How Biometric Technology Can Improve Time Clock Systems

Computerized time clock systems are employee time tracking systems that are suitable for most business organizations. As employees time in and time out, the computerized time clock collects the information, combines it, and produced management reports. The most common use of these reports has to do with payroll. Because they come in many configurations, computerized time clocks can built to suit any organization regardless of size.

The system consists of software that can run on a regular personal computer (or on a UNIX or LINUX system) and one or more punch card access units. The access units collect employee data such as time in and time out and pass it on to the computer for processing. Management reports can easily be generated with the system and used to process payroll. These components combine to from a computerized time clock system.

Once the initial set up is complete, these systems automatically collect employee data into a central database for processing. The ease of use and automation are major benefits of these systems.

Although features vary across systems, a broad range of reports for management can be produced to accommodate any organization's policies such as holidays, overtime, shifts, and pay periods. Several reports are pre-programmed into the software and you also have the ability to create your own company-specific reports very easily.

Entry-level computerized time clock systems track employees as they time in and out at one location. Networked systems are perfect for collecting employee data from multiple locations.

Data can be collected through several methods including traditional time clocks, guard tour systems, time-and-date stamps, and access control systems activated by badges or access cards.

An exciting new development in newer computerized time clock systems is the addition of biometric technology which requires intrinsic physical characteristics such as fingerprints, iris (part of the eye), or voice recognition. This prevents employees from cheating by clocking each other in.

The following reports are standard with most computerized time clock systems:

Employee Time Card Report

Employee Profiles Report

Hours Worked Summary

Who is IN, Who is OUT Report

Time Card Approval

Shifts Report

Holidays Report

Approaching Overtime

Daily Totals by Employee

Typical PC configurations will require:

Intel Pentium II 400 MHz or higher with Minimum 128MB Memory (the majority of today's PCs have much more than this minimum capacity)

CD-ROM Drive

256 SVGA video or greater

150MB or more available hard disk space

Windows 98SE/2000/2003-Server/NT4.0(SP6a)/XP Operating System

Some software also runs on larger systems using UNIX or LINUX.