A LITTLE MORE HUMAN. A LOT MORE TOGETHER.
Clock-ins, your people, the next handover.
Bring the whole
shift together — and give everyone a little more room to get on with
their day.
PRIVATE PILOT · BUILT FOR IPHONE & ANDROID
01 / EVERYTHING FINDS ITS PLACE
The shift doesn’t live in a spreadsheet. It lives in arrivals, breaks, conversations and handovers. Cicada puts the pieces in one place.
One tap to mark the moment. If the signal drops, a queued punch keeps the time you actually pressed the button.
A live board of presence and shared status. See who’s on site or running late, without a map following anyone around.
“The delivery is in the back.
Everything’s ready for you.”
Speak or type a handover, then leave clear, organised notes for the people picking up where you left off.
02 / TRY A SMALL PART OF THE DAY
From the first hello to the final clock-out, the essentials are right where you need them.
Clock in, take a break, request leave and look back at your own hours. A clearer record, on your own phone.
Interactive product illustration · Example data
No account,
location access or personal data required.
Good morning, Jamie.
Your first moment will appear here.
A little clarity for your day.
03 / A LITTLE RESPECT GOES A LONG WAY
Knowing a shift started shouldn’t mean knowing someone’s every move. Cicada records a location when someone clocks in or out. It doesn’t follow the journey in between.
No commute tracking. No background location trail.
Corrections are appended. The original punch stays put.
The optional photo check detects presence on the device. It doesn’t enrol a face for recognition.
04 / ALL THE OTHER LITTLE THINGS, TOO
Bring new starters in with hire records and payroll-pack OCR. Work-inbox activation and a personal PIN make the first sign-in straightforward.
Track breaks and request leave in the app. People can see the request and make a decision in the same place.
Ask a question by voice or text. Ivy reads the shift ledger to help you make sense of the record in front of you.
Weekly pay estimates bring recorded hours into view. They’re labelled estimates; open shifts must be resolved before the week can be calculated.
Pay figures are estimates, not payslips or tax advice. Cicada does not file RTI or replace your payroll process. Scheduling and shift swaps are not currently included.
05 / THE HONEST COMPARISON
Here is where Cicada parts company with the usual approaches to the same problem — in their own published words, and in ours.
| The difference | Cicada ClockOURS | Scheduling-first platforms | All-in-one ops suites | GPS time-clock apps | Small-business all-in-ones |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Where your people are Knowing a shift started shouldn’t mean knowing someone’s whole day. | One reading at clock-in, one at clock-out. There is no route tracking in the product to switch on. | Location on the punch, with geofencing around the site. | Location on the punch, with live tracking available on the higher tiers. | A location stamp every few minutes while someone is clocked in, drawn as a route on a map. | A GPS-enabled clock with geofencing at the punch. |
| 02 Proving it’s really you A selfie in a manager’s timesheet and a face template on a server are very different things to hand over for a job. | An optional photo check that detects a person is present, on the device. No face is enrolled and no face template is stored. | Opt-in facial biometrics on the shared kiosk. | A personal PIN, plus a selfie saved for a manager to review. | Photo clock-ins, used to verify identity. | Photo capture at clock-in, with a unique PIN per employee. |
| 03 When a punch goes wrong An edited record and an appended one are not the same thing on the day someone questions their pay. | The missing clock-out is surfaced for review. Corrections append — the original punch stays exactly where it was. | Edited on the timesheet, with a record of the change. | Edited on the timesheet, with a record of the change. | Edited on the timesheet, with a record of the change. | Edited on the timesheet, with a record of the change. |
| 04 What the next shift is told Most of what the evening team needs to know never makes it into a chat thread. | A spoken or typed handover, organised into clear notes and attached to the shift itself. | Shift notes and a company news feed. | Chat, updates and forms across the organisation. | Shift notes and team messaging. | Team messaging and shift notes. |
| 05 Seeing the week as it happens You should be able to see what a week is costing before payroll does. | Labelled weekly pay estimates from recorded hours. Open shifts must be resolved before a week is calculated. Not payslips, not RTI. | Timesheet exports and payroll integrations. | Timesheet exports to payroll providers. | Payroll available as an add-on. | Full payroll on the top plan. |
| 06 What it’s built around We’d rather be straight with you: if the rota is your problem, we’re not your answer yet. | The shift as people actually live it — arrival, break, handover, leave. No rotas or shift swaps today. | Scheduling first: rotas, swaps and demand forecasting. | An all-in-one operations, comms and HR suite. | Tracking first, with scheduling built around it. | Scheduling, hiring and payroll for small local businesses. |
| 07 What it costs Worth knowing what the category charges before you decide what a calmer day is worth. | Private pilot. Pricing is agreed with the teams we build alongside. | Around $5–$9 per user, per month. | Free for the smallest teams; roughly $29–$99 a month for the first 30. | From about $2.50–$8 per user, per month, before add-ons. | From free to around $120 per location, per month. |
So why try us? Because UK data protection guidance asks employers to monitor no more than they actually need to — and we started there rather than bolting it on. Cicada gives you the two facts a shift really turns on, a record nobody has to argue with, and a handover that carries the day forward. The hours in between stay the employee’s own.
Talk to us about the pilot ↗Compiled September 2026 from published pricing pages and help documentation across widely used tools in each category. Products and prices change, and any one tool may differ from the approach it belongs to — please check current details before you decide.
A FEW THINGS YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING
Teams working shifts, and the People teams supporting them. Cicada brings attendance, leave, handovers and weekly pay estimates together, with a deliberate focus on respecting employee privacy.
Cicada Clock is in private pilot. Tell us about your team and how you work today so we can discuss whether the pilot is a fit. The product is being built for iPhone and Android.
No. A location reading is taken at clock-in and clock-out. There is no background location tracking, commute trail or live map of employees. Status messages are shared by the employee.
The missing clock-out is surfaced for review. A suggested finish can be considered with supporting evidence; corrections append to the record so the original punch remains intact.
Cicada provides labelled weekly pay estimates, not a payroll filing service. It does not currently provide rotas, shift swaps, POS labour forecasting or RTI filing.
A BETTER DAY STARTS WITH A CONVERSATION
Tell us about your team. Let’s see what a calmer,
clearer
working day could look like.