Attendance · 3 min read
Attendance regularisation workflow: how to handle missing or incorrect punches
Design an attendance regularisation process that preserves the original record, captures an explanation and gives every exception a clear reviewer.
The short answer
Attendance regularisation is the controlled process for correcting an incomplete or inaccurate attendance record. A good workflow preserves the original event, records the employee’s requested correction and explanation, routes it to an authorised reviewer, shows the decision, and keeps the final attendance result traceable for HR and any agreed payroll hand-off.
What should trigger attendance regularisation?
Common triggers include a missing check-in or check-out, a punch attached to the wrong day, an approved off-site assignment, a device import delay or a schedule that does not match the employee’s assigned roster. The system should describe the exception without automatically deciding why it happened.
Define which situations employees can request themselves and which require HR or system investigation. A missing event and a failed device import may appear similar on a dashboard, but they have different owners and evidence.
What information should the employee provide?
Keep the form short enough to use but specific enough to review. Capture the affected date, requested time or status, reason and any supporting note required by policy. Show the original record beside the request so the employee is correcting a visible fact rather than guessing what the system received.
Do not collect supporting information merely because a form can accept it. Agree which evidence is necessary, who can see it and how long it should remain available.
Who should review the request?
The reporting manager commonly reviews the working context: whether the person was scheduled, present or working elsewhere. HR may own policy exceptions, unresolved records and period-level review. The exact route should reflect the organisation’s approved responsibilities.
Set coverage for an unavailable manager and decide what happens when the reporting line changes while a request is open. The employee should see the current stage and any request for more information.
How should the original and corrected records appear?
A correction should not erase the fact that the original record was incomplete or different. Keep the original event, requested change, decision, reviewer and time of decision as related parts of the same history.
Use clear status language such as submitted, returned for information, approved or declined. If an approved request changes the calculated attendance result, make that effect visible without rewriting the source event as though it had arrived that way.
Where does payroll enter the workflow?
Agree the attendance cut-off, responsible reviewer and treatment of unresolved exceptions before connecting payroll. Approval of a correction may update a payroll input, but it is not evidence that payroll has been recalculated, released or paid.
Decide how late approvals are handled and who reopens a closed period when policy permits it. The system should make that hand-off explicit rather than using one “complete” status for several different actions.
How should the workflow be monitored?
Review how many exceptions remain unassigned, how long returned requests wait for a response and which device, roster or policy issues recur. A rising number of corrections can indicate unclear instructions, inaccurate schedules, device problems or an overly difficult process.
Use these patterns to fix the source of friction. The goal is not to maximise approvals or declines; it is to create an attendance record that employees, managers and HR can understand and resolve consistently.
Your checklist
- Define every regularisation reason and its responsible owner.
- Show the original attendance record beside the requested change.
- Capture the date, correction, explanation and only necessary evidence.
- Preserve the employee request, reviewer decision and final effect.
- Agree the cut-off and payroll treatment for unresolved or late items.
- Review recurring exceptions to identify device, roster or policy problems.
See the workflow in practice
Follow a missing punch from the employee’s correction request through manager review and the final attendance record.
Explore attendance management ↗About these guides: reviewed against the product workflows documented for People Impressions and prepared with AI assistance. Scenarios are illustrative, not customer results. Confirm policy, legal and configuration details for your organisation.
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