Time and Attendance Systems

The purpose of a time and attendance registration system is to collect and present detailed information on working time, attendance hours, lateness and earned overtime. Putting a card against a terminal by an employee does registration. Information gathered in a system meet regulations of the Labour Code and can serve to calculate employee's wages. UNICARD S.A. offers solutions for companies of various activity profiles. Since 1991 we record all remarks and hints pertaiting to this type of systems. We perfect our product continuously fulfilling expectations of our customers. The current offer is a result of 13-year-experience in the field of time and attendance accounting systems.

Typical Time and Atendance System components:

• time and attendance terminal
  
• employee identifying cards
• computer and software
• power pack with UPS and transmission converter (e.g. RS422/LAN)

Additionally a system can comprise:

• turnstile (gate)
• additional readers and recorders
• card reader and encoder
• external clock
• lock or magnet keeper to open doors

The SD-1660D terminal
The SD-1660D terminal is a processor terminal for Time and Attendance Systems. It serves to read proximity cards and is manufactured in versions to cooperate with most popular kinds of proximity cards available on the market. The SD-1660D terminal is used also in systems like: Access Control, production (service) order accounting, and other, appropriate to customers need. SD-1660 operates to the following standards:  MIFARE®, INDALA®, HID®, UNIQUE, HITAG™, GIGA-TMS INC., iCLASS™. It has an illuminated LCD display informing on a date and mode of a record entry. The display can present text communiqués, work time balance, current info on employee's leaves, as well as actual time, date and weekday.
The SD-1660D records and saves all events of employee entering and leaving (card no., date, time and recording mode), a balance of working hours and data on off-days. Additionally all card authorisations along with possible restrictions can be saved in the terminal memory. The SD-1660D can control execution devices (lock, turnstile) and co-work with an additional external reader.

Plastic card identifiers
Main information carriers in Time and Attendance Systems are plastic card IDs. Presently in systems of this kind most often-used user's identifiers are electronic proximity cards. In some cases electronic proximity tokens in form of a key pendant or a card with a magnetic strip are used.
Plastic cards are usually made of PVC, PE, PET or ABS plastic. User's data and his photo are usually printed on a card (graphic personalisation). An overprint is made by the thermo-sublimation process. Printers can print a colour overprint with colours ranging over a directly onto a card. An overprint is applied onto the surface and can be protected with a transparent layer protecting it against abrasion or by a holographic layer. A printer can be provided with a module to encode the card electronic system and a magnetic strip encoder. The overprint and the card encoding are made during one pass of a card through a printer. The graphic personalisation is made often on previously printed overprinted cards by offset printing.
Under the scope of implementing Time and Attendance Systems UNICARD S.A. will prepare a batch of user's identifiers for employees and offers a service of printing additional IDs for new employees. In case the number of IDs to be used is substantial, we suggest contemplating a purchase of an own printer. UNICARD S.A. is a sole dealer of a leading European manufacturer of card printers: the Evolis Co. We offer various printers to suit individual customer needs. We ensure full technical support and offer all card accessories such as lanyards and clips.

The UniRCP programme
The UniRCP is used for a complex management of Time and Attendance System (RCP). UniRCP is an innovative solution of UNICARD S.A., basing on a more than ten years experience of the company and over 2000 implemented RCP systems.
A typical RCP system consists of a hardware part (recorders for registering employee's entries and exits) and managing software. Each time an employee starts and finishes work (or temporarily leaves work) he records his time by putting his card to a recorder. Employee's times are recorded in the computer memory and next transferred by the UniRCP programme to a database. An authorised operator can add events to the UniRCP manually.
On the basis of the entry and exit record and earlier defined work and time schedules the UniRCP settles and balances the workers work time. If errors occurred during the time settlement process (e.g. no logical sequence of events) the programme warns an operator thus enabling him to make corrections.
A detailed account of work days and work periods is available for every employee. This account takes into consideration as follows: employee's physical presence, accepted presence time, scheduled absence (e.g. days off, business trips, training), work related exits from work, late arrivals, overtime etc. The reporting range of the UniRCP is very wide.
UniRCP can cooperate with the UniKD - access control software. Both these programmes can be operated with one database thus entering data on employee's and the structure into two databases is not necessary. The UniRCP is also capable of integration with human resources and wages/salaries programmes via off-line mode by way of exchanging files.

A block diagram of a Time and Attendance System:
(click on picture to enlarge)