PunchWhat's new in Punch 3.1: 7 countries, currency clarity, and Add a shift
The United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Mexico. Each one works the way it's supposed to. Local currency, correct overtime rules, billing in the right denomination. You pick your country when you create your org and the rest follows automatically.
Three things changed in this release. Currency clarity and automatic OT rules are the headliners. Add a shift on iOS closes a workflow gap that has been on the list for a while. There is also a handful of smaller fixes and refinements described at the end.
7 countries, picked at signup
When you create a new org in Punch, the signup flow asks where your business is based. That answer does three things at once.
It sets your currency. A UK-based roofing crew sees pound signs everywhere payroll math appears. A construction company in Mexico sees peso amounts. A landscaping business in New Zealand sees New Zealand dollars. The currency follows the country. There is nothing to configure manually.
It also applies your jurisdiction's overtime rules. More on that in a moment.
And it determines your billing denomination. When you subscribe, you are charged in your local currency at a local price point. MXN subscriptions are priced in pesos, not converted from dollars.
The seven countries Punch supports are the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Mexico. Each is fully supported from day one of your trial, not as a limited preview or a separate product tier.
Currency clarity
Before 3.1, every country that shared the dollar symbol had a problem. A Canadian account showed $42.50 on a pay summary. So did a New Zealand account. So did a Hong Kong account. Three different currencies, one ambiguous symbol.
3.1 fixes that everywhere payroll numbers appear: shift pay summaries, period totals, approvals, reports, the subscribe form, hourly rate fields on team member profiles.
Canada now shows CA$. New Zealand shows NZ$. Hong Kong shows HK$. Mexico shows MX$. The US dollar is still $. The UK is £. Ireland is €. Every amount is unambiguous.
This matters more than it might sound. When you are reviewing a pay period or exporting a report for a bookkeeper, currency disambiguation is not a cosmetic detail. It is the difference between a number that communicates clearly and one that requires a footnote.
The change is automatic for existing accounts. There is nothing to enable.
Add a shift
Sometimes a punch does not happen. An employee starts a job site visit and forgets to punch in. A crew member works overtime but the phone dies. A shift from the previous week needs to be entered retroactively.
Until 3.1, adding a missed shift from iOS required going to the web app. That gap is closed.
Managers and owners can now create a shift directly from the iOS app. Open the Approvals tab, drill into an employee's week, and tap the plus icon in the top right. A sheet opens where you set the employee, punch-in time, punch-out time, job site, and a required reason for creating the shift manually. Submit it and the shift lands as a pending entry in the approvals queue, the same way every other shift does.
The reason field is required. That is intentional. A manually added shift leaves an audit trail. Your team can see that a manager created it and why. This matters for compliance, for payroll disputes, and for building the kind of record-keeping that holds up when someone asks questions later.
The web version of this workflow has been available for several releases. iOS now matches it. Learn more about approval workflows and why the audit trail matters.
Auto-applied overtime rules
Five of the seven countries Punch supports have overtime rules applied automatically at signup. When you select United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, or Mexico as your country, the correct overtime configuration is set for you.
The UK Working Time Regulations apply to UK accounts. The Ireland Working Time Act applies to Irish accounts. New Zealand Employment Relations Act rules apply to New Zealand accounts. Hong Kong Employment Ordinance rules apply to Hong Kong accounts. Mexico Federal Labor Law rules apply to Mexican accounts.
You can still adjust these settings. The configuration lives in Org Settings. But you do not have to know the right numbers to start. The defaults are correct for your jurisdiction.
The United States and Canada are the two exceptions. Both countries have multiple jurisdictions with meaningfully different rules. US federal overtime and California overtime are different. Ontario and British Columbia and Alberta are different from each other and from federal Canada. For those two countries, Punch shows the available presets and asks you to pick the one that matches your situation.
For the other five, the right answer is already selected. A full breakdown of how overtime rules work across US federal, California, and other jurisdictions is covered here.
Smaller changes in 3.1
Blog tab is now manager and owner only. The blog covers payroll rules, compliance updates, and product announcements. That content is useful for the people who run orgs and manage payroll. It is less relevant to employees who punch in and out. The employee shell is now four tabs: Now, My Shifts, Time Off, and Team. Manager and owner shells are unchanged.
Language switching is faster. The in-app language switcher was refactored in 3.1. Switching between English, Spanish, and French (Quebec) now takes effect across the app without restarting. A small number of system-level labels require a restart because iOS controls them at the operating system level. Everything Punch controls directly switches immediately.
Spanish and French translations throughout the new 3.1 surfaces. The Add a Shift sheet, overtime preset labels, country selection flow, and currency display are all translated. The three supported locales are English, Spanish (Mexico), and French (Quebec). The same translation coverage applies on iOS and on the web.
What this means
Punch charges per active employee, not per seat your owner occupies. Owners are not counted. Every plan includes every feature. There is no tier that gates overtime calculations or report exports or job site geofencing behind a higher price.
That pricing structure works the same way in all seven countries. The math is local. The software is the same.
If you are scaling a service business across borders, Punch is ready for that. Try it free for 14 days. No card required to start.