Install the terminal, have workers tap their cards, and the legal duty is met. What actually causes trouble on site is what comes next. The same day is recorded once on the electronic card, once on the site attendance sheet, and once again on the payroll ledger — and sometimes those three do not agree.
When they disagree, there is no way to prove which one is right. Retirement-deduction filings and labour-cost settlement both sit on top of those records, so they wobble together.
Why the same day comes out differently
Because different people write each record, at different moments.
The card tap is left by the worker themselves, at the instant they pass the gate. The attendance sheet is written by a crew leader or site manager, usually while wrapping up the day. The payroll ledger is built by head office or the labour team at month end, from the attendance sheet.
Three records, three authors, and a time lag between them. Miss one step anywhere in the middle and you have a discrepancy — one that usually surfaces right before month-end close.
Six patterns that break
The types that recur on site are fairly predictable.
- On the attendance sheet with no matching card tap — the day someone left their card at home or went around the gate
- A tap with no name on the attendance sheet — a brief visit, or someone logged under another crew
- Tap and attendance agree but the man-days differ — the day a half-shift was counted as 0.5 by one person and 1.0 by another
- Attendance recorded but no wage payment against it — dropped in settlement and the month rolled over
- The contracted rate and the rate actually paid differ — the crew rate changed and the contract did not follow
- Only part of a subcontractor's crew missed their taps — invisible to the main contractor until filing time
All six are solvable inside a day by simply asking the worker. A month later, that person is on another site and there is no way to check. People end up reconciling from memory, and numbers reconciled that way are hard to rely on as evidence.
Five minutes a day, in both directions
Reconciliation is not difficult work. What matters is the interval, not the volume.
A single day is usually a handful of items and takes five minutes. Put it off and month end brings hundreds, at which point it is no longer checking but guessing.
A final pass before month-end close
Even with the daily routine, look at the whole month once before closing.
- Whether unresolved discrepancies remain, and whether each has a recorded reason
- Whether total days worked agree across the card record, the attendance sheet and the payroll ledger
- Whether anyone worked without a contract, or after their contract period ended
- Whether anyone due to be filed for has been left out
Korea's retirement deduction scheme works by the employer reporting days worked to the Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association and paying the corresponding contributions. For a worker to receive their retirement deduction payment later, contributions must have accumulated to at least 252 days — that is, 12 months or more of payment when a month is counted as 21 days. A day missed on site today can be what decides that worker's eligibility years from now.
For reference, the establishment of the retirement deduction relationship must be reported within 14 days of the actual start of construction. Monthly filing deadlines can vary with circumstances, so the association's own guidance is the accurate source.
Not reconciling records, but leaving them correct in the first place
However well reconciliation is done, it is after-the-fact work. The better direction is to make all three records come from the same source to begin with.
If the worker leaves their own arrival record, if man-days and crew membership attach to that record, and if settlement and filings use that same data as it stands, there is simply less to reconcile. What remains are the discrepancies that genuinely need a human to look at them.
This is the point CONNECTIN is looking at with ilyongyee, our smart site operations solution. Not replacing the electronic card, but making it possible to check daily, before close, that taps, attendance, man-days and wages agree — using verified work records as the reference. Catch a day's discrepancy inside that day and there is nothing left to reconcile at month end.
