Guide
How to Track Employee Attendance Across Multiple Branches
For owners of shops, restaurants, clinics, service centres and other businesses with staff at more than one location.
Short answer: Give each branch a location and an attendance area, have employees check in on their own phones at the branch with their location and a live selfie, and watch every branch on one dashboard. At month end, export the attendance report instead of copying registers into Excel. This is how Preez works.
Why registers break down at more than one branch
- No central truth. Each branch has its own book. The owner only sees attendance after someone copies it out.
- No proof. A signature does not show who signed or when. Signing in for a late colleague is easy and invisible.
- Month-end transcription. Managers spend hours typing registers into Excel, and every copy introduces mistakes.
- Corrections live in chats. “I was there, I forgot to sign” arrives on WhatsApp and is never recorded properly.
Attendance methods compared
| Method | Proves who | Proves where | Live view across branches | Hardware per branch | Month-end work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper register | No — anyone can sign | Only that it was signed at the register | No | None | Manual copying into Excel |
| WhatsApp or spreadsheet | No | No | Partly, by asking | None | Manual merging |
| Biometric machine | Yes | Yes, at the device | Only if machines are networked | A device at every site | Export and merge per device |
| GPS-only app | No — a colleague can tap for you | Yes, at check-in | Yes | None — staff phones | Report |
| Location + live selfie app (e.g. Preez) | Yes, photo evidence | Yes, at check-in | Yes | None — staff phones | Report and Excel/CSV export |
For businesses with several small sites, a phone-based method avoids buying, installing and repairing a device at every branch. Adding a live selfie to the location check closes the main gap of GPS-only apps: proving who actually checked in.
How to set it up, step by step
- Add your branches. Place each one on the map and set an attendance area, typically 50–150 m depending on the building and GPS quality.
- Add your employees. Name and phone number, plus their home branch. Staff who rotate can be assigned to several branches, with dates.
- Create shifts. Start and end times, a grace period for late marks, and half-day rules. Night shifts that end after midnight count towards the day they start.
- Choose what each check-in needs. Location, a selfie at check-in, and optionally a selfie at check-out.
- Give managers their branches. A branch manager should see only the branches they run.
- Run one month, then export. Present, late, half-day, absent, leave and hours worked come out of the report; send the Excel or CSV file to your accountant.
What to look for in a multi-branch attendance app
- Verification of both place (location) and person (live photo)
- Server time, not the phone clock, so changing the phone's time does not help
- Works on a weak connection: captures offline and syncs later, without showing “verified” early
- Flags doubtful check-ins for review instead of silently rejecting real employees
- Per-branch manager access and an audit trail of every change
- No background location tracking — attendance, not surveillance
- Excel/CSV export, so payroll keeps working the way it does today
Common problems and fixes
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| “It says I'm outside, but I'm inside” | Indoor GPS drifts. Use a slightly larger area for large or multi-storey sites, and make sure doubtful readings go to review rather than rejection. |
| Poor network at the branch | Use an app that stores the check-in on the phone and syncs it when the network returns. |
| Staff forget to check out | Let them request a correction with the time they left; the manager approves it with the reason kept. |
| Staff cover another branch | Add a temporary assignment to that branch so their check-in is verified there. |
See it in practice: a 4-branch repair chain, a 3-outlet restaurant group and a 5-clinic chain.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to track attendance across multiple branches?
Use a phone-based attendance app that verifies the employee’s location at the branch and takes a live selfie at check-in, with a single dashboard for all branches and an Excel export at month end. It needs no hardware at each branch.
Do I need a biometric machine at every branch?
No. With a location-and-selfie app such as Preez, employees check in on their own phones, so there is nothing to install or repair at each site.
Can I see which employees are at each branch right now?
Yes. Preez shows present, late, absent and on-leave counts per branch for today, updated as employees check in.
Can employees fake their location?
No method is impossible to cheat. Preez combines location, a live selfie, server time and the app installation, and flags unusual check-ins — such as a new phone or an impossible journey between branches — for a person to review.
Does it work for staff who move between branches?
Yes. Employees can be assigned to more than one branch, including temporary assignments with start and end dates.