PUNCHCARD Get Punchcard $9

How to set up Punchcard in ninety seconds

· 5 min read

Setting up Punchcard is four steps: download it, open it, tell it when your workday ends, and tell it which days you work. There is no account to create, no macOS permission to grant, and no projects or timers to configure, because it has none of those. After that it sits in the menu bar, and the first receipt prints at the closing time you chose. This post walks through the ninety seconds and then through what the first day looks like, including the things you will go looking for and not find.

Before you start

Punchcard needs macOS 13 Ventura or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. The download is about 4 MB. It does not fetch anything afterward; there is no networking code in the app at all, so there is nothing to wait for once it is open.

You will not need: an email address, a password, a credit card, or a decision about what to track. Tracking is free and never expires. The first seven receipts are free too; after that a single $9 purchase covers two Macs and every future update, and the license key arrives by email from the store, not from inside the app.

The ninety seconds

  1. Download the installer package from the home page and open it.
  2. Click through the installer; it puts Punchcard in your Applications folder. Open Punchcard from there. The first time, macOS may ask you to confirm that you want to open an app downloaded from the internet; click Open.
  3. Punchcard appears in the menu bar and shows a three-screen welcome. The first screen introduces itself. Click Continue.
  4. The second screen is the privacy promise: what is collected (app names and times), what is sent to the cloud (nothing), what accounts are required (none), and where your data lives (a single file on this Mac). Read it; it is the whole policy. Click Continue.
  5. The third screen asks when the store closes. Set the time your workday ends. This is when the receipt prints. Pick a time you will actually be at the Mac, not the time you wish you stopped.
  6. On the same screen, choose the days the store is open. Weekdays is the usual answer; pick whatever days you want a receipt for.
  7. Decide whether you want a nudge at quitting time. It is a checkbox. On means a notification at closing time, and macOS will ask you to allow notifications from Punchcard (the only system prompt you will ever see from it, and only if you turn this on); off means the receipt simply prints.
  8. Click Open the store. The welcome receipt prints, and setup is done.

That is the entire process. There is no step nine.

Why there were no permission prompts

Most Mac time trackers ask for Accessibility permission during setup, and some ask for Screen Recording. Those permissions let an app read window titles, document names and URLs, which is how they produce lines like “budget.xlsx, 40 minutes”. Punchcard records app names only, which macOS provides without a permission. So there is nothing to grant. Time trackers that ask for Accessibility permission, and one that doesn’t explains the difference in detail.

The practical consequence is that you can open System Settings, Privacy & Security, and find Punchcard listed under nothing. That is correct. The optional closing-time nudge uses ordinary notifications, which macOS asks about separately and which have nothing to do with what the app can see.

What to expect on the first day

After setup, Punchcard is a receipt icon in the menu bar. Click it and you see “TODAY SO FAR”: the apps that have been in front since you opened it, each with a running time, and a subtotal. This is the only live view, and it is deliberately plain. The day is not finished; the number is not final.

At your closing time, the receipt prints. Paper feeds out of a slot line by line over about two and a half seconds, with a soft dot-matrix whirr, and the stamp lands last at a slightly different angle each day. The receipt lists every app with its time, then a day total, then a Code 128 barcode that encodes the date. Drag down to tear it off. From there you can export it as a 1080 by 1350 PNG for posting, copy it as plain text, or just let it go onto the roll.

Past receipts live under “Past receipts” in the menu. On Sundays a week roll prints, and at month end a month roll. If the Mac was asleep or shut at closing time, the receipt prints when you are next back, headed SORRY WE MISSED YOU, so a missed closing time does not lose the day.

If you want the receipt before closing time (leaving early, say), “Print my receipt” in the menu prints it now.

Settings worth a glance after the first receipt

You do not need to open Settings at all, but three things in it are worth knowing about.

Paper roll. Three paper styles: Classic, Kraft, and Blueprint. Pick the one you will not get tired of; it is the look of every receipt you post.

Items we never print. Everything gets printed unless you add an app here. If there is an app you would rather keep off the receipt (a personal messaging app, a game), add it and it never appears. It is still not being watched in any detail, since nothing is; this only controls the paper.

Your data. “Export my data” writes a CSV of every day and every app. “Burn the roll” deletes everything, with a confirmation, and there is no undo. The file itself is at ~/Library/Application Support/Punchcard/punchcard.sqlite if you ever want to see it or back it up. Export your time data to CSV and keep it forever covers the export.

Things you will look for and not find

If you have used other trackers, you will reach for a few things that are not there. Listing them saves you the search.

  • A project or client picker. There is none. Receipts are itemized by app, never by project, and there is no way to tag time. If you bill per client, this is not the tool for that.
  • A start button. There is no timer. Tracking begins when the app opens and continues while it is running. There is nothing to remember to press.
  • Idle detection settings. There are none to configure.
  • A sync option or a phone app. There is no cloud, no account, no iPhone app, and no integrations. One Mac, one file. A license covers two Macs, but they do not share data; each keeps its own roll.
  • Analytics, graphs, or a dashboard. The receipt is the report. If you need charts, the CSV export is the route.

Every one of those absences is on purpose. The question Punchcard answers is “where did my day go”, once, at closing time, on paper. If your question is different, better to know that on day one than on day eight.

Questions

Can I change the closing time later?

Yes. Settings has a Closing time section and a Days the store is open section; change either at any time. The next receipt uses the new time.

Does Punchcard need to be running all day?

Yes. It records which app is in front while it is open, and nothing while it is closed. If you quit it at lunch, the afternoon is not on the receipt. Most people leave it running and forget it is there, which is the intent.

What happens after the seven free receipts?

Tracking continues; it never expires. The eighth receipt asks you to buy, and the paper keeps printing once you do. If you decide not to, your data is still yours: export it, or burn it.

Is there anything to configure after setup?

No. There is no configuration beyond the settings above. The ninety seconds is the whole setup, and most of it is reading the privacy screen.