What counts as a missed punch (and what doesn't)
A missed punch is a clock-in or clock-out that never made it onto the time card. Most often it is a shift with a start and no end, because someone left at closing without clocking out. It also covers a clock-out with no matching clock-in, a meal break with only one side recorded, and a duplicate punch someone entered while trying to fix the first mistake.
None of that is a pay decision. If the employee worked, they get paid, whether or not the clock recorded it. What is missing is the evidence of when, not the obligation to pay. And if every time is on the card but one of them is wrong, that is a different problem: you are correcting a time that is there, not adding one that is missing.
Catching them before payroll closes
- Scan open time cards midweek, not on payroll morning.
- Look for any shift with a start and no end.
- Ask the employee what time they actually stopped, while the shift is fresh.
- Write the reason on the correction, not just the new time.
- Have a manager approve the corrected shift before payroll exports it.
How a small correction becomes a payroll problem
- A closing shift with no clock-out, filled in with the scheduled end time instead of the real one.
- An employee who stayed late but never clocked out, so the week looks like it stayed under 40 hours.
- A note that says only "fixed," which records that something changed but not why.
- Cutting the hours as a penalty for forgetting, which turns a record problem into unpaid wages.
Pay the time, keep the reason
A missed punch is not a missing hour. The work happened; only the record of when is gone. Fix the time, write down how you know, and get it approved before payroll runs. Do that and the correction stays small, instead of becoming a number nobody can explain later.