Most time clocks can only log where someone punched from. Punchwell does the one thing they can’t: it refuses an off-site punch server-side. That’s hard to believe from a feature list — so see it work. This page walks you through the office-IP clock-in lock, a real punch, a payout report, and a leave request, the way you’d actually use them.
Get Punchwell Pro — $99/yr → See how the IP lock works →
Self-hosted on WordPress. Per site, not per seat. Your data stays on your server.
What this demo is
The demo is a guided walkthrough of Punchwell running inside a real WordPress site — the same admin screens, the same settings, the same punch flow your staff would use. You install nothing to look around, and nothing you do here touches your own site or data.
We’d rather be straight with you than oversell the demo:
- Available now: screenshots and a click-through guided tour of every screen below — so you can see exactly what setting an office-IP lock, running a punch, reading a payout report, and approving leave look like in practice.
- A live, hands-on sandbox is still being built. When it’s ready, you’ll log into a throwaway WordPress install, flip the IP lock yourself, and watch an off-site punch get refused in real time. Until then, the tour and screenshots show the real thing — and because Punchwell is free to start on WordPress.org, the fastest hands-on “demo” is installing the free version on a staging site (more on that below).
No account, no card, no email required to look around.
4 things to try in the tour
These are the moments that tell you whether Punchwell fits your shop. Each one maps to a real screen.
1. Set an office-IP lock on one employee
This is the flagship. Open an employee’s profile, switch on “Requires office IP,” and add the place they’re allowed to punch from — a single IP, a whole range like 203.0.113.0/24, or an address range. From that moment, that employee can clock in or out only from an allowlisted address.
What the tour shows you:
- The “Use this IP” one-click helper that fills in your current public IP, so you don’t have to look it up.
- Allowlists at three levels that add together (widen-only): company-wide, per-office, and per-employee. Turning one on never locks anyone out of the others.
- The Block / Warn / Flag enforcement modes — refuse the punch hard, allow-but-note it, or silently mark it — so on-site cashiers can be locked to the building while remote staff clock in from anywhere.
2. Run a punch — on-network and off
Watch a normal on-site clock-in go through, then watch an off-site attempt get refused server-side. This is the difference that matters: Punchwell doesn’t just record that someone punched from the wrong place — it stops the punch from being recorded at all.
What the tour shows you:
- A clean on-network punch-in and punch-out.
- An off-network attempt hitting the red “Punch blocked — not on office network” state, with the optional blocked-attempt email to HR.
- That clock-out is never blocked by location, so nobody gets trapped mid-shift — plus the optional clock-in time window that only accepts punches around shift start.
3. View a payout report
Jump to Payroll → Payout Report and see a pay period totaled per employee: regular hours, weekly and daily overtime, double-time, and holiday pay, plus an employer summary. It’s the calculation and the export — not a payment.
What the tour shows you:
- Per-employee pay type (hourly or salary), rate, and frequency — weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly, and each person can differ.
- Worker classification (1099 / FT / PT) and the toggle that excludes 1099 contractors from overtime.
- A Generic CSV export (plus SurePayroll and Gusto connectors) you hand to your payroll provider.
Honest boundary: Punchwell exports payroll data. It does not move money — no direct deposit, no tax filing, no tax custody. That’s deliberate: it keeps payment-processor and tax-custody risk off your plate.
4. Request and approve leave
See it from both sides. An employee submits a time-off request from a self-service widget; a manager approves it from an office-scoped inbox. Approved paid leave draws down the employee’s PTO balance automatically.
What the tour shows you:
- The employee
[hrm_leave_request]widget (with self-cancel of a pending request) and the manager[hrm_approvals]inbox. - The PTO accrual engine — accrue monthly, per hour worked, or as an annual grant, with caps, carryover, and a waiting period — plus a ledger that records every earn and draw.
- The holiday calendar with one-click import (US, UK, Canada, Australia and more, plus iCal upload or paste), computed locally with a preview before saving.
A closer look
A few more screens from the tour, so you know what you’re getting:
The story across all of these is the same: IP lock and GPS geofence and kiosk and mobile punch — softer or stricter, your call. GPS is a deterrent (it can be spoofed from a couch); the office-IP lock is the hard control that can’t be faked from a phone at home.
Prefer to self-host now?
The fastest way to really “demo” Punchwell is to run it. The free Community version on WordPress.org gives you employees, departments, leave, basic attendance, and a basic single-office IP lock — install it on a staging site and clock in and out yourself in a few minutes.
When you’re ready for the full per-employee and per-office IP depth, CIDR and address ranges, Block/Warn/Flag modes, GPS geofence, kiosk, mobile punch, payroll export, PTO accrual, reminders, and the add-ons, that’s Pro — one flat annual price, unlimited employees:
- Pro — $99/year, per site
Per site, never per seat. Hire your hundredth employee and the price doesn’t change. A 25-person shop pays roughly $1,520/year for Buddy Punch, ~$1,950 for Deputy, or ~$2,100 for When I Work — Punchwell is $99/year flat. (Competitor prices approximate, as of June 2026.)
See the full breakdown on the pricing page, or compare it feature-by-feature on the comparison page.
Demo FAQ
Is there a live sandbox I can log into right now?
A click-through guided tour and full screenshots are available today, so you can see every screen exactly as it works. A live, throwaway WordPress sandbox where you flip the IP lock yourself is still being built. In the meantime, the free Community version on WordPress.org is the most hands-on way to try it — install it on a staging site and punch in and out yourself.
Will trying the demo affect my own site or data?
No. The guided tour runs in an isolated environment that has nothing to do with your WordPress site. Nothing you click changes your data. And because Punchwell is self-hosted, even when you install the real thing your employee data stays in your own WordPress database — no cloud holds it, and there’s no data call-home (all of the original’s outbound network code was removed and verified; Pro’s only outbound call is license validation, never your data).
Does the demo show the punch actually being blocked?
Yes — that’s the centerpiece. You’ll see an on-network punch succeed and an off-network attempt get refused server-side with the “Punch blocked — not on office network” state, plus the optional HR email. It refuses the punch; it doesn’t merely log a location.
Can I see payroll run in the demo?
You can see the payout report and the CSV export — per-employee rate, weekly and daily overtime, double-time, holiday pay, and the employer summary. Punchwell does the calculation and the export, but it does not move money. You take the payroll-ready CSV to your payroll provider.
I’m migrating from the old WP Human Resource Management plugin — does the demo cover that?
The demo shows the product you’d be migrating to. For the move itself, your employees, attendance, and leave records carry over — it’s a migration, not a rebuild. See the migration guide for the step-by-step and the verification pack.
How do I get help if I’m stuck during the demo?
Reach out from the contact page. Support comes from the people who maintain the code — Pro includes support and updates for as long as your license is active.
Ready to put it on your own site?
Look around the tour, then take the shortest path that fits you: start free on WordPress.org to clock in yourself, or unlock the full IP-lock depth, GPS, kiosk, payroll, and PTO with Pro.
Get Punchwell Pro — $99/yr → Download the free version → Compare the plans →
Per site, not per seat. Unlimited employees. GPL, self-hosted — your data stays on your server.
Punchwell is an independent, third-party maintained fork of the GPL-licensed “WP Human Resource Management” plugin. Sturdyhaus is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by wpspear, weDevs, or the original author. Product names are referenced descriptively only. Punchwell, by Sturdyhaus.