How Timeero Uses Facial Recognition Technology to Prevent Buddy Punching
Emman Velos
Last update on:
August 8, 2025 8:54 AM
Published on:
TL;DR
Buddy punching is one of the most common forms of time theft, affecting 75% of U.S. businesses each year. Timeero uses biometric facial recognition technology to stop buddy punching at the source. Through a centrally located iPad, users clock in via the Timeero Kiosk and verify their identity through face recognition. Live self-photos are compared against stored profile images for authenticity. In case of a face mismatch, managers are notified via email and asked to confirm the identity of employees to approve time entries.
75% of U.S. employers lose 2.2% of payroll to buddy punching. Many don't even know it's happening.
Buddy punching can look as simple as a coworker asking, “Hey can you clock me in? I’m almost there” or it can look like outright fraud. And if your employees are still using paper timecards or outdated digital timekeeping systems, it’s almost impossible to catch.
With Timeero’s facial recognition system, employees clock in through a fixed company device that leverages face recognition technology to stop buddy punching before it starts.
In this article we’ll explore how Timeero’s facial recognition system works as well as the benefits of using the technology to eliminate buddy punching across your workforce.
Tired of dealing with buddy punching?
Discover how Timeero’s facial recognition can put an end to it - fast.
Many employers have turned to facial recognition time tracking as their first line of defense against buddy punching. But facial recognition isn’t always foolproof, especially when it’s used on its own.
Companies relying solely on facial scanning for verification may encounter some of the following problems:
Photo spoofing: In 2024, a biometric security study found that nearly 42% of traditional facial recognition systems could be fooled by printed or digital photos when liveness detection wasn’t used.
Location faking: When employees use facial recognition on their own phones, there’s always a risk they’ll clock in from somewhere they shouldn’t, like their driveway, the parking lot or even their bed.
Where traditional facial recognition systems fail – A story of photo spoofing
Martin doesn’t feel like coming in to work today but he’ll get docked an attendance point if he doesn’t show up. He finds a picture of one of his employees online, saves the image and prints it off. While he’s sitting on his couch, he opens his company’s mobile timeclock app and holds up the selfie of his co-worker when prompted to take a photo for verification. The app recognizes the photograph as a live individual and Martin clocks in.
His manager will never know he’s not at work since there are so many employees in the shipping warehouse. Martin is making easy money from the comfort of his couch and no one ever notices he’s absent.
To truly stop buddy punching, you need more than a face match or clock-in photo. You need proof of presence.
How Timeero uses Face ID to eliminate time theft
Timeero’s biometric time clock system captures accurate and secure employee punch-ins.
Through the Timeero Terminal app available on iPad devices, employees clock in by taking a live selfie at a fixed location, while the system automatically records the time and flags any mismatched faces for manager review.
Install the Timeero Terminal (Kiosk app) and mount the iPad at your chosen entry point, whether that’s a job trailer, office entrance, or foreman’s truck.
Timeero facial recognition is easily downloadable from the App Store
2. Employees select their name and enter their unique PIN
Each employee is assigned a secure Kiosk Code via the admin dashboard. This code ensures that only the authorized individual can clock in or out.
To log in to the Timeero Kiosk app, employees are assigned a unique 4-digit PIN.
3. Employees take a live selfie using the iPad’s front-facing camera
Each clock-in requires employees to take a real-time photo using the iPad’s front-facing camera. Uploaded or stored images can not be used for biometric facial scans. By capturing a live photo at every clock in, Timeero ensures the person is physically present at the device.
4. Timeero compares the photo to the employee's stored facial template
The Timeero kiosk app captures employees’ photos using the iPad’s front-facing camera.
An employee’s facial template is automatically created from their first clock-in photo.
Using biometric face recognition, Timeero compares an employee’s clock-in photo against their stored profile photo for verification, detecting changes in facial features from different angles, even changes in hairstyle or facial hair.
5. Real-time admin alerts for proactive time theft prevention
In cases of suspicious log-ins, such as when there’s a face mismatch, Timeero still allows the punch to go through to avoid interrupting work. However, it automatically captures a full, audit-ready record for admin review, along with the following details:
A real-time photo taken during clock-in
The exact time the punch was made
GPS coordinates of the iPad terminal
A red flag attached to the time card
A real-time email alert is also sent to managers for follow-up. This way, your operations can continue without delays while questionable punches are flagged for investigation.
What sets Timeero’s Facial Recognition apart
Many facial recognition tools stop at verifying identity. Some require employees to use their personal phones to clock in, which are easier to spoof or manipulate, and few offer real-time admin alerts or offline support for remote job sites.
But Timeero offers users more than just helpful time tracking features. It’s built to enforce accurate time tracking in the environments where buddy punching is most likely to happen.
From construction trailers and fleet vehicles to breakrooms and care facilities, Timeero gives teams a secure, tamper-resistant way to track time that’s actually usable in the field.
There are 4 areas where Timeero outperforms traditional facial recognition apps:
Centralized iPad-based system
Most facial recognition time tracking apps require employees to install the software on their personal devices. While convenient in theory, this opens the door to all kinds of abuse: location spoofing apps, shared login credentials, or even “selfies” taken off-site and uploaded later.
With the Timeero Terminal app, none of that is possible. Clock-ins can only happen on a fixed iPad kiosk, which means:
Employees must be physically present at the device
You are in control of the hardware, not the employee
All punches happen through a secure, centralized system
Restricting login access to admins and managers alone, reduces the risks of tampering and time fraud.
Built to travel across work sites in the field
If you’re managing drywall crews, HVAC techs, landscapers, or home health aides, traditional office-centric attendance systems aren’t sufficient. Mobile teams need a solution that works where they work.
Here are some examples of where you can mount your company’s iPad device:
A construction trailer or crew break room
The passenger seat of a foreman’s truck
A vehicle dashboard for mobile field teams
A fixed post at a gate, entrance, or supply shed
No matter where it’s placed, in-office or out in the field, the Timeero kiosk becomes a reliable checkpoint that gives you clean, verifiable data you can trust.
Reduces device fraud and makes verification foolproof
Let’s take a look at two employees who are starting their shift.
One is using their phone to clock in while the other is clocking in through an iPad kiosk with Timeero’s facial recognition software.
Employee A: using a personal phone
Employee B: using the TImeero kiosk
They open a facial recognition time tracking app installed on their own phone and tap “clock in.” The system then scans their face.
What could go wrong?
The GPS pin shows a general area. But without any device control, it’s easy to spoof with a location faking app.
The face scan matches. However, it’s based on a saved photo from last week, or a forwarded selfie from a co-worker.
There’s no oversight. No admin alert if something is off and nothing is flagged unless someone decides to manually review the photo later.
From a manager’s perspective, the system shows a successful clock-in. But was the employee actually on-site? There’s no way to be sure.
They walk up to a mounted iPad kiosk at the job site. To clock in, they have to:
Enter their personal Kiosk PIN (issued by the admin dashboard).
Take a real-time selfie using the iPad’s front-facing camera.
Have their face instantly matched to a biometric template created during their first login.
If their face doesn’t match the profile:
The punch is still logged (to avoid disrupting the shift)
A red flag is added to their timecard
A real-time email alert is sent to their manager with the photo, time, and location (Kiosk) attached
So, what makes the case of Employee B different from Employee A? It all boils down to control and accountability.
Unlike a personal phone, the Timeero kiosk is a company-owned device fixed to one location. It doesn’t leave room for manipulation. The photos can’t be uploaded or reused, and the hardware itself can’t be tampered with.
What if your landscaping crew clocks in from a rural job site with zero signal? For most cloud-based time tracking apps, the answer is: nothing happens. No punch is logged and no proof is recorded. And worse: no one knows until you run payroll.
This simple tech failure is a payroll liability and compliance risk waiting to happen. But Timeero is built to withstand these blackouts.
The Timeero kiosk captures every punch even when there is no cell service, storing the data locally on the iPad. Facial scans, timestamps, and face-match results are all logged as normal. As soon as the iPad device reconnects to a stable internet connection, everything syncs seamlessly.
This means:
No gaps in your records
No missed punches from job sites off the grid
No scrambling to reconstruct timecards from memory or texts
It’s the kind of behind-the-scenes resilience that payroll teams don’t always appreciate until it saves them.
Prevent time theft: Eliminate buddy punching with Timeero
Buddy punching thrives in systems that rely on trust without proof. Employees asking their co-workers to clock them in while they are on the road might not seem like much, but small moments of time theft can quietly add up to thousands in lost payroll.
By combining real-time attendance tracking and biometric facial recognition technology, Timeero helps you prevent overpaid wages, break violations, and costly instances of time theft.
If you’re ready to move from assumption to accountability, Timeero is built for you.
Emman is a passionate writer with more than 6 years of digital marketing experience under his belt. As a licensed chemical engineer with a passion for writing, he marries the technical with the creative to create engaging copy that converts. He is also a certified #girldad who spends most of his day playing with his three girls when he's not busy writing.
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