Biometric Attendanceबायोमेट्रिक हाजिरी
Biometric attendance records a punch using a physical identifier such as a fingerprint or a face, on a device at the workplace. Because the identifier cannot be handed to a colleague, it removes buddy punching, which is the main weakness of card and register systems.
Also called: fingerprint attendance, biometric hajira, thumb attendance, face attendance device
Key facts
- Identifier
- Fingerprint or faceEnrolled once per employee.
- Common vendors
- ZKTeco, HikvisionWidely deployed in Nepal.
- Removes
- Buddy punchingThe identifier cannot be lent.
- Needs
- A path to the HR systemDirect, or through a local agent.
The three steps
- Enrolment: the employee's fingerprint or face template is registered on the device and mapped to their employee record.
- Punch: the employee presents the identifier, the device records a timestamped event locally.
- Sync: the device's log reaches the HR system, where it becomes an attendance record against the right employee.
The mapping step is where it goes wrong
A device knows its own user IDs, not your employee codes. If the mapping between them is incomplete or duplicated, punches land against the wrong person or against nobody, and the daily attendance summary quietly disagrees with reality.
This is worth checking whenever a device is replaced or a branch is added, because that is when the mapping is rebuilt and errors enter.
What happens when the internet drops
Nepali offices lose connectivity often enough that this is a design question rather than an edge case. A device that buffers punches locally and forwards them when the link returns will not lose a day's attendance. One that depends on a live connection to record the punch will.
Ask the question in vendor selection rather than discovering the answer during a monsoon outage.
Biometric data is personal data
A fingerprint template belongs to the employee. Tell staff what is stored, where, and for how long, and delete templates when someone leaves rather than leaving them on a device indefinitely.
Biometric Attendance, answered
ZKTeco and Hikvision devices are the two most widely deployed in Nepal and are the vendors NepalHRM supports. Compatibility depends on the device speaking a protocol the HR system can read, so confirm the specific model rather than the brand alone.
It depends on the setup. A device that buffers punches locally keeps recording through an outage and forwards them when the connection returns. A device that needs a live connection to record will lose those punches.
For preventing buddy punching, yes: a fingerprint cannot be handed to a colleague, a card can. Cards remain useful where hygiene or glove use makes fingerprint readers impractical.
This page explains general practice in Nepal. It is not legal or tax advice, and statutory figures are revised from time to time. Check the current Act, rule or notice before acting on it.
Related terms
- GPS AttendanceGPS attendance records a check-in from an employee's phone along with their location, usually constrained to a defined area. It covers field staff, site engineers and branch teams who are nowhere near a biometric device.
- Attendance RegularisationAttendance regularisation is the process for correcting an attendance record: a missed punch, a forgotten check-out, a day spent at a client site. The employee raises it, a manager approves it, and the corrected record carries an audit trail.
- Working Hoursकामको समयNepal's Labour Act 2074 sets working hours at eight a day and forty-eight a week, with at least one day of rest each week. Time worked beyond that is overtime and carries the higher rate.
- Shift Rosterपालो तालिकाA shift roster is the published schedule of who works which shift on which day. It is what attendance is measured against: without a roster, a punch at 14:00 cannot be classified as on time or late.
- Overtimeअतिरिक्त समयOvertime is time worked beyond the standard eight-hour day or forty-eight-hour week. Under Nepal's Labour Act 2074 it is paid at one and a half times basic remuneration and is capped at four hours a day and twenty-four hours a week.
- Absenteeism RateAbsenteeism rate measures unplanned absence: days lost to unscheduled absence divided by the days that should have been worked, expressed as a percentage. Planned leave is excluded, because it is not the thing being measured.
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