Importing attendance from a machine

Updated 23 August 2026 · App version 3.2.158

Take the file off your fingerprint machine and load it into the app — the attendance fills itself in.

The screenshots show the app in Bangla, its main language. The buttons sit in the same places in English.

Take a pendrive. There is a small rectangular slot on the machine — plug it in there.
Press the machine's main button. It is usually labelled MENU or M/OK.
Find the pendrive entry in the menu. It may say USB, PenDrive or USB Disk.
Go inside and choose the option that downloads attendance — Download AttLog.

If the pendrive route does not work — there is no USB slot, the machine does nothing when you plug one in, or this option is not in your menu — do not get stuck here. See "পেনড্রাইভ কাজ করছে না" in the questions below; there is another route using the office computer.
Now also take the name list. In the same place there is another option — Download User.

Without the name list the app only gets ID numbers, no names — and you then have to match every ID to a student by hand. Do not skip this step.
When the screen says success, take the pendrive out. Plug it into the phone (or copy the files to the phone via a computer).
Open the app. On the home page tap "মেশিনের হাজিরা" (Machine attendance).
Tap "ফাইল বাছাই করুন" (Choose files) and select the pendrive files — all of them together. Then tap "এগিয়ে যান" (Continue).
On "এই ফাইলে কাদের হাজিরা?" (Whose attendance is this?) choose "ছাত্র-ছাত্রী" (Students), then pick which class and which session, and tap "এগিয়ে যান".
Check that the machine IDs matched the right students. Tap any wrong row to pick the correct student. Then tap "দেখে নিন" (Review).

IDs that matched no student will not be recorded — the app warns you before saving. Better to go back and match them.
Read what will be saved, then tap the save button. When you see "হাজিরা তোলা হয়েছে" (Attendance imported) tap "শেষ" (Finish).
If your machine already has its own numbers (1001, 1002 and so on), tell the app first. On the "মেশিনের হাজিরা" page tap "শিক্ষকদের নম্বর ঠিক করুন" (Set the teachers' numbers).

Skip this and the app hands out fresh numbers (9001, 9002…). Those match nothing in your machine's file, so the import will run and land on nobody.
Each name has a box next to it. Tap the box and type the number that person has on the machine. The numbers stay in English digits — the machine's keypad has no Bangla on it.
Give the same number to two people and the box turns red with the reason underneath, and the save button stops working. Fix the red one and it works again.

Two people on one number means the second fingerprint enrolled overwrites the first on the device. That is why the app blocks it.
When everything is right tap "নম্বর সেভ করুন" (Save numbers) at the bottom. Open the page again and each row says "আগে থেকেই আছে" (already set) — that means it saved.
Students work the same way. On the "মেশিনের হাজিরা" page tap "নম্বর ঠিক করে দিন" (Set the numbers), pick the class, then type and save the numbers the same way.
To import STAFF attendance, after choosing the file answer "এই ফাইলে কাদের হাজিরা?" (Whose attendance is this?) with "শিক্ষক" (Teachers) instead of "ছাত্র-ছাত্রী". No class is needed then.

A day the teacher marked themselves in the app is never overwritten by the machine file — their own entry stands.

Common questions

Can I pull attendance straight over WiFi, without a pendrive?

Yes — but it is still experimental and not guaranteed on every machine. The pendrive and office-computer routes are unchanged and work on every brand, so those remain the main routes. Two conditions: the machine must be cabled to your router, and your phone must be on that same WiFi. Find the machine number (like 192.168.1.201) in the machine menu under Comm/Network. In the app open "মেশিনের হাজিরা", choose "সরাসরি মেশিন" at the top, type the number and press "যুক্ত হন". Once it works the app remembers the number — after that it is just one button, "হাজিরা আনুন".

Does a direct pull bring everything, including very old dates?

The machine keeps every punch it ever recorded — years of them, students included. One school with thirteen staff had nearly eight thousand punches stored. Nobody can look at eight thousand rows each morning and judge whether they are right, so the app lets you choose at the top: today, the last 30 days, everything on the machine, or your own start and end dates. It starts on today. If the number looks small, nothing is lost — pick a wider option and the rest comes back.

What if the direct connection gets stuck?

A report card appears on screen and one tap sends it to us on WhatsApp. It names the step it reached, so nobody has to guess. Two things worth checking first: (1) if the machine software (like ZKTime) is open on the office computer, close it completely — minimising is not enough, because the machine accepts only one connection at a time; (2) check the phone is on the school WiFi and not mobile data. Send the card even when it fails — that is what we fix from.

Does the app only work at school? Can I see attendance from outside?

It works anywhere with internet — from home, from anywhere. Attendance, reports, fees and cards are all available outside school. There is one exception: pulling attendance straight off the machine needs the phone and the machine on the same WiFi, because the phone talks to the machine directly. That is only for the moment of the pull — afterwards you can read that attendance from home. The file route works from anywhere: export the file at the office and import it later at home.

My machine already has numbers — do I have to enrol every finger again?

No. Just type those numbers into the app ("শিক্ষকদের নম্বর ঠিক করুন" or "নম্বর ঠিক করে দিন"). Nothing on the machine changes.

I cannot see "মেশিনের হাজিরা" on the home page.

This feature is enabled per school — we check a school's machine file first, then switch it on for them. To get it enabled, send your machine's file in the WhatsApp group and ask.

If I import the same file twice, will attendance be doubled?

No. Importing the same file again just says there is nothing new — that is fine and safe.

I imported the file but today's attendance is not there. Why?

This app is not live-connected to the machine. A file only carries whatever was punched up to the moment you exported it from the computer — anything after that is simply not in the file. So an old file shows old dates, that is not a bug. To get today's, export a fresh file from the computer again.

Exporting and sending the file every time is annoying. Any easier way?

One way — Google Drive. Install "Google Drive for Desktop" on the office computer, sign in with your gmail. Point the folder your machine software saves the export into so it sits inside Drive — then just pressing Export sends the file to Drive on its own, no more sending it by hand. Put the Drive app on the phone too, with the SAME gmail — get that wrong and the phone sees nothing. After tapping "ফাইল বাছাই করুন", pick Drive from the menu at the top and grab the file. Two things to remember: the computer needs actual internet, not just WiFi to the machine, or nothing reaches Drive. And the phone needs internet too when picking the file, or it may show an old cached copy. This is not fully automatic, it just removes the manual sending step.

The pendrive does not work — I cannot get the file off the machine. Is that the end of it?

No. If the office computer has the machine's software on it (ZKTime, eTimeTrackLite, BioTime, Attendance Management — any of them), you can get the file without a pendrive. (1) Open the software. (2) Pull the new punches off the machine — the button says something like Download, Sync or Get Data. (3) Now export a report, and this is the part that matters: choose the **Attendance Records** (or AttLog) report. (4) Save it as **CSV or Text** — those work on every version. Excel works too, but only from 3.2.207 onwards; if the app will not take your Excel file, save the same report as CSV instead. (5) Get the file onto the phone (sending it to yourself on imo/WhatsApp is enough), then carry on from step 7 above.

Can I use a report exported from the machine's software? Which one?

Yes, but it has to be the right report. These programs offer two, and the names sound almost the same: **Attendance Records / AttLog** is the list of who put a finger on the machine and when — that is the one you need. **General / Statistic / Calculate** is a computed summary that does not carry the punch times at all, so attendance cannot be built from it. The app catches the wrong one and tells you, so nothing breaks — this is just so you know.

I pressed Export but the app says it is the software's activity log, not attendance. Why?

That software puts an Export button above almost every list, and it exports whichever list is on screen. The Operation Log is the record of who pressed which button — if the columns are **ID, Operator, DateTime, Device, Description**, that is the one, and it holds no attendance at all. The fix: open the **Attendance Records** list from the Report menu first, wait for the list to appear, and only **then** press Export. The right file has Name and Date/Time columns, and several lines per person — because one person puts a finger on the machine more than once a day.

Do I need internet?

Reading and matching the file works offline. Only the final save needs internet. If it fails the app lets you copy a report — send that in the group and we will look at it.

Should I mark non-punchers absent?

Leave that switch off the first time. Anyone who forgot to punch, or whom the machine did not recognise, would be marked absent. Check the results are right first.

Who is allowed to import attendance from the machine?

The **অনুমতি** (Permissions) page carries a per-teacher switch called **"মেশিন থেকে হাজিরা আনা"**. It stays ON for everyone, exactly as before; an admin or head master turns it off only for the people who should not do it. With it off they can no longer pull attendance off the machine, while taking attendance by hand works as before. On a phone running the new version the machine card simply stops appearing. On a phone still running an older version the card is still there and the import still runs — but the server refuses the final save, so nothing is written. The permission holds either way; on an old build the refusal just arrives later and less gracefully.