ATTANDANCE
Biometric + card attendance for schools and businesses
- Industry
- EDUCATION AND ALL BUSINESSES
- Project type
- SaaS platform
- Status
- Delivered
- Built by
- TechSmart UG
Overview
A web-based attendance system for schools and small businesses that connects directly to ZKTeco fingerprint and card readers on the local network — no vendor software required. Each school runs a lightweight bridge on a single PC that pushes punches to a central cloud dashboard over HTTPS.
The challenge
Schools using ZKTeco devices are locked into the vendor's licensed software, which has strict limits on the number of devices and students. Exceeding those limits stops attendance from being recorded. Data lives on a single PC, so head teachers and owners can't check attendance remotely, and there's no way to send automated parent notifications without paying per-message fees to a middleman.
Our approach
Instead of relying on the vendor's software stack, the system talks directly to the ZK device over its native TCP protocol (port 4370). A small bridge script at the school reads punches every 15 seconds and forwards them to a cloud-hosted PHP dashboard. All attendance logic — present, late, left early, absent — runs server-side using times configured per school. Identification works with either a fingerprint scan or an ID card tap; the device stores both, and the dashboard treats them identically.
The solution
A multi-tenant PHP application hosted on shared infrastructure. Each school has its own admin account, classes, students, staff, and devices. Cards are generated with QR codes for quick scanning. Daily attendance shows morning and evening punches side by side. Admins set school start time, late cutoff, end time, and early-leave threshold per school — no hardcoded rules. Optional daily email reports send to any recipient list. All data belongs to the school; no per-device or per-student fees.
Key features
- Direct ZKTeco device integration over TCP
- Fingerprint and ID card support on the same device
- Per-school configurable attendance times
- Morning check-in and evening check-out tracking
- Automatic status: Present, Late, Left Early, Absent
- Live dashboard with 14-day trend and per-class bar charts
- Student registration with card number and photo
- ID card generation with photo and QR code
- Admin-configured automatic email reports
- Bridge health monitoring per device
- Multi-tenant: one install serves many schools
- MySQL storage with soft deletes and audit-friendly history
Modules
Technology
Outcome
Real-time punch visibility — bridge polls every 15 seconds
Zero device or student limits — no license cap
Two identification methods per student — fingerprint and card
Morning and evening punches tracked separately per student
Admin-configured school times — no per-school code changes
Card printing with QR codes — print-ready A4 output
Multi-tenant architecture — one deployment serves multiple schools
No vendor dependency — device reads directly over TCP
Let’s build
something smart.
Whether you need a website, business system, e-commerce platform, POS, healthcare solution, network infrastructure or a completely new digital product, TechSmart UG can help turn the idea into a working technology solution.