on one office machine. The lead takes the roll on the floor and the event is in the record at once; the policy exists at one version for every lead.
Does a cloud based time and attendance system need a clock?
No. The capture can be the shift lead's roll call at the start of the shift, entered on a phone. The system scores what the roll recorded against the policy; the tracker template on this site does the same from scheduled and missed shifts.
What does cloud time and attendance cost a small crew?
The suites price 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, in the cloud, and is the record only.