What is Buddy punching?
Buddy punching is when one employee clocks in or out on behalf of another who is not actually there, producing paid hours for time that was never worked.
Also called: time theft, punch fraud.
Why is contract security especially exposed?
Guards work alone, overnight, spread across sites nobody from the office visits. There is no supervisor at the door and often no colleague who would notice. A phone call to a co-worker is enough to cover a shift that was never worked, and the discrepancy usually surfaces only when a client notices the site was unattended, which is the worst possible way to find out.
The cost is not only payroll. A guarding contract is a promise that someone is on post. A shift that was billed but not worked is a billing problem and a contract-integrity problem at the same time.
How do security companies stop buddy punching?
- Tie clock-in to place: a geofence means the clock-in must happen at the site.
- Tie clock-in to a person: a selfie or photo at clock-in ties the record to a face, not just a login.
- Require checkpoint scans during the shift so presence has to continue, not just occur once.
- Alert on the exceptions: a late or missing clock-in that nobody sees is not a control.
Related terms
Proving this on your own sites
GuardOps captures GPS-verified clock-ins, DAR and incident reports, and patrol checkpoints, then exports the record as client-ready proof.