Time and Attendance Software for UK Employers
Accurate time recording. Simpler payroll. Better workforce control.
Time and Attendance Overview
Ceequel® Time and Attendance helps UK organisations accurately record working hours, manage shifts and absences,
control overtime and deliver reliable information to payroll.
From straightforward employee clocking to complex, multi-site working patterns and shift premiums, Ceequel® removes
unnecessary administration from your clocking-to-pay process while giving managers a clearer understanding of workforce attendance
and labour costs.
Available as a secure hosted or on-premise solution, it can operate independently or as part of the fully integrated Ceequel®
Software Suite.
What is time and attendance software?
Time and attendance software records when employees start and finish work, calculates their working hours and manages information such as overtime, shifts, holidays, sickness and other absences.
For employers, an effective time and attendance system provides accurate information for payroll, supports workforce planning and creates the records needed to monitor working hours and employment policies.
Ceequel® Time and Attendance is developed, supplied and supported by ELF Productivity Ltd. It is designed for organisations that require more than a basic cloud-based timesheet or clocking application.
The system can manage everything from simple fixed working hours to highly complex shift patterns, rotating schedules, overtime rules, premiums, flexitime and company-specific calculations. It replaces manual processes and disconnected spreadsheets with consistent, real-time workforce information.
Employees can record their attendance through a choice of methods, including:
- Facial recognition clocking devices
- Proximity cards or fobs
- Ceequel® iClock mobile clocking
- Browser-based clocking
- Employee Self-Service
- Supervisor or authorised manager entry
Ceequel® can be deployed across a single location or centrally manage multiple sites, companies and employee groups. It uses Microsoft SQL technology and can integrate with payroll, HR, access control, visitor management and operational intelligence systems.
With more than 40 years of specialist experience, ELF Productivity understands the practical challenges involved in managing time and attendance across manufacturing, logistics, food production, engineering and other complex working environments.
View our Time and Attendance timeline to see it's usage over an average day.
Features
Ceequel® Time and Attendance can be configured around your working practices, terminology, policies and payroll requirements.
Calculations
- Basic and overtime hours
- Multiple overtime rates and premiums
- Company-specific pay calculations
- Flexitime calculations
- Night-shift and cross-midnight working
- Holiday entitlement based on length of service
- Pro-rata calculations for starters and leavers
- Part-time and variable-hours calculations
Shifts & Rostering
- Complex and rotating shift patterns
- Graphical shift rostering
- Repeating shift rotations
- Labour planning and forecasting
- Configurable shift-pattern library
- Planned and actual attendance comparison
- Overnight shifts reported against the correct working day
- Temporary and permanent shift changes
Holiday & Absence Management
- Graphical holiday and absence planner
- Holiday requests and authorisation
- Sickness and absence recording
- Absence entitlement management
- Bradford Factor or KPI reporting
- Company shutdowns and bank holidays
- Multiple holiday years
- Days, hours or combined holiday allowances
Advanced Reporting
Over 100 standard reports
- Payroll export and integration
- Automatically emailed reports
- Graphical workforce reporting
- Exception reporting
- Working Time Regulations reporting
- Scheduled management information
- Configurable report filters
- Real-time attendance visibility
- Secure audit trails
Reporting Exception
Identify attendance issues before they affect payroll
Exception reporting focuses attention on the employees and transactions that require action. Instead of checking every attendance record manually, managers can concentrate on clockings that fall outside the expected working pattern.
Ceequel® will automatically identify exceptions including:
- Missing clockings
- No clocking recorded
- Late arrival
- Early departure
- Hours above or below the expected total
- Unplanned attendance
- Unauthorised overtime
- Unexpected shift activity
- Absence without an assigned reason
Reports can be generated centrally and distributed automatically to the relevant managers for review, authorisation or correction.
Alternatively, authorised line managers can investigate and manage exceptions directly within Ceequel®, removing the need for printed reports and reducing delays before payroll.
Employees can also use Ceequel® Employee Self-Service to submit absence reasons, request holidays and review relevant attendance information, subject to your organisation's permissions and approval processes.
A secure audit trail
Protect the integrity of your workforce information
Original clocking transactions are stored securely and remain available for reference. They cannot simply be overwritten or altered, helping to protect the integrity of the original attendance record.
Where an authorised user needs to correct or override a transaction, Ceequel® creates a separate adjustment and records:
- The original transaction
- The amended information
- The identity of the person making the change
- The date and time of the adjustment
- Any reason or supporting comment entered
This provides a clear audit trail for payroll queries, internal reviews and management reporting.
User permissions can be configured so employees, supervisors, managers, HR teams and payroll personnel only have access to the information and actions appropriate to their role.
Holiday Allowance Calculations
Manage different holiday rules within one system
Ceequel® can calculate and manage holiday entitlement according to your organisation's own policies.
Entitlements can be based on length of service and configured to accommodate:
- Full-time and part-time employees
- Pro-rata entitlement
- Starters and leavers
- Contracted days or hours
- Multiple holiday years
- Different employee groups
- Carry-over rules
- Company shutdowns and bank holidays
Holiday entitlement can be recorded in days, hours or a combination of both, depending on how different employees work.
Mass updates can be applied to the whole workforce or to a filtered group of employees, making it easier to manage bank holidays, shutdown periods and organisation-wide changes.
When combined with Ceequel® Employee Self-Service, employees can submit holiday requests electronically while managers view team availability before approving them.
Bradford Factor Reporting
Identify patterns of frequent short-term absence
Ceequel® includes Bradford Factor reporting to help managers identify patterns of frequent, short-term absence.
Rather than looking only at the total number of days lost, the Bradford Factor places greater emphasis on the number of separate absence occasions. This can help highlight repeated short-term absence patterns that might otherwise be difficult to identify.
Bradford Factor scores should not be used as an automatic disciplinary decision. Ceequel® gives managers accurate information to support a consistent review process, allowing individual circumstances, company policy and appropriate employment practices to be considered.
Reporting can be configured by employee, department, manager, location or another relevant organisational structure.
UK Working Time Regulations
Support working-hours monitoring and compliance reporting
UK employers need appropriate records to demonstrate compliance with working-time and minimum-wage obligations. Ceequel® uses attendance information already held within the system to help organisations monitor working hours and produce supporting reports.
The software can assist with monitoring:
- Average weekly working hours
- Employees approaching or exceeding defined limits
- Rest periods and working patterns
- Night working
- Overtime
- Opt-out arrangements
- Young-worker rules
- Multiple employments, where the necessary information is available
The standard maximum working week is generally 48 hours on average, normally calculated over a 17-week reference period, although exceptions and different arrangements can apply. Employees may also choose to sign an opt-out where permitted.
Ceequel® makes relevant information available through on-screen reports, configurable filters and drill-down analysis. This allows authorised users to investigate individual records without re-entering information or relying on separate spreadsheets.
Rules and reports can be configured around the requirements that apply to your organisation. The system supports compliance management, but appropriate legal, HR or health and safety advice should be obtained where individual circumstances require it.
The compliance wording above reflects current GOV.UK working-hours guidance and HMRC record-keeping requirements.
Flexible Employee Clocking Options
Choose the right clocking method for each workforce
Different workplaces require different ways of recording attendance. Ceequel® supports multiple clocking methods within the same organisation, allowing each site or employee group to use the most appropriate option.
Facial Recognition
Fast, contactless clocking can help prevent employees clocking on behalf of one another and remove the need for physical cards or fobs.
Where facial recognition is used to identify workers, biometric information is treated as special-category data under UK GDPR. Employers must establish an appropriate lawful basis and condition for processing it. Further information is available from the Information Commissioner's Office.
Proximity Cards and Fobs
A reliable and familiar option for organisations that prefer employees to clock using an issued credential.
Mobile Clocking
Ceequel® iClock allows authorised employees to clock using a compatible mobile device. GPS and geofencing options can help organisations manage remote, mobile and multi-location workforces.
Browser and Self-Service Clocking
Employees working from approved computers can record attendance through browser-based or Employee Self-Service options, subject to your organisation's security settings.
Payroll Integration
Turn accurate clocking information into payroll-ready data
Ceequel® applies your agreed working rules to employee attendance, helping to create accurate payroll information without repeatedly calculating hours by hand.
The system can account for:
- Basic working hours
- Overtime
- Shift premiums
- Unpaid breaks
- Absence
- Holidays
- Flexitime
- Company-specific payment rules
- Average Holiday Pay
Validated information can then be exported or integrated with your payroll process. Exception reporting and manager authorisation help ensure that unusual or incomplete records are reviewed before payroll is finalised.
This reduces repetitive administration, improves consistency and gives payroll teams a clear supporting audit trail.
Cloud or On-Premise
Time and Attendance Software
Ceequel® is available as either a professionally hosted or on-premise solution.
Cloud Deployment
A cloud solution reduces the infrastructure placed on your internal IT team while providing secure access for authorised users across different locations.
On-Premise Deployment
Ceequel® can also be installed within your organisation's own infrastructure. This gives your IT team direct control over the application environment, data location, security arrangements and system availability.
Unlike many cloud-only products, Ceequel® allows organisations to select the deployment model that best suits their technical, operational and security requirements.
Ceequel®
Developed for the Way You Work
Every organisation manages people differently. Ceequel® can be configured around your shifts, calculations, terminology, responsibilities and reporting requirements rather than forcing your business to follow a rigid, standard process.
It can be implemented as a dedicated time and attendance system or connected with other Ceequel® modules to create a wider workforce management solution.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best time and attendance software for a UK business?
The best system depends on workforce size, shift complexity, deployment requirements, payroll integration and the way employees need to clock. Ceequel® is particularly suited to organisations requiring configurable rules, complex working patterns, multi-site management or a choice of hosted and on-premise deployment.
Can Ceequel® handle complex shifts and overtime rules?
Yes. Ceequel® can manage fixed, rotating and overnight shifts alongside multiple overtime rates, premiums, flexitime and company-specific calculations.
Can time and attendance software integrate with payroll?
Yes. Ceequel® can provide validated payroll-ready information through configured exports or an agreed integration, reducing manual calculation and duplicate data entry.
Can Ceequel® manage multiple locations?
Yes. It can centrally manage multiple sites, companies, departments and employee groups while providing appropriate local access to authorised managers.
Is Ceequel® available on-premise?
Yes. Ceequel® is available as an on-premise or professionally hosted solution.
Does Ceequel® support facial recognition clocking?
Yes. Facial recognition is available alongside proximity, mobile and browser-based clocking options. Employers using biometric identification must meet the applicable UK GDPR requirements.
Can employees request holidays through the system?
Yes. When Ceequel® Employee Self-Service is included, employees can submit holiday requests and managers can review and authorise them electronically.
Can the system integrate with access control?
Yes. Ceequel® Time and Attendance can operate alongside Ceequel® Access Control, Visitor Management and the interactive Fire Register as part of the wider Ceequel® Software Suite.
The Clock Is Ticking
Take control of workforce attendance, payroll preparation and labour information
Whether you need to replace an outdated clocking system, reduce payroll administration or manage complex working practices across multiple sites, Ceequel® can be configured around your organisation.
Speak directly to a time and attendance specialist and see how Ceequel® could work within your business.