Staff TrackerGeofence attendance: a practical setup and review guide
Geofence attendance uses location updates to record workplace entry and exit. Learn how to choose boundaries, test real journeys and review exceptions before relying on the records.
What a geofence attendance record means
A geofence is a virtual boundary around a place. When a phone reports a location on one side of that boundary and later reports a location on the other side, a tracking system can recognise a transition. Staff Tracker uses incoming locations to record confirmed workplace entries and exits. This gives managers a useful starting point for understanding presence across sites without asking every colleague to repeatedly send an arrival message.
The important distinction is between an observed location and an exact physical crossing. A phone does not continuously prove its position to the dashboard. It reports at intervals affected by its settings, operating system, signal and connection. A person might enter at 08:58 and send the next usable location at 09:01. The recorded transition describes the information available to the system; it is not a guarantee that someone crossed a doorway at that precise second.
A good attendance process therefore combines automatic records with a clear review process. Use the map to reduce routine checking, then investigate exceptions in context. Do not equate a missing update with absence, and do not treat a pin inside the boundary as proof that an assigned task was completed.
Define the workplace before drawing its boundary
Start with the operational question. Are you recording arrival at a building, entry into a large campus, or presence within a depot? Each question implies a different boundary. A circle around an office tower may include the pavement and a neighbouring business. A boundary around a large industrial site may need to include the staff entrance, loading area and buildings where work actually takes place.
Walk through the site's access arrangements with someone who works there. Find out where phones first obtain a reliable outdoor location, where people park, and whether workers routinely pass close to the premises while travelling elsewhere. These details matter more than making a boundary look tidy on the map. A boundary that misses the staff entrance will create avoidable confusion every morning.
Write a short site definition before configuration. Include the operational name, the relevant entrance and the meaning of attendance at that location. If arriving in the car park counts as arrival for your process, state that explicitly. If access through a security gate is the relevant event, explain why a broad location boundary may only approximate that event.
Choose a boundary that matches the evidence
Making a geofence smaller does not automatically improve accuracy. A very tight boundary can cause repeated apparent entries and exits when the phone's reported location varies near the edge. Making it very large solves that particular problem but may count someone travelling past the site as present. The useful size is the one that performs acceptably in realistic tests for the site's purpose.
Test a proposed boundary with normal phone placement rather than holding the device aloft for every trial. Workers might carry phones in a coat, bag or vehicle. Indoor areas, tall buildings and covered entrances can change the location observations. Do not publish a universal radius as the answer for every site; measure the behaviour of the devices and geography you actually use.
- Identify the staff entrance and typical arrival route.
- Include the places where a legitimate arrival should be recognised.
- Check nearby roads and adjacent businesses for accidental inclusion.
- Observe stationary phones near the edge for repeated transitions.
- Record why the chosen boundary is suitable for the operational question.
Keep the first configuration simple enough to explain. If managers cannot describe what counts as being inside, they will struggle to interpret disputes or explain the process to staff. Complex premises may need additional operational checks instead of a more elaborate drawing.
Run an arrival and departure test
Use a small pilot with people who understand that the exercise is testing the setup. Record the planned journey and independently note the approximate arrival and departure times. Begin outside the boundary, enter through the normal route, stay for a realistic period, then leave. Compare the resulting entries with the journey notes after the phone has had a chance to report.
Repeat the test with the screen locked and the app in its usual working state. A successful test while the app is open does not establish reliable background operation. Include a period of standing still, because the reporting behaviour while stationary can differ from a moving journey. Also check what happens after the device has been unused for a while.
Keep the test log short: device model, operating system, test time, route, observed event and explanation for any discrepancy. Use invented staff names in training examples, and keep real pilot information available only to the people who need it. The aim is to identify a pattern, not to collect an unnecessarily detailed history.
Handle incomplete and delayed records
An arrival without a departure is an incomplete record, not automatically an overnight shift. Before calculating time on site, inspect the latest location time and ask whether the device stopped reporting. Battery depletion, loss of connectivity and changed permissions are plausible explanations that should be checked before drawing conclusions about the worker.
Likewise, a departure followed by another arrival a short time later might reflect a genuine journey, a break outside the boundary, or noisy location observations near the edge. The map alone cannot tell you which explanation is correct. A supervisor should compare the sequence with the working arrangement and ask for clarification when the difference matters.
Maintain an exception note outside the automatic record if the product does not provide the exact annotation workflow you need. State the original observation, the supporting explanation, the person who reviewed it and the resulting operational decision. Avoid silently replacing uncertain information with an invented precise time.
Separate attendance from payroll and performance
Presence information can inform a conversation about a shift, but working time may include activities outside a particular geofence. Travel between sites, approved off-site duties, training and other arrangements can all make a simple arrival-to-departure total incomplete. Decide how these cases are handled before anyone uses the figures for another business process.
A manager should also resist treating longer presence as automatically better performance. A short visit might complete a defined task successfully; a long stay might include a queue for access or a delayed delivery. Pair the attendance view with the work outcome that matters, such as whether an inspection was completed or a maintenance request was resolved.
If your organisation uses location records in pay-related decisions, establish the applicable rules and a human review process with the appropriate adviser. This guide describes operational configuration rather than a legal or payroll formula. The system should support a documented policy instead of quietly creating one through default settings.
Example: an office with a shared car park
Imagine a cleaning team serving an office next to a supermarket. The first proposed geofence covers both buildings and the entire shared car park. During the pilot, a colleague visiting the supermarket on a non-working day appears inside the workplace boundary. The software is following the configured geography, but the boundary does not match the intended meaning of attendance.
The manager redraws the workplace around the office and its staff access area, then repeats the arrival test. One phone still sends its first inside location a few minutes after the person enters. Rather than promising exact doorway timing, the team documents that arrivals are inferred from received locations and that unusual records receive a review.
The improved setup is useful because its limits are understood. Supervisors can see the latest picture across offices and focus on unresolved exceptions. Staff know how to report a missing record, and the shared car park no longer produces the same misleading association. The example is illustrative, not a customer result or a claim about measured accuracy.
Maintain the setup when the workplace changes
Geofences are not a one-time configuration. A new entrance, temporary construction barrier or relocated parking area can change the usual arrival route. Add location setup to the handover checklist when opening a new site or changing access arrangements. Keep someone responsible for confirming that the boundary still represents the workplace.
Device changes deserve a similar review. Replacing a phone, reinstalling the client or changing operating-system settings can affect reporting even when the site is unchanged. A brief arrival-and-departure check after a significant change is more useful than discovering a whole week of incomplete observations later.
Review exception patterns periodically. Repeated problems at one boundary suggest a site issue; repeated problems on one device suggest a setup issue. Fix the underlying cause rather than asking staff to explain the same predictable fault every day.
A practical rollout checklist
- Name each workplace consistently so supervisors recognise it immediately.
- Describe what an arrival and departure are intended to represent.
- Test both moving and stationary behaviour with the screen locked.
- Include an ordinary entrance, a nearby pass-by route and a departure.
- Explain reporting limits and the correction process to affected staff.
- Assign a reviewer for incomplete or disputed records.
- Retest when entrances, devices or reporting settings materially change.
Frequently asked questions
Is a geofence timestamp the exact time someone entered a building?
No. It reflects the location information available to the tracking system. Reporting intervals, permissions, connection quality and location accuracy can affect when a transition is recognised. Use it as operational evidence with appropriate context, especially when a small timing difference matters.
Can geofence attendance replace every manual check?
It can reduce routine check-ins, but exceptions still need review. A missing departure, an offline phone or an unusual route cannot always be resolved from a map. Keep a simple way for staff to explain an incomplete record and for a supervisor to document the outcome.
Why does a person appear to enter and leave repeatedly?
Possible causes include real movement across the boundary or varying location observations near its edge. Review the timeline and test the boundary at that site. Avoid changing several settings at once, because doing so makes it harder to identify which adjustment helped.
What should we read before adjusting phone reporting settings?
Consult the current Traccar Client configuration guide and client troubleshooting guidance. These explain the client controls and platform considerations. Use a small test after changes rather than assuming that an interval setting guarantees an exact reporting frequency.