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Terminal time tracking

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.

Try it free for 14 days

No credit card required · Cancel monthly

  • 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
In the business today

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.

With MetronHR

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.

No more typing upAn 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.

A terminal on the wall confirms an entry with a first name and the time
Hold up the cardReception, Lister MeileAnnaKommen 07:58Guten Morgen
RFID
Employee card
Hold up the cardReception, Lister MeileAnnaKommen 07:58Guten Morgen
RFID
Employee card
No more typing up
Time trackingWeek 43 · Sophie Braun
dayStartEndBreakWorking time
Mon, 19 Oct07:3016:000:30h8:00h
Tue, 20 Oct07:4516:300:45h8:00h
Wed, 21 Oct08:0015:150:30h6:45h
Thu, 22 Oct07:3017:000:45h8:45h
Fri, 23 Oct07:3013:300:00h6:00h
Week37:30h

More than 6 hours on Friday: MetronHR deducts the break under § 4 ArbZG because none was clocked.

Try it yourself

From the wall to the report

Setting it up is a matter of minutes and needs nobody from outside.

  1. 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.

    A second terminal is connected just as quickly

    Pairing code on the device, entered on the web
    Kopplungscode471209valid for 10 minutes
    RFID
    Register the terminal471209Waiting for the devicePaired as “Reception”
    Kopplungscode471209valid for 10 minutes
    RFID
    Register the terminal471209Waiting for the devicePaired as “Reception”Once per device, then assign cards and you are done

  2. 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.

    Existing staff cards can carry on being used

    Assign waiting cards to a person on the web
    CardsReception terminal
    Cards issued11
    Sophie BraunCard 04:7F:3Cactive
    Tobias KrügerCard 04:1B:88active
    Ole Jansennew card 04:A2:19 read

  3. 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.

    A network outage costs not a single working hour

    Buffered entries are transferred once the network is back
    Kein NetzClocking carries onVerbunden4 Entries synced
    RFID
    Stored in the deviceIn, Anna Berg12:47Out, Jonas Krebs13:04In, Mara Brandt13:12Out, Greta Winkler13:30Nothing is lost, not even in a power cut
    Kein NetzClocking carries onVerbunden4 Entries synced
    RFID
    Stored in the deviceIn, Anna Berg12:47Out, Jonas Krebs13:04In, Mara Brandt13:12Out, Greta Winkler13:30Nothing is lost, not even in a power cut

What the terminal can do

From reading a card through a network outage to managing several devices.

  • Privacy Policy

    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.

    What the terminal records
    This, yesCard numberIn and outWelches Terminalminute, unroundedBreaks
    This, noFingerabdruckPhoto or videoLocation of the person
    What the terminal records
    This, yesCard numberIn and outWelches Terminalminute, unroundedBreaks
    This, noFingerabdruckPhoto or videoLocation of the personWho sees whomGerundete Zeiten
  • Administration

    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.

    Terminals3 devices · 2 sites
    ReceptionPractice · 2 min agoonline
    LabPractice · 5 min agoonline
    WarehouseAnnex · 3 hrs agooffline, buffering
  • 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.
Trust Center

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
GDPR compliant

Made in Germany, hosted on German servers

Trust Center

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.

Go to time tracking

Where to go from here, and what waits for you there.

Frequent questions about terminal time tracking

What businesses want to know before they buy.

Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.

Send us a message
Which device do I need?

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.

What does the terminal cost?

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.

Does it work without the internet?

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.

Can I carry on using our existing cards?

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.

Are fingerprints or faces recorded?

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.

Can somebody clock in for a colleague?

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.

What happens if a terminal disappears?

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.

Can breaks or projects be booked at the terminal?

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.

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.

Try it free for 14 daysAsk about a terminal
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