When employees are clocking in or out on ExakTime Mobile, we will try to associate any GPS information that their mobile device generates with the time punch they created. There may be instances however where an employee's time punch is missing this useful information. Some situations may be out of their control, but we offer several options to help ensure that your employees' time punches have GPS data associated.
Table of Contents
Causes
Clock In/Out Was Created By The System
Time punches generated by the system will not have any GPS data associated. Common system generated punches are:
- Stop Times
- Auto-Lunch and Midnight Splits
Stop Times
If an employee clocks in while they are already clocked in, we will stop their prior time record automatically to start a new time record. As the system created the stop time, there is no GPS information to associate with the punch. In these instances, you will want to review the GPS associated with the start time of the following time record, if it has any.
In the example below, the employee clocked in multiple times to track their work day. As an employee cannot do two cost codes simultaneously, we will stop the previous time record and start the new time record. The highlighted records have GPS information as they were created by the employee, while all other records will not have GPS data as they were system generated.
Auto-Lunch and Midnight Splits
Auto-Lunches and Midnight Splits are policies that can be enabled to automatically generate or split a time record.
Auto-lunches will automatically generate a record after a certain amount of worked hours to deduct a set amount for lunch.
Midnight Splits will split any time record that would pass through midnight so the work hours for an employee are split to the appropriate day.
Clock In/Out Was Created By An Administrator
If a user with sufficient permission adds time manually to an employee's time card or edits a missing time record, it will not contain any GPS information.
Mobile Device Lacking GPS Information
If the mobile device is unable to provide ExakTime Mobile any GPS information, their clock in/out will indicate "No GPS information for this punch" with the informational icon.
Some reasons for this include, but are not limited to:
- Environmental factors such as cloudy sky, buildings surrounding the employee, underground, etc.
- Location Services for the mobile device is turned off or ExakTime Mobile does not have permissions to use location services.
- Mobile device has not yet generated GPS information. If for example, an employee recently stepped out of a tunnel, the mobile device may still be generating GPS information at the time of their clock in/out.
Mitigating Lack of GPS Information
Requiring Location Services/GPS Data
To help allow ExakTime Mobile the best chances of receiving GPS information from the mobile device, we suggest using a combination of the options below from Mobile Settings.
We offer two settings for ExakTime Mobile that will require ExakTime Mobile to have access to location services and/or have a GPS fix before the employee can clock in/out.
Require a GPS fix before clocking in or out: If this option is turned on, ExakTime Mobile will not let an employee clock in or out until the device can provide ExakTime Mobile GPS information. With this setting turned on, GPS information should always be associated with the employees' time records.
- Keep in mind of factors that can prevent a mobile device from getting GPS information such as the environment or device issues. If enabled, the employee cannot clock in/out until this setting is turned off or those other factors are taken care of.
Require the device's Location Services to be enabled before clocking in or out: If this option is turned on, ExakTime Mobile will require that the mobile device has location services turned on and ExakTime Mobile has permission to access the feature. This does not guarantee that ExakTime Mobile will receive GPS information, but if there is any GPS information we will associate the information to their clock in/out.
If you would like to enable either of these options, you can refer to ExakTime Mobile Settings to ensure that these settings are consistent for all of your ExakTime Mobile users.
GeoFence Warnings/Restrictions
In addition to requiring access to location services and GPS data, you can also enable an option to warn or restrict an employee who is trying to clock in/out while outside of a Geofence radius. This is not required to receive the employee's position but can be a helpful option to help make sure that employees are on-site when starting or ending their day.
If you would like to enable either of these options, you can refer to the following article for the steps and how it works.
Exceptions to GPS Requirements
If an employee is clocked in/out through the "Clock For" function of ExakTime Mobile, the Location Services/GPS Requirement will be ignored. This is intended because if an employee (administrator, supervisor, foreman, etc.) is trusted to clock in/out others, they should also be trusted to clock in/out at the correct location and verify that the employee(s) are at the location.
Employees using the "Clock For" function should look for an X over the GPS crosshair to be aware if the time punch will be missing GPS data.