Badge clocks

Illizeo connects to ZKTeco clocking terminals: your employees badge on the clock and their punches reach their timesheet. This article explains how to put a clock into service, manage the fleet and badges, frame the use of biometrics and resolve quarantined punches.

Before you start #

• “Manage badge clocks: fleet, employee badges, settings”: Access to view, Execute to act. Administrator and HR Manager by default.
• “Resolve quarantined badge clock punches”: Access to read, Execute to resolve. Administrator and HR Manager by default.
• Badge clocks follow the Attendance module. Employees’ attendance profiles must include the Clock in/out mode.
• Path: Settings › Time Management › Badge clocks. If the page shows “Badge clocks: coming soon”, the connector is not yet open for your space.
• Clocks call Illizeo over outgoing HTTPS: no inbound opening of your network is needed.

Putting a clock into service #

Click Add a clock. Two methods are offered.

By serial number #

1. In the By serial number tab, enter the clock’s Name and its Serial number (on the back of the device or in its system information menu).
2. Choose the Site and the Employees pushed to the clock: Employees of the site, Chosen list or All active employees.
3. Set the Time zone, the Clock language and the Identification modes (RFID badge ticked by default).
4. Click Declare the clock. The button stays greyed out while the name, a valid number or a mode is missing, or the site when you chose “Employees of the site”.
5. The clock URL window shows the address specific to this clock. Copy it: it contains the clock’s secret and will never be shown again.
6. On the clock, open the server settings (administrator menu), paste the URL into the “base_url” field and check the serial number. Click I copied the URL.

By the company URL #

1. In the By the company URL tab, click Create the company URL: one address serves the whole fleet and remains available.
2. On each clock, under Communication › Web server and proxy: Web server URL = this URL, API endpoint left empty, HTTPS mode on if the URL starts with https://, proxy and authentication off.
3. The clock appears in the “Detected clocks” box. Click Adopt, complete the form and confirm, or Dismiss. Nothing is sent to a clock before it is adopted.

From its first call, the clock moves from “Waiting for first call” to “Online” and receives its configuration, employee records (name, employee number, badges, PIN code, identification mode), active projects and its keys: Clock in, Clock out, Meal start, Meal end, Break start, Break end.

Managing the fleet #

The Clocks tab lists each clock with its site, status (Online, Offline, Revoked), last contact, modes and, under “To resolve”, its quarantined punches and anomalies. On a clock’s page:

• Configuration: name, site, time zone, language, call interval (30 s by default). Changing the language reboots the clock.
• Employees on the clock: who is pushed, and the Clock administrators, who open the clock’s local menu (this is where badges and biometrics are enrolled on site). An administrator must have an active badge or a PIN code.
• Actions: Resynchronise everything, Reload configuration, Clock information, Reboot, catch up punches for a period, New URL (rotate the secret), Remove from the fleet (purge, then revoke).
• Display and behaviour: brightness, beep volume, screen sleep, message duration, duplicate-punch window (60 s by default), date and time formats, languages offered on the home screen.
• Command history: Pending, Delivered, Executed, Failed, No answer.

The Settings tab sets who resolves quarantined punches (HR only, or HR and the direct manager for their team), raw punch retention (at least 5 years), the clock field carrying the project, alert thresholds and home screen messages.

Employee badges #

1. Open the employee’s profile, Badges tab.
2. Enter the Badge number, choose the Type (RFID, NFC, QR code) and click Assign.
3. Then manage each badge: Correct the number, Lost, Returned, Revoke.

An employee carries at most six active badges. The same tab sets their PIN code (4 to 8 digits, never shown again) and their own identification modes. A badge enrolled directly on a clock arrives as “Proposed by a clock”: Approve or Reject. The Badges tab of the Badge clocks page also lets you import badges from a CSV file (employee number;number;type, 5,000 rows at most).

Biometrics #

Fingerprint and face recognition modes stay locked until an administrator has acknowledged, on the clock’s page, the “Biometric modes: notice”. They confirm that the use of biometrics has been or will be approved by your legal department, then click Acknowledge and enable. Each acknowledgement is recorded (date, author, modes, text version) in the biometric acknowledgements card, with a PDF certificate. Biometric templates stay on the clock: Illizeo neither receives nor stores them; each employee enrols on each clock. Collecting employees’ consent remains the company’s responsibility.

Resolving quarantined punches #

A punch that Illizeo cannot file safely goes into quarantine, with a reason; nothing is lost. The most common reasons: Unknown badge, Inactive employee, No attendance profile, Profile without clocking, Day submitted, After the entry lock, Payroll approved, Absence day, Double clock-in, Clock-out without clock-in, Clock-out forgotten the day before, Overlap.

1. Open Workflows › Badge reader clock-ins (or click Resolve in the banner of Workflows › Attendance).
2. Filter by status, reason and dates, then click a punch.
3. In “Quarantined punch”, review their punches and intervals for the day, then choose What to do: Retry (the cause is fixed), Attach to an employee, Fix the time, Apply despite the lock, Complete the missing clock-in, Close the interval left open, or Ignore.
4. For “Ignore” and “Apply despite the lock”, enter a reason. Click Apply.

Several punches can be handled in bulk (200 at most) with Retry, Apply despite the lock or Ignore. An approved payroll is never overridden. Each decision is logged.

Good to know #

• A clock punch is recorded at the clock’s time, rounded to the minute; in the timesheet, an icon shows “Badge clock” and the clock’s name. A replay never creates a duplicate.
• An employee who becomes inactive is removed at once from every clock; a change of name or site pushes their record again. A change made locally on the clock is overwritten by the Illizeo record.
• A badge number stays linked to its first holder, even once returned: it cannot be assigned to another employee.
• Alerts are sent each night (bell and email): quarantined punches, a clock no longer responding, a clock online without any punch, an offline clock at risk of losing its punches.
• A direct manager allowed to resolve their team’s quarantine has no menu entry: they open the page by its address.
• With the default settings, the project chosen on the clock may not reach the timesheet: check the “Clock field carrying the project” setting.
• Palm recognition is not applied by the clock. The biometric notice exists in French and English, the PDF certificate in French.
• Error messages returned by the server for badge clocks are in French whatever your language.
• When a clock is removed, the purge erases records, templates and punches from the device; punches already received remain in Illizeo.