Clock-in locations & verification
When your team clock in and out through the Brikly Team App, Brikly checks where they are and records which of your sites the entry belongs to. This page explains how location verification works, what happens when someone clocks in away from your sites, and how flagged entries reach you for review.
Setting up your locations
Location verification needs coordinates on your locations. Adding and editing locations is for owners and admins, so one of them sets this up:
- Go to Settings → Locations and edit a location (the pencil on its card).
- Set its latitude and longitude (search by address or drop a pin).
- Optionally adjust the geofence radius - the distance from the pin within which a clock-in counts as "at work". The default is 150 metres, which suits most cafes and restaurants.
If none of your locations have coordinates, verification stays off and nothing on this page applies - clock-ins simply record the time, exactly as before. Add coordinates whenever you are ready.
How clock-in works for your team
When an employee opens the clock screen in the Team App, they see a map of your nearby sites and a badge showing whether they are inside a geofence.
- Inside a site's geofence - tapping Clock In just works. The entry is attributed to that site and marked as location verified. No extra taps.
- Only one location on your account - the entry is always attributed to it, wherever they are.
- Outside every geofence (or no GPS signal), with two or more locations - the app asks which location they are clocking into, with the distance to each site shown when GPS is available. The app is upfront with them: the entry will be flagged for your review.
Location verification does not block clocking in. Someone starting the day with a supplier delivery, or clocking in from the car park with patchy GPS, can record an unverified entry for you to review later.
If location is switched off on the phone, or the app has been refused it, the clock map shows Location is off with an Open Settings button, and explains that the clock-in will be flagged for review. Coming back to the app checks again without asking for permission a second time. If the phone cannot get a location fix at all, the site picker says "We couldn't get your location" rather than "You're not at any of your sites". When location was already refused, the "Location unavailable" warning on the clocked-in and on-break screens shows before the first tap.
Saved records and offline working
Open the clock screen while connected before relying on offline clocking, so this device has your current clock status. Clock-in, break and clock-out records are saved on the device before they are sent to Brikly. So are SafetyBrik checklist answers, checklist photos, corrective actions and cleaning sign-offs.
When the app is connected, a punch is sent straight away and the app shows Brikly's answer. If Brikly refuses it (for example "You're already clocked in."), the app says Clock in not recorded (or Clock out not recorded, Break not recorded) with the reason. The refused punch is taken off the device, so the employee can see what went wrong and punch again.
When there is no connection, the app says "Saved on this device, waiting to sync." A Waiting to sync banner means records have not yet been confirmed by the server. They retry when the connection returns or you reopen the app. Their original times are preserved, including time spent on breaks. Tap View to see saved records and use Retry sync to try again.
The Saved records list names each record (Clock in, Clock out, Break start, Break end, Checklist answer, Checklist photo, Corrective action or Cleaning sign-off), with when it was made, for example "Cleaning sign-off · Mon 5 Oct, 14:30" ("14:30" alone for today). It says: "These records stay on this device until the server confirms them. Show any rejected clock times, checklist answers or cleaning sign-offs to your manager."
If a saved record says Needs review, show your manager the original time and error. For example, your shift might have changed while you were offline. Later clock records for the same shift wait for that problem to be resolved; records for other shifts carry on syncing. Records are not silently deleted after repeated failures.
Only choose Manager has resolved it after your manager has checked the time and made any necessary attendance correction. Removing a saved clock record also removes other locally saved clock records for that same shift. It does not undo attendance already recorded on the server.
Checklist answers and photos given offline keep the time they were given. They still count if they were given inside the checklist's day, week or month and reach Brikly within 48 hours of it ending (see Completing checklists). Cleaning sign-offs saved offline keep the time they were done too, and count if they reach Brikly within 48 hours of the end of the task's day, week or month (see Cleaning schedule). One that doesn't count stays in Saved records as needing review, with the reason. So does a record for a site that has been switched off since ("This site is closed, so its records can be read and printed but not changed.") and a reading too large to record ("That number is too large to record. Check the reading and enter it again."). Removing a refused checklist answer, photo or cleaning sign-off asks "This record didn't count. Only remove it once your manager knows, so they can note it." Removing a saved photo record also deletes the photo from the phone.
Safety records saved while SafetyBrik is switched off for the business, or while the business account isn't active, are held, not refused. They show Waiting to sync with "SafetyBrik is switched off for this business, so this hasn't been sent yet. It will be sent when SafetyBrik is switched back on." (or "This workplace's Brikly account is not active. Ask your manager."), and are sent by themselves once it is back: straight away when the app sees it, otherwise within about five minutes, or on Retry sync. Brikly then decides whether each still counts, by the rules above. While only SafetyBrik is switched off, clock punches keep syncing; while the business account isn't active, clock punches wait too, and everything is sent once the account is active again. Removing a held record asks "This record hasn't been sent, so it doesn't count yet. Only remove it once your manager knows, so they can note it."
A record waiting after a problem on Brikly's side says "Waiting to sync. Brikly will try again shortly." With no connection it says "Waiting to sync. Check your connection."
A checklist answer, photo, corrective action or cleaning sign-off recorded offline while clocked in at a site still counts after you clock out, as long as it was recorded during that shift. Sending again something Brikly has already saved is always confirmed, never refused.
Saved records belong to the employee and workplace that created them. They stay on this device if you sign out and become available when that same employee signs in again. Signing out needs a connection so the device can be removed from that employee's notifications. A different employee must sign in with their own account.
Records still on a phone can't be sent once that person's Team App access ends, for example when they are archived. Show them to your manager before then, so they can add them by hand.
Keep the device date and time correct. Punches more than seven days old, substantially in the future, or conflicting with newer attendance need manager review. A record saved locally is not a confirmed timesheet entry until syncing succeeds.
What you see as a manager
Review flags
Each clock-in and clock-out is checked on its own. One that could not be verified at one of your sites raises an attendance flag, alongside the familiar late/early flags:
- Clock-in location unverified - the employee clocked in away from your sites, or without a GPS fix.
- Clock-out location unverified - the same for clocking out. This one catches a common leak: someone finishing at 4:40pm but only remembering to clock out on the bus home at 5:05pm looks "on time" against the rota, yet those 25 minutes land on your wage bill. The distance from your site tells the real story.
Each flag shows how far from the site the entry was made (for example "~2.3 km from Burford") or "No GPS available" when there was no fix. Flags follow the usual review workflow - acknowledge or resolve them from the Attendance view, and adjust the entry time if needed.
Fixing a time in one click
When you open a flagged entry, the panel shows Also working that day - the clock-in and clock-out times of everyone else at that location on the same day. If someone clocked out from the bus at 5:05pm but the rest of the team finished at 4:40pm, the real finish time is staring at you. Press Use time next to a colleague's entry to copy their clock-out into the edit field, adjust if needed, add a reason, and save. The correction is recorded in the entry's amendment history, and any flags the corrected time satisfies resolve automatically.
Some clock events are never location-flagged:
- Kiosk clock-ins and clock-outs. The kiosk is physically at your site, so they are treated as verified and recorded against the kiosk's own site.
- Manual entries and clock-outs a manager adds. You are entering them yourself, so there is nothing to verify.
Because each event is checked on its own, a mixed entry is judged half by half. Someone who clocks in on the kiosk and then clocks out on their phone from the bus gets a Clock-out location unverified flag. Someone who clocks in on their phone and out on the kiosk is not flagged for the clock-out.
Staff can sign in at any of your kiosks with their passcode: see Kiosk passcodes. If someone on one site's rota clocks in on another site's kiosk, the hours still appear on the timesheet of the site whose rota the shift is on (see Timesheets and attendance flags).
Timesheet indicator
On the weekly timesheet, days with an unverified clock-in or clock-out show a small amber location marker. Hover over it to see the details for that entry, for both clock-in and clock-out. Verified days show nothing - the indicator only appears when something is worth a look.
Frequently asked questions
Does this track employees' locations during their shift? No. Brikly only checks location at the moment of clocking in or out - never in between, and never in the background.
What if an employee turns off location services? The entry still goes through, but it is recorded without GPS and flagged as unverified, the same as clocking in away from site. Turning GPS off does not avoid review. The app tells them so: the clock map shows Location is off, says the clock-in will be flagged, and offers Open Settings to turn location back on.
Why is a clock-in from inside my cafe showing as outside the geofence? GPS accuracy varies indoors. If it happens often at a site, an owner or admin can widen that location's geofence radius a little in Settings → Locations.