How do I adjust a site's geofence or it's settings?
Geofencing technology allows the Breadcrumb app to check in or check out of site, so the accuracy of the area it covers and it's settings are important.
What is a geofence? It is a virtual boundary that surrounds a nominated physical place (your sites) on a map. In Breadcrumb, it is generated after your project has been created.
Be mindful of how geofencing technology & Breadcrumb work together:
The phone's sensors checks for signals from GPS, Wi-Fi and local mobile towers to confirm if it should check in/out, or go back to sleep.
The phone's location accuracy can affect these checks and drops amongst dense tall buildings, basements and heavy cover so consider the ideal way of checking in for projects where signals are known to be disrupted/inconsistent.
This article is for Administators setting up the geofence and settings on a site.
Before you start
- Permissions: you need Company Host or Site Host level permissions with Adjust Site Location turned on. If you don't have this, ask your company admin.
- Public site: the site must be set to public for the Breadcrumb app to detect the geofence. Private sites are hidden and only allow check-ins from invited users.
Generate the geofence
- Log in to the Breadcrumb Admin portal and click on Sites.
- Click on the site and select Manage Site, then Project Settings.
- Toggle Is Public Site to Yes.
- Enter the site's street Address. You don't need building names or levels. Check the pin on the map is in the right spot (centre of the project), not at nearby street or site office.
- Set the Site Radius. Minimum is 50 metres, maximum is 500 metres.
- Select Submit Changes.
Choosing a radius
A phone's location accuracy isn't always exact, and with geofence technology there can sometimes be a lag between the phone entering a site and it checking in.
So make the geofence larger rather than smaller than the site:
- Cover the whole site plus where the workers enter, car parks, external break areas and site gates.
- If you're making location mandatory (see below), set the radius at least 50% larger than the actual site footprint. A tight geofence will make it harder for workers who are genuinely on site but whose phone location accuracy is a little weaker.
- Avoid overlapping geofences on neighbouring sites where you can.
Choose the location mode
This decides if the Breadcrumb app needs to check that the user is on site when they check in, or ignore the phone's location and complete the check in process.
In Project Settings, Location Required Mode On Check In/Out select one of the following:
| Option | What it does | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory (on-site only) | Workers can only check in or out when their phone is onsite or within close proximity to the the geofence. | The site needs certainty of physical presence, such as a restricted or high-risk site. |
| Optional | It's not required for check in and Workers can use other methods such as the site QR code. Workers using the app will be asked if they want to enable location services. | Most sites. Usually when there is a combination of workers using QR Code, manual app check in or automatic check in. |
| Disabled | Location isn't required and workers can use any method of check in. | Workers are not using the phone app to check in. |
If you choose Mandatory, workers must enable location for Breadcrumb. The app is much more reliable, so encourage workers to download it.
Turn automatic check-in and check-out on or off
Automatic check-in and check-out use the geofence to check workers in when they arrive and out when they leave, without them opening the app.
- In Project Settings, set Location Required Mode On Check In/Out to Optional. The Automated Attendance tab appears.
- Open the Automated Attendance tab.
- Set Automatic Check In and Automatic Check Out to suit the site. Optional lets each worker's app decide, which is on by default. Disabled turns it off for everyone on the site.
- Save your changes.
If you don't want automatic check-out
Set Automatic Check Out to Disabled and leave Location Required Mode On Check In/Out on Optional. Changing location required mode to Disabled afterwards resets automatic check-out to Optional, so workers may still be checked out automatically.
What workers need to do
Site settings are only half of it. For location check-ins to work reliably, each worker's phone needs to be set up with:
- iPhone: location access for Breadcrumb set to Always.
- Android: location turned on and battery usage for Breadcrumb set to Unrestricted.
- In the Breadcrumb phone app: Settings > Attendance > Enable automated site attendance turned on, if the site uses automatic check-in and check-out.
Without these, the app can't detect the geofence while it's closed, and automatic check-ins won't happen.
Privacy
Breadcrumb can't track workers' steps around site or off site and the data shared to the Breadcrumb servers is minimal.
Read more on location and geofencing here.
Find our Privacy Policy here.
Troubleshooting
- Worker on site but can't check in: is Location mode for the site mandatory? The user needs to enable location permissions. Check the phone's location accuracy - open Google Maps or Apple Maps to see where the phone thinks it is.
- Automatic check-ins not happening: confirm the site is public, location required mode is Optional, and the worker's phone settings match the list above.
- Workers checked out when they shouldn't be: see If you don't want automatic check-out above.