To shorten the time for collating fingerprint data, to make the install space narrower by solving the problem on a conventional timecard system, to eliminate an illegal action on a timecard or loss of the time card by other persons, and further to facilitate the attendance managing processing.

The fingerprint data are grouped for every one character in the initials of the members of a company to be registered, and registered as a registration group. When a member is to attend/leave the office, before sampling a fingerprint by means of a fingerprint authenticator 12, a button corresponding to the character of his/her own registration group is selected (step S11). Then, the fingerprint is sampled by the fingerprint authenticator 12 and these sampled fingerprint data are collated with previously grouped fingerprint data (steps S13 and S14). Thus, the time for collating fingerprint can be shortened.