Biometric Time Clock - The Latest in Time and Attendance Systems

Those organizations which employ a sizeable population and need to track each employee’s attendance as well as check-in and check-out hours, nothing suits more than the time clocking systems. When first introduced, they were mechanical devices which had clock cards that were punched to record data. They were quite crude and rudimentary. Gradually as their demand grew and technology advanced, these machines also became more sophisticated. The mechanical units were replaced by the electronic clock machines. The cards started having magnetic cards and the entire unit became more sophisticated. The latest of these is the biometrictime clock.

What is biometric time clock?

Biometric time attendance systems are the electronic version of the time punching machine which is much more advanced, fool-proof and secure since they use human body parts as the identification markers for the employees.

These clocks have a main terminal with a cable, a serial port adapter, user as well as transaction memory, time clock motor, battery, stamp handle and finally a drive cam. Apart from it, some may have other parts like timecard racks, time cards and time clock ribbon and cartridges. This equipment requires a computer with windows operating system running on it. These systems often use an employee ID badge for identification that is magnetic encoded.

Most often these units scan the fingerprints of the employees. These biometric clock terminals scan the shape and size of the employees’ hands or their fingerprints to verify the identity of each employee as they punch in their identification. The employee’s punch-in gets successful only when the matching image of the punched image has been found in the memory of the equipment. Since each individual’s prints and scans are unique, this method offers maximum security and prevents much of buddy-punching and identity theft.

Potential benefits of such systems

The most significant benefit of biometrics over punch cards is the noticeable decrease in fraud related to productive hours. Since an individual finger print or hand print is required, the individual must be present there in person which eliminates all false punching. Due to it, they are getting the top preference in many factories, software companies, hospitals, banks and all other places.

Time Recorders - Their Features And Applications

A punch clock is known by many names like a time recorder, clock card machines, time clocks etc. This is nothing but an electrical or mechanical device which records and tracks the time in hours to calculate the total time spent by any employee in a company. In mechanical time recorders, there is a normally heavy paper card which is inserted into the device in a particular specified slot. These papers are called times cards. After insertion, there is a contact point at the rear of the time clock which when hit by the paper, the machine starts printing information about the date and time on the card. Multiple time card acts as the time sheet. These devices make the work of the timekeeper extremely easy as all that is required of them is to trigger the device and the rest of the work is done by the machine itself.

General Features of time recording systems

These electronic digital recorders have some common underlying features like:-

·     Battery - Most of them runs on battery which makes the power source well within your reach. Additionally, nearly all of them come with an extra set of battery called backup battery which enables you to run them for quite a long period of time.

·       Auto Card Eject/Feed - In contrast to mechanical recorders, the electronic systems work automatic and one is not required to feed or eject the auto card. The system takes care of it all by itself.

·        Perpetual Calendar - This facilitates the user to keep track of all date, day and month for which the time recording has been measured.

·       Security System - Most of these systems has a lock and key options which increases the security level of these systems and reduces the risk of tampering and manipulation to a large extent.

·        Daily Planning - These electronic devices allow the flexibility to be programmed as per routine and requirement. This flexibility of daily planning feature gives room to the time keeper to increase or decrease the time of any particular employee. This becomes a very useful tool when one is required to calculate overtime of any employee.

Apart from these, many more features are available on all modern systems.