ANTE User Manual

Device Management (Facial Recognition API)

The Device Management screen is where you register the terminals that connect to ANTE for time tracking — ANTE's own facial-recognition kiosks, or a ZKT Device key used by a third-party ZKTeco attendance-device collector. Each device you add gets its own API key — the secret that lets that terminal or collector talk to ANTE to clock employees in and out, enroll faces (facial-recognition devices only), and read attendance data.

Sensitive personal information: government ID numbers, biometric data (face and fingerprint) and health information are sensitive personal information under the Data Privacy Act (RA 10173). Your organisation handles it as the controller; ANTE processes it on your organisation's behalf.

Facial attendance consent: when an employee is enrolled, the enrol screen shows a notice and a required consent checkbox, and ANTE records the employee's consent. Admins can withdraw consent, which deletes the face template and the enrolment photo. Enrolments made before this change show "consent not recorded".

You manage devices here: see all registered terminals, add new ones, edit their details, deactivate them, and regenerate their keys. A companion API Documentation screen lists the connection details a technician needs when setting up a device.

Device Management — the devices allowed to clock employees in and out

Accessing Device Management

  1. Open HR in the sidebar.
  2. Go to Time & Attendance → Devices.

The page header reads Device Management with the subtitle "Manage devices that can access the facial recognition time tracking API."

ZKTeco terminals that push punches to ANTE are managed separately: click Biometric devices at the top of this page. See Biometric Devices (ZKTeco).

Device Types

Every device carries a Type, chosen when it is added:

  • Facial Recognition (the default) — ANTE's own facial-recognition kiosk. It can enroll faces, recognize employees, and clock them in or out.
  • ZKT Device — a key used by a ZKTeco attendance-device collector. The ZKTeco unit itself verifies the employee (by face, fingerprint, or card); the collector only forwards the result to ANTE, and face enrollment is not available for this type.

Devices created before device types existed behave as Facial Recognition, so nothing changes for them.

Tip

A ZKT Device's detail page shows two extra sections a Facial Recognition device doesn't have: Punch History (Device) and Provisioning History. See Viewing a Device below.

The Device List

The list shows one row per registered device with these columns:

  • Device Name — the name you gave the terminal.
  • Device ID — the system-generated identifier for the device.
  • Type — a colored badge: Facial Recognition or ZKT Device.
  • Location — where the device is installed (shows a dash if none was entered).
  • Branch — the branch the device belongs to, if assigned (shows a dash if none).
  • Status — a colored badge: Active or Inactive.
  • Last Activity — when the device last contacted ANTE.
  • Created — the date the device was registered (hidden by default; enable it from the column controls).

Click any row to open that device's detail page.

Use the search box and pick what to search by:

  • All Fields (default)
  • Name
  • Device ID
  • Location

Filters

  • Status — Active or Inactive.

Toolbar action

At the top right of the list:

  • Add Device — opens the Add Device page.

If no devices exist yet, the table shows "No devices found."

Adding a Device

Click Add Device to open the Add Device page. The page is titled Add Device with the subtitle "Create a new facial recognition time tracking device."

Under the Device Information section, fill in:

  • Device Name * — the terminal's name. A required field. Example placeholders: "Entrance Terminal, Main Gate."
  • Device Type — Facial Recognition (pre-selected) or ZKT Device. Choose ZKT Device only for a key used by a ZKTeco attendance-device collector.
  • Location — an optional description of where the device is installed.
  • Branch — choose which branch the device belongs to. Leave it on No branch (company-wide) to make the device available across the whole company.

Click Add Device to save (the button shows "Creating..." while it works).

Save the API key immediately

As soon as the device is created, a Save API Key dialog appears showing the new key. This API key will only be shown once. Use Copy & Close to copy it to your clipboard, hand it to whoever is configuring the terminal, then click I have saved the key. If you lose it, you must regenerate the key (see below).

If you leave Device Name blank, the form shows "Device name is required" and a "Please fill in all required fields" message.

Viewing a Device

Click a device row to open its detail page. The header shows the device name and its Device ID, and the page is split into these sections (a ZKT Device shows two more, at the bottom):

Device Information

  • Device Name
  • Device ID
  • Device Type — Facial Recognition or ZKT Device
  • Location (dash if none)
  • Branch (dash if none)
  • Status — Active or Inactive badge
  • Last Activity — the last time the device contacted ANTE, or Never if it hasn't yet

API Key

This section carries a reminder: "API keys are only visible at creation or regeneration time. Use the Regenerate Key button to generate a new one." The key itself is never shown again after creation.

Detail page actions

At the top right of the detail page:

  • Edit Device — open the Edit Device page.
  • Regenerate API Key — issue a brand-new key for this device.
  • Deactivate — soft-disable the device (only shown while the device is Active).

Punch History (Device)

Shown only on a ZKT Device. This is every scan the physical ZKT unit produced — the on-site collector uploads its full punch ledger automatically, including punches from device users who aren't linked to any employee (those never reach the HR raw logs, but they still show up here).

Each row shows, newest first:

  • the time the device recorded the scan,
  • the matched employee's name, or Not linked if none matched,
  • the device's own PIN for that person (shown when the punch isn't matched to an employee),
  • the action — Time In or Time Out — if ANTE recorded one,
  • how the person verified (fingerprint, face, card, or password), if known, and
  • a status badge — Recorded in ANTE, Person not linked, or Failed.

Up to the 200 most recent punches are listed, with a note showing how many of the device's total punches are displayed. If none have been uploaded yet, the section reads "No punches uploaded yet — the on-site collector uploads every scan automatically."

Click any row to open its full punch data in a dialog, split into what the device reported (From the device: the punch time on the device's own clock, the device serial, the person's ID on the device, the punch type code, how they verified, the raw data line, and when the collector received it) and how ANTE interpreted it (ANTE side: status, the linked employee if any, whether it was recorded as a time-in or time-out, the resulting ANTE record number, and when it was uploaded to ANTE).

Provisioning History

Shown only on a ZKT Device. This is the audit trail the on-site collector uploads whenever it changes something about a person on the physical device — a PIN assigned or changed, a person added to or removed from the device, its stored biometric template moved, or an identity confirmation. Each row shows when it happened, the type of change, the employee (if known), the PIN, and the old and new value where applicable.

If nothing has synced yet, the section reads "No provisioning history yet — it appears once the on-site ZKT collector syncs its audit trail."

Editing a Device

From the detail page, click Edit Device. The Edit Device page repeats the Device Information section with the same fields as Add, plus one more:

  • Device Name * (required)
  • Device Type — Facial Recognition or ZKT Device
  • Location
  • Branch (or No branch (company-wide))
  • Active — a checkbox to turn the device on or off

Click Save Changes to apply your edits (the button shows "Saving..." while it works).

Common Tasks

Registering a new terminal

Step 1 — Go to HR → Time & Attendance → Devices.

Step 2 — Click Add Device.

Step 3 — Enter a Device Name, and optionally a Location and Branch.

Step 4 — Click Add Device.

Step 5 — In the Save API Key dialog, click Copy & Close, store the key somewhere safe, then click I have saved the key. Give this key to the person setting up the terminal.

Regenerating an API key

Regenerate a key if the old one was lost or may have been exposed.

Step 1 — Open the device from the list.

Step 2 — Click Regenerate API Key.

Step 3 — Confirm in the Regenerate API Key dialog. It warns: "The current key will be invalidated and all connected devices will need to be updated."

Step 4 — A New API Key Generated dialog shows the new key. Click Copy & Close to save it.

Warning

Regenerating immediately invalidates the old key. Any terminal still using the old key stops working until it is updated with the new one.

Deactivating a device

Step 1 — Open the device from the list.

Step 2 — Click Deactivate.

Step 3 — Confirm in the Deactivate Device dialog. It warns: "It will no longer be able to access the API."

A deactivated device shows an Inactive status badge. You can turn it back on later by editing the device and ticking the Active checkbox.

Step 1 — Open the ZKT device from the list.

Step 2 — Scroll to Punch History (Device) and find the punch by time or by the device's PIN.

Step 3 — Click the row. If the ANTE side shows Person not linked, the PIN on the device doesn't match any employee's biometrics number or employee code.

Step 4 — Set or correct that employee's biometrics number in HRIS so it matches the ID on device shown in the dialog, then have the collector re-sync.

API Documentation

Under HR → HR Setup, the Documentation screen is a self-contained reference for technicians connecting a terminal or a ZKT collector to ANTE. It is titled API Documentation with the subtitle "Reference guide for the facial recognition device API."

You don't need this screen for normal day-to-day use — it's for whoever installs and configures the physical devices or the ZKT collector. It lays out:

  • Authentication — most endpoints require the device's API key, passed in an x-api-key header. The key is the one you obtained when creating the device.
  • Device Types — explains what a Facial Recognition key can do versus a ZKT Device key, and the typical sequence a ZKT collector follows: look up employees, then record a time-in and a time-out for each punch.
  • Endpoint groups — the available device operations, organized into Health & Status, Employee Management, Time Tracking, Face Enrollment & Recognition (facial-recognition devices only), and Device Settings. Each entry shows the request type, the address, and a short description; a key icon marks the ones that require the API key. A copy button next to each one copies a ready-to-run example.
  • Base URL — the address the device connects to.
API Documentation — the endpoint reference a technician follows when connecting a terminal
Tip

The Time Tracking group covers the everyday clock actions — a smart clock that automatically records a time-in or time-out, explicit time-in and time-out, daily logs, currently clocked-in employees, and weekly attendance summaries. For a ZKT Device key, time-in and time-out can also carry the punch's original timestamp — so a collector flushing punches it buffered while offline doesn't lose the real punch time — and a note of how the person verified. A Facial Recognition key always records at server time; that hasn't changed. The Face Enrollment & Recognition group covers enrolling an employee's face and matching a face at the terminal.

A ZKT collector pressing Check In twice doesn't open a second session

A ZKTeco unit sends an explicit "Check In" every time someone presses it, so a ZKT Device key calling time-in while the employee already has an open time-in (no time-out yet) does not create a second session. ANTE returns the same open time-in record instead, marked as a duplicate, as long as that session has been open for 20 hours or less.

If the open session is older than 20 hours — a forgotten clock-out — ANTE closes it automatically first, the same way it handles a forgotten clock-out at a facial recognition device: that earlier day is marked absent (recoverable with a Certificate of Attendance; see Attendance Conflicts). The current Check In then starts a genuinely new session. This guard only applies to a ZKT Device key — a Facial Recognition key is unaffected.

Warning

The Face Enrollment & Recognition endpoints only work for Facial Recognition devices — a ZKT Device key that calls them is rejected.

How It Connects

Set up first

  • Employee Records — an employee's biometrics number must match the ID on the device for a ZKT punch to link to them.

Feeds into

  • Raw Logs — every punch a registered device sends is stored there.
  • Face Scan Logs — each kiosk scan attempt is logged there with its result.
  • Payroll Time Keeping — the punches become hours for the payroll cutoff.
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Time Tracker Logs
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Biometric Devices (ZKTeco)