Guide & comparison · Updated July 2026
Shopify time clock & attendance: how clock-in, timesheets and hours actually work
Shopify does not have a built-in time clock. It knows who rang up a sale on POS; it does not know who was on shift, when they started, whether they took their break, or how many hours to pay them for. That gap is what a time clock and attendance app fills — and the apps that fill it differ far more in what happens after the clock-in than in the clock-in itself.
This page explains the chain — clock-in, attendance record, timesheet, approved hours, payroll — and then compares the apps a Shopify retailer would actually shortlist.
Disclosure: we build Staff Hub, one of the apps compared below. Several competitors beat us on things we name plainly on this page. Weigh our analysis accordingly, and verify anything that matters to you with the vendor.
The chain, in order
Most buying mistakes happen because people evaluate step 1 and assume steps 2–5 come free. They don't.
1. Clock-in — proving who is here
On Shopify, the natural place to clock in is the POS terminal the staff member is already standing at. A shared POS device means you need a way to tell staff apart, which is why a PIN is the usual mechanism: the app runs as a POS extension, staff tap in, enter their PIN, and the shift starts. The alternatives — a phone app, a browser page, a shared tablet — all work, but they add a device between the person and the record.
Two anti-buddy-punching controls are common. Photo verification captures a picture at clock-in so a manager can see who actually pressed the button. GPS geofencing checks the clock-in happened within a radius of the store. Geofencing is worth thinking about before you enable it: it means collecting staff location, which has real privacy and, in some jurisdictions, legal implications. In Staff Hub it is off by default and available if you choose to turn it on (150 m radius by default).
2. Attendance — the raw record, including the mess
Real shifts generate exceptions: someone forgets to clock out, someone clocks in forty minutes early, someone's break runs long. An attendance system that only records clean punches is useless. What you want is the raw entries plus flags on the ones that look wrong, so a manager reviews six entries instead of six hundred.
3. Timesheets and approval
Attendance becomes a timesheet when someone with authority signs off on it. This is the step that turns "the app says Sam worked 38.5 hours" into "we are paying Sam for 38.5 hours". If an app has no approval step, you are effectively letting the clock decide your wage bill.
4. Overtime and break policy
Approved hours are not the same as payable hours. Overtime thresholds (daily and weekly), multipliers, and paid vs unpaid breaks all change the number. Apps differ enormously here: most, including us, apply the thresholds and policies you configure. Deputy goes further and interprets labour law and awards for you — a genuinely different class of product, and the right answer if the rules where you operate are strict.
5. Payroll — and an important line
Here is where most Shopify time-clock apps stop, and it is worth being blunt about it. Staff Hub is not a payroll processor. We group hours into payroll periods, calculate overtime, and produce a payroll-ready export or sync — Gusto, QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex, Rippling, or plain CSV — which your actual payroll provider then runs. We do not file taxes and we do not move money. EasyTeam sits in the same place. Homebase is different: it genuinely runs US payroll, files taxes and pays staff by direct deposit as a paid add-on. If you want the same vendor to track the hours and cut the cheque, that is a real reason to choose Homebase over either of us.
At-a-glance comparison
Competitor facts are dated. Where we could not verify a current fact from the vendor, we describe the shape of the plan rather than guess a number.
| App | Clock-in method | Timesheets & overtime | What happens at payroll | Free tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff Hub | Shopify POS clock-in with PIN; photo verification; GPS geofencing available (off by default) | Timesheets with manager approval and exception flags; daily & weekly overtime thresholds and break policies you configure | Payroll periods + payroll-ready export/sync (Gusto, QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex, Rippling, CSV). Not a payroll processor — no tax filing, no payments | Free plan exists (5 staff) but the time clock is not on it — starts on Basic, 30-day free trial | Shopify stores that want POS clock-in, scheduling, commissions and training in one flat-priced app |
| EasyTeam | Shopify POS clock-in — the longest-running and most mature Shopify-native time clock (as of June 2026) | Timesheets, payroll prep and commissions (as of June 2026) | Payroll preparation and export — like us, prepares rather than processes (as of June 2026) | Free tier up to 1 staff (as of June 2026) | Retailers who want the most proven Shopify POS clock-in, full stop |
| Homebase | Time clock for hourly teams on tablet, phone and web — not Shopify POS-native (as of June 2026) | Timesheets and hours built for an hourly workforce (as of June 2026) | Actually runs US payroll as a paid add-on — files taxes, direct deposit (as of July 2026) | Free plan — 1 location, up to 20 employees (as of June 2026) | Single-location teams, and anyone who wants hours and payroll from one vendor |
| Deputy | Time and attendance across devices, tied to its scheduling engine (as of June 2026) | The deepest here — labour-law compliance and award interpretation, which we do not attempt (as of June 2026) | Exports to payroll systems (as of June 2026) | Trial only — 31-day free trial (as of June 2026) | Teams where break rules, overtime law or awards must be right |
| Connecteam | Mobile clock-in inside a broad ops app — also does tasks, digital forms and team chat (as of June 2026) | Timesheets as part of the wider workforce suite (as of June 2026) | Exports to payroll systems (as of June 2026) | Free for life — up to 10 users (as of June 2026) | Deskless teams who need forms, tasks and chat as much as a clock |
| When I Work | Time and attendance alongside scheduling and messaging (as of June 2026) | Timesheets tied to the schedule (as of June 2026) | Exports to payroll systems (as of June 2026) | Trial only — 14-day free trial (as of June 2026) | Larger hourly teams wanting simple per-seat scheduling + attendance |
Competitor facts are drawn from each vendor's public pricing and product pages on the dates shown and may change. Staff Hub's own prices and plan limits are current as of July 2026: Free $0 (5 staff) / Basic $12.99/mo or $129/yr (15 staff) / Pro $24.99/mo or $249/yr (50 staff) / Enterprise $49.99/mo or $499/yr (unlimited), with a 30-day trial on paid plans. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor before you buy.
A closer look at each app
EasyTeam
If the question is narrowly "which Shopify POS time clock is most proven", EasyTeam is the honest answer. It has been doing this on Shopify longer than anyone, and a time clock is a piece of software where maturity is worth a lot — it is used every single shift, by people who will not file a bug report, and edge cases have had years to surface. Timesheets, payroll prep and commissions sit around it. Like us, it prepares payroll rather than processing it. Choose EasyTeam if the clock-in has to be bulletproof and that is the decision.
Homebase
Homebase is not Shopify POS-native, and for some stores that is disqualifying. But it is the only app here that closes the loop all the way to money: hours in, taxes filed, staff paid by direct deposit. It also has a real free plan for one location — not a trial. If you are a single store with a small hourly team and no budget, or a store that wants to stop juggling a payroll bureau, Homebase is a better buy than we are. Choose Homebase if you want payroll actually run, or you need attendance for free.
Deputy
Deputy's attendance is inseparable from its compliance engine: break entitlements, overtime rules and award interpretation are applied to the hours, rather than left to you to configure correctly. We do not do this and we are not going to pretend the difference is cosmetic — in a strict jurisdiction it is the whole ball game. Choose Deputy if a wrong break or overtime calculation is a compliance problem, not just an accounting one.
Connecteam
Connecteam clocks people in, but its centre of gravity is elsewhere: task management, digital forms and incident reports, checklists, and team chat, with an unusually generous free-for-life tier for small teams. Attendance is one module of many. Choose Connecteam if the clock is only part of a broader "my team has no system for anything" problem.
When I Work
When I Work pairs time and attendance with scheduling and messaging on simple per-seat pricing. It is not Shopify-aware and does not try to be. Choose When I Work if you want scheduling and attendance to be one straightforward per-user purchase across many locations.
Staff Hub
Ours, so discount accordingly. Staff clock in and out on Shopify POS with a PIN. Photo verification is available so a manager can see who actually clocked in. GPS geofencing (150 m radius by default) is available and off by default — you decide whether to collect that data. Entries land in timesheets with exception flags and a manager approval step; overtime thresholds (daily and weekly, 1.5× by default) and break policies are configurable; approved hours roll into payroll periods and out through a payroll-ready export or sync to Gusto, QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex, Rippling or CSV.
What is different about us is what the clock connects to: the same app does drag-and-drop scheduling — with sales-aware auto-scheduling, POS sales commissions and sales attribution on Pro and above — plus PTO and time-off balances, and the training, onboarding and announcement side of running a shop floor — at a flat per-tier price rather than per seat. What is not different: we do not process payroll, we do not interpret labour law, and the time clock is not on our free plan — it starts on Basic ($12.99/mo), with a 30-day free trial. Choose Staff Hub if you run Shopify and want clock-in, timesheets, the rota and staff training to live in one place at a predictable price.
How to choose
Stop at the first statement that is clearly true of you.
- You want the hours to become an actual payslip, from the same vendor. Homebase. It runs US payroll. Nobody else here does — including us.
- Break, overtime or award rules are a compliance risk. Deputy. Its engine interprets those rules; ours applies the ones you set.
- You cannot pay anything. Homebase (one location, up to 20 employees) or Connecteam (up to 10 users) have real permanent free tiers with attendance. Our free tier does not include the time clock.
- The Shopify POS clock-in is the whole decision and you want the longest track record. EasyTeam.
- You need forms, tasks and chat too. Connecteam.
- None of the above. If you run Shopify and want POS clock-in, timesheets, overtime, payroll-ready export, scheduling, commissions and staff training in one app without a per-seat bill — that is the case for Staff Hub.
Clock in on Shopify POS, export payroll-ready hours
PIN clock-in on POS, photo verification, timesheets with approval, overtime and break policies, and export to Gusto, QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex, Rippling or CSV. Included from Basic ($12.99/mo) with a 30-day free trial.