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Access Control and Time & Attendance: The Complete Guide

Access Control & Attendance

Every guide on card access control, time and attendance, turnstiles, overtime and data protection in one place, from first principles to buying.

Every site entrance has to answer two questions at once: who is allowed in, and who is actually inside and for how long? The first is a security question; the second drives timesheets and payroll. Plenty of organisations still answer them with separate devices or even paper sign-in sheets, which leads to records that never quite match, disputed overtime and a month-end payroll run that drags on for days. It is a safety issue too. According to the SGK Statistical Yearbook 2025, Türkiye's Social Security Institution recorded 766,039 work accidents in 2025 among workers insured under Article 4-1/a. Knowing exactly who is on site, and with what authorisation, is where health and safety starts.

This hub brings our access control and time and attendance articles together as a reading path. If you are starting from scratch, read what a card access control system is for the components and logic, then how a time and attendance system works to see how a badge tap at the door becomes an attendance record. When choosing how people identify themselves, compare 125kHz and 13.56MHz cards and weigh up fingerprint, card and face recognition. Considering biometrics? Read biometric attendance and data protection first.

To go deeper, anti-passback and zone-based access in factories cover the security side, while timesheets and overtime calculation and canteen meal counting cover the administrative side. When you reach the budgeting stage, our breakdown of what drives access control system cost will help you compare quotes on a like-for-like basis.

For delivery, see our pages on card access control, fingerprint access and HR, payroll and personnel management software. SmartPass, our product that combines access control, attendance and canteen counting in a single badge tap, is how the principles in these articles work in practice. Not sure where to begin? Jot down your number of doors, your shift pattern and how many visitors you receive; the list and FAQs below will point you to the right guide.

Reading list by scenario and sector

  • Visitors and physical entry: QR code visitor access replaces the paper visitor book, and our guide to turnstile types helps you match the barrier to the entrance.
  • Health, safety and contractors: contractor access and HSE compliance, construction site access and attendance and emergency muster lists.
  • Resilience and scale: offline mode when the network drops and multi-site access control.
  • By sector: hospital staff access control, school and campus access and data centre access control.
Start here

What Is a Card Access Control System? Components, How It Works and How to Choose One

What a card access control system is, how cards, readers, controllers and software work together, and what to ask before choosing one for your site.

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All guides in this topic (4)

Questions we hear most often

Frequently Asked Questions

Can access control and time and attendance run on one system?

Yes. The same badge read that opens a door can also record clock-in and clock-out times, so there is no need for a separate attendance terminal. Attendance records are checked against the shift plan to produce timesheets that feed payroll. Because there is a single source of truth, door logs and timesheets never contradict each other.

Should we use cards or fingerprints?

For most organisations, cards or time-limited QR codes are sufficient and carry a lighter data protection burden. Fingerprints are biometric data, a special category of personal data, so if you use them you need a clear justification, an alternative for staff and a defined storage method. For high-security zones, pairing a card with a second factor is usually the more balanced option.

Where should we start with a card access control project?

Start with a list of doors and zones: which doors each group of people may use, and at what times. Then decide on card technology, the type of door or turnstile and your attendance requirements. That list lets suppliers quote accurately and keeps your access rules simple and manageable once the system is live.

Are access logs personal data?

Yes. A record of who passed through which door and when is personal data. Staff should be informed, logs should be kept for a defined period and then deleted or anonymised, and access to the logs should be restricted by role. Storing badge numbers in a non-reversible form rather than as plain text is also good practice.

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