Comments on: Biometric timeclocks: Worth it for your company?

By: Ed Blumberg

Ed Blumberg — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:08:33 +0000

Debbie B.
Are you in the Reading area? I would like to see one of these systems first hand. No pun intended.
Ed

By: Randi

Randi — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:06:57 +0000

I wish we could afford a biometric system. The trust issue is not a big one for us, but employees losing or forgetting their cards is all too common. Not having to keep track of the cards would be a huge timesaver in and of itself.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:12:44 +0000

We looked at the biometric timeclocks recently and decided against them. We work in an industry where people work with saws and drills so unfortunately, some of them loose fingers. We felt if someone had a handicap (no fingers or such) the biometric timeclock could become a legal issue. Also, the price of the biometric timeclocks was amazingly more than using a proximety badge time clock reader.

By: Sharon A

Sharon A — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:18:35 +0000

We installed 11 biometric clocks from TimeForce earlier this year. The clocks are located all around the country and feed directly into our server. This setup enables us to download the hours directly into Quickbooks and process paychecks from our home office. The setup took some doing, but it is working very well and was well worth the money spent because the various timecard clocks we previously used had to be manually checked over and recalculated if a person forgot to punch in or out. This is much better.

By: Robert R

Robert R — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:22:57 +0000

We have looked into purchasing such a system, but we have an unusual (or maybe not) situation. We are a roofing company and I’m not sure the machine would be able to read our guys’ palm or fingerprints when they return from the field each day. I guess we could have some handi-wipes next to the clock before the punch out, but I think the system might get old before its time. I also worry about the backlash of our employees feeling as though we don’t trust them. As the price goes down, we’ll probably consider it more seriously.

By: John's Pizzeria

John's Pizzeria — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:37:03 +0000

We had a lot of issues with employees either not clocking in correctly or clocking in too early and so issues of trust were raised. As a large restaurant with 200+ employees, we really needed a system that could accurately track who is here and what time they arrive. People would often clock in for other people and the honor system was not working. We installed the fingerprinting system and it’s been much better. It’s fast, easy, and while it can be expensive, it really does help with preventing people from clocking in for others. It also allows management to access the restaurant computers with their fingers, which is much easier and faster than carrying around a card (plus, you can’t lose your finger!). All in all, it benefits us greatly.

By: Debbie B

Debbie B — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:10:57 +0000

To Ed Blumberg-We purchased Time Clock Plus. It reads the top of your hand. We currently have over 100 employees on the system. We have two clocks that read the employee hand. A few quirks at the beginning but with the support from the company we have it running pretty smoothly now. We’ve been using it about 6 months now and we will be interfacing it with our payroll soon. The only thing I would be aware of is if you start adding employees you may need to get more clocks. We previously tried a fingerprint system and that did not work for us at all. The hand system seems much better. Hope this will help.

By: Ed Blumberg

Ed Blumberg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:52:14 +0000

Are there any “NEW” systems in the Reading, PA area that someone is using now or is aware of?

By: Ed Blumberg

Ed Blumberg — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:33:05 +0000

We changed from a manual system (cards) about 5 years ago and went to a card reader system. It worked OK for a few years then we added more shifts, changed rounding rules, etc, etc. the system couldn’t handle the 300+ employees with all he different start/stop times. Now during this “employment downturn” were somewhere around 110 employees. I’d like to changover to something different now before we get into a growth spurt and start recalling people and adding shifts, but I’m not sure which way to go. The plant environment is such that dust and debris accumulate in the track or slot where the card is swiped and this causes missed punches. Weknow this because we have a camera at the time clock station and can review who accesses the clock. We don’t need to interface with any payroll entity like ADP because we do our own payroll and send the information to an independent agent. If anyone out there has any suggestions on which way to go, PLEASE REPLY. Like what system you have and how it works for you,or other recommendations.

By: Shelley B

Shelley B — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:07:53 +0000

We purchased the Jantek Jupiter system 2 years ago. Expensive-yes. Worth it-yes. Aside from the areas that Andy A. mentioned it also saved us in payroll costs in the PAYROLL dept. Salary savings for the employees involved with payroll production saved us a ton. Also bio-metric systems have built in audit trails and other fail safe systems that eliminate data entry errors as well as establishing inputting securities. Payroll audits are a breeze with this system.