Time Office: What It Does and How to Run It Without Paper

Short answer: the time office is the team, usually inside HR or administration, that records when employees come in and leave, and turns those records into payable days and overtime for payroll. In a factory or large office it keeps the attendance register-cum-muster roll, tracks shifts, leave and overtime, sends a daily headcount report, and closes attendance at month end. Under the labour codes these registers can be kept electronically and must be preserved for five years, which is why many companies now run the time office on software instead of paper.

This guide covers what a time office does each day, week and month, the records it must keep, a worked month-end example, and how to move the work from registers to time office software.

What is a time office in HR?

A time office is the function that manages employee time: attendance, shifts, leave, overtime and late arrivals. The name comes from factories, where a small office near the gate issued punch cards, checked them each shift and kept the muster roll.

Today the role is the same, but the tools have changed. Punch cards gave way to biometric machines and mobile check-ins, and the paper register to software. In a small company one HR executive may do the job; in a plant with several shifts there is often a time office in charge with a few time keepers.

Time office vs HR vs payroll

Team	Main job	Hands over to
Time office	Records attendance, shifts, leave and overtime; prepares payable days	Payroll, at month-end cut-off
Payroll	Calculates salary, deductions and payslips from payable days	Accounts, for salary transfer and statutory payments
HR	Hiring, policies, employee relations, performance	Time office, with joiner and leaver details and policy rules

What is the work of the time office?

The work follows a daily, weekly and monthly rhythm. This checklist is a good starting point for a factory or an office with 30 to 300 people.

Daily tasks

1. Check the day's punches by shift and flag missing punch-ins or punch-outs.
2. Send a manpower report to production or operations heads within the first hour: on roll, present, on leave, absent and late, by department.
3. Record leave and on-duty for people who are travelling, at a client site or on approved leave.
4. Note overtime worked the previous day, with the supervisor's approval and the worker's consent.
5. Track contract workers separately, so their attendance can be matched to the contractor's bill.

Weekly tasks

• Publish the next week's shift roster and handle swaps.
• Follow up on missed punches and get them corrected or approved (regularised).
• Review repeated late comers and absentees, and share the list with managers.
• Check weekly offs and compensatory offs, so no one works too many days in a row.

Month-end tasks

1. Fix a cut-off date (for example, the 25th or the last day of the month).
2. Close all pending leave, on-duty and correction requests.
3. Calculate payable days, loss of pay days and approved overtime hours for each employee.
4. Get department heads to sign off.
5. Send the final attendance to payroll and lock the month so it can't be changed afterwards.

Registers the time office keeps under the labour codes

The four labour codes have been in force since 21 November 2025 (India Code: OSH Code, 2020). The Ministry of Labour's compliance handbook lists the registers employers must keep, including an attendance register-cum-muster roll, a wage register, an overtime register and a register of fines and deductions (Ministry of Labour and Employment, Compliance Handbook for Employers, p. 9).

Rule	What it means for the time office
Registers can be physical or electronic	Software records are acceptable, as long as they are complete and can be shown to an inspector when asked.
Keep records for 5 years	Old months must stay retrievable, not be overwritten or deleted.
Normal hours: 8 a day, 48 a week	Hours beyond this are overtime (PIB factsheet on the OSH Code).
Overtime needs the worker's consent and is paid at twice the normal rate	Record the approval and the hours for every overtime entry.
Women may work night shifts (before 6 a.m. and after 7 p.m.) with consent and safeguards	Keep the consent on file and check transport and safety arrangements.

Sources checked on 15 October 2026. Rules on spread-over, rest intervals and the overtime cap are set in the central or state rules that apply to your establishment, and shops and establishments rules differ by state. Check your state's labour department site before you fix your policy.

A worked example: month-end attendance for one worker

Take a 60-worker factory with a six-day week (Sunday off) that closes attendance on the last day of the month. October 2026 has 31 days, 4 Sundays (4, 11, 18 and 25 October) and, in this example, 2 paid holidays.

Item	Days	Working
Calendar days	31
Working days	25	31 − 4 Sundays − 2 holidays
Present	22	From punches
Casual leave (approved)	1	Paid
Absent without approval	2	Loss of pay
Payable days	29	22 present + 1 leave + 4 Sundays + 2 holidays

If the worker's monthly gross is ₹18,600 and the company uses calendar days as the base, the loss of pay is ₹18,600 ÷ 31 × 2 = ₹1,200, so the month's gross pay is ₹17,400 before deductions. Some companies divide by 26 or by working days instead; pick one method, write it in your policy and use it every month. The time office's job is to hand payroll the right numbers: 29 payable days and 2 loss of pay days, plus any approved overtime hours.

Running the time office on paper vs on software

	Paper register or Excel	Time office software
How attendance is captured	Signatures, punch cards or typed entries	Biometric machine, phone or web check-in, with a time stamp
Daily headcount	Counted by hand	Live "who is in today" view
Leave and overtime approvals	Forms, chats and phone calls	Requested and approved in the app, with a record
Month-end totals	Formulas you maintain	Calculated automatically
Five-year records	Files and folders to store	Kept in the system and exportable

Excel works for a small team; our guide to the attendance sheet in Excel has a free layout and formulas. Once you have several shifts, field staff or more than 10 to 15 people, the hours spent reconciling the sheet usually make software worth it.

What to look for in time office software

• Capture that fits your workplace: biometric sync for a factory gate, mobile check-in for offices, and geofencing for staff at sites. If you already own a machine, see how to connect an eSSL biometric device to a cloud app.
• Shift support: general, rotational and night shifts, with weekly offs.
• Rules you can set: late grace time, half-day and full-day thresholds, and how missed punches are corrected.
• Leave, on-duty and overtime requests with approvals, so the month-end close has nothing pending. A leave management system should be part of the same tool, not a separate one.
• Field staff: location recorded at check-in, as explained in our guide to GPS and geofence attendance.
• Reports and exports: a monthly attendance table, late and absence reports, and an export for payroll or inspection.
• Payroll link: payable days and loss of pay should flow into salary without retyping.
• Price per user that still makes sense at your headcount, and a free trial long enough to run a full month-end.

Running your time office on Aajar

Aajar records check-ins from a phone or computer and builds the monthly attendance table automatically, with present, half day, leave, holiday, weekly off and absent days. Late grace and half-day rules, leave and permission requests, and payroll with payslips are included on every plan, from ₹20 per user per month on Starter.

Shifts, geofenced check-in, on-duty and overtime requests, and Excel exports are on Growth (₹35 per user per month). Biometric device sync with eSSL and similar machines is on Business (₹50 per user per month). Aajar doesn't file returns on the labour or EPFO portals for you, so that step stays with your HR or compliance team. Every plan is free for the first 3 months for organisations with up to 50 users; see Aajar pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What is time office in HR?

It is the HR or admin function that records employee attendance, shifts, leave and overtime, and works out payable days for payroll each month.

What does a time office executive do?

A time office executive checks daily punches, sends the manpower report, records leave, on-duty and overtime, follows up on missed punches, and closes attendance for payroll at month end.

What is time office software?

It is software that collects attendance from biometric machines or phone check-ins, applies your shift, late and leave rules, and produces monthly attendance and reports for payroll.

Can the attendance register be kept digitally?

Yes. The Ministry of Labour's compliance handbook says registers can be kept in physical or electronic form, and must be preserved for five years.

How many hours can an employee work in a day?

Under the OSH Code, normal working hours are up to 8 a day and 48 a week. Work beyond that is overtime, needs the worker's consent and is paid at twice the normal rate.

This article is general information, not legal advice.