Some businesses use NFC tags instead of GPS for clocking in and out. If your shift location has an NFC tag, you will see a different clock-in experience.
What is NFC clocking?
NFC (Near Field Communication) lets you clock in and out by tapping your phone on a physical tag at the work site. It is faster and more reliable than GPS in some locations.
You will use NFC clocking if:
- The business has installed an NFC tag at the location
- Your shift details show Clock In with NFC or Clock Out with NFC
NFC clocking is now live at select business locations and rolling out to more venues over time. If you do not see the NFC option, your shift uses standard GPS clocking. See How Do I Clock In and Out of a Shift?
How to clock in with NFC
- Open your shift in the Croux app
- When you arrive, tap Clock In with NFC
- A prompt will appear: Hold phone near tag
- Hold your phone against the NFC tag at the location: the top edge on iPhone, the back on Android. Keep still until Croux shows you clocked in
- You will see a confirmation when the clock-in is recorded
How to clock out with NFC
- When your shift ends, tap Clock Out with NFC
- Hold your phone against the NFC tag (top edge on iPhone, back on Android) and keep still until Croux shows you clocked out
- Confirm the clock-out
What if I don't have signal?
NFC clocking works even with poor or no cellular connectivity. When you tap the NFC tag, your clock event is saved locally on your phone and automatically syncs to Croux when your connection returns.
This means:
- Your clock-in/out is recorded immediately — even if you're in a basement, warehouse, or area with spotty signal
- No action needed from you — the app handles the sync automatically in the background
- Your time is accurate — the timestamp reflects when you actually tapped the tag, not when it synced
If you see a brief "syncing" indicator after tapping, that's normal — it just means the event is queued and will upload shortly.
Troubleshooting
I tapped and saw an error, so I tapped again
Tap once, then wait for the confirmation before tapping again. This is the most common problem we see. An error flash on screen does not always mean the tap failed. If your first tap registered and you tap a second time, the second read is rejected as a duplicate, which looks like a failure even though your time was recorded.
Hold the phone on the tag, wait for the Croux confirmation, and only try again if nothing appears after a few seconds.
NFC is not working on my phone
- iPhone: NFC is always on. There is no setting to switch on and nothing to enable. Hold the top edge of the iPhone against the tag
- Android: check that NFC is turned on in your phone settings
- Remove your phone case if it is very thick
- On Android, use the back of your phone and try different positions. The NFC antenna sits in a different place on different phones, so move it around slowly rather than holding one spot
I closed the scan window on my iPhone
Closing the iPhone scan window does not clock you in or out. Croux shows You did not clock in (or You did not clock out) so you know the tag was not read. Tap Scan Again, hold the top edge of your iPhone against the tag, and keep still until Croux shows a confirmed clock.
I do not see the NFC option
Not all locations use NFC. Your shift may use GPS-based clocking instead.
The same is true if your phone does not support NFC at all. Croux recognizes that and you clock in with GPS by default, with no error and nothing for you to set up.
The tag is not responding
- Make sure you are at the correct location
- Try holding your phone steady against the tag for 2-3 seconds
- If a venue has more than one tag, check you are using the one for your shift
- GPS fallback opens after a genuine NFC read error or a scan timeout, or if your phone has no NFC hardware. Closing the scan window or declining a permission prompt does not open GPS clock-in. Reopen the scan and try the tag again. Tell the on-site manager your arrival time, and contact support the same day with the shift code if your recorded hours look wrong.
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Need more help?
Send it to us at support@croux.co and we are happy to help!