Time and attendance glossary: 20 terms explained

Time and attendance has a language of its own, and the terms are not always obvious from the outside. This glossary explains the twenty you are most likely to meet when choosing or running a system, in plain English, with a line on why each one matters. It is arranged so you can read it straight through or jump to the term you need.

Time and attendance

The recording and management of when employees work: clocking in and out, hours, shifts, overtime, holidays and absence. It is usually captured by time and attendance software and used to pay people accurately. It is the core that most other terms here sit around.

Clocking in

The act of recording the start or end of a work period. Modern clocking in uses a fingerprint, a facial scan, an RFID card or fob, or a mobile app, rather than a paper timesheet or a punch card. The method you choose affects accuracy, cost and data protection.

Buddy punching

When one employee clocks in or out on behalf of another who is late or absent, so the missing person is still paid for the shift. It is a common source of lost money on shift-based sites, and biometric clocking is the main practical defence against it because a fingerprint or face cannot be handed over.

Bradford Factor

A formula that scores absence by weighting frequent short absences more heavily than occasional long ones. It is calculated as S squared multiplied by D, where S is the number of separate absence spells and D is the total days absent over a set period. Our guide to absence management explains how it is used in practice.

TOIL

Time off in lieu. Paid time off given in place of payment for extra hours worked, rather than paying overtime. TOIL balances are tracked so the time earned and the time taken stay in step, which is hard to manage on paper and simple in software.

Flexitime

A working arrangement where employees vary their start and finish times around agreed core hours, as long as they work their contracted total. The system tracks a running balance of hours worked over or under, so both sides can see where they stand.

Biometric template

A mathematical representation of a fingerprint or face, stored as a set of numbers rather than an image, and used to match a person at clock-in. Under UK GDPR it is special category personal data, so it must be handled with care. Our guide to UK GDPR and time and attendance data covers the obligations.

RFID clocking

Clocking in using a radio-frequency card or fob held near a reader. It avoids biometric data altogether, which some businesses prefer, but unlike a fingerprint or face, a card can be passed to someone else. Our comparison of biometric versus RFID clocking weighs the trade-offs.

Rounding rules

Settings that round clocking times to the nearest few minutes, for example to the nearest quarter hour. They must be applied fairly and not systematically to the employee’s disadvantage, or they risk underpaying staff and creating a compliance problem.

Shift pattern

A defined schedule of working times, such as earlys, lates and nights on rotation. The software applies the right pattern to each employee so that hours, breaks and any shift premiums are calculated correctly without manual working.

Overtime

Hours worked beyond an employee’s contracted hours, often paid at a higher rate. A system can apply overtime rules automatically once a threshold is passed, so the premium is calculated consistently rather than by hand.

Anomaly

A clocking that falls outside the expected pattern, such as a missed clock-out, a late start or a duplicate entry. Software flags anomalies so a manager can review and correct them before they reach payroll and cause an error in pay.

Working Time Regulations

UK law governing maximum weekly working hours, rest breaks and paid holiday. Employers must keep adequate records of hours worked, which time and attendance software captures automatically. You can read the detail on gov.uk.

Self-service portal

A part of the system where employees view their hours and holiday entitlement, request leave and check rotas themselves. Every routine question it answers is one that no longer lands on a manager or an HR person.

Payroll integration

The connection that carries recorded hours, overtime, holidays and absence from time and attendance software into a payroll system, so pay is calculated from accurate data without anyone rekeying it. It is where much of the time saving comes from.

Absence management

The recording and handling of employee absence, including sickness, holiday and other leave, so patterns can be seen, policies applied consistently and cover planned. Bradford Factor scoring is one tool used within it.

Return to work

A structured check-in when an employee comes back after absence, often supported by a form. It helps confirm fitness to work and identify any support needed, and is commonly prompted automatically by the absence record.

GPS clocking

Mobile clocking that records the location where an employee clocks in, using the phone’s GPS. It is used to confirm that remote or field staff clocked in where they were meant to be, which a fixed terminal cannot do.

Fire roll call

The process of accounting for everyone on site during an evacuation. A digital fire roll call produces a live list of people present, from clocking and visitor data, for checking at the assembly point.

Workforce management

A broad category that includes time and attendance and extends into related functions such as HR, access control, visitor management and fire roll call, all working from one shared record. Our guide to workforce management versus time and attendance explains where the line falls.