Retail and trade
Attendance for the outlet you are not standing in
There is one of you and there are two shops. The register in the outlet you are not in is filled in by the man most likely to open late. The page is written for anyone paying five to fifty people across one, two or three shop floors, and it says where this stops being useful.
Last reviewed: September 2026
What the team looks like
A single outlet runs on the owner, three or four salesmen on the floor, a cashier at the till who also takes back exchanges, a godown hand who unloads the tempo and refills the shelves, and a sweeper who comes in before opening. Add a second outlet and it gets a manager who holds the keys and does the banking. Salesmen and the cashier draw a monthly salary, most of them with a sale-linked amount on top that you decide yourself. Godown hands, loaders and the extra bodies you take on for a wedding-season week are on a daily wage.
What a day looks like
The sweeper is done by ten and the shutter goes up at half past. The cashier counts the float, and the first two hours are slow enough that one salesman can cover the floor while another checks yesterday's exchanges against the bill book.
The shop fills after seven and stays full till closing. That is the stretch you staffed for, and the stretch where the man who asked to leave early has already left. On the last night of the month everyone stays back for the stock count, walking the shelves with a pad until the numbers agree. The manager tallies the till against the day's bills, the last one out drops the shutter, and the cash and the keys travel home with the owner.
Where attendance goes wrong
The branch book is written by the man you cannot see
Your second outlet keeps its own register under the till, filled in by the manager who is also the one most likely to reach late. You read it when you visit, or when the month closes and the figures are already an argument you cannot win from the other side of town.
The rotating weekday off nobody agrees on at month end
A shop closes on a weekday, so the offs rotate and two salesmen swap between themselves without telling you. Come the salary run, nobody agrees who took Tuesday and who covered it. The one who worked through his own off has no way to show he was on the floor.
You settle a leaver from a pencil mark in the margin
Retail churn works through young men who last a few weeks, learn the shelves and then stop turning up. When one comes back for his money after the season, the only record of what he worked is his name written into a corner of the register and whatever the manager still remembers.
Stock-count night belongs to nobody's shift
On the last night of the month everybody stays back two hours past closing to count the shelves. Nothing marks that as different from a Tuesday. The salesman who stayed till one in the morning and the one who slipped out at half past ten are both a single line in the same column.
Which modules to switch on first
01 Attendance
Each outlet is an office with its own circle drawn round it, and a salesman checks in standing inside the shop. Give the late roster its own timing so the seven-to-close stretch has names against it.
02 Salary
Salesmen and the cashier are monthly. Their figure comes out of the days recorded at the outlet, with the rotating weekday off, your shop holidays and approved leave counted into it before you see a total.
03 Salary slips
Every salesman gets the month printed: what he earned, how many days sit behind it, and what is coming off for an advance. That is the sheet a till-side argument usually needs and never has.
04 Daily wages
Loaders, godown hands and the extra bodies you hire for a wedding week are paid per day worked, and those days come off the punches at the shop instead of off what two people remember.
Rolling it out
Add each outlet as an office and keep the radius tight. In a market row the next shop is ten metres away, and a wide circle lets a salesman punch in from the tea stall. Set the workweek to your actual weekday closing, and load your shop holidays before the first salary run. Give the late roster its own timing. Tell the team the day before you start that the phone comes out at the shutter, ahead of the float. Week one brings forgotten closing punches, and an admin corrects those.
A worked example
Say a salesman on the floor draws INR 17,750 a month and you run twenty-six payable days. INR 17,750 / 26 = INR 682.69 a day, rounded to two decimals. He takes three days in the wedding week without asking, so 3 x INR 682.69 = INR 2,048.07 comes off and INR 17,750 minus INR 2,048.07 = INR 15,701.93 is what he draws. The helper you hired for the same week is on a daily wage: 6 days x INR 660 = INR 3,960, built off the days he checked in at the outlet. Figures are illustrative. Your consultant can tell you what the schedule notified for your state and category of work requires.
Not for you if
- You want the sale-linked amount worked out from what each salesman sold. VTClock records days and builds pay from them, and it computes no incentive against anybody's numbers.
- You are shopping for a till or a stock package. This handles people only, and it touches nothing that happens at your cash point.
- Your two shops sit four doors apart and staff cross between them all day. One person belongs to one office here, so every crossing needs an admin correction.
Frequently asked questions
My shop closes on a weekday and trades on Sunday. Does that break the salary run?
No. The workweek is something you configure for your own business, so a Tuesday closing is treated the way a Sunday closing would be treated anywhere else, and monthly pay builds with weekly offs and holidays already counted in it. Where two salesmen swap offs between themselves, change the assignment or correct those days, because the figure follows the record rather than the roster in your head.
I run two outlets. Do I need a separate setup for each of them?
No. Each outlet is configured as its own office inside the same organisation, with its own circle and radius, and every person is assigned to the outlet he actually works at. Check-in works near that one only. Every punch lands on the same admin desk with a location pin, so you can watch the branch from the main shop without phoning the manager to ask who turned up.
A helper worked eleven days in March and turned up in May asking for his money. What do I show him?
The eleven days, if he was on the app while he worked them. Wage-based staff are paid per day worked, straight from the attendance record, and the printed slip carries earnings, the month's attendance summary and any advance recovery. If nobody enrolled him, there is nothing to show, which is the argument this replaces. Enrol short-term hands on day one.
Will the printed slips do for a Shops and Establishments inspection?
Treat them as your own record and nothing further. VTClock prints a branded slip showing earnings, the month's attendance summary and any advance recovery, and it makes no claim to be a statutory register or a legal document under the state Shops and Establishments Act. Provident fund, insurance, professional tax and tax deducted on salary are handled by your consultant. VTClock does not compute, deduct or file any of them. Ask him what your state expects.
Similar businesses
- PharmaciesThe licence on your wall carries a pharmacist's name, and the book in your drawer cannot say how many of the store's open hours he actually stood in it.
- SalonsWedding season fills eleven days straight and your two senior stylists have not taken a Monday off since the first.
- WarehousesPickers, loaders and forklift operators come through one gate on shifts that overlap by an hour, and half of them are paid by the day.
- Restaurants12 to 20 people, two services a day, and a register that gives the whole thing one line.
Modules to look at
- AttendanceGeofenced check-in and check-out near assigned offices, with shift grace, late marks and overnight shifts handled for you.
- SalaryMonthly pay builds from attendance fractions, holidays, weekly offs and approved leave, so there are no side calculations.
- Salary slipsBranded, printable slips with earnings, an attendance summary and advance recovery. Staff see the same figures you print.
- Daily wagesPay wage-based staff per day worked, straight from the attendance record. Built for crews and site work.
Terms worth knowing
- Weekly offA weekly off is the rest day in each week on which an employee is not required to work.
- Payable daysPayable days are the number of days a monthly salary is spread across, and the number of days in a given month the employee is actually paid for.
- Salary slipA salary slip is the statement an employer gives an employee for one wage period, setting out what was earned, what was deducted and what was paid.
- Full and final settlementA full and final settlement is the closing payment made when an employee leaves, covering everything still owed in both directions.
See VTClock set up for retail shops
Tell us your headcount, your shifts and how you pay people today. We will walk through the modules that fit and the ones you can leave off.