Attendance and leave app with staff self check-in
Staff check in from a private link on their phone, leave requests reach you with live balances, and the monthly attendance register exports in one step.
Yes. A simple attendance and leave app lets each employee check in and out from their own phone, ask for leave against a live balance, and leaves you a ready monthly register instead of a pile of WhatsApp messages and paper. In KutrimBots, the Team & HR plugin gives every employee a private self-service page with no login, marks late arrivals against their shift, turns no-shows into absences overnight and sends every leave request to you for approval. At month-end, you export the attendance register (people × days) as a spreadsheet in one step.
Below: why the old way breaks, how self check-in and leave balances work, what Indian rules say about registers, setup steps, a worked month and the limits.
Why is month-end attendance such a mess on WhatsApp and paper?
Because the facts are scattered: check-ins sit in a group chat, leave requests in private messages, late marks in someone's memory, and the register has to be rebuilt by hand every month.
The register itself matters more now, not less. India's four labour codes came into force on 21 November 2025, replacing 29 older labour laws, according to the Press Information Bureau. The Labour Ministry's Compliance Handbook for Employers says the registers employers must keep fell from 84 to 8, lists an attendance register cum muster roll among them, allows it in physical or electronic form, and says records must be kept for 5 years. Fewer registers, but each one has to be right.
Typical month-end questions that a chat history can't answer quickly:
- Did Suresh leave at 2 PM on the 14th (half day) or 6 PM?
- Was Meena's Tuesday off sick leave, casual leave or unpaid?
- How much casual leave does Arjun have left after March?
- Who never checked in on the 22nd, and was it a holiday?
Is there an app for taking attendance where staff check in themselves?
Yes. In Team & HR, each employee gets a private page at their own link, with no app to install and no password, where they tap Check in and Check out.
- Private by design. You approve before an agent shares a person's link, and it goes only to that person. If a link leaks, "Make a new link" stops the old one at once; when someone leaves, their link ends.
- Optional location. Turn on "Ask for location on check-in" and the phone's location is saved with the check-in. Staff can say no; the check-in is still saved, marked without a location. It suits field teams.
- Shifts and late marks. The default shift is 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM with 15 minutes' grace, 8 hours for a full day and Sunday as the weekly off. Add your own shifts. A check-in after the start time plus grace is marked late.
- Half days and overtime. Fewer hours than a full day count as a half day; fewer than half of it count as absent. Extra hours are recorded as overtime, and a missing check-out is flagged.
- No-shows. Overnight, anyone who didn't check in is marked absent, unless they were on leave or it was a holiday or weekly off.
- Fixes. Forgot to check in? The person asks for an attendance fix from their page with a reason; it lands in your Needs you list, and you decide.
- A 9 AM digest. Who is working, who is away, leave and fixes waiting for you, checklist tasks due, birthdays and work anniversaries.
Each day gets a status code, which is what the monthly register shows:
| Code | Meaning | Counts as paid day? |
|---|---|---|
| P | Present | Yes |
| HD | Half day | Half |
| A | Absent | No |
| L | Leave | Yes if the leave type is paid |
| WFH | Work from home | Yes |
| OD | On duty | Yes |
| H | Holiday | Yes |
| WO | Weekly off | Yes |
How do leave balances, accrual and approvals work?
You set your leave types once; balances build up on their own; every request is checked and sent to you to approve.
New companies start with a common Indian small-business policy, which you can edit:
| Type | Days a year | How it builds up | Carry forward | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL, casual leave | 12 | Monthly (1 a month) | None | Half days allowed, 1 day notice |
| SL, sick leave | 6 | Yearly | None | Half days allowed |
| EL, earned leave | 15 | Monthly (1.25 a month) | Up to 30 | Sandwich rule, 7 days notice |
| WFH | 24 | Yearly | None | Half days allowed |
| LOP, unpaid leave | No balance needed | None | None | Used when a balance runs out |
How a request moves:
- The person asks on their page (or tells an agent). The plugin counts working days, skipping weekly offs and holidays unless the sandwich rule applies, then checks the balance and any overlap.
- You get it in Needs you. The person is told it is requested, not approved. Agents never approve leave on their own.
- Short balance? The request doesn't go through; the person sees how many days are left and is told to ask for the rest as unpaid leave (LOP).
- You approve or send back a note. The balance and the register update.
A few rules run in the background: someone joining mid-year gets a yearly quota prorated by the months left; at year end, unused days carry forward up to the type's limit and the rest lapse; and the leave year can start in April, shown as "2026-27". Comp-off and corrections also wait for your OK.
What records does Indian law expect you to keep?
Keep an accurate attendance register and leave records, electronically if you like, for 5 years; the exact leave entitlements depend on which law covers your business and your state.
- Registers. For establishments under the central rules, the Labour Ministry handbook lists an attendance register cum muster roll, a wage register, an overtime register and a register of fines and deductions, in physical or electronic form, kept for 5 years.
- Annual leave. Under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, a worker becomes eligible for paid annual leave after 180 days of work in a calendar year, down from 240, according to PIB.
- Shops and Establishments Acts vary by state. Most shops, offices and clinics also fall under their state's Act, which sets its own leave days, working hours and register formats, and states notify their own rules under the codes.
These are summaries as of November 2026, not legal advice. Set your leave types to match your state's rules and confirm the details with your CA or a labour-law adviser.
How do I set up an attendance and leave app for a small business?
Plan on 30 to 45 minutes for a 10-person team.
- Pick the agent. Agents with the HR, Recruiter, Assistant, Operations, Admin or Office manager role get Team & HR automatically. New to agents? See how to set up your first AI team.
- Fill in company settings. Time zone, weekly offs, shifts (start, end, grace minutes, full-day hours), the holiday list, the month your leave year starts and your leave types. When an agent changes these settings, it asks you first.
- Add your people. Name, job, department, manager and joining date go in instantly. Salary, bank details and PAN wait for your approval; type them in the app rather than pasting them into a chat.
- Choose the self-service options under "People's own page": ask for location on check-in, ask for leave, and ask to fix attendance.
- Share each person's link after approving it, and ask them to bookmark it on their phone.
- Run a trial week. Read the 9 AM digest, answer leave and fix requests in Needs you, and check late marks against what you saw.
- Close the month. Ask the agent to export the attendance register as Excel (xlsx) or CSV; it lands in File Manager under HR → exports. From the 25th, a reminder also tells you payroll is due, which the same plugin can draft from this attendance (with PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS for India).
Example scenario
Example scenario: a bakery in Pune with 12 staff on two shifts (7:00 AM to 3:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM), 15 minutes' grace, Sunday off for the morning shift.
- Monday, 7:12 AM: Ganesh checks in from his link; within grace, so present. 7:26 AM: Kavita checks in and is marked 26 minutes late.
- Monday, 9:00 AM: the digest says "Team today: 11 working, 1 away" and shows one leave request waiting.
- The request: Priya asks for 3 days of casual leave, Friday to Monday. Sunday is her weekly off, and casual leave has no sandwich rule, so it counts 3 days. Her CL balance is 2, so her page tells her and she asks for 2 days of CL plus 1 day of LOP. You approve both from your phone.
- Wednesday: Rahul forgot to check out. He asks for a fix with the note "left 3:05 PM, phone died"; you approve it in Needs you.
- Thursday night: Sameer never checked in and had no leave, so he's marked absent overnight. You see it in Friday's digest and call him.
- Month-end, 31st: you export a 12 × 31 register with every P, HD, A, L and WO in place. In this example, the manager used to spend about 3 hours matching chat messages to a paper register; now it takes a few minutes to check the export.
What can't this attendance app do?
It covers attendance and leave for a small team well, but it is not a biometric system or a legal service.
- No biometrics or face match. Check-in is a tap on a private link. Location, if you turn it on, is recorded, not enforced as a fence, so trust and the odd spot check still matter.
- Staff without smartphones can't self check-in; you or an agent can mark their attendance in bulk instead.
- Defaults are not your state's law. The leave types are a starting point; you set them to match your rules.
- It doesn't file anything with the government. Exports are for your records and your accountant.
- Decisions stay with you. Agents prepare and remind; leave decisions, attendance fixes, pay and bank details always wait for your approval. Are AI agents safe? explains how approvals work across KutrimBots.
How much does it cost?
Team & HR is a built-in plugin included in every KutrimBots plan, and plans are priced per workspace rather than per employee. Solo is $20 a month for up to 5 agents, as of November 2026. You can try it with a free 7-day trial: add a card or UPI, nothing is charged today, and it becomes Solo unless you cancel in Plan & billing. See plans and limits, or read what KutrimBots is for the rest of the toolkit.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free attendance app for small business?
KutrimBots has no free plan, but Team & HR comes included in every plan and Solo starts with a free 7-day trial. Pricing is per workspace, so adding employees doesn't add per-person fees.
Can employees check in without installing an app or logging in?
Yes. Each employee gets a private self-service link that opens in the phone's browser, with Check in and Check out buttons, leave requests, balances and payslips, and no password.
Can it stop proxy attendance?
Partly. You can ask for location with each check-in and replace any link that leaks, but there is no biometric or face check, so it relies on private links and your own spot checks.
Does it calculate leave balances automatically?
Yes. Monthly and yearly credits, prorating for new joiners, carry forward at year end, half days and the sandwich rule are all handled, and every request is checked against the balance before it reaches you.
Does it do payroll too?
Yes, as a separate step. Around the 25th, Team & HR can draft payroll from the month's attendance, with Indian PF, ESI, professional tax and a TDS estimate, then make payslip PDFs once you lock it.