Badge time clock

A badge time clock where your phone is the badge reader.

A badge time clock records hours when an employee's ID badge is read at the start and end of a shift. Most use a wall-mounted RFID, proximity or barcode reader. TrackBadges prints a QR code on each employee's badge and makes any phone or tablet the reader, so there's nothing to buy, mount or wire, and the clock goes wherever your crew works.

Start free Start free Free for 3 people · No card · No app

Your crew needs: A printed badge. No app, account or phone.
The scanner: Any iPhone, Android phone or tablet, in its browser.
Hardware to buy: None. Print badges on paper or card stock.
Setup: About a minute, before you even sign up.
Price: Free for 3 people. Then $9/mo + $1.50 per person.
Payroll: Overtime applied. CSV for Excel, Sheets or payroll.

How a badge time clock works

A badge time clock matches a badge to a person and logs the moment it was read. Read it once to clock in, again to clock out. Every badge clock works this way. What changes is the badge, and the thing that reads it.

Proximity or RFID card. A chip in a plastic card or key fob. The employee taps it on a reader mounted by the door.
Barcode or magnetic stripe badge. The employee swipes or scans it at a dedicated reader, usually wall-mounted too.
QR code badge. A printed code that any phone or tablet camera can read. No dedicated reader at all.

The first two tie your time clock to a box on a wall. The third ties it to whatever phone your supervisor already carries. TrackBadges is the third kind.

Badge reader time clocks vs a phone as the reader

The card is cheap; the reader is the expensive part. It has to be bought, mounted, powered and connected at every door where people clock in, and it can't follow a crew to a new job site.

	TrackBadges	RFID or prox card clock	Barcode badge clock
What reads the badge	Any phone or tablet camera	A reader on the wall	A scanner on the wall or desk
Hardware to buy	None	A reader per entrance, plus cards or fobs	A scanner per entrance
Mounting and power	None	Mount, power and network it	Mount and power it
Where people clock in	Wherever a scanner is: gate, truck, door	Where the reader is mounted	Where the scanner is
Making a badge	Print it on paper or card stock	Buy cards and enroll each one	Print it
Replacing a lost badge	Reissue in one click, old one stops working	Disable it, enroll a new card	Reprint it
Stops buddy punching	A supervisor sees who holds each badge	Anyone holding the card can tap it	Anyone holding the badge can scan it

The last row matters most. A reader on the wall can't tell who's holding the card. When a supervisor does the scanning, they see the person in front of them, so one worker can't clock in a friend who's still on the way.

Your phone is the badge reader

Turning a phone into a badge reader takes one setup link. Open it on any iPhone, Android phone or tablet and that browser becomes a scanner, with no app to install and no login for the supervisor.

Pair as many scanners as you need. Every foreman's phone, a tablet at the shop door, a spare phone in the truck. Scanners and locations are unlimited on every plan.
Assign each one to a location. Every punch records the time, the scanner, its location and, if you turn it on, a GPS stamp of where the scan happened.
Use the phone's own camera. On a paired phone, pointing the regular camera app at a badge opens a one-tap clock-in page.
No badge today? Type the PIN. Every badge carries a PIN the supervisor can type on the scanner instead.

A crew of eight takes under a minute to scan in at the gate, and the owner watches each person appear on the live who's-working board as they're scanned.

Printing and reissuing ID badges

Badges print eight to a letter-size page at credit-card size (3.375 × 2.125 in), the same size as a standard ID card. Each one has the person's name, their QR code and their PIN. Plain paper is fine for a trial. For daily use:

Print on card stock and cut them out.
Laminate them or slip them into a clear badge holder.
Hang them on a lanyard, clip them to a vest, or keep them in a wallet.
Print a new hire's badge the day you add them, so they're on the clock from their first morning.

When a badge goes missing, reissue it from the dashboard. The old QR code stops working right away, so whoever finds it can't clock anyone in, and the PIN covers the gap until the new badge is printed. Our guide to making employee ID badges walks through the options, and you can see what a badge looks like with the free QR badge maker.

What a badge time clock costs without the hardware

With a hardware badge clock you pay for a reader at every entrance and the cards, often with a software subscription on top. With a phone as the reader, the subscription is the whole cost. Free for up to 3 people. Pro is $9 a month for your first 3 people, plus $1.50 a month for each person after that ($19.50 for 10, $42 for 25). Extra scanners, extra locations and badge reissues cost nothing. For the full picture, including the time payroll takes each week, see what a time clock costs.

When a wall-mounted badge reader is the better choice

Some places are better served by hardware. If your badges already open doors through an access-control system and you want one card for both, a reader tied to that system makes sense. If the door where people clock in has no reliable internet, a standalone clock that stores punches locally is safer, because a TrackBadges scanner needs a connection while it scans. And if nobody supervises the door, a wall reader and a tablet share the same weakness: neither can see who's holding the badge. The QR code vs NFC vs biometric time clocks guide compares the options in more depth.

Frequently asked questions

What is a badge time clock?

A badge time clock records when employees start and stop work by reading an ID badge, such as an RFID card, a barcode or a QR code, at the start and end of each shift. Each read is matched to the person and added to their timesheet. With TrackBadges the badge is a printed QR code and any phone or tablet is the reader.

Do I need a badge reader for a badge time clock?

Not with QR badges. Any phone or tablet with a camera reads them in its browser, so there's no reader to buy, mount or wire. RFID and proximity cards do need a dedicated reader at each place people clock in.

Can we use our existing employee ID cards?

Not their chip, stripe or barcode: TrackBadges reads its own QR codes. An easy workaround is to put the printed TrackBadges badge in the same holder as the photo ID, back to back, so employees still carry one card.

What happens when an employee loses their badge?

Reissue it from the dashboard in one click. The old badge stops working immediately, so whoever finds it can't clock in with it, and the supervisor can type the employee's PIN on the scanner until the new badge is printed.

Is a barcode time clock the same as a QR code time clock?

They work the same way: a printed code is scanned to clock in and out. The difference is the scanner. Phone cameras read QR codes on their own, while a traditional one-dimensional barcode usually needs a dedicated scanner or a scanning app. QR codes also read from any angle and survive some wear.

Are QR badges secure enough for a time clock?

A QR badge, like an RFID card, works for whoever is holding it, so what stops buddy punching is a person seeing the scan. When a supervisor scans each badge, they see who they're clocking in. A lost badge can be reissued in a click, which voids the old code.

Keep reading

Clock your crew in with one phone.

Print a QR badge for everyone and scan them in and out with any phone or tablet. Free for up to 3 people — try it with your real crew before you sign up.

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