Real-time push into your own software
Every punch lands in the HR, payroll or ERP you already run, the moment it happens. No batch, no scheduled export, and no one uploading a BioTime file at the end of the month.
Timesync Connect
The affordable, no-server alternative to ZKTeco BioTime
BioTime is sold in a five-license bundle, wants a Windows server sitting in your office, and gives your HR team a second UI to learn. Timesync Connect skips all three. It is a hosted bridge that reads your ZKTeco terminals and pushes every punch into the HR, payroll or ERP you already run. In real time. Nothing installed on your side.
- No five-license minimum
- No server to install or maintain
- Keeps the HR system you already run
How a punch reaches your software
Three steps, and only the first one involves a human.
ZKTeco terminal
An employee puts a finger or a face on the reader at the door.
Timesync Connect
The punch is picked up, matched to the right employee record and queued for delivery.
Your software
It lands in your HR, payroll or ERP system in real time, under the same employee ID you already use.
Why UAE teams walk away from BioTime
BioTime is the bundled software that comes up in every ZKTeco conversation, and on paper it looks like the obvious choice. In practice it prices out small sites, adds a server the office does not want to run, ships an interface that looks a decade older than the rest of your stack, and puts attendance into a second application your HR team has to open on top of the one they already use.
A five-license bundle you cannot break
BioTime is sold in device packs. A two-door office pays for licenses it will never touch, and every extra terminal at every branch adds another one. The cost stops making sense long before the value does.
A Windows server sitting in the office
It is desktop software. It wants its own machine, its own database, a backup routine and somebody to keep the whole thing alive. If the office computer goes down, so does attendance.
A dashboard that looks a decade out of date
Cluttered menus, tabbed grids, and 2010-era iconography. HR staff spend the first month hunting for where a report lives, and the training call keeps coming back to the same three screens.
A second UI your HR team has to learn
Attendance lives inside BioTime instead of the payroll or HR system your team already opens every morning. Numbers move between the two by export, upload, or a spreadsheet that no one wants to own.
No live view across your branches
Each site tends to end up with its own install or a hub configuration that takes an engineer to keep alive. HR cannot open one screen and see who is in across Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi without stitching exports together.
Backups, patches and disk space are yours
The database grows every month, the Windows machine needs updates, and someone has to be responsible for both. When it breaks on the 28th, it is the payroll run that is late, not the vendor's problem.
BioTime against Timesync Connect, line by line
Same ZKTeco terminals on the wall. Two very different things happen behind them.
| Criterion | ZKTeco BioTime | Timesync Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Licence model | Sold in packs of five, cannot be split | Flat per site, no minimum |
| Where it runs | Windows server sitting in your office | Hosted, opened from any browser |
| Setup on your side | Install, database, backup routine, admin owner | Login handed to you, nothing installed |
| Interface | Desktop app with a decade-old look | Modern web UI, clean and searchable |
| Sync into HR or payroll | Manual export at month end | Real-time push under the same employee ID |
| Multi-branch view | Separate install or complex hub setup | Every site in one dashboard by default |
| Enrollment across doors | Walk each employee to every terminal | Enroll once, shared to every device |
| Offline punches | Held on the device, retrieved manually | Retrieved and delivered automatically |
| HR access away from the office | Tied to the PC that hosts it | Any phone or laptop, any network |
| Updates, patches and backups | Your IT team's job | Handled for you |
What Timesync Connect does instead
One enrollment, every device
Enroll a fingerprint or face once, on any single terminal. The template is shared automatically to every other device that employee is entitled to use. BioTime asks you to walk staff to each door.
Pulls in the staff already on your terminals
Point Connect at a device that is already in service and it imports every employee stored on it. You do not start from an empty list, and nobody has to be re-enrolled.
Offline punches recover themselves
If a terminal loses the network it keeps recording locally. When it comes back, Connect retrieves every punch captured during the outage and pushes it through automatically. No re-sync to request, no gap in the payroll month.
A clean web UI, not a desktop screen
Every punch is searchable by date range, employee or device from any browser, on any machine, on any network. Manual re-sends are one click. This is the part BioTime users notice first.
Priced per site, not per license pack
One flat fee for the whole site rather than a bundle you have to grow into. Adding a terminal or a branch does not trigger a new license purchase.
What you get access to
A secure browser login to the Connect application, scoped to your own devices, employees and attendance records. No install, no VPN, no BioTime.
- Dashboard
- Punches today, devices currently online, employees registered, and a live feed of events as they happen.
- Devices
- Every connected terminal with its serial number, IP address, timezone, assigned area, live status and last contact.
- Employees
- Add, edit and search staff, and assign each person to one or more areas. Multi-area enrollment is included.
- Attendance
- The full punch log, filterable by date, employee or device, with a one-click manual sync for the rare occasion it is needed.
- Organization
- Areas for physical locations, departments for reporting. A one-time setup, then it stays out of the way.
- Settings
- Company profile and account details.
Getting it running
No BioTime install, no Windows server, no license pack to purchase. Four steps, from us to you.
- 1
We issue your login
A username and password for the Connect portal, created at handover. No software to install on your machine.
- 2
We configure the terminals
A one-time setting applied in each ZKTeco device's own menu, so it knows where to send its data. No change to your network, and no server appearing in the office.
- 3
We assign areas and sync
Each device is assigned to an area, and the staff already enrolled on it are pulled in. Nobody re-enrolls a finger.
- 4
You are live
The next punch anyone makes appears in your software. There is no step five, and there is no BioTime.
Worth being straight about
Connect works with ZKTeco terminals. If your site is running Suprema hardware, the route is our own attendance software instead, which reads both brands. Tell us what is on your wall and we will tell you which of the two you actually want.
See the attendance softwareQuestions we get asked
Is Connect a replacement for ZKTeco BioTime?
Yes, when the reason you were looking at BioTime was to move attendance into a HR or payroll system. Connect does that job without the five-license bundle and without a server in the office, and leaves BioTime out of the picture entirely.
How much cheaper is Connect than BioTime for a UAE site?
The gap is largest at the small end. BioTime is sold in device packs, so a two-door office pays for licenses it does not use, plus a Windows machine to run it on. Connect is a flat per-site fee with no license minimum. Tell us how many terminals you have and we will send a written quote against the equivalent BioTime setup.
We already bought BioTime. Do we have to throw it away?
No. Connect reads the ZKTeco terminals directly, so BioTime can stay installed if you still want it. Most sites switch it off once Connect is live because the same attendance data now goes straight to the HR system they actually use.
Do we have to replace our current HR or payroll software?
No. That is the entire reason Connect exists. Your system stays where it is and starts receiving attendance data from the terminals. If replacing it were the plan, you would not need an integration kit in the first place.
Do we need a Windows server in the office like BioTime asks for?
No. Connect is hosted and you reach it from a browser on any machine. The only device-side work is a one-time setting inside each terminal's menu, which we apply during installation.
What happens when a site loses internet?
The terminal keeps recording punches in its own memory. When the connection comes back, Connect retrieves everything captured during the outage and pushes it through. No re-sync to request, and no gap in the payroll month.
How does it know which employee is which?
Each employee is created with the same employee ID your HR or payroll software already uses. That shared ID is what makes a punch land against the right person on both sides.
Can we still see attendance without opening our own system?
Yes. Connect has its own dashboard and a filterable attendance log, so HR can check who is in today from any browser without waiting for the data to surface in the main system.
Tell us what you were quoted for BioTime
Send us the BioTime quote or licence count you were given, and the HR, payroll or ERP system you want the punches to land in. We will come back with a Connect price for the same site, and say plainly if BioTime is the better fit for you.
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