GeoTrakker is an option that allows ExakTime Mobile to track the movement of an employee's mobile device. Please read through this entire article before using GeoTrakker to properly set up the feature.

Please note: We would recommend contacting your local labor council before activating this feature.

Enabling GeoTrakker for the Employees

To use GeoTrakker, you must first enable it for the appropriate ExakTime Mobile Security Group. Any employee associated with the group will have their relative position tracked throughout the day based on their mobile device's location services.

• Go to Manage in the top menu bar, then click Security Roles.

  

• Select the appropriate ExakTime Mobile role that will contain users that will need their position tracked throughout the day. If the role you need does not exist, add a security role as needed. The default Administrator role cannot have GeoTrakker enabled.

  

• Enable GeoTrakker on the right-hand side of the options at the bottom.

  

• Optional: You can also allow your ExakTime Mobile users to view their GeoTrakker data or see GeoTrakker data of other users within ExakTime Mobile.

  

• Click Save at the bottom when finished. 

Disable Auto Log Out

A common setting used for ExakTime Mobile is to have it auto log out the employee after they clock in/out. To give GeoTrakker the best chance of success, mobile settings must be enabled to ensure all devices act consistently and disable the option for ExakTime Mobile to auto log out.

• Go to Manage and click Mobile Settings.

  

• If Mobile Settings has not yet been enabled, enable it now.

  

• Scroll down towards "Automatically log out after clocking in or out" and make sure it is set to "No."

  

• Click Save at the bottom.

What Employees Do

After employees sync their copies of ExakTime Mobile to receive the new permission(s), employees will not need to take any special action for GeoTrakker to track their movement.

GeoTrakker will start recording the movement of the mobile device when they clock in, stay logged in to ExakTime Mobile, and keep ExakTime Mobile open on the device (open in the background is fine).

If the employee is using Android OS 8+ and ExakTime Mobile 2.75+, the employee only needs to be clocked in and logged in to ExakTime Mobile. If ExakTime Mobile is closed, either internationally or from Android RAM optimization, GeoTrakker data will still be generated and collected. The employee must set their Location permission to always allow.

To confirm that GeoTrakker is running, an employee can press the crosshair icon at the top of the Time Clock section of ExakTime Mobile. The map will show the relative position of the device that ExakTime Mobile is receiving. The GeoTrakker status should be listed like below.

If the employee clocks out, logs out of ExakTime Mobile to the PIN pad or force closes ExakTime Mobile, GeoTrakker will stop tracking.

If Using Android

Some Android devices try to optimize battery life by preventing the phone and apps from performing certain actions in the background. While this can prolong the battery life of a device, it can prevent ExakTime Mobile from generating GeoTrakker information. For the best chance of success, it is recommended to whitelist ExakTime Mobile from battery optimizations.

The following article can help with this: Disabling Battery Optimizations for Android Devices for GeoTrakker

Additional Notes

• GeoTrakker may shorten a device’s overall battery life as the device is using location services more frequently to generate location data.
• The employee's location information is generally sent every 15 minutes to the office. This can differ depending on mobile device settings that can prevent communication with the internet.
• If the mobile device is idle and has not moved, it will collect information every 5 minutes.
• GeoTrakker will only track the LAST user that has clocked in and is logged in to a particular device.

Viewing GeoTrakker Data

From ExakTime Connect

Go to Tools in the top menu bar, then click on MapView

Click the GeoTrakker tab to the left of the map.

Select the employee in the listing.

The map to the right will populate with the employee's GeoTrakker data. The map can be toggled to show a road or aerial map in the top right of the map. The map can be set to show a road or aerial view.

It will show “All” GeoTrakker information by default or show only "Important" GeoTrakker infomration. 

Below the map is an option for the playback of the employee's route that day.TS

From ExakTime Mobile on Android

Press the ≡ symbol in the top right of ExakTime Mobile.

Press GeoTrakker

Select the date to review (up to 3 weeks in the past), employee and press Update.

From ExakTime Mobile on iOS

Press the ≡ symbol in the top right of ExakTime Mobile.

Press GeoTrakker.

Selecting the date to review and select the employee.