Biometric technologies to help track working hours

Disadvantages of card accounting:

Modern technologies offer a wide range of possibilities for automating time and attendance accounting. You can equip your staff with cards with barcodes, magnetic cards, or contact smart cards, which employees will present to the appropriate readers, marking their arrival and departure from work. However, biometric time and attendance systems are becoming increasingly popular. This is due to the fact that any tangible medium, including a card, has the following disadvantage: it is alienable. Simply put, the card can be transferred to another person, which is unacceptable in either time and attendance systems or access control. Human biometric parameters are unique; currently, fingerprint identification systems are the most widespread, technologically advanced, and effective.

The general algorithm of operation of biometric time and attendance systems is similar to the operating principle of card solutions, only the reader (in this case, the scanner) must be "presented" with a fingerprint. Advanced systems allow the use of both cards and biometric identifiers.

Components of biometric systems:

Biometric systems consist of two parts: hardware and specialized software. The equipment includes biometric terminals and fingerprint scanners that scan fingerprints, and the software, in turn, processes this data, enters the information into the database and subsequently generates reports for the heads of the HR department, department heads and general managers.

One of the most important requirements for biometric system software is integration with other software products. Thus, after an effective purchase of a time tracking system, there is no need to enter employee data (last name, first name, position, etc.) anew: there is an option for automatic data import from 1C. Data from the biometric system to 1C for payroll must also be exported automatically. Of course, the reliability of integration with 1C must be confirmed by an official certificate; Other certificates are also important.

A certificate of compatibility with MS Windows 7 not only guarantees that time tracking will work in this operating system, it confirms the technological effectiveness of the certified solution itself: the fact that the installation of the biometric system will be carried out correctly and will not cause a failure of the enterprise's IT infrastructure.

The reliability of information about the time worked is the main and fundamental factor in the use of biometric time tracking systems, which allows the heads of any organization to pay wages to their employees for the time actually worked.

When choosing a system, its implementation and further use, it is important to consider the following aspects:

the need to comply with the norms of the law "On personal data";
the importance of characteristics such as scalability and flexibility. The time and attendance system should be expandable (for example, when the number of employees increases and/or new geographically remote offices appear in the company) and be able to be managed from a single center (so as not to condemn the accounting department to collecting information for each of these offices separately);
the ability of the selected system to integrate with other IT solutions - for example, the 1C platform (which should ideally be confirmed by an official certificate);
support by readers/terminals of various network interfaces;
the ability to maintain a large number of reports and generate a variety of work schedules (shift, fixed, free, calendar, etc.);
provision by the supplier of the opportunity to test the system free of charge before purchasing it.

According to the study, biometric time tracking systems are most popular in retail (23.0%) and the service sector (24.3%). A significant share is occupied by manufacturing (19%) and medical (7.8%) enterprises.

The high demand for such systems in retail is explained by the specifics of sellers' remuneration; in almost all companies, sales consultants work on an hourly pay schedule. In retail, the food industry and other industries where the "human factor" plays a key role (healthcare, education, etc.), biometric time tracking systems are most effective.

Source: retail-tech.ru

Disadvantages of card-based timekeeping:

Modern technologies offer ample scope for automating timekeeping. You can equip staff with cards with barcodes, magnetic stripes, or contact smart cards, which employees will present to appropriate readers when clocking in and out of work. However, biometric timekeeping systems are becoming increasingly popular. This is due to the fact that any tangible medium, including a card, has the following disadvantage: it is alienable. Simply put, the card can be transferred to another person, which is unacceptable in either timekeeping systems or access control. Human biometric parameters are unique; currently, fingerprint identification systems are the most widespread, technologically advanced, and effective.

The general algorithm of operation of biometric time and attendance systems is similar to the operating principle of card solutions, only the reader (in this case, the scanner) needs to be "presented" with a fingerprint. In advanced systems, the use of both cards and biometric identifiers is allowed.

Components of biometric systems:

Biometric systems consist of 2 parts: hardware and specialized software. The equipment includes biometric terminals and fingerprint scanners that scan fingerprints, and the software, in turn, processes this data, enters the information into a database and subsequently generates reports for HR department heads, department heads and general managers.

One of the most important requirements for biometric system software is integration with other software products. Thus, after an effective purchase of a time tracking system, there is no need to enter employee data (last name, first name, position, etc.) anew: there is an option for automatic data import from 1C. Data from the biometric system should be automatically exported to 1C for payroll purposes. Of course, the reliability of integration with 1C should be confirmed by an official certificate; Other certificates are also important.

The accuracy of information on time worked is This is the main and fundamental factor in using biometric time and attendance systems, which allows managers of any organization to pay wages to their employees for the time actually worked.

When choosing a system, its implementation and further use, it is important to consider the following aspects:

the need to comply with the norms of the law "On personal data";
the importance of such characteristics as scalability and flexibility. The time and attendance system should be expandable (for example, when the number of employees increases and/or new geographically remote offices appear in the company) and be able to be managed from a single center (so as not to condemn the accounting department to collecting information on each of these offices separately);
the ability of the selected system to integrate with other IT solutions— let's say, the 1C platform (which ideally should be confirmed by an official certificate);
support of various network interfaces by readers/terminals;
ability to maintain a large number of reports and generate various work schedules (shift, fixed, flexible, calendar, etc.);
providing the supplier with the opportunity to test the system free of charge before purchasing it.

According to the study, biometric time and attendance systems are most popular in retail (23.0%) and the service sector (24.3%). A significant share is occupied by manufacturing (19%) and medical (7.8%) enterprises.

The high demand for such systems in retail is explained by the specifics of sellers' remuneration; in almost all companies, sales consultants work on an hourly pay schedule. In retail, the food industry and other industries where the "human factor" plays a key role (healthcare, education, etc.) biometric time and attendance systems are the most effective.

Source: retail-tech.ru