ontime pulls punches from biometric machines, mobile GPS, and the web into one reconciled timeline per employee, per day — then runs shifts, human approvals, and India-ready payroll on top.
→ Payroll · Jun cycle · Earned days 26 · LOP 0 · OT 0:42
3 → 1sources per timeline
≤ 90sconflict detection
5statutory registers
1identity, 3 apps
The month-end story
Payroll goes wrong before payroll begins.
The biometric machine says 9:02. The site supervisor's WhatsApp says “he was here.” The spreadsheet HR rebuilds every month says something else entirely. By the time payroll runs, nobody can prove what happened on the 14th — and the penalty notice doesn't care whose version was right.
The machine says
14 Jun · IN 09:02 · OUT — missing punch-out
WhatsApp says
“Ravi was on site till evening, confirm please” · 22:41
The spreadsheet says
Row 142 · P (edited 30 Jun, by whom?)
ontime replaces the argument with a record.
How it works
One timeline per employee, per day.
1
Capture
Punches arrive from biometric devices, the mobile app — GPS-checked, selfie attached — and the web console. Every punch keeps its source, location, and proof.
2
Reconcile
Collapsed into one daily timeline. Two sources inside 90 seconds? Flagged. Outside the geofence? Held for review, with reason and photo.
3
Decide
Shift rules, grace, and breaks derive the day's status. Exceptions become regularizations — routed to the manager, with anything still pending after 48 hours surfaced as aged. Nothing auto-approves.
4
Pay
Approved time flows into the cycle: freeze → calculate → approve → disburse, with anomaly flags before anyone is paid. PF, ESI, PT, TDS downstream.
One login · three surfaces
Everyone gets the app that answers their question.
Employee app
Checked in · 09:0304:12:36on the clock · Pune Plant ✓ in zonePunch out
Employee · “Am I checked in?”Punch with GPS + selfie · leave · payslips. Bottom tabs, thumb-first.
Manager app
Team today18 / 22 in
Meena S.Late · 24m
Arjun P.Off-zone
Approvals3 waiting →
Manager · “Where's my team?”Live pulse · one inbox for leave, punch fixes & OT — with balance and coverage in view.
ontime ships an MCP server on top of its public API. Connect any MCP client, and your agent can read live attendance, chase exceptions, and prep payroll inputs — every call key-scoped, permission-gated, and rate-limited, with every mutation written to the audit log.
Approvals stay human. That's the point.
MCP server · early accessRead API · 600 req/min9 signed webhook events
The MCP server is in early access. Join the waitlist — the public read API, scoped keys and signed webhooks are live today. Read the API docs.
Who still hasn't punched in at the Pune plant?
▸ attendance.byDate · pune-plant · 200 OK · 84ms
6 of 142 haven't punched in as of 09:40. Three are on approved leave; Arjun P. and Meena S. are usually in by 09:15 — and one punch is held for review (off-zone, photo attached). Want the list as CSV, or a draft note to their supervisor?
Draft the note, and flag the off-zone punch for HR.
▸ employees.list · reports-to:supervisor-07 · 200 OK
Drafted. The off-zone punch is already in the regularization queue — it stays with the manager, and it will show as aged once it passes 48 hours.
Compliance
India-first. Not India-adapted.
Financial year April–March. IST. Rupees. PF and ESI built in, professional tax by state slab, TDS with the 87A rebate and cess — and the paperwork: Form 24Q, per-employee Form 16 PDFs, muster roll, wage register, OT register. When the inspector asks, you export the bundle.
Form 16 · PDFForm 24QPF / EPFESIPT · state slabsMuster Roll · Form 14Wage Register · Form 17OT Register · Form 10Leave Register · Form 20↓ Download bundle · .zip
Security
Built like ops software. Because it is.
40+ permission keys in one shared catalog — the same gates in the API and the UI
Actor scoping: self / direct-report subtree / HR override — per action, not per page
Sessions revoked server-side; login rate-limited per account and per IP
API keys hashed at rest, shown once; webhooks HMAC-SHA256 signed
Every mutation in the audit log — filterable, exportable
ontime keeps a device fleet registry with sync status per device. Device sync is a vendor seam today — tell us which machines you run and we'll confirm the path before you commit.
We're on spreadsheets and a legacy system. How hard is migration?
Employees, sites and opening leave balances import from CSV. The Founding 20 cohort gets migration run by our engineers. Your data leaves in CSV any day you want, too.
Where does our data live?
In our managed PostgreSQL, with every mutation written to an exportable audit log. We'll answer residency and retention questions in writing — see the security page.
What can the AI actually do — and what can't it?
It reads. Agents can query attendance and the employee directory, chase exceptions and prepare payroll inputs. Approving leave, publishing rosters and disbursing payroll are deliberately absent: agents prepare, humans decide.
How long does implementation take?
An afternoon to set up an org, sites, shifts and your first roster. Payroll takes longer because we walk your components and statutory setup with you before the first live cycle.