Strategic Vision
Why Time Clock Compliance Is Broken — And What We're Doing About It
The compliance gap is the biggest unspoken risk in time and attendance. Every vendor managing biometric time clocks knows compliance is a problem. Most deal with it through checklists, hope, and crossed fingers. We decided to build something better.
Compliance shouldn't depend on checklists. It should be enforced by the system itself.
The Compliance Problem No One Talks About
If you manage biometric time clocks, you're collecting fingerprints, facial scans, or other biometric data from employees. That data is governed by a growing web of regulations — BIPA in Illinois, GDPR in Europe, and an expanding list of state-level biometric privacy laws across the United States.
The penalties are real. BIPA alone provides for statutory damages of $1,000 per negligent violation and $5,000 per intentional violation — per person. Class action settlements in this space have reached tens of millions of dollars. And the litigation is accelerating, not slowing down.
For time and attendance vendors, this creates a compounding problem. Every new client means more employees, more jurisdictions, and more regulatory surface area. The risk grows with every device you deploy.
Why Manual Compliance Fails at Scale
Most vendors handle compliance the way they handle everything else: manually. Spreadsheets track which regulations apply where. Periodic audits check whether devices are configured correctly. Someone on the team is responsible for keeping up with regulatory changes.
This works when you have 20 devices at 5 client sites. It breaks completely at 200 devices across 50 sites in 12 jurisdictions.
The problems are predictable:
- Configuration drift is inevitable. A device gets reconfigured during troubleshooting. A firmware update changes a default setting. A new site gets deployed with a template that hasn't been updated for the latest regulation.
- Audit trails assembled after the fact are unreliable. If you're building compliance documentation at audit time, you're reconstructing history — not recording it.
- Regulatory changes fall through the cracks. New states pass biometric privacy laws. Existing laws get amended. Staying current is a full-time job that no one on your team signed up for.
If you're assembling compliance documentation at audit time, you're already behind.
A Compliance Engine, Not a Checklist
We built Reliatime's compliance engine to solve this problem at the platform level. Instead of tracking compliance manually, the engine enforces it automatically and continuously.
Here's how it works:
Continuous monitoring. Every device in your fleet is checked against your compliance rules in real time. Not once a quarter. Not when someone remembers to run an audit. Every device, continuously.
Automated enforcement. When the engine detects that a device has drifted out of compliance — a configuration changed, a setting was overridden, a firmware update altered a default — it corrects the issue automatically. No manual intervention required.
Audit trail by default. Every compliance event, every correction, every status change is logged automatically as it happens. When an audit comes, the documentation is already done. You're not reconstructing history — you're handing over a live record.
Regulatory rule templates. BIPA, GDPR, and state biometric laws are built into the platform as enforceable rule templates. When regulations change, the templates update — and every device in your fleet follows.
The result: the system catches and corrects compliance issues as they happen, before they become violations.
From Engine to Guarantee
When automated enforcement is handling compliance continuously, the risk profile changes dramatically — enough to insure the result.
Because the compliance engine reduces risk so effectively, we're pursuing insurance coverage that would let us back the result with a real guarantee. Our goal: if a compliance issue occurs despite the engine's protections, the guarantee covers it.
We're working toward making this available to every customer on the platform — not as a premium add-on, not as an enterprise-only feature, but as part of every plan.
For your business, this means a future where you can make a promise few competitors can match: compliance enforced by technology, backed by insurance.
What This Means for Your Business
The compliance engine changes the conversation you have with clients and prospects — and an insurance-backed guarantee will take it even further.
Turn compliance from a cost center into a selling point. Instead of compliance being something you worry about internally, it becomes something you market externally. Automated enforcement is a powerful differentiator in a market where everyone else is hoping for the best.
Win contracts you couldn't before. Large enterprises and regulated industries increasingly require compliance assurances from their vendors. With Reliatime's compliance engine, you can demonstrate real, continuous enforcement — not just good intentions.
Scale without scaling risk. Every new client, every new jurisdiction, every new device used to mean more compliance risk. With the compliance engine, growth doesn't increase your exposure. The system scales with you.
Sleep better. This one's simple. When compliance is enforced by the platform automatically and continuously, it stops being the thing that keeps you up at night.
Compliance shouldn't depend on checklists and crossed fingers. It should be enforced by the system itself — and we're working to back it with insurance.
Let's talk about how Reliatime can make compliance your strongest selling point.