Use geofencing in QuickBooks Time

Learn how to add a geofence to your job or customer in QuickBooks Time Elite so your team members can get reminders to clock in and out of a job site.  Before you can use geofencing, make sure you turn it on.

Learn more about upgrading to QuickBooks Time Elite.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

• Add a geofence to a job or customer
• Clock in and out from a geofence notification
• Manage geofencing notifications

Add a geofence to a job or customer

1. In QuickBooks Time, go to Jobs or Customers, then select Edit ✎ for the job or customer you need to add a geofence for.
2. Select Location and type in the address or latitude/longitude coordinates.
   • Latitude/Longitude is helpful for sites that might not have an address yet, like construction sites. 
   • If you have an integration, refer to the integration article to see how addresses import into QuickBooks Time.
3. A location icon appears next to the address once it's successfully added and recognized by Google as an address. As you type, pick from the suggestions that populate to make sure it’s a recognized address.
   • Geofencing is turned on once you enter an address. If you don’t want geofence on for a job or customer, turn the Geofence Off under the address field.
4. If needed, adjust the radius size for the geofence.
   • The default and minimum radius size is 100 metres and can go up to 1000 metres.

Clock in and out from a geofence notification

Notes:

• Notifications appear on a team member's phone when they enter or leave a geofence.
• A team member can choose to clock in and out as normal and disregard the geofence notification.
• If the notification is cleared by accident, it can be accessed again in the app: select More, then Notifications.
• A notification is only active if no other timesheet or notification of the same type was created.
• The clock in or out time displays the time a team member entered or left the geofence, not necessarily the same time they opened the notification and clocked in or out.

Clock in at a geofence

1. When you enter a geofence, you’ll get a notification: Arrived at job location.
2. Select the notification to open the app.
3. Select Clock in.
   • If there is more than one job associated with that location, choose which job to clock in to first.

Clock in outside a geofence

1. When you clock into a job or customer outside a designated geofence, you’re given two options to select:
   • Clock me in once I arrive: you’ll be automatically clocked in once inside the geofence for that customer.
   • Clock in now: you’re clocked in immediately, but are required to fill out a note to explain why you aren't on-site (for example, "getting donuts for the team").

Clock out 

1. When you leave a geofence, you’ll get the notification: Left job location
2. Select the notification to access two or three tracking options: Take Break, Clock Out, Switch. Any of these actions ends the current timesheet.
   • Select View Details to fill out any required fields before clocking out.
   • If you choose Take Break or Switch, the start time of that new timesheet will match the end time of the one just ended by that action, so no time is lost.

Manage geofencing notifications

Enter your company's work hours so team members don't receive geofencing notifications during non-work hours. This setting applies to all team members and jobs.

1. Go to Company Settings, then select Notifications.
2. Under Geofencing, select start and end times and select or clear days as necessary.
3. Once you're done, select Save.
   Note: Team members only receive notifications for jobs or customers they’re assigned to.