Direct answer
Buddy punching is when one employee clocks in for an absent colleague. Prevent it with geofenced mobile clock-in, biometric verification, and GPS shift-session audit trails — not shared PINs or paper timesheets.
Buddy punching costs US employers billions annually in inflated payroll. Field teams are especially vulnerable without location verification.
Prevention methods ranked
1. Geofence-bound mobile clock-in
2. Facial recognition at kiosk
3. GPS shift-session trails
4. Manager real-time dashboards