If you’re running a business with employees working remotely in various locations, you might know how hard it sometimes is to track their time and whereabouts. However, GPS tracking with geofencing technology can help you streamline this process.
Using geofence time clock technology lets you virtually set perimeters for your mobile workforce and ensure they are where they should be during their working hours.
This technology can help you:
manage your team better,
bill clients and pay your employees accurately,
promote transparency and accountability
streamline time-consuming operations.
But before we discuss these benefits in detail, let’s begin with the basics.
Do Your Employees Arrive On Time? Do They Work the Hours They Report?
A geofence time clock is a mobile app time clock that logs employee clock in and out times based on a virtual boundary around a specific location. By outlining the area on a map, you can now monitor precise times of employees’ entry and exit and their time at the site.
Whenever a worker enters the defined geofence zone, the application sends a notification for an employee to clock in and monitor the time spent at the worksite. When leaving the geofenced area, the geofence time clock notifies the employee to clock out of the predefined location.
With geofence time tracking, companies no longer need to rely on their employees’ words. Now, they have real-time insight into where their employees are during their shifts.
As geofencing time tracking keeps employees accountable for their whereabouts, managers don’t need to check whether they are at their workplace.
With its possibilities, the geofence time clock can be handy for businesses whose employees work at multiple job sites and locations.
How Does a Geofence Time Clock Work?
The geofence time clock is easy to set up and use. However, for it to function correctly, you need to take several steps.
First, you need to specify where your employees will do their work. For example, your company may have a central office and several other job sites that change over time.
Setting Up Goefenced Job Site: Timeero Admin View
Next, you need to create a geofence, a virtual border surrounding the area for each location. Then you assign employees to designated areas, depending on the sites they will be working on.
Timeero geofence time clock works on iOS and Android mobile devices. The app records their location and creates time cards when employees clock in with their mobile devices. If an employee clocks in outside of a designated area, from their commute, or at a coffee shop nearby, their punch may send an alert that they are out of bounds.
As geofencing requires GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular data, or RFID to track the location, your employee needs a mobile device or RFID tag to punch in and out. Of course, for it to function, the employee must authorize the location services.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Geofence Time Clock App?
Now that you have a clear idea of a geofence time clock app, let's see how your business could benefit from one.
1. Avoid Time Theft
If your company has many mobile or field employees, you probably know how hard it is to keep track of them during their working hours.
Unfortunately, some employees try to take advantage of these circumstances by fraudulent time tracking.
Geofence time clocks can terminate these fraudulent practices and give you peace of mind.
For example, your company can set a range of 100 meters from the geofenced location to manage the time clock. Practically, this means that when your employee punches in or out of geofence, you will receive a notification, and the app will flag their timesheet entry. Your employee will also be alerted that they’ve performed this action outside the borders.
Timeero Company Settings - Notifications: Admin View
So if your employee clocks in 10 minutes before they reach the job site or punches out when they're already home, you will know.
Both you and your employees can view flagged entries to check the employee locations while performing clock in or out.
In some instances, and to specific employees, you can limit clocking in and out to a geofenced zone only.
Timeero General Settings - Geofencing: Admin View
A geofence time tracking app that combines tracking with facial recognition, such as Timeero, can end the most common employee time theft scheme - buddy punching.
Buddy punching happens when one employee clocks another employee in or out of a shift at work without them actually being present. Even though some employees might see this as a friendly gesture to help a co-worker avoid the consequences of coming late or leaving work early, it is a form of fraud that harms the business's bottom line.
Let’s face it - manual timesheets are inaccurate and prone to errors. Those mistakes are primarily unintentional, as employees simply forget what they were doing and when and fail to log in their time correctly.
Geofencing time tracking app makes it simple and convenient for your employees to clock in and out and get paid adequately for their work. A geofence time clock app can spare them the hassle of punching in at a physical clock - it is super easy for your workers to clock in and out of work using an app on their phones.
What happens when a worker forgets to clock out after work? A geofence time clock app can remind them to punch when entering or leaving the boundary.
Moreover, your managers will be more effective without the burden and stress of monitoring mobile and field employees. As the system will alert them if an employee clocks outside the predefined area, your managers can only focus on the problem punches. They can spend more time dealing with more meaningful tasks, such as training employees, mentoring, or tracking projects.
3. Efficient Payroll Processing
Time tracking with geofencing can make payroll processing effortless and cheaper.
Streamlining tasks in this area will reduce the time and energy spent manually entering payroll data from timesheets. Consequently, it will significantly lower the possibility of human error regarding payroll.
With a geofence time clock app, you can make the entire payroll process more efficient.
Timeero integrates with the most common accounting and payroll services, so you don't have to worry about invoicing and payroll.
It will automatically generate your employees' payroll timesheets using data on their hourly rates. It will also factor in all relevant data, such as their vacations, days off, or lunch breaks.
Timeero Integrations
You will also have more control over your payroll expenses. As the app will let you know whenever your employee has hit a predefined number of hours, you can prevent unnecessary overtime hours.
Geofencing time tracking lets you have real-time insight into your team activities and their whereabouts.
Such insight is crucial for understanding how your employees spend time during their shifts and enabling new solutions that could help improve productivity and efficiency.
Real-time insight allows a quick response. If an urgent situation needs an immediate answer, you can see which of your employees is closest and assign them the task using scheduling.
Timeero Scheduling: Admin View
In certain industries, such as home health care, how quickly you respond and manage your staff is extremely important. Being able to react timely can boost your service quality and differentiate you from other service providers in this industry. If a home caregiver, for example, cancels their shift at the last moment, using a geofence time clock will help you manage your staff accordingly and adequately address your clients’ needs.
Timeero’s Who’s working tab will show you which of your employees are available and their locations so you can assign them visits.
Timeero’s Who’s Working tab
Assigning a task to the available employee nearby saves your employees’ time, reduces travel costs, and increases your business efficiency.
The geofence time tracking app benefits your employees, too. They know they’ll receive adequate compensation for any overtime hours and extra effort.
5. Provide proof to your clients
No matter which industry your business is in, punctuality is essential. However, because of the severity of potential consequences, punctuality and sticking to a schedule are particularly invaluable in certain lines of work.
For example, a home health agency should never risk their caregivers arriving late or not showing up for their appointment. Anyone who runs a home health agency knows that employee no-show is a problem. With a geofence time tracker, you can know whether or not your caregivers showed up.
In addition, Timeero’s mileage tracking enables you to replay all your employee’s routes and view their breadcrumb path.
Timeereo Breadcrumbs Route: Admin View
Tools like Timeero, which uses a geofence time clock and is EVV compliant, record your employees’ precise time and coordinates. When billing your clients, you can present them with a detailed record of work hours with GPS tags. Even if there is a dispute with a client, you will have proof of your employee's attendance.
Apart from being inaccurate, keeping time and processing payroll manually is time-consuming. Instead of focusing on more critical tasks, your employees waste their time in lines to punch in or out or enter their data manually.
GPS time-tracking software can streamline these processes. Your employees clock in or out using their phones to start tracking time and creating records.
The app will:
capture clock in & out times and location
create timesheet entries
calculate costs in the reports
However, besides ditching the paperwork regarding timekeeping, Timeero can help you eliminate relying on odometer readings and manual entry related to mileage tracking.
Still Not Sure Your Business Needs a Geofence Time Clock?
According to the benefits listed above, we must conclude that a geofencing time tracking app is necessary for businesses with mobile and field employees working in various locations and traveling between them.
This helpful tool can help you streamline various processes, prevent time theft, efficiently manage your labor costs and cut business expenses, and stay compliant with labor laws.
Andjelka is a sociologist turned digital marketer. She specializes in creating content for SaaS and software companies. When she’s not researching the most effective employee management techniques, Andjelka loves cooking, reading, and fighting for human rights.
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