When adding a new location in ExakTime Connect with an address, you may encounter issues where the GPS coordinates/GEOFence are incorrect from expectations. This is generally due to either an incorrect address being entered for the location or Bing Maps, the mapping system we use to generate GPS coordinates, having incorrect/old data. For these situations, you must update the GPS coordinates manually so your locations can have the correct GEOFence.

What is Happening

When an address is entered for a location in ExakTime Connect, the address is used to search for the GPS coordinates in Bing Maps. These resulting coordinates are then used to generate the GEOFence for the location. Depending on your situation, there will be two possible issues:

• If the wrong address is entered, such as the wrong zip code, you may see coordinates in the wrong part of town, the wrong cities, and even the wrong countries. These situations can be remedied by entering the correct address.
• If the correct address is entered and the GEOFence is almost correct, you can make minor adjustments to the positioning or GEOFence sizing to fit your needs. 
• If the correct address is entered, but Bing Maps data is incorrect or old, the GPS coordinates will be wrong no matter what you do. This will require you to manually update the coordinates in ExakTime Connect or rely on an employee to set the coordinates while they are at the location.

Minor GEOFence Corrections

If the GPS coordinates are there, but slightly off, you can click and grab the GPS marker and drag it to where it should be. The circle around the GPS marker indicates the GEOFence of the location and should cover the location where your employees are expected to be working.

There may also be situations where the GPS marker will not be at the exact center of the job site but will be between where your employees park and where they are working or if the location is oddly shaped.

Avoid having a small GEOFence as it can result in false negatives. While GPS can be accurate, there is a margin of error that has been seen to place an employee outside of a GEOFence. You can learn more about how GPS works and GPS accuracy with the following dedicated article.

If you have GEOFence Restrictions/Warnings enabled for your employees your employees will need to sync their copies of ExakTime Mobile after you correct the GPS/GEOFence so their copies of ExakTime Mobile will receive the new GEOFence data and not encounter any restrictions/warnings when clocking in/out.

Manually Updating GPS Coordinates

If there are no GPS coordinates to adjust or they are incorrect, you can either:

• Enter the GPS coordinates manually from other sources, such as Google Maps or Bing Maps, in ExakTime Connect.
• Have an employee generate the GPS coordinates with ExakTime Mobile while at the job site.

In ExakTime Connect

With Google Maps

• Go to Google Maps and search for the best area that contains the job site.
• When you find the desired location, right-click on the map and left-click the coordinates at the top of the list. The coordinates will be copied to your clipboard.

With Bing Maps

• Go to Bing Maps and search for the best area that contains the job site.
• When you find the desired location, right-click on the map to see the GPS coordinates at the bottom of the menu. Copy and paste these coordinates into the GPS fields for your Location in ExakTime Connect.

Entering GPS Coordinates

Once you have the GPS coordinates, enter them into the corresponding fields in ExakTime Connect for the location. When reading GPS coordinates, the first number is generally the latitude and the second is the longitude. As you enter the coordinates, the map towards the right will automatically update. You can then make further adjustments to the GPS and GEOFence by clicking and dragging the pinpoint and green circle.

If you have GEOFence Restrictions/Warnings enabled for your employees your employees will need to sync their copies of ExakTime Mobile after you correct the GPS/GEOFence so their copies of ExakTime Mobile will receive the new GEOFence data and not encounter any restrictions/warnings when clocking in/out.

Adding/Updating GPS Coordinates from ExakTime Mobile

If an employee has permission to add locations from ExakTime Mobile, they will also have the permission to add/update the GPS coordinates for a location with the GPS coordinates generated by their device. Before using this option, consider the following:

• They cannot manually type coordinates into ExakTime Mobile. The GPS coordinates used by ExakTime Mobile are generated by the device.
• Due to the above, the employee must be at the location to do this, ideally in the middle of the location.
• Further adjustments to the GEOFence radius must be done on ExakTime Connect.

You can provide the employee with the following article that can also be found on the ExakTime Mobile help topics.

The employee will perform the following:

• Press the menu button in the top left and press Manage.

  

• Press Locations.

  

• While viewing the list of available locations, press one to view its information.

  

• If using iOS, press the option Set Position To Here. If using Android, press the three dots in the top right and press Set Position.