Casual & Daily Worker Attendance and Payroll Zambia — Pay Only Days Worked

Where the wage bill leaks

Casual labour is paid from memory.

A list of names and a tick per day, written up by whoever was there. Every tick is a payment.

Ghost workers

A name on the casual list who never came. Daily pay follows face clock-ins, so no clock-ins means no paid days.

Ticked for a friend

A register can be ticked by anyone. A face and a blink have to be there in person.

Retyped every payday

Days counted by hand and typed into a spreadsheet. Here the pay run counts them.

A worker clocking in with their face on an Android device at the site gate

One device at the gate. The whole site clocked.

Enrol each worker once on the Android phone or tablet at the site. From then on they look at it, blink, and are clocked in — and do the same to clock out. Matching runs on the device, so a morning muster of hundreds moves at the pace of a glance, with or without signal.

Blink liveness check — a printed photo or a picture on a screen does not pass
The time comes from the server's clock, not the phone's
GPS coordinates and their accuracy on every clock-in and clock-out
Saved on the device first and sent when signal returns, never twice

Xeel pay runs paid from the days and hours workers clocked with their face

Payday reads the clock.

Choose how each worker is paid. On a daily rate, the pay run pays the days their face clocked in. On an hourly rate, it pays the hours between their face in and their face out. PAYE, NAPSA and NHIMA are worked out on what was actually earned, and each payslip goes to the worker on WhatsApp.

Daily rate: days clocked × the rate — no clock-in, no pay for that day
Hourly rate: hours clocked × the rate
A day with a clock-in but no clock-out pays no hours, and is named before you release the run
Monthly salary: paid as normal, with present, absent, late and short days on the timesheet

A timesheet carrying a verification code

Every exception leaves evidence.

When a face is not recognised, a supervisor can override — but only with a reason and a photo of the place, and the face the camera saw is kept beside it. A worker leaving before the minimum day gives a reason. The office sees all of it, by worker and by day.

Lateness in minutes against your start time
Short shifts with a reason: sick, injury, permission, half day, emergency
An attendance map of where each clock-in happened, overrides highlighted
Monthly timesheet to PDF with a verification code, or to Excel

Compared

Four ways to take a register. One that pays from it.

	Paper register	Cards or PINs	Fingerprint terminal	Xeel face attendance
Can be done for a friend	Yes — anyone can sign	Yes — cards get lent	Harder	No — face and a blink, on the spot
Hardware	A book	A reader and cards to replace	A terminal at every gate	An Android phone or tablet
Worn, dusty or wet hands	—	—	Can fail to read	Touch-free
No signal at the site	Works	Depends on the system	Depends on the system	Works, syncs later
Where it happened	No	The gate it was read at	The gate it was read at	GPS on every clock event
Into payroll	Retyped by hand	Usually an export	Usually an export	Daily and hourly pay straight from the clock

Questions

Casual and daily workers, answered.

How do I pay casual workers only for the days they worked?

Put them on a Daily rate in Xeel and have them clock in and out with their face. The pay run counts the days each worker clocked in and pays those days at their rate, then works out PAYE, NAPSA and NHIMA on the result. A day with no clock-in is not paid, and nobody types the days in by hand.

Can I pay hourly workers from the hours they clocked?

Yes. For a worker on an Hourly rate the pay run takes the hours between their face clock-in and clock-out and multiplies them by the rate. A day with a clock-in but no clock-out pays no hours, and the run names those days before you release it so they can be checked.

Do casual workers need their own phone or an app?

No. One Android phone or tablet at the workplace clocks everyone. Workers who have WhatsApp receive their payslip there as a PDF.

Does Xeel work out PAYE, NAPSA and NHIMA for casual workers?

Yes. Every pay run works out PAYE, NAPSA and NHIMA on what each worker actually earned from the days or hours they clocked. The business files the returns itself; O'Sense does not file with ZRA.

Does it work without internet or network?

Yes. Faces are matched on the phone or tablet itself and every clock-in and clock-out is saved on the device first, then sent when signal returns, each with a key so nothing is recorded twice. The time is taken from the server's clock, so changing the time on the handset does not change the record.

What does it cost, and is there a fee per worker?

Face clock-in is part of Xeel, priced per month as one app. There is no charge per worker or per face, and the employee register is free with every plan. Message O'Sense on WhatsApp on +260 974 546 632 for current pricing.

Where is the face data kept?

The face template -- the numbers a face is turned into -- is stored encrypted on the device, with the key in the Android Keystore, and is never uploaded. Only the enrolment photo reaches the office, so a replacement phone can be set up again. How O'Sense handles biometric data under Zambia's Data Protection Act 2021 is in the privacy policy.

Known limits — not bugs. Face clock-in runs on Android phones and tablets, not iPhone. A clock-in outside a site boundary is recorded with its coordinates, not refused. Monthly-salaried staff are paid their salary, with attendance shown rather than deducted. Xeel records attendance; it does not open doors or turnstiles. The blink check stops a photo or a screen; it is not a claim that no attack can ever work.

No clock-in, no pay for that day.