Employees attendance software is searched for by the person who has just been asked a question they cannot answer from the spreadsheet: how many points does this employee have today, and which shifts did those points come from. The suites answer it with a dashboard for the whole company; a small employer running shifts needs the answer for one person, on one screen, with the policy paragraph beside every event. This page sets out the record the software has to keep for each employee, the four questions it has to answer from that record, and the exceptions it must hold at zero. The free tools on this site do the arithmetic from a policy typed in, and RollCallWorks Pro keeps the record per person.
The per-person record, and why it is four things and not one
For each employee the software keeps the shifts they were scheduled for, the event against each shift (worked, unexcused absence, tardy, no-call no-show, excused), the points that event scored under the policy in force that day, and the write-ups issued with the policy paragraph each one cited. Keeping the first two is a timesheet; the value is in the third and fourth, because that is where a shift lead's judgement lives and where inconsistency shows. On this site's worked example the policy is 1 point per unexcused absence, 0.5 per tardy and 2 per no-call, with a threshold of 8 in a 12-month rolling window, so a person with two tardies and one absence is at 2 points and the record has to show exactly which three shifts produced them.
The four questions the software must answer from the record
First, where is this person today: the points not yet aged out of the window, on the example the events in the last 12 months. Second, how far from the threshold: at 2 points against 8 there is room for six more absences or three more no-calls, and the software should say so rather than leave the lead to work it out. Third, which single event would cross the line, so the conversation happens before the write-up and not after. Fourth, what has already been said: the warning and write-up history, so the next step in the corrective sequence is the right one and not a repeat. Software that answers the first and not the other three has stored the data and kept the judgement on paper.
What the record must hold at zero, whatever the roll call says
Some absences score nothing by law, and a per-person record that cannot mark an event as excused will score them anyway. Leave under the FMLA, an accommodation under the ADA, an accommodation under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and service under USERRA are the ones a small crew meets; the regulations linked below say what each covers and what notice the employee owes. The software's job is not to decide whether leave qualifies. It is to hold an excused event at zero points, keep the reason with it, and show a reviewer that the policy was applied to every other event the same way. An employer who cannot show that has a points total nobody can defend.
Where the per-person record differs from a time clock
A time clock records when a badge was scanned; it does not know that the person was scheduled, that the shift started forty minutes earlier, or that a doctor's note arrived on Tuesday. Employees attendance software starts from the schedule and scores the gap between the schedule and what happened, which a small employer can capture with a roll call at the top of the shift and no hardware at all. The tracker template on this site turns scheduled and missed shifts into an attendance rate and an on-time rate per person; the points calculator applies the policy's own weights to the events. A suite that bundles a clock with the record is a fair purchase, but the record is the part that settles the argument.
Questions people ask about employees attendance software
What should employees attendance software show for one employee?
Their scheduled shifts, the event against each shift, the points each event scored under the policy in force that day, the total still inside the rolling window, the room left under the threshold, and every warning or write-up on file with the paragraph it cited. One screen, one person.
Does a small employer need a time clock to run attendance software?
No. The schedule is the baseline and the shift lead's roll call is the capture. A clock adds minutes of lateness; it does not add the judgement of whether the absence was excused, which is what the record is for.
How does the software handle an absence that is legally protected?
It marks the event excused, scores it at zero, and keeps the reason with the event. Whether leave qualifies under the FMLA, the ADA, the PWFA or USERRA is the employer's decision made under those rules; the software's job is to make the zero visible and permanent.