12 important factors to consider while choosing a time attendance device

Time Attendance Devices are required to effectively monitor employee attendance. The need for a time attendance monitoring system grows with the number of employees you manage. But choosing the right devices may be a difficult task, unless you are an expert.

Listed below are some important factors to consider while choosing a time attendance device.

1. Biometric Device or Proximity Card reader(RFID) or both?

Biometrics relies on the use of unique physical traits such as a fingerprint, a palm/iris pattern, or facial characteristics to identify an employee.

A non-biometric device such as an RFID device uses a proximity card to identify an employee. Buddy punching is a main concern here as the employee can ask his colleague to clock in with the card even when he is absent. Also, the employee may forget to bring his card to work and then he won’t be able to clock in/out the whole day. These issues won’t occur with a biometric device.

But, RFID is faster in identification when compared to biometric readers. RFID is also cheaper compared to Biometric devices.

Card reader(RFID) and Biometrics in the same device

Some devices support multiple identification mechanisms, such as Face, Fingerprint, RFID and Password identification all in the same device. With such a device, employees can use Face recognition while visitors can use proximity cards(RFID).

Face Recognition or Fingerprint Identification?

Face recognition is faster compared to Fingerprint identification. Face recognition takes less than 1 second while fingerprint identification takes less than 2 seconds to identify an employee. If you have too many employees clocking in/out at the same time, face recognition is recommended.

2. How many devices?

This depends on how many employees are clocking in or out at the same time. For eg; all your employees may go out for lunch at the same time. In order to avoid long queues you should carefully choose the appropriate number of devices. The number of devices required varies according to the identification mechanism. You may need more fingerprint devices compared to RFID or face recognition as fingerprint identification takes longer.

3. What Device Capacity?

Face/Fingerprint/Card Capacity: It’s better to go for a device that has much more user capacity than your requirement as the device would be fast in identifying employees, and you will have room for new employees.

Transaction Capacity: Since the software automatically pulls data from devices in real-time, transaction capacity is not much of a concern. But it’s good to have a device that can hold data for a month.

4. PUSH or PULL?

PUSH: When using PUSH technology, the device sends punches to the server whenever it receives one. PUSH updates the server in almost real-time. The server should have a static IP if communication with the server is over the internet.

PULL: When using PULL technology, the server reads the device data in periodic intervals and updates itself. If the communication with the server is over the internet, it’s good if the device has a static IP, otherwise, you will need a software to read the dynamic IP and to update the server.

5. What kind of connectivity between device and server?

Internet: The devices can communicate with server over the internet in both PUSH and PULL mode. If you want the device to communicate over the internet, ensure the device has TCP/IP.

Mobile Network: If the device is in a remote location, it can communicate with the server over a mobile network. Ensure the device has a 4G module.

Wired LAN: If the device and server are in the same LAN, a wired connection is recommended. If you want the device to communicate over the LAN, ensure the device has TCP/IP.

Wifi: With Wifi more of reconfiguration and troubleshooting may be required as wifi routers change. If you want the device to communicate over Wifi, ensure the device has Wifi option.

USB: With USB, user will have to manually copy the data from device to software. This is not a recommended option as the data cannot come to server in real-time. If you want to use this option, ensure device has a USB port.

6. Do you need Access Control?

‘Access Control’ allows you to control a door or a turnstile as employees clock in or out.

You may need access control:

* If you run an office and you don’t usually have customers walking in and you want to allow access only to employees

* If you have a server room, you want to allow access only to authorized personnel

* If you want accurate attendance data and you don’t want your employees to forget to clock in or out.

You may not need access control:

* If you run a super market and you have employees and customers walking in through the same door

Access control is more expensive as it may require the following components:

1. Door Lock with brackets

2. Exit Reader

3. Exit Switch

4. Cabling

The components required for an access control installation vary according to the type of door or turnstile.

Wooden door with a Wooden frame

If you have a wooden door with a wooden door frame a normal Electro magnetic lock may be good enough for you.

Glass door with a Wooden frame

If you have a glass door with a wooden frame you need an Electro magnetic lock with U bracket.

Glass door with a Glass frame

If you have a glass door with a glass frame you may need an Electro magnetic lock with a U and Z brackets.

7. Do you need an Exit Reader?

When you use access control you may need one device for entry and another one for exit. Usually, the exit reader can be directly connected to the master device, and all configurations are done only on the master device. It’s also possible to have the same model of device for entry and exit.

8. Do you need an Exit Switch?

When using access control you can use a device for entry and a switch for exit. But this is not recommended as the device cannot identify the employee who uses the exit switch.

9. Do you need a USB Port?

You should choose a device with USB port if you would need the following:

* Option to copy data from the device manually if other modes of communication fail

* Option to copy face/fingerprint/rfid templates from one device to another

10. 5V or 12V?

If you want to connect the device to a door lock and you want to supply power to the lock from the device, you will have to choose a device that works in the same voltage as your

11. Do you need a printer?

If you want to use the device in a canteen, you may need to print a slip as employee punches; make sure the device is compatible with the printer.

12. What device size and color?

Ensure that the size and color of the device matches with your interior design.

For a wide range of biometric devices feel free to get in touch with our experts. ENQUIRE NOW! and Time Attendance Software feel free to get in touch with our experts. ENQUIRE NOW!, visit our online store.

Payslip Software and Payslip Formats

Every company is unique, and so are their payslips. And the rules are quite flexible, so you can create your payslip as you want. If you are about to choose a format for your payslip, or about to purchase a payroll software that generates payslips, continue reading and it should help.

Here are some points to consider before you finalize on your payslip software.

1. Contents of a payslip

A payslip usually contains the company name, details about earnings, deductions and net pay. Do you need something more? Probably you also require a company logo, a short address, space for a company seal, and space for employee to sign. You may also require an attendance, leave and income tax summary within your payslip.

2. Customizable Payslips

Is it possible to customize your payslips as you want? Can you decide what appears in your payslip and what not? You should be able to decide and control what appears on your payslips. The payroll software should allow you to design your payslip.

3. Payslip with leave balances

It would be good for you and for your employees, if you were displaying leave balances in payslips. In this case, the payslip has clear information about how many leaves he is entitled to, enabling him to plan his leaves in the upcoming month.

4. Payslip with YTD

YTD stands for ‘year to date’, and is widely used nowadays. Basically, YTD is the total of transactions from the start of the financial year up to now. For eg. If you are on the last month of the financial year, the YTD for ‘Basic Pay’ shows how much you received as ‘Basic Pay’ for the whole year.

5. Payslip with carry forwarded values

It is handy to pay out employee wages rounded to the nearest multiple of 10 or to the nearest integer. But in that case, there should be an option to automatically carry forward the residue to the next month.

6. Payslips with different currencies

Sometimes, you want to pay your employees with different currencies. An employee working overseas gets paid in USD, but the payslip is generated at your place. So, in that case, you want to pay some of your employees in USD, and the others in local currency.

7. Calculation History for each payslip

Every payslip is a result of some calculations, but how to verify if the values are correct? You just cannot blindly trust a payroll software, you need to verify and convince yourself. A good payroll software should have a calculation history for each item in the payslip, thereby providing clarity on calculations.

8. Bulk email of payslips to employees

You may have several employees, and you are ready with your payslips, but how to send it to all your employees? If you have just a few employees, it doesn’t matter. Otherwise, it does matter, and it should be possible to email payslips to your employees in a few clicks, if you have a good payroll software.

AttendHRM is an HR Payroll Software with excellent features including all features listed above. Download a trial and get started Now!

Payroll processing in minutes – Completely automated

Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination.

Being intelligent humans, we should utilize the best qualities of computers, especially, the speed, accuracy and automation capabilities. If you are stuck with the traditional, time consuming, error prone, manual payroll processing, it’s time to automate.

Should I upgrade to automated payroll software?

A few compelling reasons to upgrade to an automated payroll software:

1. Saves you lots of time and money: Manual payroll processing is tedious and time consuming. Consider keying in attendance, leave data for all your employees into an excel sheet for processing every month end. It’s quite some work. This can be completely automated.

2. No manual intervention, hence highly accurate: Humans are intelligent but they are slow and inaccurate, hence it’s wise not to rely on humans for lots of calculations. Let a computer do all calculations and processing quickly and with high accuracy.

3. Allows you to process payroll at the last minute, and very quickly: Payroll is to be processed with attendance and leave data. And you will have to wait for the last day of the month to get these data. If you want to pay your employees on the next day, you have hardly any time to do the payroll processing. So, the processing should be really fast, no matter how many employees you have.

4. Automated payroll processing even if geographically distributed: Imagine processing data from one centralized location, even though your organization has branches across the globe, and still completely automated with attendance and leave data.

Payroll processing in minutes?

Payroll processing in minutes? It’s not a fiction; the best payroll software can really do the following tasks in a few minutes.

1. Process your payroll with attendance and leave data: You should be able to pay your employee for every minute of overtime he does. Also, may be you want to cut pay for every minute he is late. Payroll processing should also take leave balance and entitlements into account.

2. Send pay slips to employees: Right after processing, email pay slips to all your employees. Also, employees should be able to view their pay slips whenever they want, wherever they are!

3. Email salary transfer information to banks: Statements should be forwarded to banks to perform a salary transfer to the employees.

4. Process your income tax, generate statutory reports: Income tax should also be processed with other payroll components. The automated system should also generate statutory reports required by your government.

AttendHRM is an HR Payroll Software with excellent features including all features listed above. Download a trial and get started Now!

How to choose the right Time Attendance Devices?

Time Attendance Devices are required to effectively monitor employee attendance. The need for a time attendance monitoring system grows with the number of employees you manage. But choosing the right devices may be a difficult task, unless you are an expert.

Let’s go through a few points that will help you with choosing the right time attendance devices for your requirement.

1. What type of time attendance devices are you looking for?

a. Proximity Card Readers (RFID Devices)
b. Biometric Devices (Fingerprint, Retina scan devices)
c. Hand Punch Devices

2. Do you also require access control?

Time attendance devices can also work as access control devices. In this case, the devices will control entry/exit to your company, thereby providing accurate data for tracking employees.

In this case, you will need a device for each door that is used for entry/exit. So, the number of doors used for entry/exit is to be determined. Also, you may need only access control to certain area in your company, a server room, for example.

3. How many employees are expected to be punching at the same time?

If you have too many employees punching at the same time, you require a device that is fast in identifying. Some biometric devices may consume a few seconds for the identification process, which may result in a long queue if you have too many employees rushing in at the last minute.

4. Storage Capacity of the device.

Time Attendance Devices can store only a limited number of transactions. If you have lots of employees, you should choose a device with large transaction storage capacity.

For eg. If you have 1000 employees, and on an average your employees punch 5 times a day, there are 5000 transactions in a day. So if you choose a device with a storage capacity of 50000 transactions, you will have data for 10 recent days.

5. How many locations/branches do you have?

If you have different locations and you want to monitor employees from a centralized location, then you need devices that support TCP/IP communication. In this case, you also need a software like ‘Attend HRM’ to collect all the attendance data into one centralized location for processing.

6. Which device manufacturer to choose from?

Well, if you already found a few devices with the criteria above, it’s time to pick the right manufacturer. Feel free to speak to the time attendance experts at Lenvica and we will suggest the best devices for your specific requirement.