The time clock nobody has to explain
A terminal hangs on the wall, the team holds a card in front of it, and the time is in MetronHR. No signing in, no phone, no training. For everyone who has no computer in front of them while they work.
- No phone of your own needed, the card is enough
- Recorded to the minute, without rounding
- No fingerprint, no face image, just the card
- Keeps booking when the network goes down
Those without a computer clock in on paper
In production, in the workshop, in the kitchen and in the warehouse there is no desk with a screen. Working time therefore ends up on a sheet on the wall, in a spreadsheet at the month end, or in the shift lead's memory.
Problem
The sheet gets typed up
At the month end somebody transfers handwritten hours into a table. That costs a day, and every transposed digit in it only shows up in the payroll.
Problem
Not everyone wants the app on their private phone
Clocking in by phone assumes a device, a login and the willingness to use both. In many businesses phones are not allowed on the shop floor anyway.
Problem
Old time clocks will not give up their data
The device counts hours, but the reporting ends at a printout or a file nobody can work with. Holiday, overtime and target hours sit somewhere else.
Solution
A device that does exactly one thing
The terminal shows the time and the location and waits for a card. Whoever holds one up gets their first name and the time as a receipt, and MetronHR decides from the last state whether that was a clock-in or a clock-out. Nothing else can be opened on the device.
Result
No more typing up
An entry from the terminal is the same time entry as one from the web. Overtime, target against actual and the reports calculate with it without an intermediate step.
From the wall to the report
Setting it up is a matter of minutes and needs nobody from outside.
Step1
Connect the device
The terminal app reaches your own Android tablet through a setup code that MetronHR shows: reset the tablet, scan the code, and the device does the rest by itself. It then shows an eight-digit pairing code that is valid for 15 minutes. You type that into MetronHR, give the device a location name, and it belongs to your business. No cable, no installation media, no configuration file.
Step2
Assign the cards
If somebody holds up a card that is still unknown, the terminal turns it away and reports it as a case to clear up. On the web you assign it to the person, and after that it works. Cards can also be entered in advance if the numbers are already known.
Step3
The hours arrive, even without a network
If the wifi goes down, the terminal keeps booking and stores the entries locally. As soon as the connection is back, it delivers them.
What the terminal can do
From reading a card through a network outage to managing several devices.
Only the card, nothing else
No biometric data, no debate about consent
Only the card is read. The device's fingerprint and face recognition are switched off. The terminal itself holds the first name for the receipt and the link between card and person, no surname and no photo.
Keeping the devices in view
A lost terminal is void in one click
On the web every connected terminal is listed with its location, last contact and version. A device can be blocked, and its credentials are invalid at once, and a replacement is paired in the same place.
Recording
To the minute, without rounding
The time clocked is the time calculated
The terminal writes down the moment the card was held up, to the minute. Nothing is smoothed to quarter hours and nothing is cut at the expense of the person recording. Whoever arrives at 07:04 started at 07:04.
Cards
Existing staff cards
Today's cards carry on working
Existing staff cards usually carry on working. Before you order we check that with one of your cards.
Entry
Clocking in and out without choosing
Nobody presses the wrong button
MetronHR works out the direction from the person's last state. The terminal has no button and no choice for it. The receipt names the first name, the time and the direction.
Offline
A buffer for the network outage
The business does not hang on the wifi
Entries are stored locally and encrypted and delivered after a network outage, with retries. Confirmed entries are deleted on the device at once; it gathers no archive.
Operation
Kiosk mode: one device for one job
No repurposing, no support calls about other apps
The terminal app is the only interface. Nothing else can be opened on the device, not even the settings.
Maintenance
Updates itself
Nobody has to get the ladder out
The terminal fetches its own updates. Several devices need no site visit either.
Where it stops
Breaks and projects stay on the web
The queue at the device stays short
At the terminal there is no project picker, no cost centre, no correction and no approval. Corrections, requests and reports run on the web and in the app, where there is time for a form.
For everyone who works without a computer
Everywhere the work happens at a machine, at a bench or on a floor.
Production and warehouse
A shift change without a bottleneck
Thirty people change shift at the same time, and attendance is on a list outside the supervisor's office.
One terminal at the entrance, one card per person, one entry per walk-past. The hours are in the system at once, even with several devices at several gates.
Workshops and trades with a fixed site
Clocking in without a free hand
With gloves on and oil on your hands, a phone is the wrong thing to operate.
The card stays on the lanyard, holding it up takes a second, and the receipt can be read from two metres away.
Care and practices
Attendance without signing in at a computer
The computer is in the office, the work happens on the ward, and the hours come out of somebody's memory later.
A terminal at the staff entrance, an entry on the way past. The hours flow into the same reports as duty planning.
Payroll and accountants
Figures that were not typed up
Handwritten timesheets are the most common source of error in payroll.
A terminal entry is a time entry like any other and goes into the overtime calculation, the reports and the export.
Security and data protection
A device hanging publicly on a wall is a different security problem from a server. Correspondingly little sits on it.
- Only the card is read, no fingerprints and no face images
- The device holds the first name for the receipt and the link between card and person, nothing else
- GDPR compliant, hosted on German servers
Does your team sit at a computer?
Then no device on the wall is needed. A timer in the browser, the app on the phone, projects and clients included.
Frequent questions about terminal time tracking
What businesses want to know before they buy.
Two routes. We pick a prepared wall terminal with a card reader to suit the business and ship it in kiosk mode. Or you take an Android tablet of your own: Android 9 or later, with NFC and with Google Play services. You set that up yourself, in MetronHR under Company, Terminals. The instructions with the setup code are there; the tablet then loads the app itself. If you would rather have hardware from us, drop us a line.
The price depends on the device and the quantity, so there is no figure here that would be wrong for your case. The software is included in the plan, and terminal access costs nothing extra. For a quote a short message with the number of sites and people is enough.
Yes. The terminal keeps booking and stores the entries locally and encrypted until the connection is back. A card the device has never seen cannot be resolved offline, though: it is reported as unknown rather than creating an entry the server would have to discard later.
As a rule yes. Before you order we check that with one of your cards, so it is clear beforehand whether the cards can stay in use.
No. Only the card is read. Whatever biometrics a device ships with is switched off in our setup. That removes the whole discussion about biometric data under Article 9 GDPR, and it makes co-determination in the business considerably simpler.
Anyone holding somebody else's card can hold it up, which is true of every card-based system. What MetronHR sets against that: every entry names the terminal, the time and the person and is documented traceably, cards can be blocked individually, and an unknown card is turned away rather than booked.
You block it on the web, its credentials are invalid at once and it can book nothing more. You pair a replacement in the same place. The lost device holds first names and card assignments, no surnames, no photos and no complete personnel file.
No, and that is deliberate. At the device there is clocking in and out, nothing else. Breaks are calculated under the Working Hours Act, and projects, corrections and requests run on the web and in the app. A form on a wall with a shift queuing in front of it does not work.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
Time tracking for people without a desk
Try MetronHR free for 14 days. If you need a terminal, talk to us and we will pick the right device.
Questions about the hardware? Send us a message
Related
Where to go from here, and what waits for you there.
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