Setting up, as a manager
- Tap Get started free and create your account. The business you create makes you the owner.
- Open Settings and set your store location. Tap Use my current location while you are standing in the shop, then pick a punch radius. 100 m suits most single storefronts.
- Tap Save location. The current coordinates and radius are shown underneath so you can confirm they took.
- From the Dashboard, share the six-character join code with your staff. Tap the code to copy it.
- Open the wall code on a spare phone or iPad by the door, or print it. This is the code employees scan each day.
Tell your staff before their first shift
Punches are location-checked, and in many places you are legally required to give notice before recording where an employee is. A line in your handbook or a note by the wall code is usually enough — check what your state or country requires.
Joining, as an employee
- Open the app and tap I'm an employee — join a business.
- Scan your manager's QR code, or type the six-character join code, then tap Verify code.
- Enter your name and set a four-digit PIN. The PIN keeps someone else from opening your profile on a shared device.
- To clock in, tap Scan barcode and point the camera at the wall code by the door. No PIN is needed for a daily punch.
- Scan the same code again at the end of your shift to clock out. Your hours appear under My shifts.
Common questions
What is the difference between the join code and the wall code?
The join code is six characters and is used once, when someone joins your business. The wall code is the QR code you display by the door, and it is scanned every day to clock in and out. They are different things and do not interchange.
Someone left. Should I generate a new code?
Yes. Remove their profile from the Employees tab, then tap Generate a new code on the Dashboard. The old join code stops working immediately. Generate a new wall code too and reprint it, so a former employee cannot punch from a photo of the old one.
Can I print the wall code instead of using a screen?
Yes. Screenshot the wall code screen and print it at a reasonable size — roughly 10 cm across scans reliably. Reprint whenever you generate a new one. A screen is better if you rotate the code often.
The camera will not scan the code.
Check that Scan In has camera access in iOS Settings → Scan In → Camera. Then look at the code itself: glare from a laminated sheet or an overhead light is the usual culprit, as is a screen at low brightness. Hold the phone 15–25 cm away and let it focus.
A punch was refused for being outside the zone, but the employee was in the shop.
This is nearly always positioning drift rather than a bug. Work through it in this order:
- Check the distance shown on the punch screen. If it reads hundreds of kilometres, the device has no usable GPS fix and is falling back to a network estimate.
- Have the employee set location to While Using the App and turn on Precise Location in iOS Settings.
- Thick walls, basements, and metal shelving block GPS. If your till sits in a back room, widen the radius.
- Re-save the store location while standing at the door, in case the saved coordinates were captured somewhere else.
If it keeps happening for one person, add the punch manually from the Scans tab and let us know.
What radius should I choose?
100 m works for most single storefronts and gives enough slack for indoor drift. Use 250–500 m for a large lot, a warehouse, or a site with several buildings. Going much wider defeats the point, and a radius far larger than your site can raise questions about why you are recording location at all.
Does the app track employees between shifts?
No. Location is read only at the moment someone presses clock in or clock out, while the app is open. There is no background location. What gets stored on the record is the distance from the store and whether it fell inside the radius. See the Privacy Policy.
Can I turn location checking off entirely?
Yes. Leave the store location unconfigured in Settings and punches will be accepted from anywhere. Useful for mobile crews or if you would rather not record location at all.
An employee refuses the location permission.
If you have set a radius, their punch cannot be verified and will not go through. You can record the punch manually from the Scans tab. Whether you can require the permission as a condition of work is an employment law question for your jurisdiction, not something the app decides.
Someone forgot to clock out. How do I fix it?
Open the Scans tab and tap Add record. Choose the employee, the direction, and the correct time. Keep your own note of why a record was edited — if a pay dispute ever comes up, that note matters more than the entry itself.
What is in the CSV export?
One row per punch: employee, direction, date, time, distance from the store, and whether the location check passed. It opens in Excel, Numbers, and Google Sheets, and imports into most payroll tools. Export from the Scans tab or the Dashboard.
How long is history kept?
Records stay for as long as your business account is open. [The free tier keeps 7 days; paid plans keep full history.] Export periodically regardless — Scan In is a time clock, not a backup service.
Does Scan In calculate overtime or pay?
No. It records hours and exports them. Overtime rules, break requirements, and pay calculation are handled by you or your payroll provider. Review the records before you rely on them for pay.
How do I cancel my subscription?
Subscriptions bought through the App Store are managed by Apple, not inside Scan In. Open iOS Settings → your name → Subscriptions, pick Scan In, and tap Cancel. Cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends, or it renews. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
I want a refund.
Apple processes App Store refunds and we cannot issue them ourselves. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in, and choose the purchase. If Apple declines and you think there is something we got wrong, write to us anyway and we will look at it.
How do I delete my account and data?
Owners: Settings → Sign out → Delete business removes the business, its employees, and all punch records. Employees: ask your manager to remove your profile, since your employer controls those records. Either way you can email support@example.com and we will action it. Deletion is permanent, so export your CSV first.
Can two managers share one business?
Yes. Add them as team members from the Dashboard and grant manager access. Managers can see and edit records; only the owner can delete the business or change billing.
I forgot my employee PIN.
Ask your manager to reset it from your profile in the Employees tab. We cannot recover a PIN — they are stored hashed, so nobody at Scan In can read one.
Quick troubleshooting
| What you see | What to try first |
|---|---|
| "Outside zone" with a huge distance | Turn on Precise Location, step near a window or door, wait a few seconds for a fix, punch again |
| Camera opens but nothing scans | Reduce glare on the code, raise screen brightness, hold 15–25 cm away |
| Join code rejected | Confirm the code has not been regenerated since it was shared; codes are six characters, letters and digits |
| Punch not showing on the dashboard | Pull to refresh; if the device was offline, the punch syncs when connectivity returns |
| Hours look wrong for a shift | Check for a missing clock-out and add the record manually from the Scans tab |
| App crashes on launch | Update to the latest version, restart the device, then reinstall — records live on our servers, not only on the device |
Still stuck
Write to us. We answer within [1–2 business days], [Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm ET].
Include these and we can usually fix it in one reply
- Your business name as it appears in the app
- What you expected to happen, and what happened instead
- The date and time of the punch, if it is about a specific record
- Your device and iOS version, and the app version from Settings
- A screenshot, if there was an error on screen
Please do not send passwords or PINs. We will never ask for them.
Before you publish this page
Replace every highlighted item: the support email (it appears four times, including two mailto: links), response times and hours, and the history-retention line. Search for class="fill". Confirm each answer matches what your shipped build actually does — a support page that describes a different app is worse than none.