Built for a service that never closes

Nights, weekends, long days, rotating patterns and unsocial hours premiums, applied to the hours people actually worked rather than the ones they were rostered for. Staff clock at a terminal, on the app or in a browser, and it all reaches payroll from one place.

  • Shift patterns, nights and long days, including shifts crossing midnight
  • Who is actually on site right now, ward by ward or site by site
  • Bank, agency and contracted hours recorded separately, so you can see what each is costing
  • Clocking by biometric, card, mobile app or browser, depending on the setting
  • Overtime and unsocial hours premiums calculated against your own rules
  • Absence and lateness patterns, with Bradford Factor scoring
  • Hours exported to payroll with nothing re-keyed
  • Staff checking their own hours and holiday without asking a ward manager

What that buys you is accurate hours and a clear picture of where they went. It does not decide your staffing levels or fill a gap on a rota, and we would not claim otherwise, but it does mean the figures those decisions rest on are right.

Where the money goes

Temporary staffing is one of the largest controllable costs in UK healthcare, and one of the hardest to see clearly while it is happening.

£2.07bn

spent by NHS providers on agency staff in 2024/25

House of Commons Library

20%

more, on average, that agency staff cost compared with NHS bank staff

House of Commons Library

1.8m

people employed by the NHS, the UK’s largest employer

Nuffield Trust

Where we fit, and where we do not

Deciding how many staff a ward needs, filling a shift and choosing bank over agency are rostering and bank management decisions, handled by a different kind of system. We are not that, and a workforce supplier claiming to reduce your agency spend should be asked exactly how.

What we do is record what actually happened: who worked, for how long, on which arrangement, and at which site. Bank, agency and contracted hours are kept separate, so the spend is visible by ward and by month rather than appearing in one figure at year end, and the hours go to payroll already split by rate.

Access control on the same staff record

Wards, theatres, medication stores and records rooms all need controlling, and in healthcare that is a patient safety question as much as a security one. Our access control uses the same staff record as your time and attendance, so one entry governs both the hours somebody works and the doors they can open.

That matters most at the point people leave. In a sector with this much movement, orphaned keycards accumulate quickly, and one record means one place to remove somebody rather than two.

  • Wards, theatres, pharmacies and records rooms restricted by role
  • Contactless entry by facial recognition or palm, so there is no shared surface at the door
  • A record of every entry, exit and refused attempt
  • Access levels by staff group, shift or time of day
  • Bank and agency staff given access that expires with the placement
  • One dashboard whether it is one site or a dozen
  • Doors on escape routes release when the fire alarm sounds

The records are evidence you can produce if asked, whether by an inspector, an information governance review or an internal investigation. Whether your wider arrangements satisfy those requirements is a broader question than door access, and we would not suggest otherwise.

Computime access control restricting entry to a restricted healthcare area, linked to staff attendance records

How it works

One staff record drives the lot, from the clocking to the doors to the hours that reach payroll.

  1. Staff clock in their way

    Terminal on a ward, app for community staff, card for agency. Different settings suit different methods and they all land in the same place.

  2. Attendance and access on one record

    Hours and door permissions sit against the same person, so a leaver is removed once rather than in two systems and forgotten in one.

  3. Managers see who is in

    Who has clocked in, who has not turned up, lateness and absence, ward by ward and site by site, on the day rather than at the end of the month.

  4. Hours flow to payroll

    Bank, agency and unsocial hours split by rate, exported for Sage, Pegasus and QuickBooks, with direct Sage integration on Realtime.

Healthcare time and attendance FAQs

What NHS trusts, independent hospitals and care providers ask. If yours is not here, call the Leeds team on 0113 350 9043.

What time and attendance software suits NHS and healthcare providers?
The requirements that matter in healthcare are different from most sectors. It has to handle shifts that cross midnight, long days, night and weekend premiums and unsocial hours rules without manual calculation. It has to record permanent, bank and agency staff separately, because they are paid differently and reported on differently. It has to work across sites where somebody covers two locations in a week. And it needs to cope with people arriving in PPE, which rules out some clocking methods. Anything meeting those four is worth looking at; plenty of general workforce platforms manage two.
Does this handle rostering and safe staffing levels?
No, and this is the most important thing to be clear about. Deciding how many staff a ward needs, with what skill mix, for what acuity, is a clinical and regulatory judgement supported by e-rostering systems. We do not do that and would not claim to. What we record is what actually happened afterwards: who came in, when, on which arrangement. Those are different things, and the rostered position and the actual one are rarely identical, which is precisely why the second is worth recording.
Will it reduce our agency spend?
Not directly, and anyone promising that should be asked how. Reducing agency use means filling shifts differently, which is a bank management and rostering problem. What we do is make the spend visible: bank, agency and contracted hours recorded separately, by ward and by month, so you can see where it is going while there is still something to be done about it rather than discovering the total at year end.
How do you handle permanent, bank and agency staff together?
All three in one system, recorded separately so their hours can be treated and reported differently. Somebody on the bank who works two shifts a month is set up once rather than each time, and agency staff can be given access that expires with the placement so nobody keeps a working credential after their last shift. The reporting distinguishes them, which is what makes the cost visible.
Which clocking method works in a clinical setting?
Contactless, usually. Fingerprint means a shared surface at the door and staff who have just gelled their hands, so facial recognition or palm suits better, and palm has the advantage of working when a face is covered. Cards remain the simplest option and the one you need for visitors and contractors anyway. We will go through it with you rather than assume.
Does it do DBS checks or professional registration?
No. DBS checking, NMC or GMC registration and revalidation, mandatory training records and appraisals belong in an HR or workforce compliance system. If you run Realtime, its HR module holds employee records and documents, but it does not check anything against a register on your behalf. Recording attendance and verifying somebody’s professional standing are separate jobs, and we do the first.
Can staff cover more than one site?
Yes, with one record and one credential rather than a separate setup at each location. Hours report by site, ward or department, and a manager can be given oversight of their own area rather than the whole organisation. For a trust or group running several sites, that single record is usually more valuable than any individual feature.
Are you on an NHS procurement framework?
We are an independent UK supplier working with NHS organisations, independent hospitals and care providers, and we are not going to imply an approval or accreditation we do not hold. If framework procurement matters for how you buy, tell us early and we will be straight with you about what is possible rather than finding out at the wrong stage.
Where is the data held?
In UK data centres, with access logged and restricted to named users, or on your own server if you run Realtime on site. Attendance records are personal data, and biometric templates are special category data, so if you are considering biometrics there is consent and an impact assessment to plan for. Our data security page sets out the detail.
Can we account for everyone in an evacuation?
For staff and signed-in visitors and contractors, yes, through fire roll call, which builds the list from the clockings and puts it on a marshal’s phone. Patients are a different matter entirely and are handled by your own evacuation procedures rather than by any workforce system.
How much does it cost?
£2 per employee per month excl. VAT for the software, or £3 with the mobile app for community and visiting staff. Terminals from £395 excl. VAT one off. Priced per person rather than per site, so a group with six locations pays the same as one with two. Larger installations are quoted, and Realtime is priced separately.
How long does it take to put in?
Days for the software, plus installation time for terminals. The work is in the rules: shift patterns, long days, night and weekend premiums, how bank and agency hours are treated, what happens when somebody stays past the end of a shift. That is a conversation with whoever runs your payroll and rostering, and it is worth doing properly, because healthcare pay rules are more intricate than most and rules set wrongly produce figures that look plausible and are not.

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