Geo Fencing is a feature that lets an organization restrict mobile attendance to specific approved geographic locations. Once configured, employees can only mark attendance from within the boundaries defined by their organization. Any punch attempted from outside these boundaries is not accepted, and the employee is informed that they are not in an allowed geographical region.
This makes Geo Fencing useful for organizations that want to ensure attendance is marked only from genuine work locations, such as an office, a branch, or a designated client site.
This article gives an overview of what Geo Fencing is, how it works, and how to get started with it.
How Geo Fencing Works
Geo Fencing works by combining a set of geographic coordinates with a defined boundary radius. Together, these create a virtual boundary around each approved location.
- An admin defines one or more allowed locations by entering the Latitude, Longitude, and Radius (in meters) for each location.
- When an employee tries to punch through the mobile app, the app checks whether their current location falls within any of the defined boundaries.
- If the employee is within an allowed boundary, the punch is accepted normally.
- If the employee is outside all allowed boundaries, the punch is blocked and an error message informs them that they are not in an allowed geographical region defined by their company.
Example: A company defines its head office with a 100 meter radius, and a client site with a 50 meter radius. An employee visiting the client site can punch in from within the 50 meter zone. If they walk outside the boundary, the app will not accept a fresh punch until they are back within the zone. An employee attempting to punch from home or a cafe outside either zone gets an error and cannot mark attendance.
Geo Fencing supports multiple locations per organization. There is no restriction on the number of locations that can be added, so organizations with offices in multiple cities, branches, or client sites can define each one separately.
When to Use Geo Fencing
Geo Fencing can be applied in a wide range of situations. The list below covers some common examples, and there are many more possibilities depending on how your organization operates.
- Office based teams who should mark attendance only from within office premises, to prevent remote punching from home or elsewhere.
- Client site deployments where employees are stationed at a specific client office and should only punch from that location.
- Multi branch operations where each branch is defined as an allowed location, and employees mark attendance only from the branch they are assigned to.
- Field teams with fixed routes, such as delivery or logistics staff, where punches should be restricted to depots or hub locations.
- Compliance driven organizations where attendance verification requires proof that the employee was physically present at an approved site.
- Retail chains or franchise operations with multiple outlets, where each outlet is a defined boundary.
Once Geo Fencing is activated, an admin can configure it from the Attendance settings. For detailed configuration steps, refer to Configure Geo Fencing for Mobile Attendance.
Important Notes
- Geo Fencing applies only to mobile punches. Web Attendance and Biometric Attendance are not affected by Geo Fencing rules.
- If an employee's mobile GPS is turned off or has poor accuracy, punches may fail or be inaccurate. It is a good practice to inform employees to keep GPS enabled and use the app in areas with clear signal.