Configure geofencing to define punch locations

Most devices register their location as a GPS signal. This is called the geolocation. Building on this capability, you can define the geolocation where employees can and cannot punch in and out. This is called geofencing. Alternatively, you can use an existing WiFi Network to define the employee's location.

With geofencing, each punch is associated with a job in the organization's business structure, either based on the employee's "home" job or a job transfer.

Nodes in the business structure (including jobs, but also their parent nodes) can be assigned to "known places." A known place is a defined geographic area, determined by a GPS latitude/longitude combination, a WiFi Network, or both.

Geofencing calls for validating that the geolocation associated with a punch is within the Known Place for the job referenced in the punch — in other words, to ensure that the employee is where he says he is.

Note: Only jobs can be assigned to known places, but you can assign a known place to multiple jobs at one time by clicking the parent node (location), which has the effect of automatically selecting all the child nodes (jobs). Otherwise, jobs within a given location are not all presumed to be in the same known place.

When using Wi-Fi, if the device is connected to the WiFi Network that is associated with the Known Place, the employee is within the geofence.

When using GPS, the logic for determining whether the geolocation associated with a punch is within a geofence for the job is as follows: the device reports a geolocation with a punch. The geolocation is a longitude/latitude combination plus an accuracy value. For the punch to be considered “inside the fence:”

  • The location identified by the longitude and latitude must be within the punch area defined in the Known Place configuration.

  • The accuracy value cannot be greater that the defined GPS Accuracy Threshold for the Known Place

Geofencing applies to punching that occurs with and without job transfers. When there is no job transfer, the following geofencing logic is applied:

  • If this is an “out punch,” the job associated with the corresponding “in punch” is used. This logic is controlled by the following System Setting: Timekeeping > site.timekeeping.shared.usePreviousPunchForGeofence (default is true).

  • If this is not an “out punch” or the corresponding “in punch” has no job associated, the employee’s primary job is used.

About accuracy

Every GPS geolocation provided by the device comes back with a property called “accuracy.” Accuracy is a numeric value (in meters) that indicates how confident the device is in the accuracy of the location it is reporting.

The lower the accuracy value, the more accurate the location. For example:

  • an accuracy value of 25 means the actual location of the user is within 25 meters of the coordinates it is reporting.
  • an accuracy value of 100 means the actual location of the user is within 100 meters of the coordinates it is reporting.

Configure punches for geofencing

To set up location-based operations, do the following:

  1. Define known places as described in Known Places
  2. For managers who need to access the location data of their employees (such as being able to see the locations of the employee punches on a map view):

    Set the following in the manager’s Function Access Profile (Administration > Application Setup > Access Profiles > Function Access Profiles):
  3. Manager - Department Manager > Location Data > View Location Data = Allowed
  4. To set up an employee as a "geofenced" employee, set the following in the employee’s Function Access Profile (Administration > Application Setup > Access Profiles > Function Access Profiles):
  5. Employee - Location Data > Record location data = Allowed
  6. Employee - Location Data > Punch restrictions based on geofence area = Allowed
  7. Set the following in the employee Function Access Profiles (Administration > Application Setup > Access Profiles > Function Access Profiles):
  8. Employee - Location Data > Punching outside of geofence area - Set this to "Allowed" to enable the employee to punch when the device detects that the employee is outside of the geofence area. The punch will be notated with an "Outside the geofence" message.
  9. Employee - Location Data > Allow punch without accurate geolocation - Set this to "Allowed" to enable the employee to punch when the device cannot determine its location. The punch will be notated with an "Unverified location" message.