Replacing your Amano
What happens to your punch history, which terminal replaces yours, and what it costs. Written for people who already own the hardware — not a sales comparison.
Most teams replacing a Amano are around 20 people and set themselves up in under an hour. Past 100, book a call — the terminal count and site layout are worth working through first.
Your Amano will not connect to ClockIt
We would rather lead with that than waste your time. ClockIt reads terminals that speak the ADMS push protocol — that means ZKTeco and eSSL devices. A Amano does not, and no amount of configuration changes it.
So this is a hardware replacement, not an integration. The rest of this page is about what that actually involves and what it costs, including the parts people usually discover too late.
What a Amano is
Amano Cincinnati sells time clocks, parking systems and workforce products across North America, from mechanical stamp recorders through to biometric terminals and the Time Guardian software line. Amano also distributes and services the Recognition Systems HandPunch family.
This guide covers:
Why teams move off Amano
A wide catalogue with an ageing installed base
Many Amano sites are running equipment bought a long time ago — mechanical recorders and early electronic clocks — where the trigger to move is a failure or a service call rather than a feature.
Software sold and licensed separately
Time Guardian and similar packages are a separate purchase from the terminal, often with employee bands, so total cost is spread across purchases that are hard to compare against a single subscription.
Local install, local data
The traditional deployment puts the software on a machine at the site. Getting a report means being at that machine, and keeping the data safe means somebody remembering to back it up.
What replaces what
| Your Amano setup | With ClockIt |
|---|---|
| Amano terminal, recorder or HandPunch | ZKTeco fingerprint or face terminal, pre-configured |
| Time Guardian or equivalent licence | ClockIt at $2.99/user/month, software included |
| Local install on a site PC | Cloud, reachable from any browser or phone |
| Collected-then-processed punches | Real-time punches, live who-is-in view |
The terminal you need
Time Clock X990 FP+RFID Ethernet
The X990 is the industry-standard biometric workhorse, now upgraded for the cloud era. Designed for high-traffic environments like factories, warehouses, and large offices, it combines a rugged hardware build with lightning-fast fingerprint verification (<0.5s).
$450
- Free worldwide shipping
- Arrives pre-configured for your ClockIt account
- Yours outright — no lease, no per-clock licence
How the migration actually goes
- 1
Export your history before you unplug anything
Pull your punch history out of the existing software as CSV while the system is still running. This is the step people skip and regret — once a terminal is decommissioned or a licence lapses, historical punches stored on-device or in a local database can become very hard to reach. Keep the export regardless of whether you import it; payroll audits reach back years.
- 2
Create your ClockIt account
Free to start, no card. Add your employees, set your pay period, and configure overtime rules to match what your old system was doing. Most teams have this done in well under an hour.
- 3
Plug in the new terminal
Your ClockIt device arrives pre-configured for your account. It connects over WiFi or Ethernet and pushes punches to the cloud using built-in ADMS — no local server, no static IP, no port forwarding, no software to install on a PC in the back office.
- 4
Enrol employees and run both in parallel
Enrol fingerprints or faces on the new terminal — a few seconds per person. Run the old clock alongside the new one for one full pay period so you can reconcile the two before you retire the old hardware. Nobody should cut over blind on payday.
- 5
Retire the old terminal
Once a pay period reconciles cleanly, decommission the old clock. Keep the CSV export from step one in your records.
The integration capabilities of this mobile time clock app are outstanding. It seamlessly connects with our existing HR and payroll systems, creating a streamlined workflow that has significantly reduced errors and improved our overall efficiency.
Amano migration questions
I bought a HandPunch from Amano. Which page should I read?
Either — they cover the same migration. The HandPunch guide goes deeper on hand geometry specifically, including what to do about dirty or wet hands, so start there if that is your terminal.
Can ClockIt read an Amano MTX or PIX-3000x?
No. Amano terminals do not support the ADMS push protocol ClockIt uses, so the terminal is replaced as part of the move.
We have a mechanical stamp clock and paper cards. Is this too big a leap?
No, and it is the change with the clearest payback. The staff-facing difference is a finger on a reader instead of a card in a slot. Your side gains the calculated total, so the manual adding-up at the end of each pay period stops.
Does ClockIt integrate with my existing terminal?
Almost certainly not, and we would rather say so plainly than waste your time. ClockIt connects to terminals that support the ADMS push protocol — that means ZKTeco and eSSL devices. Hand-geometry readers, proximity-card clocks and most access-control terminals do not speak it. If your device is not a ZKTeco or eSSL, the honest answer is that you need new hardware, which is why we sell it pre-configured rather than pretending a connector exists.
How much does the hardware cost?
Terminals in our shop run $450–$650 with free worldwide shipping, and they arrive already configured for your ClockIt account. That is a one-time purchase, not a lease, and there is no per-clock software licence on top of it.
What does the software cost after that?
ClockIt is $2.99 per user per month. There is a free plan to start on and no setup fee, no per-terminal licence, and no annual contract required.
We have 100+ employees. Can we talk to someone first?
Yes — book a call. Once you are past roughly 100 people the questions get specific to your setup: how many terminals across how many sites, how shifts and overtime rules are structured, and how punches need to reach payroll. That is a conversation, not a signup form.
Replacing something else?
Ready to retire the Amano?
Start free and set your account up today — the terminal can follow once you know it fits. Under 100 employees, most teams do this without talking to anyone.