Anita's Daily Attendance

I open one page each morning, tap the one or two who have not come, and all five of my staff are marked before my first call.

Who this is for

Anita Kelkar runs a chartered accountant's practice in Dharampeth, Nagpur, above a stationery shop. Five people work with her: two article assistants, one senior assistant, a typist, and Ramesh who opens the office and makes tea. At 9:40 in the morning Anita is already on a call with a client about a GST notice, and she wants attendance done in the gap before she picks up the phone.

How the job is done today

There is a bound register on the table near the door. It was signed properly for about three weeks in April. Now Ramesh signs for everyone on Saturday from memory. Anita keeps a rough count in her head instead, and around the 28th of the month, when she is working out salaries and leave, she asks the senior assistant how many days the second article came in. He says maybe four days he was not there. Nobody is sure. She pays the full amount because arguing over two days with someone who sits ten feet away is not worth it.

The screens, in order

1. Today — Shows the five names with today's date on top so Anita can mark the absent ones and be finished.
2. A single day — Lets her open any past date and correct a mark she made in a hurry or forgot entirely.
3. This month — Shows one line per person with how many days they came, so salary day needs no asking around.
4. My people — Where she adds a new article assistant in June and stops showing someone who has left.

What it keeps track of

• People — name, what they do here, the day they joined, still working or left
• Days — who, which date, present or absent or half day or on leave, a short note if she wants one

The one decision that matters

Does the day start blank, or does it start with everyone present? Blank is honest. It means nothing is recorded until Anita records it, and she must touch all five names each morning. Everyone present means she taps only the two who did not come and presses save. Go with everyone present. On a normal day four out of five people are at their desks, so blank makes her do five taps to say something she already knows. The whole session is meant to be ten seconds. One thing must be true though: a day she never opened at all should stay clearly unmarked, not quietly count as full attendance for all five.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave in-time and out-time out. The moment the page asks what time Ramesh arrived, the ten seconds become a minute and Anita stops opening it by the third week. Also leave out salary working, leave balances and downloading a file. She wants to know who came. The counting of money she already does herself, and she will trust her own arithmetic more than a screen's for a while yet.

How you would know it worked

On the 28th, Anita works out five salaries without calling anyone into her cabin to ask how many days somebody was missing. And when the typist says she was present on the 12th, Anita opens that date and they both look at the same answer.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a small CA office in Nagpur with five staff and I want a website only I use, where I open it in the morning and see today's date with my five people listed, everyone shown as present already, and I just tap the one or two who have not come and mark them absent or half day or on leave and save, and that should take me ten seconds. I want to be able to go back to an earlier date and fix a mark, and I want a monthly view showing each person and how many days they came, plus a place to add a new staff member or stop showing someone who has left. Keep it simple, no arrival times, no salary calculation, and make it work properly on my phone.