Feature

Face-Scan Attendance vs Traditional Time Clocks: 2026 Guide

The American Payroll Association estimates that US employers lose 4.5% of total payroll annually to time theft — most of it from buddy-punching, where one employee clocks in for another. For a 100-person company with a $5M payroll, that's $225,000/year. Face-scan attendance eliminates this.

What is face-scan attendance?

The employee opens the MyCo app, looks at their phone camera, and the app verifies their identity via on-device facial recognition. The clock-in records: who, when, where (GPS), and which device. If the photo doesn't match the stored template, no clock-in. If GPS doesn't match an approved location, the manager gets flagged.

How it compares to traditional time clocks

Punch cards / wall-mounted clocks

• Buddy-punching is trivial
• One device per location — bottleneck at shift change
• Expensive to install at multiple job sites
• No location verification

Web-based time tracking

• Workers can clock in from anywhere — no real verification
• Buddy-punching still easy (just share login)
• Requires laptop or desktop access (hard for field workers)

Mobile face-scan (MyCo)

• Biometric verification — can't be faked with a photo
• Works on any smartphone
• GPS verifies location
• Works offline; syncs when reconnected
• No hardware to buy or install

Is face-scan attendance legal?

Yes — with proper consent. In the US, three states require explicit biometric consent: Illinois (BIPA), Texas (CUBI), and Washington. MyCo includes a built-in biometric consent form that meets all three state requirements. Employees must affirmatively agree before face-scan is enabled.

Privacy: where the face data lives

MyCo's face recognition runs on-device. The actual biometric template never leaves the employee's phone. Only the verification result (match/no-match) is sent to MyCo servers. No face images are stored on our servers.

Edge cases face-scan handles well

• Workers without WiFi (offline check-in, syncs later)
• Workers in low light (infrared assist on supported phones)
• Workers with masks, glasses, beards (template adapts over time)
• Multiple job sites (geo-fence each site)

Edge cases to plan for

• Worker forgets phone: Manager can clock them in via web admin with a note
• Phone breaks: Backup option is QR code at a fixed location
• Twin employees: Rare, but the system uses additional factors (gait, posture) — and in extreme cases, falls back to manager approval

ROI math for a typical SMB

Take a 50-person company with a $2.5M payroll. Average time theft of 4% = $100,000/year. MyCo costs roughly $30/employee/month = $18,000/year. Net savings: $82,000/year from this feature alone — before counting the value of payroll automation, CRM, and the rest.

The bottom line

If your team uses paper timesheets, web-based timecards, or even a punch clock, face-scan attendance pays for the whole MyCo platform inside the first quarter. See it live in a 20-minute demo.