Common questions

Quick answers to everyday questions about BioTrack. Each answer links to the page with the full details.

Nobody has scanned for an hour. Is the terminal offline?

Probably not. BioTrack reports the last scan separately from connectivity. If the top bar says Collecting scans, the collector is running and the terminal is reachable; a quiet period means nobody is scanning. If the terminal really can’t be reached, the top bar says Terminal offline. See Connection states.

Someone scanned, but their scan isn’t showing

Check the status in the top bar. If it says Reconnecting, Collector offline or Terminal offline, fix that first; the scan may be waiting.
Check that the terminal accepted the scan. If the terminal did not recognise the person, it sends nothing.
Look at Recent scans on Today, which shows the latest saved scans, newest first.
Check the date. A scan belongs to the site’s business date, which for overnight shifts can be the previous day. See How BioTrack works.

If the terminal shows the scan and BioTrack never received it, record the attendance as a correction and tell your administrator. See Calendar, leave and corrections.

A new employee isn’t in BioTrack

People are enrolled on the terminal, not in BioTrack. Once they are on the terminal, either:

they appear automatically the first time they scan, flagged for review on Employees; or
an administrator selects Sync employees on Today, or Sync from terminal on Employees, to read the terminal’s user list.

Then assign them a schedule so their lateness and absences are worked out correctly. See Employees.

Why is someone marked late when they were on time?

Check, in this order:

the employee’s schedule and the start time and grace period in Settings → Work schedules;
whether the top bar shows Terminal clock off, which means the terminal’s own clock is wrong;
whether a holiday or leave should have been recorded for that day.

An administrator can correct the day without changing the saved scans. See Work schedules and Calendar, leave and corrections.

What does “Awaiting a later scan” mean?

The person has scanned once today. BioTrack can’t tell whether they are still on site until they scan again, so the day stays open. If they left without scanning out, an administrator can correct the record. See Attendance statuses.

The top bar says “Terminal clock off”

The terminal’s clock differs from the PC’s, so scans may land on the wrong day or shift. Fix the date, time and timezone on the terminal itself, ideally from a time server, then review any records made while it was wrong. See Connection states.

If I close BioTrack, does attendance stop being recorded?

No. The window and the BioTrack Collector service are separate programs. Closing or signing out of the window does not stop collection. Only ending the collector (for example in Task Manager or Windows Services) or shutting down the PC stops it. See How BioTrack works.

BioTrack says “Collector service unavailable” after the PC restarts

The service starts a little after Windows, so BioTrack may open before it is ready. BioTrack tries again every 10 seconds; you don’t need to run setup again. If it doesn’t clear within a few minutes, ask an administrator to check the BioTrack Collector service in Windows Services. See Connection states.

A colleague sees “BioTrack access was denied”

BioTrack only opens for the Windows account that installed it and for Windows administrators. Your colleague should use that Windows account on this PC, or an administrator can reinstall BioTrack while signed in with the account that will use it. See Accounts and sign-in.

Cloud reporting says “Retrying”. Have we lost attendance?

No. Attendance is always saved on this PC first, and anything not yet delivered waits in a local outbox. BioTrack keeps retrying and catches up when the cloud service is reachable again. Don’t clear or reset anything to make the status green. See Cloud sync status.

I’ve forgotten my BioTrack password

BioTrack has no master password or reset link. If another administrator can help, ask them; otherwise contact your Alcra support contact. Password changes and recovery will move to the BioTrack portal when it becomes available. Don’t edit BioTrack’s files or database. Collection carries on in the meantime. See Accounts and sign-in.

How do I move BioTrack to a new PC?

Use a portable backup. The automatic daily backups only work on the PC that made them.

On the old PC, an administrator creates a portable backup in Settings → Backup & recovery and keeps the recovery passphrase safe.
Install BioTrack on the new PC and complete setup.
Restore the portable backup there and sign in with the administrator account from the backup.
Re-enter the terminal password and, if you use it, reconnect Cloud reporting. Portable backups never contain these credentials.
Make a test scan.

The terminal will send scans to the new PC’s address, so plan the change for a quiet time. See Backup and recovery.

The terminal’s address changed, or we replaced the terminal

The terminal address and callback port are fixed after setup, because the Windows firewall rule allows only that one terminal. Either set the terminal back to its original address or reinstall BioTrack and run setup with the new address. See Terminal and connection.

Where do I get help?

Open Connection, select Copy diagnostic details, and send the text to your support contact. An administrator can also export a support bundle from Settings → About & support. Neither contains employee names. See Logs and support.