SJM School of Management, IIT Bombay PhD Time-Off Sign in

Attendance · How-to guide

Register your face for attendance

A one-time, five-minute setup at the SOM office. After this you mark attendance every day with a quick live photo from your phone.

About 5 minutes Only once At the SOM office

Before you start

Have these ready and enrollment takes a few minutes.

Step by step

Screenshots are from an iPhone; Android looks much the same.

  1. Step 1: Sign in to the portal on your phone
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    Sign in to the portal on your phone

    Open www.som.iitb.ac.in/phdtimeoff in Safari (iPhone) or Chrome (Android) on your phone, and sign in with your IITB email and portal password. You land on your dashboard.

    You enroll once. After that you can mark attendance from this phone or any other phone or browser — just sign in on the office WiFi.

  2. Step 2: Open the menu and tap Attendance
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    Open the menu and tap Attendance

    Tap the menu button (☰) at the top right, then tap Attendance.
  3. Step 3: Check your status and tap “Allow camera”
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    Check your status and tap “Allow camera”

    The Attendance page shows your status. You should see On SOM office WiFi in green and Enrollment pending in amber. If a Camera access needed box appears, tap Allow camera.

    Not seeing “On SOM office WiFi”? Connect to the office WiFi and reload the page — enrollment only works there.

  4. Step 4: Let your browser use the camera
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    Let your browser use the camera

    Your browser asks whether www.som.iitb.ac.in may use your camera. Tap Allow.

    Tapped “Don’t allow” by mistake? See “The camera won’t open” under Troubleshooting below.

  5. Step 5: Enter the one-time code from the office
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    Enter the one-time code from the office

    Scroll down to One-time enrollment. A staff member at the SOM office gives you a 6-digit code. Type it in the box and tap Start enrollment.

    Entering the code records your consent to face-verified attendance (see “Your photos and privacy” below).

  6. 6

    Follow the camera guide

    The camera opens full screen with an oval. Hold the phone at eye level, about an arm’s length away, with your face inside the oval.
    1. Look straight ahead.
    2. Follow the arrow: turn your head to your left, then to your right.
    3. Tilt your chin up, then down.

    Hold each pose until the oval turns green and fills — the photo is taken automatically and the step is ticked off at the top. The app then shows “Building your face profile…”.

    On some phones the live guide is replaced by simple timed prompts. Just follow each one.

    Good, even light on your face helps. Remove sunglasses and masks; regular glasses are fine.

  7. Step 7: You’re enrolled
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    You’re enrolled

    You’ll see “You’re enrolled”. The amber Enrollment pending badge disappears and the enrollment box is gone. That’s it — you only do this once.
  8. Step 8: Every day after that: tap “Mark Attendance”
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    Every day after that: tap “Mark Attendance”

    During the marking window shown on the page, open Attendance on the same phone while on the office WiFi and tap Mark Attendance. Then three quick steps:
    1. Look straight at the camera.
    2. In a random order: turn your head to your left or right — the arrow shows which — and blink slowly.

    Each step completes on its own once you hold it — no buttons to press — and you’re marked present.

    The window and today’s status are always shown at the top of the Attendance page.

Troubleshooting

Tap a question to see the answer.

It says I am not on the SOM office WiFi

Enrollment and marking only work on the office network. Connect your phone to the SOM office WiFi (turn mobile data off if your phone keeps switching back to it), then reload the Attendance page.

The camera won’t open

iPhone: Settings → Safari → Camera → Allow, then reload the page. Android (Chrome): tap the icon left of the address bar → Permissions → Camera → Allow, then reload. Close other apps that may be using the camera, and make sure you opened the portal over https://.

My code is not accepted

Codes are single-use and expire after a short time. Ask the office staff for a fresh code and enter all 6 digits.

Enrollment failed or the guide couldn’t find my face

Move to better light, hold the phone steady at eye level, and keep your whole face inside the oval. Then ask the office for a new code and try again.

It says “This phone is not your enrolled device”

Normally you can mark from any phone or browser. You only see this when the office has limited marking to the phone you enrolled with — use that phone in the same browser, or visit the office to enroll again if you have changed it.

Your photos and privacy

A live photo is captured every time you mark attendance and kept for 60 days. Your face profile is erased if your enrollment is revoked or your portal account is deactivated. Entering the enrollment code records your consent. Enrollment only works on the office WiFi, so no one can enroll your face remotely.

Sign in to start

Still stuck? Visit the SOM office, or email raj.saroj@iitb.ac.in.