Choosing time and attendance for an hourly team looks like a hardware decision: which clock, which punch method. It is really a software decision with a hardware component attached to it, and getting the order backward is how teams end up with a clock that looks right on a spec sheet but never actually stops the manual work it was bought to eliminate.
Start by assessing your site and your workforce, because how many people punch in at once and whether your internet connection is reliable rules out some options before you ever compare vendors. From there, narrow down which punch method or methods fit your site. Then verify the software and payroll integration behind whatever clock you're considering, since that is what actually determines whether hours reach payroll without someone re-keying them. Only at the end do you handle deployment and legal compliance, and that step deserves real attention rather than a rushed afterthought at go-live, especially if you choose a biometric method.
This guide walks through all four steps in that order.
How to Assess Your Site and Workforce Profile Before Choosing a Time and Attendance System
Answer this before you look at a single product page. What fits your site depends on your shift patterns and your existing systems, not on which option sounds most modern.
Assess these four factors first.
- Count your locations. Determine whether you need one clock at a single fixed site or a system that manages multiple clocks under one account.
- Map your shift patterns. Note how many employees punch in during the same window at shift change, since that shapes which punch methods will hold up under volume.
- Check for hygiene or no-touch requirements. Identify whether your site has shared-surface concerns worth planning around.
- Test your network reliability. Determine whether your site's internet connection drops often enough that offline recording becomes a real requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
A single site can usually run on one clock with light management overhead. Multiple locations raise a different question: whether the software behind your clocks lets one manager or owner see attendance across every site without added per-location fees, a question worth carrying into your third step below.
Hygiene matters at some sites more than others. A health care practice, a food service kitchen, or any environment with shared-surface concerns has a real reason to weight punch-method choice toward something requiring no physical contact with the device.
Network reliability is the last check. If your connection is generally solid, this matters less. If your location loses connectivity during storms, depends on unreliable rural service, or shares a connection that drops under load, a system that keeps recording locally during an outage and syncs once you're back online is a requirement, not a feature to weigh against price.
How to Narrow Down Punch Methods for Your Site
Once you know your site profile, the punch-method decision gets simpler than it first looks. There are four common methods, and the tradeoff underneath all of them is the same one.
A badge or a PIN is a credential. It is fast to use and cheap to deploy, and it can be handed to a coworker just as easily as it can be worn or typed. That is the mechanism behind buddy punching, one employee clocking in or out for another who isn't actually there. A fingerprint scan or touchless facial recognition verifies the person instead of a credential, closing that specific gap, at the cost of a slower punch (one person verified at a time instead of a quick tap or keystroke) and, for facial recognition specifically, a higher upfront hardware cost.
None of this has to be an all-or-nothing choice for your whole workforce. A device can often support more than one method at once, so a warehouse might run badge readers on the loading dock and fingerprint verification at the office entrance without buying two separate systems.
The device engineering behind each method, sensor accuracy, scan speed at volume, exact hardware cost by model, is where the real comparison work happens, and that comparison belongs to the people who build the hardware. PayClock, delivered through Lathem, an Asure company that has manufactured time-clock hardware since 1919, is the device line most directly connected to Asure's own payroll and time and attendance software. Review PayClock Online and the PayClock hardware lineup directly for the specific model-by-model comparison, throughput at different volumes, and current pricing, rather than relying on a generic summary here.
What matters for the rest of this guide is simpler: whichever punch method and device you land on, the software behind it is what determines whether the decision actually pays off.
How to Verify Time and Attendance Software and Payroll Integration
This is the step that decides whether you save real time every pay period or just move your manual work from paper to a screen, and it's where Asure Time & Attendance is built to do the heaviest lifting.
Confirm punches flow directly into payroll. Ask whether hours move straight into your payroll run or whether someone still has to export a file and re-enter totals by hand. Asure Time & Attendance, paired with PayClock hardware, syncs punches directly into Asure Payroll, so hours arrive payroll-ready without a manual re-entry step.
Confirm offline resilience in the software itself, not just the marketing copy. Ask what happens the moment your internet connection drops mid-shift. A system worth buying keeps recording punches locally during a network outage and syncs that data automatically once the connection returns, so a storm doesn't turn into missing hours someone has to reconstruct from memory.
Ask about fees tied to growth before you sign anything, while you can still negotiate. Some vendors charge extra the moment you add a manager, an admin, or a second location. Asure Time & Attendance does not add fees for additional admins, managers, or locations, so opening a new site doesn't change your per-location math.
Ask what the software flags automatically. Useful software surfaces exceptions, a missed punch, an early departure, an unusually long shift, for a manager to review, rather than requiring someone to comb through raw punch data every week looking for problems by hand.
Ask about remote and field employees, even if most of your team punches in at a fixed site. If any hourly employees clock in away from that site, confirm the system offers a mobile option built for that. Asure's mobile app supports GPS-verified punches, so a manager can confirm a remote or field employee clocked in from where they were supposed to be, on the same account managing your fixed-site clocks, without adding separate tracking software.
Across multiple locations, this is also where a connected account matters most: one manager or owner should be able to see attendance across every site, run one payroll from all of it, and add a location without adding a new system or a new fee.
Ask how scheduling and approvals work day to day, not just at pay-period close. A manager needs to see who's scheduled against who actually punched in, approve a shift swap or an overtime request from wherever they are, and pull a labor-cost or overtime report without waiting on someone else to build it. Asure Time & Attendance handles scheduling, manager approvals, and reporting on the same account as the punch data itself, so a manager isn't checking one system for the schedule and another for what actually happened on the floor.
How to Deploy a Time and Attendance System and Handle Biometric Privacy Compliance
Deployment splits into two jobs. The first is physical and procedural. The second, if you choose fingerprint or facial recognition, is legal, and it deserves its own attention rather than a footnote at go-live.
Start with placement and communication. Install any physical clock somewhere employees already pass at the start and end of a shift, such as an entrance or a break room, and tell employees what's changing and why with enough lead time for questions before go-live. If you're collecting fingerprint or facial data, tell them what happens to that data specifically.
The legal workstream is separate from the hardware decision entirely. If you choose fingerprint or facial recognition, the obligation you've taken on depends on which state or states you operate in.
Illinois has the strictest rule of the three states most commonly legislated for workplace biometric collection. Illinois's Biometric Information Privacy Act (740 ILCS 14/15) requires a private entity to obtain a written release before collecting a biometric identifier, and requires a written, publicly available policy that sets a retention schedule and destroys the data when the purpose is satisfied or within three years of the person's last interaction with the entity, whichever comes first. A 2024 amendment, Public Act 103-0769, effective August 2, 2024, treats repeated collection of the same biometric identifier from the same person by the same method as a single violation rather than a separate violation each time, and allows consent to be given by electronic signature.
Texas takes a different approach. The Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (Business and Commerce Code Section 503.001) requires advance notice and consent before capturing a biometric identifier for a commercial purpose, and requires destruction within a reasonable time, not later than one year after the purpose for collecting it expires.
Washington's approach is narrower on paper. RCW 19.375.020 requires notice, consent, or a mechanism to prevent later commercial use before enrolling a biometric identifier in a database, but the statute's own definition of biometric identifier expressly excludes photographs, video, and data generated from them, so confirm with counsel whether your specific facial-recognition capture method falls within the statute's scope at all. This law sets no specific statutory destruction deadline, and it is enforced solely by the state Attorney General under the Consumer Protection Act (RCW 19.375.030), with no private right of action for individuals to sue on their own.
Three states, three different sets of obligations. There is no single national standard here, which is why you need to confirm current requirements for your own state, or every state where you operate, rather than assume one state's rule covers you everywhere.
Separately from any biometric-specific rule, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets its own recordkeeping floor for payroll and time records generally: employers must preserve payroll records for at least three years under 29 CFR 516.5, while basic time cards need only be preserved for at least two years under 29 CFR 516.6. Neither rule sets a retention period for biometric data itself; that's governed by whichever state biometric law applies to you.
None of this substitutes for legal advice specific to your state and your workforce. Confirm current requirements for every state where you operate, and loop in counsel before you collect a single fingerprint or face scan.
Software Decides Whether the Hardware Decision Pays Off
The punch method and the device you choose set the ceiling on accuracy and identity verification. The software behind it determines whether that accuracy actually reaches payroll without someone re-keying it, whether a manager sees exceptions before they become a payroll correction, and whether adding a second location adds a fee or just adds a clock to the same account.
Asure Time & Attendance, connected to AsureCentral for payroll and to PayClock hardware (delivered through Lathem, an Asure company) for on-site capture, is built to be the software half of that equation. If your team already knows which punch method fits your floor, start there; if hardware specifics are still the open question, PayClock's own software and device lineup are the right place to compare models directly.
