Geofencing basics: Setting up location-based attendance

Geofencing turns a physical location into a digital boundary. When an employee attempts to check in via IntelliFace, the app reads their GPS coordinates and checks whether they fall within the polygon you have defined for that work site. If they are outside the boundary, the check-in is blocked and the supervisor is notified. Simple in principle — but the devil is in the configuration details. Get the radius wrong by 20 meters and you will block employees working in outdoor areas adjacent to your building. Get it too loose and a coffee shop three blocks away becomes a valid check-in location.

Choosing the right radius for your site type

• Office building (urban): 80–120 m radius — accounts for GPS drift in dense urban canyons
• Warehouse / industrial site: 150–200 m — large footprints with outdoor loading bays that need coverage
• Retail store (single floor): 50–80 m — tighter tolerance reduces risk of adjacent-unit false positives
• Construction site: use polygon mode instead of circle — sites have irregular shapes that a radius cannot capture accurately
• Remote field sites: 300–500 m — GPS accuracy degrades in areas with sparse cell towers

IntelliFace supports both circular radius zones and custom polygon zones. For most office environments, a circular zone centered on the building's entrance is sufficient. For warehouses, distribution centers, or construction sites, we strongly recommend switching to polygon mode via the admin dashboard's map editor. You can drag vertices to trace the actual perimeter of your site, including outdoor areas where employees legitimately work.

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"After switching to polygon geofencing, our false rejection rate dropped from 8% to under 0.4%. The outdoor loading crew stopped getting blocked." — Operations Manager, freight company