Geofencing helps you manage your team automatically by setting virtual boundaries around your project sites. It makes tracking timesheets straightforward and keeps your records accurate.
⚠️ This feature is currently in Beta while we gather feedback—it is not yet generally available. Operatives need version 12.7 of the mobile app to use geofencing. Please contact our support team to find out more.
Set up Geofencing
Step one: Enable geofencing for your organisation
💡 Only admins and owners can access the settings area to enable geofencing.
Head to Settings in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen.
Select timesheets from the sidebar.
Use the toggle to enable geofencing for your organisation. This takes immediate effect across all projects with a default radius of 100m.
When geofencing is turned on in Settings, operatives must close and restart the app to activate the features.
Any project-level changes—such as radius adjustments or switching between soft warnings and hard blocks—will update as soon as the operative syncs their app.
Operatives see a warning when clocking in or out if they are outside the geofence area, but it won’t prevent them from completing the action.
You can change the radius or enable a hard block per site to prevent operatives from clocking in or out outside the boundary.
Step two: Customise the geofence per site in a project
Head to the project where you want to edit a geofence.
Select Project Setup in the top right-hand corner.
Select Site Manager or site details at the bottom of the dropdown.
If you are using Site Manager in a single-site drawings project, you need to select Details after.
You must have a site address to use geofencing.
Hover over the geofencing section at the bottom of the sidebar, then click the pencil icon to edit.
A modal will appear to edit the radius by using the up and down arrows, or by typing the metre radius you need.
You can also enable a hard block, which prevents operatives from clocking in or out if they are outside the geofence radius. This will impact operatives as soon as they sync their device, so we recommend enabling it before the workday starts or after operatives are off-site for the day.
Click Save Changes to push this live for your operatives.
FAQs
How do I resolve a "hard block" if an operative cannot clock in?
You have two options for resolving a hard block if an operative cannot clock out because they are outside the site radius:
💡 Recommended: Manually clock the operative out within the timesheets screen on the web portal. This overrides the geofence by adding a custom time, which updates the timesheets Excel report automatically.
Disable the restriction temporarily. Go to Project setup—then either Site manager and Details for projects with drawings, or Site details for projects without drawings. Turn off the hard block toggle and ask the operative to try again once they have a mobile data signal. This will impact all operatives on your site, and could mean others can clock in or out outside of the site radius.
What is the difference between a soft warning and a hard block?
The system operates with two distinct geofence modes:
Soft warning: allows operatives to clock in or out anywhere. If they are outside the site radius, the app logs a flag on their timesheet record for you to review.
Hard block: prevents operatives from clocking in, clocking out, or switching sites entirely unless they are within the designated radius.
Why is an operative receiving a geofence error when they are on site?
This is usually caused by disabled location services on the mobile device. Ask the operative to open their phone settings, verify that location access is enabled for the Onetrace app, and restart the app.
Why can my operative not see the geofence?
If you recently enabled geofencing for your organisation in Settings, operatives must close and reopen the Onetrace app twice. If you updated the geofence radius or hard block settings, the operative needs to sync their device using a stable mobile data signal.
💡 Learn more: How Operatives will clock in and out with a geofence
💡 Learn more: Geofencing in timesheet reporting