How Retailers Can Prevent Buddy Punching with Geofencing & Liveness Detection in UKG

Time theft quietly drains retail businesses, and many managers underestimate how much it costs. According to the American Payroll Association, buddy punching costs U.S. employers over $373 million each year. In a typical retail store, that can translate into tens of thousands of dollars lost annually through small, often unnoticed time abuses.

Loading Loomslides...

 

For more information on CloudApper AI TimeClock for UKG visit our page here.

The impact goes beyond payroll. When systems are easy to exploit, trust erodes, and honest employees carry the burden. Solutions like CloudApper AI TimeClock for UKG help retailers stop buddy punching by verifying both where employees clock in and who is actually clocking in, providing accurate, reliable time data that managers can trust.

How Geolocation Time Tracking Works

While geofencing solves the “where” problem, it does not fully address the “who.” An employee can still clock in for a coworker if both are physically present at the store. Shared tablets and kiosks make this especially easy in busy retail environments.

To truly eliminate buddy punching, retailers need a second layer of verification that confirms the identity of the person clocking in. This is where liveness detection becomes essential.

How Liveness Detection Prevents Time Fraud

Liveness detection verifies that a real, authorized person is present during clock-in. The most common approach uses facial recognition, though some systems also support voice recognition.

Employees enroll once by providing a reference image or voice sample. When they clock in, the system captures a live image or voice input and compares it to the stored record. Importantly, it checks for signs of a live human presence rather than matching against a static photo.

This prevents common workarounds like holding up a picture or playing a video of another employee. The system looks for natural movement and depth, confirming the person is physically there. The process takes only seconds and is often faster than entering a PIN or scanning a badge.

By verifying identity in real time, liveness detection makes buddy punching virtually impossible, even when employees are in the correct location.

How CloudApper AI TimeClock for UKG Brings Both Solutions Together

Seamless UKG Integration with Minimal Setup

CloudApper AI TimeClock integrates directly with UKG to bring geofencing and liveness detection into a single, unified workflow. Retailers configure geofences for each location and enroll employee biometric data once during setup. From there, all verification data syncs automatically with UKG, without additional systems to manage.

Real-Time Location and Identity Verification at Clock-In

When an employee clocks in using a tablet or smartphone, the system verifies both their location and identity at the same time. If the employee is outside the approved geofence, a clear message explains why the punch was blocked. If identity verification fails, the system alerts the employee and notifies a manager, helping separate fraud attempts from simple issues like poor lighting.

Instant Time Syncing Without Manual Corrections

Once both checks pass, the punch is approved instantly and synced to UKG in real time. There is no manual data entry, no end-of-pay-period cleanup, and no guesswork around attendance. Time data flows cleanly into scheduling, payroll, and reporting workflows.

Comparison: Traditional vs Geolocation Time Clocks

Traditional badge or PIN-based systems offer little protection against buddy punching. Credentials can be shared easily, and managers often catch issues only after payroll errors occur.

Geolocation time clocks verify that employees are physically at the correct location, while liveness detection confirms the right person is clocking in. Together, they prevent both location-based and identity-based time fraud.

Geolocation systems also reduce administrative work by syncing directly with UKG and eliminating manual corrections. They scale easily across new locations without the need for expensive hardware installations. Most setups rely on existing smartphones or low-cost tablets instead of dedicated clock hardware.

From an employee perspective, using familiar devices is often more convenient than managing physical badges. From a compliance standpoint, automated verification and detailed records simplify audits and dispute resolution.

Conclusion

Time theft through buddy punching costs retail businesses billions of dollars every year, but you don’t have to accept it as the cost of doing business. Geolocation time clocks with liveness detection give you a powerful, affordable way to verify that the right employees are clocking in from the right locations.

By combining GPS verification with biometric authentication, systems like CloudApper AI TimeClock for UKG eliminate the vulnerabilities that make traditional time tracking so easy to manipulate. You get accurate time data, your honest employees don’t have to cover for those gaming the system, and you can focus on running your business instead of playing time clock detective.