GPS Clock-In, Clock-Out, and Geofencing 🧭

GPS clock-in and clock-out is a core feature of the OnCare mobile app that records a care worker's location at the exact moment they start and finish a visit. When a care worker taps the green Clock In button at the beginning of a visit, OnCare captures their GPS coordinates along with a timestamp. The same happens when they tap Clock Out at the end. This data provides verifiable evidence that the care worker was physically present at the client's location during the scheduled visit.

This feature replaces traditional paper timesheets, telephone check-in systems, and manual logging. It removes the need for care workers to call the office to confirm arrival, and it eliminates the risk of inaccurate or falsified attendance records. The GPS data is automatically stored against the visit record and can be viewed by office staff at any time through the web dashboard.

For domiciliary care agencies, proving that care workers attended visits at the correct location and at the correct time is essential. Local authority commissioners and private funders require evidence that care was actually delivered as scheduled. Without GPS verification, agencies rely on the care worker's word or paper records, both of which can be questioned.

CQC also looks at how agencies monitor and verify the delivery of care. If your agency can show that every visit is backed by GPS-verified clock-in and clock-out data, it demonstrates a robust approach to monitoring and quality assurance. This is particularly important during inspections, where inspectors may ask how you know that visits are happening as planned.

Beyond compliance, GPS data protects both the agency and the care worker. If a client or family member raises a concern about whether a visit took place, you have objective evidence to confirm what happened. Similarly, if a care worker is accused of not attending a visit, the GPS data can support their case.

Geofencing is the system that defines a virtual boundary around each client's address. When a care worker clocks in or out, OnCare checks whether they are within this boundary. If they are inside the geofence, the clock-in is recorded normally. If they are outside, the clock-in still goes through (the care worker is never blocked from starting a visit), but the system flags it as an out-of-area clock-in and raises an alert for office staff.

The geofence is a circle centred on the client's registered address with a radius that you define in your agency settings. This radius determines how close a care worker needs to be to the client's home for the system to consider them "on location."

Geofencing relies on accurate client addresses. When you set up a client profile in People > Clients, the address and postcode you enter are used to determine the centre point of the geofence. If the address or postcode is incorrect, the geofence will be centred on the wrong location, and every clock-in for that client will be flagged as out of area even when the care worker is standing at the front door.

The geofence radius can be configured in your agency settings. The available options are:

Setting the radius too small (for example, 10 or 20 metres) may result in frequent false alerts because consumer-grade GPS in smartphones is not always accurate enough to pinpoint a location that precisely, especially in urban areas with tall buildings or in rural areas with poor signal. Setting the radius too large (for example, 500 metres) reduces the effectiveness of geofencing because a care worker could be far from the client's home and still not trigger an alert. Most agencies find that a setting between 30 and 100 metres works well for their needs.

OnCare also gives you the ability to manually adjust the location pin for a client. If Google Maps does not place the pin exactly at the right location, for example if the entrance to the property is further along the street or the building is set back from the road, you can move the pin to the correct position directly in the client's profile. This ensures the geofence is centred on the actual location where care workers arrive, rather than where Google thinks the address is.

You can also adjust the pin directly from a visit report. When you see a distance alert on a visit report, you can change the client's location pin right there without having to navigate back to the client's profile. The updated pin will apply to all following visits for that client. This is a very useful feature that can prevent repeated false alerts and save you time.

When a care worker opens the OnCare app and navigates to their scheduled visit, they see a green Clock In button. When they tap this button, the app captures their current GPS coordinates and sends them to the server along with a timestamp. The system then compares these coordinates against the client's geofence and logs the clock-in against the visit record.

If the care worker is within the geofence, the clock-in is recorded normally and appears as a standard entry in the visit log. If the care worker is outside the geofence, the clock-in still proceeds (the care worker is never blocked from starting the visit), but the system flags it as an out-of-area clock-in. This flag is visible to office staff in the Alerts section of the web dashboard.

The same process applies to clock-out. When the care worker finishes the visit and taps "Clock Out," their location and timestamp are recorded again. This gives you a complete picture of when the care worker arrived, where they were, when they left, and where they were at that point.

When a clock-in or clock-out occurs outside the geofence, OnCare generates an alert that appears in the Alerts section of the web dashboard. This alert includes the care worker's name, the client's name, the visit time, and the distance from the client's address at the time of clock-in.

Out-of-area alerts do not necessarily mean something is wrong. There are many legitimate reasons why a care worker might clock in outside the geofence: the client may have been in the garden, the care worker may have arrived at a different entrance, or GPS accuracy may have been temporarily reduced due to weather or signal conditions. The alert is simply a flag for office staff to investigate if needed.

You can resolve alerts by adding a resolution note, which records the date, time, and name of the office staff member who reviewed it. Alerts can also be filtered by date, alert state, client, and type, and they can be exported as a CSV file. You can bulk archive alerts when needed, but you must provide a reason for archiving.

OnCare only captures a care worker's GPS location at the moment of clock-in and clock-out. The app does not track care workers continuously between visits or during their personal time. This is an important distinction for both GDPR compliance and care worker trust. Care workers should be informed that their location is only recorded when they actively tap clock-in or clock-out, and at no other time.

The GPS data is stored securely as part of the visit record and is accessible to office staff through the web dashboard. It is not shared with clients or family members. The data forms part of the agency's operational records and should be retained in accordance with your data protection policy.

If GPS locations are appearing inaccurately or clock-ins are consistently being flagged as out of area when care workers are at the correct location, there are several things to check. The care worker's phone must have location services enabled for the OnCare app. On both iOS and Android, the app needs permission to access the device's location. If this permission has been denied or revoked, the app cannot capture GPS coordinates.

The phone also needs an active internet connection (mobile data or Wi-Fi) at the time of clock-in for the GPS data to be sent to the server. If the care worker is in an area with no signal, the app will still record the visit data locally and sync it when the connection is restored, but the GPS accuracy may be reduced.

If a specific client's address is consistently causing false alerts, check the client's profile to make sure the address and postcode are correct. You can also manually adjust the location pin on the map to match the actual property location, either from the client's profile or directly from the visit report when you see the alert.

Care workers must have a smartphone (iOS or Android) with the OnCare app installed. The phone must have location services enabled and the OnCare app must have permission to access the device's location. An active internet connection (mobile data or Wi-Fi) is required for real-time syncing, though the app will store data locally if temporarily offline.

On the agency side, client addresses must be entered correctly in the system, and the geofence radius must be configured in Settings. If you are using the manual pin adjustment feature, take the time to verify and correct any client locations that are not accurately placed by Google Maps. Getting this right from the start will significantly reduce the number of false distance alerts your office staff need to deal with.