BioTrack cloud overview

This page explains what the BioTrack cloud does for your organisation, what it sends and what always stays on the PC. Read it before you link your first PC or decide whether to pay for cloud reporting.

Three parts

1. Your BioTrack account. Alcra creates it for your organisation, with its sites and licences, and invites your first administrator to the BioTrack portal at app.biotrack.alcra.co.
2. A linked PC. Every BioTrack PC is linked to the account and uses one licence. Linking is required: a PC that is not linked does not collect. See Link this PC.
3. Cloud reporting (optional). With a paid cloud subscription for that PC, BioTrack sends a copy of its attendance to the portal, where your team can read it in a browser. See Licences and billing.

Without a cloud subscription the PC still collects, reports and exports attendance on site exactly as before. Its attendance stays on the PC; only its licence checks and its health report (states and counts, no names) reach the cloud.

Key properties

This PC stays authoritative

Every scan is saved to the encrypted database on the PC first. The cloud copy never replaces it.

Outages lose nothing

If the cloud or the internet is unavailable, or the subscription lapses, records wait on the PC and are sent later.

Signed by this installation

Each delivery is signed with a key created on the PC that never leaves it.

Limited data

Only a fixed list of attendance fields is sent. Passwords, terminal credentials and biometric data are never sent.

Retention you choose

Your organisation’s cloud data is kept for 1, 3, 5 or 7 years, then deleted automatically.

Works offline after linking

A linked PC needs no internet to keep collecting. Licences never expire.

How cloud reporting works

1. An outbox on the PC. Whenever BioTrack saves something that belongs in the cloud copy, such as a scan, a correction or a published rota, it also writes an entry to a waiting list inside the local database, in the same step. Nothing is missed while the PC is offline.
2. Signed batches. The BioTrack collector service checks the outbox every 30 seconds and sends waiting entries in small batches, each signed with this installation’s key. An entry is marked as sent only when the cloud confirms it.
3. The BioTrack cloud. It checks the signature and every field, then stores the records for your organisation. It decides which organisation and site the records belong to from the link the administrator approved, not from anything the PC claims.

Because the collector service does the sending, delivery carries on while the BioTrack window is closed. The PC also reports its health every 15 minutes, so the portal can show whether each PC is collecting.

What gets sent

Record	What it contains
Attendance events	Each scan: the ID on the terminal, the employee’s name, the scan type, when it happened and when BioTrack received it, and the terminal name if known.
Daily records	Each person’s result for a day: status, check-in and check-out, worked minutes, late and left early.
Calendar, leave and corrections	Holidays and working weekends, leave and its withdrawal, and audited corrections with the day’s result before and after.
Published rotas	Each published week: shifts, roles, the people on it (names and terminal IDs) and their shifts. Drafts stay on the PC.
Health	Collector and terminal states, counts, the app version, the PC’s time zone and clock difference. No names, addresses or error text.

What is never sent

• Fingerprint, face or other biometric templates, images or media
• BioTrack user passwords, password hashes or sessions
• Terminal usernames and passwords
• Recovery passphrases or other recovery secrets
• The raw requests the terminal sends to BioTrack
• This installation’s private signing key

See Data and retention for the details.

Who does what

Who	What they do
Alcra	Creates your account, sites and licences, invites the first administrator, and helps when a PC is replaced. See Alcra staff guide.
Your portal administrators	Approve PC links, invite colleagues, pay for cloud reporting. See Team and access.
The person at the PC	Installs BioTrack, starts linking, and runs the setup wizard. A local BioTrack administrator can check delivery in Settings → Cloud reporting.

Upgrading from BioTrack 1.1

In 1.1, cloud reporting was set up by typing a cloud address and an activation code into Settings → Cloud reporting. That is no longer needed: linking the PC sets up its cloud identity. PCs set up on 1.1 have until 31 October 2026 to be linked. See Link this PC.

Next steps

Link this PC Link a PC to your account with a code.

Sync status Read the delivery strip and know what to do when it retries or pauses.