Geofence time clock
Draw a fence around the job. Let the crossing be the timecard.
A geofence time clock uses a virtual boundary around each job site to record when someone arrives and when they leave. Most products use geofencing to remind a worker to clock in, or to block them from clocking in somewhere else. Punchless uses the crossing itself as the record, which means there is nothing to remind anyone about.
Three ways products use geofencing, and what each one buys you
Geofence as a reminder
The app notices the worker arrived and prompts them to clock in. Better than nothing, but it still depends on someone acting on a notification while carrying a ladder.
Geofence as a restriction
The worker can only clock in when inside the boundary. This stops clocking in from the truck at home. It does nothing when they simply forget.
Geofence as the record
The crossing generates the entry. Nothing is prompted and nothing is restricted, because nothing is being asked of the worker at all. This is what Punchless does.
Radius is a real setting, not a detail
A 150 metre default is right for a suburban home and wrong for a commercial rooftop or a dense terraced street. Radius is set per site so adjacent properties do not trigger false arrivals.
Dwell time filters the noise
Driving past a customer's house should not open a time entry. Short crossings are treated as transit rather than work, so a route that passes near a site does not pollute the day.
Every entry is still a draft
Geofencing is good, not infallible. Dead zones, parking structures and multi-unit sites all produce odd data occasionally. That is why a manager approves before anything becomes payroll.
Setting up a geofence time clock
01
Add your sites
Customer addresses, the shop, the yard, supply houses. Anywhere paid time happens should be a site, including the places that usually go unrecorded.
02
Set a radius per site
Tight on dense residential routes so neighbours do not overlap. Wider on large commercial lots so a technician working at the back of the property is still counted as on site.
03
Invite the crew
Technicians install the app and sign in. From that point they do nothing. Managers get the dashboard and the live crew map.
04
Review the first week closely
Watch for sites where the radius needs adjusting. Most companies tune two or three sites in the first week and then stop thinking about it.
Where geofencing gets hard, and what we do about it
Multi-unit and campus sites
One geofence around a large property cannot tell you which building someone was in. You get accurate time on the property; unit-level attribution still needs a work order.
Parking structures and dead zones
Underground parking and steel structures degrade GPS. Entries from these sites are the most common thing a manager corrects, which is exactly why approval is a required step.
Adjacent job sites
Two customers on the same block need tighter radii than the default, and it is worth setting them deliberately rather than accepting 150 metres everywhere. This is the setup step most worth spending ten minutes on.
Long dwell on one site
On multi-day projects the value is not knowing which site, it is capturing the true start and end of each day rather than a rounded guess.
Common questions
What is a geofence time clock?+
It is a time tracking system that uses a virtual boundary around a job site to determine when work starts and stops. Products differ in what they do with the boundary: some use it to prompt a clock-in, some to restrict where clocking in is allowed, and some, including Punchless, use the crossing itself as the time record so no clock-in is needed.
How accurate is geofence time tracking?+
Accurate enough that the arrival and departure timestamps are better than any human estimate, and imperfect enough that manager approval matters. Open sites are very reliable. Underground parking, dense urban blocks and large steel structures degrade GPS, so those entries are the ones a manager occasionally corrects. Every entry is a draft until approved.
What geofence radius should I use?+
The default is 150 metres, which suits a typical residential address. Tighten it on dense streets where neighbouring properties would overlap, and widen it on large commercial lots so a technician working at the rear of a property still registers as on site. Radius is set per site, not globally.
Will driving past a job site start a timecard entry?+
No. Brief crossings are treated as transit rather than work, so a route that passes near a registered site does not open an entry. This is the most common worry when people first set up geofencing and it is handled by dwell time rather than by radius alone.
What happens in areas with poor cell coverage?+
Location itself comes from GPS satellites rather than the cell network, so position is usually still available, but reporting it back depends on connectivity. Rural routes and dead zones are among the cases most likely to produce an entry a manager needs to look at. If your crews work in genuinely remote areas, test this on a real route during the trial before you commit, and tell us what you see.
Next
Fence the job. Stop chasing the hours.
30 days free. No credit card. Register a few sites and watch the first day record itself.