Attendance device rollout
An attendance terminal fails in the mapping, not in the hardware. Punches arrive tied to a device number. Unless each of those is linked to a person in the system, the records belong to nobody, and the first monthly report is unusable.
A one-off rollout over two to three weeks, with the ongoing checks at the end running monthly afterwards. Do not shorten the parallel period.
The checklist
- 01Confirm the device is reachable on the local network from the applicationOwner: IT
- 02Tell the team what is being recorded and when it starts, in writingOwner: HR lead
- 03Enrol each person on the device, in small groups rather than one queueOwner: IT
- 04Map every device user to a system user, and check the unmapped count is zeroOwner: HR
- 05Run a refresh from the device and confirm the punches arriveOwner: IT
- 06Run two weeks in parallel with whatever you use todayOwner: HR
- 07Compare the two records for those weeks and explain every differenceOwner: HR
- 08Confirm shifts are assigned before lateness is reported to anyoneOwner: HR
- 09Announce the cutover date and what happens to a missed punchOwner: HR lead
- 10Check the last sync time and the unmapped count every month afterwardsOwner: IT
What goes wrong
- Unmapped device users. The punches exist and belong to nobody, and the gap is invisible unless somebody looks at the count.
- Cutting over without a parallel period, so the first disputed record has nothing to check against.
- A sync that stopped days ago. The screen shows when it last ran, and nobody reads it until a report looks wrong.
- Reporting lateness before shifts are assigned, which produces a first week of numbers everyone correctly ignores.
- No route for a failed punch, so people improvise and the record fills with corrections nobody agreed.
Questions people ask
What does the unmapped users count mean?
People enrolled on the device with no link to a system record. Their punches arrive unattached, so the count should be zero before you rely on the data.
How long should the parallel period be?
Two weeks is usually enough to cover a normal cycle of absences, late arrivals and at least one failed punch. Shorter and the first dispute has no baseline.
What happens when a punch fails?
It becomes a manual punch request that an administrator reviews. Tell people about that route before the cutover, not after the first failure.