It's 5:45am on a Saturday.

Your setup crew are due on site at 6:00am for a corporate event.

You have twelve people rostered, a load-in schedule that doesn't allow for late arrivals, and a client who'll notice immediately if things aren't running on time.

You're coordinating via texts, trying to confirm who has actually arrived, and already managing the anxiety if one or two people don't show.

This is the operating reality for event services businesses, and it's a world away from the nine-to-five environments that most workforce management tools are designed for.

Shift patterns are irregular, staff numbers vary dramatically from event to event, your workforce includes a mix of permanent employees and casual workers, and the pressure to run payroll accurately across all of them is constant.

Luckily, TimeKeeper was built for exactly this kind of complexity.

The Workforce Challenge Beneath Every Event

The event services and hospitality sector has long had one of the highest staff turnover rates of any industry in the UK. According to HR Data Hub, overall staff turnover in hospitality and catering stands at 38.7%, the highest of any industry group.

High turnover means you're frequently onboarding new team members, managing a workforce that's in constant flux, and relying on casual staff who may work with you once a month.

In that environment, paper timesheets don't just create headaches, they also create payroll risk. Incorrect hours, missing shifts, casual workers who aren't sure of their contracted arrangements all end up in your payroll team's inbox, and all of it takes time to untangle.

Variable shift patterns add another layer of complexity. A worker might do a twelve-hour setup shift on Saturday, a four-hour breakdown on Sunday, and nothing else that week. Recording those hours accurately (and ensuring overtime is correctly calculated) is straightforward in TimeKeeper and unreliable on paper.

How TimeKeeper Works for Event Teams

TimeKeeper provides a flexible, verified time and attendance system that adapts to the operational patterns of event services businesses.

How?

It works across different clock-in methods and shift structures, while giving managers real-time visibility from setup through to breakdown.

Kiosk clock-in for on-site teams: A tablet kiosk at the event entrance or backstage area allows multiple staff to clock in and out using a simple PIN or facial recognition. No individual smartphone required.
Mobile app for dispersed workers: For staff working across different areas of a venue or arriving from different locations, the TimeKeeper mobile app lets them clock in independently, with GPS verification confirming they're on the correct site. This is particularly useful for AV technicians, catering leads, or event coordinators who arrive and depart at different times.
Live Who's In dashboard: TimeKeeper's real-time attendance view shows exactly who is currently clocked in, when they arrived, and when they clocked out. During a live event, this gives your event manager instant visibility without phone calls, which is critical when you need to confirm staffing levels quickly.
Flexible scheduling and rota management: Build rotas for individual events, assign staff to specific roles or areas, and adjust schedules in real time as availability changes. TimeKeeper's scheduling tools are designed for the kind of rapid, event-by-event planning that characterises the industry, and not the fixed weekly rotas of a traditional office environment.
Leave management for mixed workforces: Manage holiday requests and leave balances for both permanent employees and regular casual staff in one place.
Automatic overtime calculation: TimeKeeper calculates regular and overtime hours based on your configured rules, handling the pay structures that event-based work often requires.

Accurate Payroll After Every Event

The end of an event weekend shouldn't mean the start of a payroll investigation. With TimeKeeper, every shift is captured digitally and verified at the point of clock-in. By the time your payroll team is ready to run that week's payroll, the hours are already approved and structured, not sitting in a pile of handwritten sheets waiting to be decoded.

TimeKeeper's integration with BrightPay means approved hours transfer directly into payroll without re-keying. The result is a payroll process that's faster, more accurate, and less stressful for everyone involved.

Built for the Realities of Event Work

TimeKeeper is used by tens of thousands of employees across the UK and Ireland every day. It's designed to work in environments where standard HR tools don't, like where workers are mobile, shifts are irregular, and the ability to verify attendance in real time isn't a nice-to-have but an operational necessity.

Getting started doesn't require a lengthy setup process. Most event services businesses are capturing their first verified timesheets within hours of signing up (and wondering why they spent so long relying on paper!).

Ready to get started?
Get visibility over your event teams by starting a free trial today.