Employee Monitoring: Software or Time-Clock Hardware?
Last updated: 18 August 2026
People searching for an employee tracking system are usually thinking of one of two completely different products. Working out which category you actually need before you start comparing quotes is what prevents buying the wrong thing.
Two products, two questions
| Time & attendance hardware | Employee monitoring software | |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | When did they arrive and leave? | What did they do at the computer? |
| How it works | Turnstile, badge reader, fingerprint or face scanner | An agent installed on the computer |
| What it measures | Building entry and exit times | Application and website use, active time |
| Remote work | Not covered | Its natural territory |
| Setup | Device purchase, mounting, cabling | Download and install |
| Cost shape | One-off per device plus maintenance | Monthly per user |
| Product type | Turnstile, badge terminal and biometric reader manufacturers | Berqun and global productivity platforms (Hubstaff, ActivTrak, Time Doctor…) |
A time clock measures presence. It is built to answer whether a person was on the premises — not what they did while they were there.
Which one do you need?
Hardware is enough if:
- Your question is timekeeping, lateness, shifts and overtime
- The team works from a fixed physical location
- You have staff who are not at a computer — production, field, retail, warehouse
- You have a statutory obligation to keep attendance records
You need software if:
- You want to answer “where does the team’s time actually go”
- You have a remote or hybrid team, where a turnstile means nothing
- You want to see which tools are genuinely used — wasted licence spend usually surfaces here
- Your goal is measuring and managing productivity, not just logging attendance
- You need visibility into what is on screen
Both
Not unusual. Hardware covers building access, software covers work at the computer. Because Berqun integrates with identity, department and attendance management systems, data from both sources can be combined into a single report.
Questions to ask before you buy
Clarify these and the category answers itself:
- Am I measuring duration or content? If “how many hours” is enough, hardware works. If you need “how many hours on what”, you need software.
- How much of my team works at a computer? Software cannot measure people who do not use one.
- Do I have remote staff? If yes, hardware does not reach them.
- What will I use the data for? Payroll and timekeeping → hardware. Capacity planning, tool consolidation, workload balancing → software.
- What is the three-year total cost? Devices, mounting, maintenance and replacement on one side; a monthly subscription on the other. Compare per head.
The common mistake
The most frequent bad purchase is answering a productivity question with hardware. A turnstile tells you the team was inside at 09:00. It does not tell you that five of those hours went into the wrong tool. Timekeeping and productivity are different problems and they need different products.
The reverse happens too: a computer-based productivity tool sold to a manufacturing site where most of the workforce never touches a computer.
Where Berqun sits
Berqun is software. An agent installed on the employee’s computer measures application and website use, active time and a productivity score. We do not sell turnstiles, badge readers or fingerprint devices.
Its work calendar and shift features also produce timekeeping and overtime reports — so for teams that work at a computer it covers much of the attendance requirement without separate hardware. If you have staff away from a computer, you will still need a time and attendance system for them.
For the legal framework around the monitoring side, see Is Employee Monitoring Legal?.