Overview
A check-in is a button on the staff member's own phone. When they press it, their location is read and they take a selfie with the front camera. If they're inside the school's fence, it counts straight away and marks them present on the staff register. If they're somewhere else, they say why and the office approves it or not. Gate machines and the hand-marked register keep working as before; a check-in never overwrites them.
Setting it up
- Make sure each staff member has a tuition.in login with the email on their staff record. Staff without one are listed as no login and can't check in from a phone.
- Open Staff → Check-in and set each school's fence.
- Choose the rules: whether a selfie is required (it is to start with), what happens to a check-in away from school (it waits for approval, or is refused), and how many days selfies are kept (90 to start with).
- Tick Staff can check in from their phone. It's off until you do.
The school's fence
A fence is a circle around a school: a centre and a radius in metres. The easy way to set it is to stand in the middle of the campus with your phone, open the Check-in tab and press Use where I am now, then Save. You can also type the latitude and longitude (from any map app). 200 metres suits most campuses; a large one may need more. Map opens the centre on OpenStreetMap so you can check it.
Each school in a group has its own fence. Staff who aren't at one school use the fence under Staff not at one school (for a single school, Your campus).
Checking in and out
- On My work, press Check in. The phone asks once whether the site may use its location; allow it.
- Press Take selfie. The photo is made smaller on the phone before it's sent.
- Press Check in now. They see the time and whether it counted.
One check-in a day counts: the first. Check-outs work the same way and can be repeated; the last one counts. A check-out needs a check-in first.
| Where it says they were | What that means | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| At school | Inside the fence (allowing up to 50 m for the phone's own uncertainty). | Counts at once. |
| No fence set | The school hasn't set where it is. | Counts at once, from anywhere. Set a fence to stop that. |
| Away from school | Outside the fence. | The person gives a reason and it waits for the office, or is refused if you choose that. |
| Location too rough | The phone could only place itself to within more than 250 m (common indoors). | The person gives a reason and it waits for the office. |
| No location | Location was blocked or couldn't be read. | The person gives a reason and it waits for the office. |
What it writes on the register
- A counted check-in marks the day present, with the times on the register (Phone: in 08:52, out 16:40).
- If they check out before your full-day hours (6 to start with; the same setting the gate machines use), the day becomes a half day, which payroll counts as half a day's loss of pay.
- A day already marked by hand, by approved leave or by a gate machine is never changed from a phone. The check-in is still recorded, and shows on the Check-in tab.
- No check-in never means absent. A day nobody marks stays unmarked.
Check-ins away from school
Check-ins waiting for a decision are at the top of the Check-in tab, with the reason given, how far from school they were, a link to the place on a map and the selfie. Members who can change Staff are told when one arrives. Approve makes it count on the register; Don't accept needs a note, which the staff member sees. Either way, the check-in itself is kept.
Selfies, location and privacy
- The location is read only when the person presses the button. Nothing tracks them during the day.
- Selfies are private files. Only members who can see Staff can open them, from the Check-in tab.
- Selfies are erased after the keep period (90 days to start with). The check-in's time, place and decision stay, because they're the attendance record.
- No face recognition. tuition.in never makes or keeps a face template, for check-ins or for gate machines. A person looks at the selfie if there's a doubt.
- Tell your staff before switching it on: what's collected, why, who sees it and how long it's kept. The screen says the same.
Who can do what
Members with Staff access see check-ins and selfies; those who can change Staff approve them and set fences. A member limited to one school sees only that school's staff, and can set only that school's fence. The rules (on or off, selfie, away from school, keep period) are set by the owner or by someone who runs every school.
Questions
Can a teacher check in for someone else? A check-in is tied to the login that pressed the button and needs that person's selfie, which the office can look at.
What about a school trip? They check in from the trip and give the reason; the office approves it.
Can we remove a staff member who has checked in? Mark them inactive instead. Their check-ins are part of the attendance record and are kept.
Does it work on a laptop? Yes, if the browser can share its location and the laptop has a camera, but a phone is what it's made for.