Buddy Punch Review

Buddy Punch
Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Buddy Punch
Buddy Punch
2013
Grandville, MI
Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
Private
1,200+
Cloud
Yes
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Buddy Punch At A Glance

Good: Its more than two dozen features automate and optimize time-clock functionality and data management.
Bad: Some users suggest adding a scheduling tool and syncing better with some third-party accounting software could be valuable.
Bottom Line: At a competitive price, Buddy Punch has dissected and automated nearly every nuance of employee time tracking and put actionable data at managers' fingertips.

Product Overview

Buddy Punch aims to be as comprehensive and robust an employee time-tracking solution as you’ll find on the market. Accommodating three levels of users (Administrator, Manager, Employee), Buddy Punch supplies more than a score of features that automate each facet of personnel time recording; its integrations, reports, and syncing with QuickBooks (Desktop/Online) seamlessly manage aggregated data.

Abundant features handle a multitude of punch in/out options (facial recognition, Webcam, QR codes, Google SSO); communications between personnel and managers (notifications and add PTO); various calculations of job costing (worked hours, accrued PTO); compliance with conditions (overtime limits/alerts, specific work locations, specific jobs); and administrator resources (time card approvals, automate break time, date-range-based reports).

Available tools that optimize its functionality include built-in support for many popular payroll vendors, an API for programmatic and more precise data management, and Zapier adoption that can configure Buddy Punch to work with more than a thousand websites and apps.

Its administrator dashboard visualizes in lists the team’s punch in/out log and accrued hours approval. Hovering the cursor over an employees name discloses if any notifications have been sent from the employee.

Its employee’s dashboard displays punch-in/out boxes on the left, and current time card for the pay period on the right. Employees can access previous time cards, schedule PTO, and check accruals from this page.

To get started with Buddy Punch, sign up for a 30-day free trial, add the names and email addresses of your employees, who are subsequently emailed username and passwords by Buddy Punch, which upon login and logout, tracks employees’ time. At pay period end, a manager need only login to collect the data and share with payroll.

Various means of customer support are available. Pricing is based on number of employees that will be using Buddy Punch.

A status page lets users know the current operational status of Buddy Punch, including its website, mobile app, and API. System response time and previous incidents are also monitored.

Features

Buddy Punch’s more than two dozen features come standard. The features, integrations and data management tools aggregate actionable data based on punching in and out.

Space prohibits a full explanation of each feature, so, the following are arguably the most salient for the end user and system manager:

Facial Recognition: Available over mobile and on desktop, this feature lets an employee sign in by looking into a camera – whether from the cloud, on smartphone, or on tablet.

Job Codes: Managers can create codes for different jobs and assign to employees who can then punch in under that code.

Locations: Managers can identify worksite locations for each employee and assign specificall. When the employee punches in from that location, its recorded on his time sheet.

GPS: This feature sets coordinates for where employees should be working. It can be toggled on or off for each employee. If consented to, an employee cannot punch in unless you know his/her location.

Notifications: Buddy Punch emails managers when events occur that come to bear on employees. Employee requests, pay period ends, time card downloads, etc. – such alerts get sent out automatically.

OT and PTO calculations: Calculate overtime based on 11 standard (or nonstandard) workweek models. Choices include alternatives from a 40-hour workweek to a Californai OT model, to a 12-hour workday/40 hour week to a 37.5-hour workweek and most anything else. OT, double OT and regular pay are automatically compiled.

Webcam: Another optional feature, the webcam can be enabled to automatically take a picture of the employee punching in/out and that photo can be sent to the manager for verification.

Google account sign-on: Users can link their Google accounts to Buddy Punch so they can punch in by signing on to their Google account.

IP address lock: An employee can be assigned one or many IP addresses from which to sign in. If the employee and IP address are not correlated, then punching in/out is denied.

QR Codes: Buddy Punch generates its own QR codes for users that want them. Flashing the code at a webcam from a smartphone suffices for punching in.

Quickbooks Online/Desktop: Both versions of Quickbook are seamlessly integrated into Buddy Punch, with easy step-by-step instruction. In no time you get the functionality of Quickbooks working with Buddy Punch.

Time card approvals: Toggled on and employees can submit their time cards for approval to their manager. It is an option, so can be turned off, too.

Job costing: Specific jobs/customers can be identified and recorded and employees can punch into them. Reports can then be pulled from the accumulated data.

Integrations: At present time, Buddy Punch uses flat file integration to sync time card data with ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Palyocity Payplus, Workday, and SurePayroll.

Reports:  Buddy Punch will output reports on pay period total hours, daily hours, In/Out activity, PTO Summary, time card and deleted time details. Its payroll export function simplifies time card data download. Integrations are handled under this tab.  

  • Attendance Tracking?
  • Biometric?
  • Employee Scheduling?
  • Hardware?
  • Hourly Employee Tracking?
  • Mobile?
  • Salaried Employee Tracking?
  • Vacation/Sick/Leave Tracking?

Target Market

Buddy Punch best addresses the employee time tracking for small-to-medium-sized companies occupying the professional space, such as doctor’s offices, insurance agencies, and banks.

We’ve listed Buddy Punch’s 10 clients below:

  • Farmer's Insurance Agency
  • St. Catherine University
  • Middle Tennessee State University
  • Nortwestern Mutual
  • Rotary
  • The Little Gym
  • CrowdFlower
  • American Family Insurance
  • Veeva
  • Osborn Ministries International

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Implementation/Integration

Subscribing to and getting started with Buddy Punch takes little time. After an administrator adds employee names to Buddy Punch, they can start immediately punching in and out. System navigation, whether through the desktop or mobile version, is intuitive, requiring a short learning curve and little time.

Signing in to Buddy Punch will bring an employee to a web page where he/she can punch in/out or inspect the current pay period time car. Administrators and managers log in with distinct user names and passwords , and then can begin inputting employees’ names and performing other higher end duties.

Customer Service & Support

Buddy Punch offers live chat on its website and help with any setup questions through an online (email-based) help desk/ticket system. It also publishes online guides for any personnel that prefer self-training. This archive holds how-to guides for various topics (setup, navigation, integrations, API use, etc.) as well as FAQs and instructions for more complex features like using the Webcam, Video, or generating reports.

A status page gives customers up-to-the-minute monitoring of the Buddy Punch cloud, from which they can get emailed operational updates.

Pricing

Buddy Punch has a sliding fee scale based on a customer’s number of employees. For firms with up to 9 employees, the cost is $29 per month. For those with between 10 and 19 employees, the cost is $49 per month. With between 20 and 29 employees, firms will pay $69 per month and $99 per month with between 30 and 49 employees. Companies with between 50 – 69 employees will pay $139 per month and with between 70 and 99, the cost is $199 per month.

Companies with more than 100 employees must contact Buddy Punch to get a customized quote.

All plans include the following features: GPS Coordinates, Web Cam Integration, IP & Time Stamping, 128-bit AES Security, iPhone and Android compatibility, 99.9% uptime and 24/7 monitoring, Time Card Approvals, Reports, Flexible Pay Periods, Manual Time Entry, and the QR Code Punch Option.

Buddy Punch has no hidden fees, no contracts to comply with or term limits to meet. All customers get an initial 30-day free trial, after which they can submit a credit card to pay for continued use. Subscribers can quit anytime, or adjust payments as necessary depending on number of employees using the system during any given month.

A customer referral program can earn referents up to 20% off their monthly invoice for each client they recommend and who joins.

Shortcomings

Since its purpose is to automate all aspects of employee time clock, a scheduling feature could be helpful.

Some syncing issues arise with a limited few third-party accounting solutions.

Telephone support would be a good supplement to email and online chat.

 

Screenshots

Buddy Punch Screenshot 1
Buddy Punch Screenshot 2
Buddy Punch Screenshot 3

About

Eric Czerwonka launched Buddy Punch to its first paying customer in 2013. Since then, Buddy Punch has gone mobile, integrated with QuickBooks, and keeps launching new features (like Facial Recognition and GEO Fencing.) More than 1,200 customers have endorsed Buddy Punch with their subscriptions since its inception.

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