Keeping track of whether students attend classes is time-consuming and burdensome. Conventional paper registers take a lot of time to fill out and process, and they are vulnerable to fraud.
Time clock software for students aims to correct this. It lets students check into and out of school and classes in the same way that employees might when starting or finishing a shift. This makes it easy for administrators to track who was in attendance and who missed school or classes that day.
Using time clock software to track student attendance significantly reduces your processing time. It creates electronic attendance records that update automatically when students check in and out. You can easily run reports for attendance records without having to collect paper attendance rosters and manually input them into your main system.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how Buddy Punch’s time clock software for students can help you reduce the amount of time it takes to track student attendance.
Attendance tracking features
Students can log their attendance in Buddy Punch by checking in and out of either school or specific classes. They can do this by using Buddy Punch’s ChromeOS app if your school provides students with Chromebooks, or they can download the Buddy Punch app onto their mobile phones.
Administrators can see which students are and aren’t checked in at any time on the Buddy Punch dashboard. This provides you with a quick view of who’s at school and who’s not, making it easier to make calls to parents as needed to make sure that absent students were supposed to be absent that day.
If you’re worried about students forgetting to check in and out, you can set up notifications. If a student doesn’t check in before they’re scheduled to start class, you can get a notification so you can check and see if the student is actually in attendance. You can also send the student a notification to remind them to clock in if they are at school and just forgot to do so.
Safety and accountability features
In addition to basic attendance tracking, Buddy Punch comes with multiple features that help you make sure that students are on-site when they check into and out of school.
Photo check-ins
If you want to prevent students from checking in and out for each other, you can turn on Photos on Punch. This is an accountability feature that requires students to take a selfie before they’re allowed to check in and out. All of the photos can be reviewed at any time on their attendance records so you can make sure students aren;t checking each other in and out to make it look like someone was there who wasn’t.
Geofencing and IP address locks
Geofences are virtual borders that you can create that limit check-ins and outs to a specific address. If you’re worried about students checking in and out while they’re not at school, geofences will prevent that. To check in or out, students have to be at the address specified by the geofence.
Another way to prevent students from checking in and out when they’re not at school is to set up IP address locks. This only allows students to check in and out when they’re connected to your school’s Wi-Fi, preventing them from checking in before they arrive at school for the day.
GPS tracking
If you have permission from parents and your students are using Buddy Punch’s mobile apps to check in and out, you can also turn on GPS tracking to keep students safe and accountable. There are two GPS tracking features available in Buddy Punch.
GPS on punch logs students’ locations when they clock in and out and lists those locations on their attendance records. This can be helpful if you have students who leave school to volunteer or do work-study assignments. You can ensure that they’re actually where they’re supposed to be when they’re off campus by having them check in and out when they arrive at and leave the off-site location.
Real-time GPS tracks students’ locations the whole time they’re signed in as at school (never when they’re not signed in). This can help you identify if a student left school when they weren’t supposed to, find students who are supposed to be in class but are missing, or identify where a student is when busses are delayed or in the case where someone got off of the bus at the wrong location.
Student scheduling features
Another way that Buddy Punch can help reduce your administrative burden is by giving you tools to create student schedules. You can create schedules for each individual student — including what classes they need to be in on what days and at what times — and then set those schedules up to repeat across the entire semester.
Additionally, you can add school holidays and other days off to the calendar so students can easily see when they’re off of school. Students can access their schedules at any time in the Buddy Punch app, and you can also send notifications to students automatically when a new schedule is created or an existing schedule is changed.
Customer reviews of Buddy Punch
Buddy Punch has an overall review score of 4.8 out of 5 across more than 1,000 customer reviews on popular software review site Capterra. Customers praise the software for how easy it is to use, how much time it saves administrators, and how helpful its customer service is:
- “I am glad my organization made the switch from our previous tracker to Buddy Punch. The ease of use of Buddy Punch is what separates it from a lot of competitors.”
- “My overall experience with Buddy Punch has been positive. The system offers convenient and efficient ways to record attendance, providing flexibility with options like username and face ID logins.”
- “The customer service is top tier, and the reps are incredibly knowledgeable. Not only is Buddy Punch easy to use, but it is affordable. I’ve recommended Buddy Punch to others, and they love it.”
- “I really like how you can make your schedule very detailed with color coordination.”
- “When I’ve encountered any issues or have corrections to be made, it is usually handled in a few minutes — not days or weeks. Additionally, the help center articles are detailed yet easy to follow.”
Buddy Punch’s pricing
Buddy Punch starts at $4.49/user per month plus a $19/month base fee. The base fee covers all admin users, so you’ll only pay the per-user fee for any students you add to the system to track their attendance.
Want to learn more about Buddy Punch? You can start a free trial — no credit card required — take a self-guided tour of the platform, watch a video demo, or schedule a one-on-one demo.
