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; once proposals arrive, our access control quote evaluation checklist helps you catch scope gaps.
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.
- Vehicles and phones: our vehicle access control system guide covers the gatehouse, and mobile access control compares NFC, Bluetooth and QR credentials.
- Security gaps and fire scenarios: access card cloning risk explains why copyable cards matter, and access control and fire alarm integration covers how escape-route doors release on alarm.
- Shift-based operations: for matching overnight, rotating and swapped shifts to door records, see shift attendance tracking.
- Choosing software and payroll: ten questions for choosing time and attendance software and seven steps for time and attendance payroll integration; if your fingerprint terminal keeps rejecting staff, start with fingerprint reader not recognising.
- Installation and replacement: from survey to go-live, follow the access control installation steps; for a staged cut-over from an old system, see replacing a legacy access control system.
- Resilience and scale: offline mode when the network drops and multi-site access control.
- By sector: hospital staff access control, school and campus access, data centre access control and warehouse and logistics access control.
- Hygiene and contamination control: cleanroom access control ties airlocks and entry sequence to the door, and food factory hygiene access control does the same for handwashing and gowning steps.
- Public sector and hospitality: municipal building access control separates citizen traffic from restricted units, and hotel staff access control keeps guest and staff areas apart.
- Multi-tenant buildings and housing: office building access control covers tenants and visitors, and residential complex access control covers residents, guests and vehicles.