How punches get into Ankastra
There are three routes, and most sites use more than one: face recognition on a phone or a locked-down tablet at the gate, existing biometric devices connected over the network, and the mobile app for people who never pass a device, such as field staff and anyone working from home.
| Route | How it works | Best for | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face recognition on a tablet or phone | Verification runs on the device in under a second, and the captured frame is stored against the punch | Gates without a biometric device, new sites, contract labour | Basic |
| Existing biometric devices | Punches are pushed as they happen (ESSL, ZKTeco, Matrix COSEC, Hikvision) or read through the vendor API (Suprema, older ZKTeco models) | Plants that already own terminals | Growth |
| CSV import | Any device that can export a log, with duplicate detection on re-upload | Brands without a supported protocol | Growth |
| Mobile app check-in | Geo-fence, selfie and IP checks for work from home, GPS-stamped check-in at customer sites | Field sales, service engineers, remote staff | Basic |
Each device brand has its own page with models and setup: ESSL, ZKTeco, Matrix COSEC, Hikvision and Suprema.
Shift rules, applied the same way every day
An attendance system is only as good as its rules. Ankastra resolves every punch against the employee's shift, including night shifts that end the next morning, so a 10 pm to 6 am shift counts as one working day rather than two partial days.
- Day, night, rotating and split shifts
- Late marks and absenteeism patterns flagged before payroll
- Overtime measured from punches, with alerts when it breaches your limits
- Comp off credited automatically for work on weekly offs and holidays, with expiry windows
- Backdated leave approval that requires a reason and keeps an audit trail
Face recognition that holds up on a shop floor
Face attendance stops proxy punching, because a colleague cannot lend a face the way they can lend a card or share a PIN. In Ankastra:
- Verification runs on the device, so the queue at the gate does not wait on a server
- Every punch stores the captured frame, so a disputed entry is settled by looking at it
- Kiosk mode locks a Samsung tablet to the attendance app (Samsung Knox ready), so the floor cannot browse, install or exit
- A dashboard shows match confidence, failed attempts and retries per gate and per shift
When the internet drops
Plants lose connectivity. The kiosk app captures punches with no connection and syncs them when the line comes back. ESSL and ZKTeco terminals buffer punches internally as well, so an outage costs you logs from neither side.
Muster roll and registers
The statutory muster roll and holiday register are maintained as attendance is recorded, and every edit carries a user, a timestamp and a reason. That record is where an inspection or an audit starts. A modelled scenario for an engineering plant works through answering a CLRA and Factories Act inspection from it in one working day, with the arithmetic shown. Both Acts are now consolidated into the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, and an inspection still starts from the attendance and wage records.
What attendance costs
Face recognition attendance, shifts, leave and the muster roll are in every plan, from ₹2,999 a month for 50 employees. Connecting existing biometric devices needs Growth, from ₹5,999 a month. Payroll from the same attendance is in Pro. GST is charged on top.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Billed annually (per month) | Each employee above 50 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | ₹2,999 | ₹2,549 | ₹30 |
| Growth | ₹5,999 | ₹5,099 | ₹49 |
| Pro | ₹9,999 | ₹8,499 | ₹79 |
Questions people ask
Do we have to replace our biometric machines?
No. Ankastra reads from ESSL, ZKTeco, Matrix COSEC, Hikvision and Suprema terminals, and from any other brand that can export a log file. Replacing hardware is not a prerequisite.
Can face recognition work without a biometric device?
Yes. A phone or tablet at the gate runs face recognition on its own. Kiosk mode locks the tablet to the attendance app so it cannot be used for anything else.
How are night shifts that cross midnight handled?
Each punch is matched to the employee's shift, so a shift that starts at 10 pm and ends at 6 am is recorded as one working day, not two partial days.
Can attendance be used to check contractor bills?
Yes. Contractor-wise headcount and gate passes are reconciled against actual attendance, so the bill is checked against the gate rather than taken on trust.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, 14 days on every plan, with no credit card.