Tracking your employees’ attendance can be challenging, especially while keeping them accountable for where they clock-in and clock-out of work. If staff work at various job sites or if your company relies on physical clock-in clock-out machines, it can quickly become an operational nightmare. Incomplete timesheets, inaccurate time punches, costly payroll mistakes and even employee time theft are all issues you can face if you don’t implement the right location software into your employee time tracking apps.
Luckily, it’s easy to automate your employees’ clocking in and out by adding geofencing into your existing employee tracking systems. Adding this extra layer of location into your work apps allows you to track your staff’s work hours and location with ease, accuracy and efficiency, all without battery drain.
And the best bit? It’s quick and easy to get started. Read on to find out more about the many benefits of adding geofencing into your staff time tracking apps and how to get started with the PlotProjects geofencing SDK.
*This blog was written by PlotProjects, one of the leading providers of geofencing and location data. Our SDK, APIs and dashboards offer all the tools you need to build accurate and efficient location functionalities into your apps and websites. Contact us to find out more.
What are employee time tracking apps?
Employee time tracking apps are a type of attendance tracking software that remind employees to clock in and out from a mobile app when they arrive at or leave a job site. Not only do they reduce the need for physical clock machines and time cards, but they also provide businesses with the real-time data they need to monitor and manage their employees’ working hours.
Also known as ‘time clock apps’ and ‘GPS employee tracking’ or ‘staff check-in check-out apps’, they offer a range of features such as automated clock in/out reminders, real-time staff visibility, time theft prevention, field data collection, route and mileage tracking and more. Instead of wasting hours on paperwork, geofence time tracking helps you eliminate paper timesheets, automate payroll and easily manage employee schedules.
Who needs employee tracking apps?
It can be tricky to track and verify employee location when they are clocking in and out for work, especially with field service teams, or any business where employees might visit multiple job sites in one day.
Employee time tracking apps can be used by businesses and organizations of all sizes to solve this problem, even for companies with large teams, numerous job sites, and lots of employees who travel between them. The software is particularly useful in industries such as healthcare, construction, sales, manufacturing, haulage, delivery, landscaping, freelancing and other field services.
Tracking employees while they’re at work provides so many valuable insights. Firstly, you’ll know when they arrive, where they are and what they’re working on. Plus, you can ensure they are working on the right projects from the places they should be. What’s more, you can get insights into things like employee travel time and mileage tracking.
Whether you’re tracking employee clock ins, location or both, you can use the data to gain valuable insights into your team’s work, identify any issues and make adjustments when needed. With many processes automated and streamlined, overall operational efficiency is greatly improved.
How does geofence time tracking work?
Geofencing for employee time tracking
The best employee time clock apps work by incorporating geotracking technology such as geofencing, beacon technology and GPS. With these working in tangent, you can create custom geofences and track employee location activity via company-owned mobile devices, during working hours.
With geofence employee time tracking apps you can easily automate time cards, clocking staff in and out as they come and go. Geofences of all shapes and sizes can be set up around work locations such as office buildings, job sites, warehouses, customer locations and more. These virtual fences automatically trigger a clock in or out when an employee’s mobile device enters or leaves the geofenced location.
By marking the perimeter of the location on a map, businesses can monitor employee activity such as entry, exit and time spent at the location. Working hours, field data and other information can be collected in real-time and automatically stored in a database, then exported at any time for payroll purposes, client billing, shift planning, reporting and analytics.
Adding this extra layer of real-time location to your apps means that supervisors and managers automatically have all the information they need to manage teams, tasks and locations without having to spend time on tedious paperwork, or physically check on work teams and visit job sites.
GPS time clock apps
Geofencing isn’t the only location functionality at work in these apps. Many time clock apps also offer GPS tracking for employees. This lets businesses automatically track employees at remote locations.
A GPS tracking feature allows the app to collect GPS data about particular employees by making it optional or required. If it’s set to required, employees cannot clock in unless they share their GPS location.
Benefits of employee tracking with geofencing
Easy to implement in your existing apps
Geofencing is quick and easy to implement into your existing employee time tracking apps. Once added, it’s fast and easy for businesses and employees to use. With a solution like PlotProjects, you’ll have all the tools you need to create and monitor as many geofences as you want, with easy integration into your entire digital infrastructure.
Automate employee check-in check-out
Automating the employee clock-in clock-out (check-in check-out) process with reminders helps companies to confirm accurate employee attendance at specific locations. Employee time tracking apps bring transparency to both employers and staff knowing that location data is an accurate record for workplace clock ins. What’s more, it reduces human error when someone forgets to clock in, and it prevents you from paying employees for time they aren’t working.
Reduced time theft & buddy punching
Employee time theft can lead to many thousands of pounds of lost revenue every year. And with employees sometimes helping each other out with buddy punching, employers have begun to realize the importance of digital clocking in and out. Geofence tracking apps make buddy punching impossible because they provide an extra layer of verification for each employee.
Decreased timesheet errors
Geofence time clock apps help your teams clock in and out of the right job every time. This gives you an accurate idea of exactly when your teams are working and what they’re working on. This is especially handy for accurate timesheets, completing payroll or when you’re billing clients. With accurate timesheets that show how long a project has taken, you’ll know what to pay your teams and what to bill your clients, and you’ll have the proof to back it up.
Notifications & alerts
When employees enter or leave a geofence, a time clock app will remind them to clock in or out. You can also set up workflows to automatically send alerts for any issues, or set up manual alerts so that employees can trigger safety alerts when they are out in the field. Managers can also get alerts about which employees are going over their daily work hours with overtime notifications.
Real time data & visibility
Employee tracking apps allow managers to see the location of all staff in real time, enabling them to gain vital insights, monitor operations and make better decisions. Employees can also use employee tracking software to collect data from job sites, including notes, tasks, signatures, QR scans, different custom form types photos, and more. All data is easy to export for reporting, analytics, payroll and billing.
Routing and mileage
By implementing location intelligence into your employee time tracking apps you can help employees when traveling between worksites with timely real-time notification such as traffic information, weather updates and directions. Staff tracking software can also help businesses work out the most efficient routes and make accurate mileage calculations.
Asset tracking & fleet management
Geofencing is a handy tool to assist fleet managers in tracking their assets. By incorporating geofencing into your tracking apps, you can see the locations and journeys of vehicles, and get automatic notifications when your drivers arrive at their destinations. By setting up geofences along delivery routes and destination points, managers can improve fleet productivity and efficiency, while providing accurate updates to customers. Tracking work vehicles can also prevent vehicle and tool theft.
Privacy
The best time clock apps with geofencing adhere to all rules and regulations regarding employees’ rights to privacy while tracking them. Businesses should have a policy in place to inform employees that their mobile or other device has an employee time tracking app installed that will monitor their location during working hours only. The app can be disabled during breaks and out of working hours.
Optimal battery use
By using the right geofencing company for your time clock apps, you can minimise phone battery usage compared to other geofencing solutions. PlotProjects technology uses Wi-Fi and cellular networks to ensure optimal battery use, making battery usage in your app negligible.
A suite of tools for clock-in clock-out apps
PlotProjects offers a suite of tools and features for employee clock-in/clock-out with beacons for improved accuracy. The software can be used anywhere to detect location, even underground! Stop & Start Detection and Activity Monitor can be combined to trigger events and notifications based on specific activities and movements such as when walking or travelling.
Interested in using geofencing in your clock-in clock-out apps?
Geofencing is a powerful and cost-effective tool to optimise employee clock-in clock-out apps for businesses both big and small. If you need help getting started with geofencing and beacons, or you want to find out more about how our platform can drive results for your business, contact PlotProjects today.
We also offer many other location-based solutions including geocoding, POI data and address autocomplete functionalities to help you enrich your location datasets and provide more helpful results and insights. PlotProjects can also assist you with the execution of your geotargeting and local marketing needs.
Our SDK, APIs and dashboard offer all the tools you need to build accurate and efficient location functionalities into your mobile apps. To speak to us about how our solutions can work for you, contact us today.