A food plant time clock that stays off the production floor.

How a food processing plant time clock works

Mount a tablet at the employee entrance and pair it as a scanner. Workers hold up a printed QR badge on the way in and on the way out. There's nothing to touch, no phone and no fingerprint, and the tablet sits on the street side of your hygiene line.

A first shift at a plant with a 6:00 a.m. line start:

Where to put the scanner, and why it matters for pay

Where the scanner sits decides what time gets recorded, and that can decide what gets paid. In IBP v. Alvarez (2005), the Supreme Court held that once workers have put on protective gear that's integral to the job, the time after that, including the walk to the line, is paid work time. Union contracts can sometimes exclude time spent changing clothes.

Most plants put the scanner before the locker room, so gowning is on the clock and badges never go onto the floor. If your plant starts paid time after gowning, put the tablet past the gowning room and have workers wear the badge in a clip-on holder outside their PPE. Ask your employment lawyer which applies to you; this isn't legal advice. The kiosk setup guide covers mounting and power.

Phones and loose objects stay off the floor

FDA's food plant hygiene rules (21 CFR 117.10) require removing unsecured jewelry and other objects that might fall into food or equipment. A personal phone is one of those objects, which is why many plants ban phones past the locker room. A badge time clock needs no phone, and a badge that's scanned at the entrance can stay in the locker for the whole shift.

Shift change, sanitation crews and roll call

Production and sanitation shifts meet in the same hallway. One scan toggles each person in or out, so one tablet handles both crews; add a second at a busy entrance. Scanners are unlimited on every plan.

Food plants also plan for evacuations, from fires to ammonia leaks in refrigeration. OSHA's emergency action plan rule (29 CFR 1910.38(c)(4)) requires procedures to account for all employees after an evacuation. At the muster point, open the dashboard on your phone and tap Roll call: it lists everyone on the clock right now, with a checklist to tap off each person as they're found. See the emergency roll call procedure.

Overtime in a plant that runs six days

Holiday seasons mean Saturday shifts and 50-hour weeks. Set a 40-hour weekly threshold, plus a daily one if your state has daily overtime, and every timesheet splits regular and overtime hours as the week goes. TrackBadges doesn't apply seventh-day or double-time rules; your payroll provider handles those from the CSV export. Auto clock-out closes any shift left open after the limit you set and flags it, so a worker who leaves through the dock door doesn't stay on the clock overnight.

No fingerprints to sanitize or consent to collect

Fingerprint readers struggle with gloves and wet hands, need cleaning between users and, in Illinois, require written consent under BIPA before anyone's fingerprint is collected. A QR badge collects no biometrics, and workers don't touch the tablet. See biometric time clock laws.

What it costs

TrackBadges is free for up to 3 people with every feature. Pro is $9 a month for your first 3 people, plus $1.50 a month for each person after that, so a 120-person plant is $184.50 a month, with no terminals to buy.

When it isn't the right fit

TrackBadges records attendance, not labor by line, lot or product. If you need hours allocated to production runs for costing, or tied into your ERP, you'll need a system built for that. The entrance tablet also needs reliable Wi-Fi while it scans.