What is a timekeeping system?

A timekeeping system records employee clock-ins and clock-outs, compares them to schedules, and computes late arrivals, overtime, undertime, and night differential. In the Philippines it should also feed payroll so government deductions use real hours worked.

Do Philippine small businesses need biometric timekeeping?

Not always. A tablet or phone kiosk with photo verification can replace a fingerprint machine for many cafes, shops, and clinics. The important part is that attendance data flows into payroll without a USB export.

How is timekeeping software different from a spreadsheet?

Spreadsheets do not catch buddy punching, do not compare punches to schedules automatically, and do not update SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, or BIR tables for you. Timekeeping software records punches once and reuses them for pay.

What should timekeeping software cost in the Philippines?

Look for public pricing. Timekeep starts at ₱999/month for up to 10 employees, with ₱49 per additional employee, and includes attendance, scheduling, leave, and Philippine payroll.

Timekeeping System for Philippine Small Businesses: What You Actually Need

If you search for a timekeeping system in the Philippines, you will find fingerprint machines, biometric terminals, and enterprise HR suites. Most of that is overkill when you run a cafe, clinic, or shop with 5 to 50 people and you are still the one who closes payroll.

What you need is simpler: reliable attendance, schedules that match how you staff the floor, and pay that comes from those hours without retyping everything into Excel.

What "timekeeping" means for Philippine payroll

Timekeeping is not only a punch log. For Philippine employers it has to support:

Late detection against the assigned schedule
Overtime at the correct multiplier
Undertime when someone clocks out early
Night differential for hours between 10 PM and 6 AM
Rest day and holiday premiums
Hours that roll into SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and BIR withholding

If your time clock and your payroll live in different tools, you still do the painful part by hand.

Biometric machines are optional

Fingerprint scanners are common because they feel official. For many small teams they are also expensive, brittle, and disconnected from pay.

A shared tablet or phone as a kiosk can capture a timestamp and a photo. That photo is enough accountability for most buddy-punching cases, and any spare device can replace a broken unit. See how to track attendance without a biometric machine and how to set up a kiosk time clock.

Checklist before you buy timekeeping software

Ask these questions:

Does attendance compare to schedules automatically?
Do overtime, night differential, and holiday rules use Philippine rates?
Does payroll pull from the same attendance records?
Are SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and BIR tables built in?
Can staff see schedules and payslips without another app stack?
Is pricing on the website, or do you need a sales call?

If any answer is "export a CSV and upload it somewhere else," you still own the spreadsheet work.

How Timekeep covers timekeeping and payroll

Timekeep is timekeeping software built for Philippine small businesses:

Real-time attendance board for who is in, late, on break, or out
Kiosk clock-in on any tablet or phone with photo verification
Weekly scheduling connected to attendance
One-click payroll from those hours
Built-in government deductions and payslips in the employee portal

Pricing is public: ₱999/month for up to 10 employees, then ₱49 per additional employee. There is a 30-day free trial with no credit card.

Start with attendance, finish with payslips

The goal is not a fancier punch clock. The goal is fewer nights spent reconciling hours before cutoff. Put attendance, schedules, and Philippine payroll in one timekeeping system, then review the numbers instead of rebuilding them.

Try Timekeep free at timekeep.ph, or read the timekeeping software Philippines overview.