Shift DiaryCounting is paid work too
Every pay run, somebody on your payroll spends an afternoon adding up other people's hours. Work out what that afternoon costs you twelve times a year and you have your answer on R500.
Pricing
Three plans. One number each, and it stays that number.
Shift Diary is free to download and free to run. Pay when you need your full record history and the exports that go with it — and add payroll when you want the payslips to come out of the hours your staff already clocked.
Free
R0forever
Everything you need to clock your team and see who's on site today.
- Unlimited employees
- Unlimited clock stations
- NFC clocking and manual entries
- Live attendance board and dashboard
- Attendance analytics
- Records limited to the last 14 days
- No PDF or CSV export
Most farms
Records & Reports
R500per month · no VAT
The clocking app with nothing held back — every record you've ever taken, and the exports whoever does your payroll needs.
- Everything in Free
- Your complete clock record history
- PDF timesheet per employee, hours totalled
- CSV of the raw clock records
- Unlimited employees and clock stations
- Support Monday to Friday, 08:00–17:00
- Month to month — invoiced, never auto-renewed
Payroll
From R850per month · no VAT
Stop retyping hours into something else. The payslip is built from the clocks that are already on record.
- Everything in Records & Reports
- Payslips, from the hours already clocked
- Normal time, overtime, Sundays and public holidays
- Leave booked and tracked
- Extras, deductions and staff loans
- UIF worked out and shown on the payslip
- Priced on your headcount once, then it stays put
1250
The price never moves. R500 a month covers every employee and every clock station you have, so the more people you put on it the less each one costs you. Add a second site tomorrow and the invoice is still R500.
The real cost
What does payday cost you now?
Somebody sits down every pay run and counts hours off a page. They chase the days nobody wrote down, they take a man's word for a Tuesday three weeks ago, and they hope the total is right. That afternoon costs you something. So does getting it wrong.
Paying for the same sum twice
Most farms pay for a clocking system and then pay again for payroll software or a bookkeeper to retype the hours into it. On the Payroll plan it is one system and the hours never get typed anywhere.
The hours nobody can prove
A shift that was never written down gets paid twice or argued about in the yard. One of those a month is already more than the app, and a payslip that cannot be backed up is worse than that.
Billing
Month to month. Nothing renews itself.
There is no subscription running quietly in the background and no card on file. You decide every month, and if you decide not to, nothing breaks.
Step 01We invoice you at month endAn invoice with a payment link, sent to you — no debit order, no card stored anywhere.
Step 02You make the paymentPay the link and your account stays open with everything switched on.
Step 03Skip a month if you want toDon't pay and the account simply drops back to the free tier on its own. You keep clocking, you just see the last 14 days.
AlwaysYour records stay on our serversNothing is deleted. Pay again and your full history is right there where you left it.
| What you get | Free | R500 / month | Payroll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employees | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Clock stations | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| NFC clocking in and out | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Manual clock entries | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live attendance board | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Employee and station analytics | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Record history | Last 14 days | Everything | Everything |
| PDF timesheet, hours totalled | — | Yes | Yes |
| CSV of raw clock records | — | Yes | Yes |
| Payslips built from the clocks | — | — | Yes |
| Overtime, Sundays and public holidays | — | — | Yes |
| Leave booked and tracked | — | — | Yes |
| Extras, deductions and staff loans | — | — | Yes |
| UIF worked out on the payslip | — | — | Yes |
| Charged per payslip | Never | Never | Never |
| VAT added to the invoice | None | None | None |
Am I locked into a contract?
No. It's month to month with no auto-renew. Skip a month, use the free tier over a quiet season, come back when you're busy again — the app carries on clocking either way.
Is there VAT on top?
No. Diary SA isn't a VAT-registered vendor, so the invoice comes to the price you were quoted and that is what you pay. Nothing is added to any of the three plans.
Is the free version a trial?
No. It's free for as long as you want it. You can clock unlimited staff at unlimited stations without paying anything — you just can't see past the last 14 days of records or export them.
Does the price change as I grow?
On Records & Reports, no — R500 a month covers unlimited employees and unlimited clock stations. Ten staff or three hundred, one gate or twelve, the price is the same.
Payroll is worked out on your headcount when you start, because a payslip is a legal document and sixty of them is more work than six. After that it behaves the same way: the number you agreed is the number on every invoice, and taking somebody on in March does not change it.
Payroll is worked out on your headcount when you start, because a payslip is a legal document and sixty of them is more work than six. After that it behaves the same way: the number you agreed is the number on every invoice, and taking somebody on in March does not change it.
How is the payroll price worked out?
Each employee is priced in his own band, the way tax brackets work — the first ten are the dearest per head and it gets cheaper from there. The slider above does the sum for you.
What that means in practice is there are no cliffs. Going from 80 staff to 81 adds about R13 a month, not a jump to a dearer tier. And the more people you put on it, the less each one costs: around R48 each at 23 employees, about R19 each at 150.
What that means in practice is there are no cliffs. Going from 80 staff to 81 adds about R13 a month, not a jump to a dearer tier. And the more people you put on it, the less each one costs: around R48 each at 23 employees, about R19 each at 150.
Do I pay per payslip?
Never. Run the pay run as many times as you like, reprint a payslip from two years ago, do a once-off run for one man who's leaving — it's all the one monthly price. Nothing in Shift Diary is charged by the payslip, the export or the report.
I already pay R500 a month. Does this change anything for me?
Nothing at all. Records & Reports is exactly the plan you are on now, at the price you are on now, with nothing taken out of it. Payroll is a separate thing you can add if you want it, and if you don't, your account carries on precisely as it does today.
How do I move up or down a plan?
You ask, and a person sorts it out — there's no button that quietly switches you over and starts charging you more.
Inside the app, open Billing and you'll see the three plans with your own price on each, worked out on the number of people actually on your employee list. Tap the one you want and we'll be in touch to go through it before anything changes. Nothing moves on your account and nothing is charged until we've spoken. You can also just phone or email us — it's the same conversation.
The reason it works that way: a few of our customers are on prices we set by hand and promised not to move, and an automatic upgrade would walk straight over them. We'd rather have the thirty-second conversation.
Inside the app, open Billing and you'll see the three plans with your own price on each, worked out on the number of people actually on your employee list. Tap the one you want and we'll be in touch to go through it before anything changes. Nothing moves on your account and nothing is charged until we've spoken. You can also just phone or email us — it's the same conversation.
The reason it works that way: a few of our customers are on prices we set by hand and promised not to move, and an automatic upgrade would walk straight over them. We'd rather have the thirty-second conversation.
Can I start on Payroll and go back?
Yes. It's month to month like everything else. Drop back to Records & Reports and your clock records, reports and exports all carry on — you just stop getting the payslip side. Payslips you've already produced are kept, not deleted.
What happens to my records if I don't pay a month?
Nothing is deleted. The account falls back to the free tier on its own — staff carry on clocking exactly as before, you just see the last 14 days and the exports switch off. Pay again and your full history is back the same day.
Where do the NFC tags come from?
The tags are physical hardware, so they're a once-off cost on top of the app. You can buy your own — that usually works out cheaper — or message us and we'll quote you and ship them. Either way we'd recommend a bright colour like red: a tag dropped in a field is much easier to find.
How do I pay?
At the end of the month we send you an invoice with a payment link on it. You make the payment and the account carries on. No debit order, no card stored with us, nothing that renews itself.
Start on free. Pay when you need the history, add payroll when you want the payslips.
