Getting field staff to install an app guarantees a deployment that drags on: blocked downloads, full storage, forgotten passwords, temp workers never set up. ChronoTrack removes the problem at the root: a QR code displayed on site, a 6-digit PIN, and you are clocked in - from any phone.
Most time-tracking software relies on a mobile app installed on each employee's phone. On paper, it is simple. In the field, in service industries, it almost always gets stuck at the same point: staff use their personal phones, often older models with little storage, and have no desire to install their employer's tool on them.
The outcome is well known: a rollout that stretches over months, part of the team that never clocks in, and paper timesheets that carry on in parallel. You pay for software, but you still manage your hours by hand.
By removing installation, you remove all of this friction. There is no more “rollout”: there is a QR code to print and stick up at each site.
Each client or job site has its own QR code, generated from your ChronoTrack account. You print it and display it in the utility room, service entrance or locker room - wherever staff naturally pass.
No intermediate app: the phone's built-in camera recognizes the QR code and offers to open a web page. This has been standard on iOS and Android for years, including on entry-level models.
The page shows the site name. The employee types their personal PIN, taps “Arrival”, and the clock-in is recorded, time-stamped and geolocated. It takes about ten seconds. On departure, they repeat the same gesture.
There is no username, no password, no account to create and no email to confirm. This is what changes everything for teams with turnover: a new staff member is operational on their first day.
These are the questions that come up in every demo. Here are straight answers.
It is the most common scenario, and precisely the one ChronoTrack was designed for. Since there is nothing to install, any phone with a browser and a camera works. No data is stored on the device and the employee does not “give” anything of their phone to the company: they simply visit a web page.
If you prefer not to rely on personal phones, the usual alternative is to leave an inexpensive tablet on site. Each staff member clocks in on it with their PIN: the tablet acts as a time clock, but with no installation or maintenance contract.
No, and that is what geofencing is for. At clock-in, the phone's GPS position is recorded and compared with the perimeter you have defined around the site. An out-of-zone clock-in is accepted but immediately marked as abnormal, with the exact distance, and shows up on the manager's dashboard.
In other words, the QR code identifies the site, the PIN identifies the person, and GPS confirms physical presence. All three are needed for a clock-in to be considered compliant.
A legitimate concern, and the answer comes down to an important technical difference: ChronoTrack does not track movements. The position is only recorded at two precise moments, arrival and departure. In between, the app does not know where the employee is - and does not try to.
In practice, the tool also protects staff: it proves they were present when a client disputes a job, it makes the hour count reliable, and it credits the travel time that often went unrecorded. Presented this way, it is generally well received.
Recording the position only at clock-in is an accepted practice, provided it is proportionate - which is the case here, since there is no continuous geolocation, which the CNIL considers excessive for simply tracking working time.
On your side, three obligations: inform employees of the purpose of the processing, record it in your processing register, and consult your works council if you have one. Data is hosted in France.
The gesture is limited to two actions everyone already knows: opening the camera and typing six digits. There is no menu to explore, no settings, no update to accept. It is deliberately simpler than an app, whose home screen already requires understanding an interface.
Training fits in one sentence and a thirty-second demo, which removes the main source of calls to the office.
A connection is needed at the moment of clock-in, but the page is deliberately light and works on 3G. For the rare sites with genuinely poor coverage - basements, parking garages, plant rooms - the solution is to move the QR code a few meters to an area with coverage, or to set up a tablet on the site's Wi-Fi.
This is one of the clearest gains. Creating a temp worker takes less than a minute and they clock in right away with their PIN. No phone to set up, no license to install, no account to delete at the end of the assignment. One-off reinforcements and last-minute replacements are tracked like everyone else.
| Criterion | Mobile app | Physical time clock | QR code + PIN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installation on the phone | Required | Not applicable | None |
| Hardware to buy | None | One device per site | None |
| Suited to multi-site | Yes | Expensive | Yes |
| GPS proof of presence | Yes | No | Yes |
| Time to set up a temp worker | Long | Badge to provide | Immediate |
| Works on older phones | Variable | Not applicable | Yes |
| Maintenance | Updates | Breakdowns, repairs | None |
A time clock still makes sense on a single, fixed site. As soon as your teams rotate across several client sites, the QR code combines the advantages of both approaches: the geolocated proof of an app, without its rollout cost.
Once clock-ins are reliable, everything else follows with no re-entry: hours per employee and per client feed directly into your reports and Excel exports for payroll and invoicing, the schedule compares planned against actual, and contract gaps surface automatically.
Your teams use the same screen to report an incident with a photo, trigger an SOS alert if they work alone, or read a message from their manager. All without ever installing anything.
This approach is used by cleaning and facilities companies, security and private guarding firms and home and personal services providers alike.
Clocking in without an app remains ChronoTrack's default, and it will stay that way: it is what lets a temp clock in from their very first hour, with nothing to install. But some companies equip their agents with work phones and prefer an app. For them, the ChronoTrack app for Android is available free of charge on Google Play.
It changes nothing in your set-up: it reads the QR codes already displayed on your sites, with the same PIN, and the clock-ins end up in the same place. Within one team, some agents can clock in with the app and others with their browser. What it adds: the QR code reader opens straight away, the GPS position is checked before clock-in, and a clock-in made without network is kept and sent once the connection is back.
Another new feature, with no app this time: the pictogram clock-in screen. For agents who struggle with reading, the clock-in page shows large tiles with an icon and a single word (Arrive, Leave, Report, Call, Emergency), and messages from the manager can be listened to. The option is switched on agent by agent, on every plan.
Try ChronoTrack free for 15 days. No credit card, no commitment.