The product has one loop and it runs every week. Everything else — teams, holidays, rates, kiosks — exists to make this loop take minutes instead of an afternoon.
Illustration with fictional sample data — Northwind Depot is not a real company.
Setup is front-loaded on purpose. Once the calendar and the schedules are right, the weekly routine is clearing a queue and pressing approve.
A punch on a phone, a laptop or a shared kiosk. The server timestamps it; the device time is kept alongside, never in place of it.
Each day is compared with the pattern that was in effect on that date: present, late, left early, absent, on leave, holiday or worked holiday.
Only the days that need a decision surface. Accept with a reason, or approve a correction the person proposed.
Bulk-approve the clean weeks, lock the period, export the payroll CSV. Reopening later leaves a reason on the record.
for late arrivals, absences, corrections and time off
when a schedule changes — a closed week keeps the rules it was judged by
owner, admin, manager and member, each drawn tightly
design target from tapping Clock in to seeing it confirmed on screen
The same eight hours, seen by everyone who touches them.
One button on her phone. The server stamps the time the moment it arrives; her device clock is recorded beside it so any gap between the two is visible rather than hidden.
Never overwritten. A punch is an event, not a field. Nothing that happens later edits it.
She was due at 09:00 with five minutes of grace, so 08:58 is simply present. Had it been 09:20, the day would surface as late — against the pattern in force on that date, not the one in force today.
The past is judged by the past. Editing a schedule never recalculates a week that has already closed.
The shift is closed at the maximum shift length, not at midnight, and flagged. Priya proposes the real time herself with a note; it goes to her manager as a correction rather than an argument.
Both numbers survive. The correction is a new row pointing at the original. The record shows what the clock said and what was agreed.
Two items, both her own team. She approves the correction and accepts a late arrival with a reason. Her name and that reason are stored with the day, permanently.
Nobody is scored. There is no punctuality ranking anywhere in the product, by design.
Priya submits, Sarah approves, the period locks. Payroll gets payable minutes, unpaid break and paid leave as separate columns — the shape a payroll run needs.
Reopening leaves a mark. Only an owner can, only with a reason, and the reason sits next to the original approval.
One button. Breaks start and end from the same panel, and the day so far is on screen while it happens — so a missing punch is noticed on the day, not at the end of the month.
The exception queue holds only their own team, and only the days that need a decision. A daily digest email says how many are waiting, so the queue is a two-minute habit rather than something to remember.
People submit their own timesheet; an approver signs it. Bulk approval covers everyone clean and refuses anyone with an open exception, so pressing it is never a gamble. Locking closes the period against further edits.
The rule that never bends: A locked week can be reopened, but only by an owner and only with a reason, and the reopening is recorded next to the original approval.
For companies that recruit in CheesyHire, the person arrives in Daybook the moment they are hired — nobody types them in twice.
Not hiring in CheesyHire? Add people yourself — by email, or with a kiosk PIN for anyone without one.
The questions that come up in the first week.
CheesyHire stays the place you hire. When someone is hired, CheesyHire sends the person to Daybook through its API, using their CheesyHire reference, so a retried request never creates the same person twice. From then on their working week lives in Daybook. A sandbox with test keys lets the connection be rehearsed without touching live data.
The shift is closed automatically at the maximum shift length — never at the moment somebody noticed — and flagged as auto-closed rather than counted as a full shift. The person is asked for the real time, and the correction is recorded next to the original.
Yes — that is what the kiosk is for. Give them a PIN and they punch from a shared tablet at the door. They still get schedules, timesheets and exceptions like anyone else, and if they get an email later, every shift they punched comes with them.
They are one calendar for the whole organisation. Import your country’s published days or add your own, and every person inherits them — there is no per-person holiday list to keep in sync. Anyone who works that day is recorded as working a holiday.
A manager can approve a correction, and every correction keeps the original time visible with a reason and their name against it. Nobody, including an owner, can silently overwrite a punch.