Replacing your Kronos / UKG
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 Kronos 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 Kronos 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 Kronos 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 Kronos is
Kronos is the enterprise workforce-management standard, now part of UKG following the 2020 merger with Ultimate Software. Its InTouch terminals sit on the wall in warehouses, hospitals and plants worldwide, feeding Workforce Central or UKG Ready. It is deep, capable software built for large, complex organisations with dedicated HR and IT functions.
This guide covers:
Why teams move off Kronos
You outgrew it downward, not upward
The most common reason teams leave Kronos is that they are no longer the size the system was scoped for, or they never were. A business of 20 to 200 people inherits enterprise complexity, enterprise implementation and an enterprise contract to run a time clock.
You need an administrator to run it
Workforce Central rewards expertise. That is fine when you have a full-time workforce-management administrator; it is painful when the job has quietly landed on an office manager who also does payroll and HR.
Contract and renewal cycles
Enterprise agreements are negotiated, multi-year and rarely quick to exit. Teams often start looking a year out from renewal, which is the right time to be reading a page like this one.
Terminal costs scale badly for small sites
InTouch hardware is built to enterprise spec and priced accordingly. Putting one on the wall of a small second location is difficult to justify.
What replaces what
| Your Kronos setup | With ClockIt |
|---|---|
| InTouch 9000 / InTouch DX terminal | ZKTeco fingerprint or face terminal, one-time $450–$650 |
| Workforce Central / UKG Ready licence | ClockIt at $2.99/user/month, no contract |
| Implementation project | Self-serve setup, typically under an hour |
| Administrator-operated configuration | Settings an office manager can run without training |
The terminal you need
Face Recognition Time Clock – U350
High-performance multi-biometric terminal with face, fingerprint, RFID, and PIN. Recognizes employees in under 1 second—even in low-light conditions.
$650
- 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.
Kronos migration questions
Can ClockIt read my Kronos InTouch terminal?
No. InTouch terminals are built to talk to Kronos and UKG servers, not to third-party cloud services over ADMS. If you leave the software you replace the terminal too — budget for that from the start rather than discovering it late.
Is ClockIt a genuine replacement for Workforce Central?
For a business of roughly 20 to 200 people, yes — time tracking, scheduling, overtime rules, leave and payroll export are all there. If you are running thousands of employees across union agreements with complex accrual rules and labour-law engines per jurisdiction, be honest with yourself: Kronos does things ClockIt does not, and you should stay. We would rather tell you that than sell you a migration you will reverse.
How do we get our historical punch data out?
Export from Workforce Central or UKG Ready as CSV before your access ends. This matters more with an enterprise contract than anywhere else, because access typically stops on a contractual date rather than when you are finished with it.
We are 150 people across four sites. Where do we start?
Book a call. At that size the terminal count, site structure and payroll export path all need working through before you buy anything, and it takes about half an hour to get right.
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 Kronos?
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.