Time tracking hardware - fingerprint scanners, RFID tags, dedicated terminals - costs €200-800 per location before you've hired anyone. For a cafe, small retail store, or five-person cleaning crew, that spend is hard to justify.

A printed QR code works. Here is the setup, the genuine benefits, and the three things that break.

How QR check-in works

An employee arrives at work, opens the camera app on their phone, scans the printed QR code at the entrance, and their arrival timestamp records automatically. Same process on departure. The manager sees a live dashboard of who checked in and when.

No hardware purchase. No dedicated device to maintain. No vendor contract.

Setup in Rezano

Generate a QR code in your Rezano dashboard, download it, and print it. Mount it at eye level at your main entrance. Total time: under 5 minutes. The code ties to your location, and every scan logs against the staff member's profile.

The genuine benefits

Every smartphone built in the last seven years can scan a QR code without a dedicated app. Clock-in data lands directly in your attendance records - no manual entry, no end-of-week timesheet disputes. For businesses with 2-15 staff and a single location, QR check-in removes the primary source of payroll friction.

Three pitfalls and how to handle them

Buddy punching. This is the main objection, and it is a real one. An employee scans in for a colleague still on the bus. The fix is GPS validation alongside the QR scan. If the GPS coordinates at scan time don't match the location, the check-in flags for manager review. Rezano supports this.

Dead phone battery. It happens. Don't build a system with no fallback. A manager override process - the manager manually logs the arrival time with a note - takes 30 seconds and keeps the record clean. Make sure staff know the fallback before they need it.

Offline environment. Some locations have patchy wifi. A solid check-in system caches the scan on the phone and syncs when the connection returns. The timestamp preserves the actual check-in time, not the sync time. Confirm your system handles offline before you go live.

Is QR check-in right for your business?

For businesses with one or two locations and staff who carry smartphones, the answer is usually yes. Setup cost is zero. Accuracy is high with GPS validation. Records are automatic and timestamped.

Larger operations with 50+ staff across multiple sites may need card-based or biometric systems for the volume and audit trail. For most small businesses, a printed A4 sheet solves the problem.

Rezano's QR check-in setup takes under 5 minutes. See the full guide at rezano.lv.