What a Punch Does Not Prove

A successful punch establishes something narrow. The gap between that and what people assume is where the disputes are.

Not who was holding the phone

The check is on a device, not a person.

Which is the buddy-punching limitation and the reason supervision remains the stronger control.

Would require: a photograph, a biometric check, or a supervisor — each with its own obligations.

Not that work started

A punch at the door is not the beginning of work, and on a large site the walk to the workstation is real time.

Nor is it the end: people change, collect equipment, are briefed.

Which matters where the punch determines pay, and decides whether the boundary belongs at the perimeter or at the workstation.

Not exactly where they were

A successful punch means the estimate fell inside a circle sized to absorb tens of metres of error.

In a dense street that circle contains other buildings.

Would require: a method with a tighter range — a beacon or a tag.

Not that the person was inside

Indoors the position is inferred from masts and wifi, and the same inference is available from the car park and often from across the road.

A large radius chosen to accept indoors also accepts outdoors, by construction.

Not that a refusal was the person's fault

Six of the seven causes are not, and treating a refusal as evidence of anything is where employers lose cases.

Not that the time is exact

The punch timestamp is when the app registered the tap, which in poor coverage may differ from when it transmitted.

Store both if the difference could matter, and use the first.

What it does support

That a device registered a punch at a time, with an estimate inside a defined boundary, at a stated accuracy.

That is genuinely useful: it deters clocking in from home, it produces a consistent record, and it removes an argument about arrival times.

Claim that and no more. The overclaiming is what makes the whole record less credible when one part of it is challenged.

Claim what it supports

The discipline that keeps the record credible.

A device registered a punch at a time, inside a boundary, at a stated accuracy.

That is genuinely useful and it is the whole claim.

Overclaiming is what makes the rest discountable when one part is challenged — and in a wage dispute, one part always is.

Connect policy to configuration

The practical choices behind this note can be compared with this policy example. Keep the written purpose in control and enable only the data needed for it.

Independent reference

For an external point of reference, see ACAS. Its published guidance provides useful context for testing the assumptions in this note.