Per-site radius
Default 50 metres. Tighten to 20m for a small office. Loosen to 200m for a quarry or campus. Set once per site, per geofence — no global guesswork.
Mobile attendance
GPS geofencing for site-based attendance.
Define each site with a lat/lng and a radius. HelloTime fires a clock-in prompt the moment a worker crosses the fence, validates every clock event on the server, and flags spoofed locations on Android by default. Designed for crews that get paid for being on site — not approximate hours.
Anti-spoof
Mock-GPS apps get flagged on every punch.
On Android, HelloTime reads the system isFromMockProvider flag and routes spoofed fixes to the manager-review queue instead of payroll. iOS does not expose a mock-location flag, so the server runs a physics check — impossible velocity, teleport jumps — on the raw fix before it ever counts as a clock event.
How geofencing works in HelloTime
- 01
Define each site once
Admin adds a site with latitude, longitude, address, timezone and a radius. The default radius is 50 metres; managers can dial it tighter for a small office or wider for a sprawling campus, per site. For irregular sites — industrial estates, multi-building campuses, narrow alleys — HelloTime also accepts a GeoJSON polygon instead of a circle.
- 02
Workers get a clock-in prompt at the gate
Crossing into a site geofence fires a transition event on the worker's phone. HelloTime pops a 'clock-in available at <site>' prompt — no continuous polling, no battery drain.
- 03
Server validates every clock event
Phones lie. Every clock event is re-validated on the server against the device-reported coordinates and the site's lat/lng/radius. Out-of-fence events are rejected before they reach payroll.
- 04
Mock-location detection on Android
On Android, HelloTime checks the system's `isFromMockProvider` flag. Spoofed locations from fake-GPS apps are flagged and routed to the manager-review queue instead of becoming a payable hour.
Drift, accuracy and the manager review queue.
GPS is messy. HelloTime treats the messiness as a managed input, not as the worker's problem.
GPS drift handling
HelloTime treats first-fix accuracy as advisory and re-checks on a brief settle window. Workers don't get blocked because GPS landed 15m off in a tunnel of buildings.
Indoor / underground sites
Geofence enforcement falls back to the kiosk path: where GPS is unreliable, the site's tablet kiosk handles the clock-in and the geofence check is skipped server-side for that device.
Audit trail
Every clock event stores the lat/lng/accuracy that produced it, plus the site it was matched to. Disputes get resolved with data, not memory.
Android, iOS and the server.
Android: Geofence API
Uses the OS-level Geofence API for transition events — battery-friendly, no foreground polling. Mock-location detection is on by default.
iOS: Region Monitoring
Uses Core Location's region monitoring for the same transition-event model. iOS does not expose a mock-location flag, so server-side validation does the lifting.
Server-side enforcement
Both platforms write events through the same gRPC pipeline. The server is the source of truth — no client-only trust, no payable hour without a server-side fence match.
Offline queue
Lost connectivity at site is normal. HelloTime queues the clock event in SQLite and syncs the moment the phone reconnects. Idempotency keys (deviceId + localTimestamp) prevent duplicate writes.
See your field team on a map.
Geofencing tells you who clocked in at which site. For travelling field crews — service techs, sales reps, delivery drivers — HelloTime adds a live map and a team heatmap on top of the same GPS stream that powers mileage tracking. No separate tracking vendor on the worker's phone.
Live GPS streaming during active trips
Once a worker starts a trip in the mobile app, HelloTime streams GPS fixes back to the server through an AppendMileageGpsPoint streaming gRPC. Managers see the field team on a live map in the web console — no separate tracking vendor, no second app on the worker's phone.
Trip route + team heatmap
Every trip ends as a polyline on the worker's own timesheet with start and end markers. The manager console rolls trips up into a team heatmap so you can see where field staff spent time over a week or month — useful for territory coverage and route review.
Why HelloTime beats Truein on geofencing.
Default 50m radius, configurable per site
HelloTime ships a sensible default and lets managers dial it per site — no support ticket needed. Customers report Truein's per-site geofence configuration as one of its rougher edges.
Mock-location detection by default
Fake-GPS apps are a rampant deskless attendance fraud. HelloTime checks `isFromMockProvider` on Android out of the box and routes flagged events to the manager queue.
One geofence stack across phone, kiosk and web
Phones use OS geofence transitions. Kiosks use the site they're paired to. Web admin sees the same event log. One pipeline, one source of truth.
Why HelloTime beats Hubstaff on field geofencing.
Built for site-based attendance, not desk crews
Hubstaff's GPS module was designed for travelling sales reps; geofences are coarse and the workflow is built around tracked time, not gated clock-in. HelloTime's geofence is the gate.
Server-side rejection, not client-side warning
HelloTime rejects out-of-fence clock events at the server. Hubstaff customers report users still getting time logged even outside the assigned area, leaving payroll to clean up.
INR pricing, India-aware support
Geofence attendance is part of HelloTime's published Attend SKU at ₹49 promo / ₹99 list — half the cost of Hubstaff's Field plan. Tickets answered in IST. GST invoicing in HelloBooks.
Where geofencing fits
Site-based crews, multi-branch operations, field service teams. Geofencing pairs with face recognition and the tablet kiosk so the same worker can clock in from a phone at the gate or a tablet on the wall — and end up on one timesheet.
Construction & site teams
Per-site geofence with 50m default.
Manufacturing & factories
Plant-perimeter geofence, mock-location flags.
Retail chains
One geofence per store, central roll-up.
Security agencies
Rotating posts, server-side fence enforcement.
Facility & cleaning services
Multi-client routes, geofence per stop.
Face-recognition attendance
Geofence + face = no buddy-punching.
Tablet kiosk mode
Tablet on site for indoor / no-GPS shops.
HelloBooks payroll
Geofence-validated hours flow to payroll.
All HelloTime features
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