Setup 4 min read

Set up your first kiosk

From signing up to a live clock-in station on a tablet — the whole flow in a few minutes.

A Punchly kiosk is just a web page open on a tablet or phone at your workplace. Staff tap in a 4-digit PIN (or scan a QR badge) to clock in and out — no app to install, no accounts to manage. Here’s how to go from a fresh sign-up to a live clock-in station.

From sign-up to a live kiosk in three steps.

1. Create your company

Sign up, then complete onboarding by naming your company and choosing its timezone. The timezone is important — it’s what keeps your worked-hours totals and daily boundaries correct, so pick the one your team actually works in.

2. Add your employees

On the Employees page, add each person who needs to clock in. Every employee is automatically given a unique 4-digit PIN — you don’t have to invent one. You can view or regenerate a PIN at any time, and archive anyone who leaves without losing their history.

Prefer badges over typed PINs? Turn on QR login in Company settings, then print each employee’s QR badge from the Employees page. Staff scan the badge with the kiosk camera instead of typing — faster at busy sites and harder to share than a memorised PIN.

3. Create a workplace and open its kiosk link

Each physical location is a workplace. On the Workplaces page, add one for every site you run. Every workplace gets its own private, hard-to-guess kiosk URL — and a scannable QR code you can print.

Grab a spare tablet (or any device with a browser) for the location.
Open that workplace’s kiosk link on it — either type the URL, or scan the printed QR code with the tablet’s camera.
You’ll land on the clock-in screen showing your company name and a PIN keypad. That’s the kiosk.

The kiosk link is the “key” to that station — anyone with it can reach the clock-in screen. If a link ever leaks, open the workplace and regenerate it; the old link stops working immediately.

4. Make it feel like a real kiosk

Two quick add-ons make the tablet behave like dedicated hardware:

Add Punchly to the home screen so it opens full-screen and reopens after a restart.
Lock the tablet to Punchly so staff can’t wander off to other apps.

5. Watch it live

Have someone clock in on the tablet, then open your dashboard from any device. You’ll see who’s working right now, at which location, and their running shift time — it refreshes on its own. When it’s time for payroll, the Hours page gives you timezone-correct totals per employee and per location for the day, week, month, or a custom range.

That’s it — your first kiosk is live. Repeat step 3 for each additional location.