From Biometric Chaos to Clean Attendance: How Excel Macros Automate HR Work

In many organizations, biometric attendance systems are supposed to make life easier. But anyone who has actually handled biometric data knows the truth: the exported Excel file is usually messy, confusing, and almost impossible to use directly for payroll or reporting.

Rows are broken by date blocks, user IDs are mixed with date rows, columns contain unnecessary technical information, and managers end up spending hours cleaning the data every month.

This is where Excel Macros become a game changer.

The Problem with Biometric Raw Data

A typical biometric machine (like ARGO Face, ZKTeco, or Essl) exports data in this format:

• Date rows appear in between employee data

• Employee IDs and dates are mixed in the same column

• Punch times include both date and time

• Many unnecessary columns (device, punch mode, event status, etc.)

• Multiple punch entries for the same employee on the same day

This raw data is good for machines — but useless for HR.

What HR actually needs is:

| User ID | Name | Date | In Time | Out Time | Hours |

But the biometric machine does not give this directly.

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Why Excel Macros Are the Right Solution

A Macro is simply Excel remembering what you do.

Instead of manually cleaning the biometric file every month, you clean it once while Excel records your actions. From the next month onward, one click does the entire job.

This converts Excel from a calculator into an HR automation engine.

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How the Automation Works

Here is the logic behind the system:

1. Clean the raw data

   • Remove date rows that appear inside the User ID column

   • Remove blank rows

   • Delete unnecessary columns

   • Convert Punch DateTime into separate Date and Time columns

2. Normalize the data

   • Ensure Date is stored as a real date (not text)

   • Ensure Time is stored as a real time

3. Group employee punches

   • For each User ID and Date:

     • First punch becomes In Time

     • Last punch becomes Out Time

4. Calculate working hours

   • Hours = Out Time – In Time

   • This automatically handles late exits and night shifts

All of this logic is done using MINIFS and MAXIFS, and then automated using a Macro.

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The Core Formulas

If your data is in this format:

Then use the following formula as below:

Once the data is cleaned and structured, Excel does the real work:

In Time in Cell E2...

=MINIFS(Time, UserID, A2, Date, C2)

Out Time in Cell F2...

=MAXIFS(Time, UserID, A2, Date, C2)

Working Hours (If required in Cell G...)

=IF(OutTime < InTime, OutTime + 1 - InTime, OutTime - InTime)

This is the same logic used by professional payroll and HR systems.

✅ IN-Time (MINIFS)

In E2 (In Time):

=MINIFS($D:$D, $A:$A, A2, $C:$C, C2)

This means:

From column D (Time), pick the earliest time where
User ID = A2 and Date = C2

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✅ OUT-Time (MAXIFS)

In F2 (Out Time):

=MAXIFS($D:$D, $A:$A, A2, $C:$C, C2)