A geofence trigger fires a form on its own the moment a worker reaches a geofence - and again each time they reach the next one. Crews that hit several geofences in a day capture per-site daily logs, arrival safety checks and receipts without clocking out between stops. It runs off the GPS your crews already generate, so there is nothing new for them to install or remember.
This article covers what you need before you start, how to set the trigger up, what your crew sees, and where the submissions land.
Who can set this up: Admins and Managers. Triggers are set per form.
When a form can fire
Every Smart Form has one trigger, chosen in the form's Triggers & Alerts step:
Clock in - fires when a worker starts their shift. Reaches everyone assigned, once a day.
Clock out - fires when a worker ends their shift. Reaches everyone assigned, once a day.
Geofence - fires when a clocked-in worker reaches a job site, every visit. Reaches assigned workers on location-tracking rule groups. This is the new one, and the rest of this article covers it.
Before you start
There is one requirement: your crews need to be on a rule group with continuous location tracking turned on. That is how Workyard knows a worker has arrived, and the trigger only fires while they are clocked in on such a rule group. Workers on a rule group without it will not get geofence-triggered forms.
You will find it under Company Settings > Time > Time Clock > [rule group] > Location Tracking.
Nothing needs setting up on the project side. Every project in Workyard already has a geofence, so any project you can pick is ready to fire a form.
If your crews already clock in with location tracking on, you are ready - no new hardware, nothing for workers to install.
How it works
The form fires on arrival, once per visit - moving to the next job counts as a new visit, so it fires again there.
It fires on arrival only, not when a worker leaves.
If a worker is already inside the geofence when they clock in, the form still appears.
It works offline - captured on the phone, synced when they are back in signal.
A worker who skips filling out the form during the clocked in time will still see the form in the Clock Out checklist, so it does not get forgotten/unfilled.
Set up the trigger
Open the form you want to fire from the Smart Forms library, or create a new one.
Go to the Triggers & Alerts step.
Choose When a crew reaches a geofence.
Pick the projects. Select one or more projects whose geofences should fire the form.
Choose who gets it. Assign to teams or individual workers.
Optional: turn on a reminder. If the form is not completed, Workyard reminds the worker after the delay you pick - 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes.
Save & Exit.
Need different settings for different sites or teams? Add more than one rule to the same trigger. Each rule has its own geofences, assignees and reminder - so the safety attestation can go to the field crew at three sites while the receipt form goes to the foreman at one.
NOTE: New rules and geofence changes can take up to 15 minutes to reach your crew's phones.
What your crew sees
When a worker reaches a geofence while clocked in, if they have multiple forms to complete, they will see a Forms to complete list like below, with the relevant geofence name next to each relevant form.
If there's just one geofence triggered form to complete, the form will open up immediately on screen.
Opening a geofence triggered form will show a "You visited the [Geofence name]" indicator at the top, and it will ask "Which project were you on?".
This is usually pre-filled with the project/geofence that your crew selected in their clock-in screen.
That said, this question is here so that if there are geofences associated with multiple projects in your organisation, your crew can select which project is the right one.
When a worker reaches another geofence in the same clocked in timecard, where that geofence also has a form connected to it, that form will drop into the Forms to complete list as well, with the geofence name tagged to it, so that your crew know which geofence the form's related to, to fill out the relevant info.
Within 5 minutes of entering the relevant geofence, your crew may see a push notification like one the below. By tapping on the notification, this will take them to the relevant form to complete, or to the Forms to complete list is there are several forms to fill out for that geofence.
Limits worth knowing
Arrival only. There is no departure or exit form today.
Clocked in only. The trigger fires while a worker is clocked in on a location-tracking rule group. It will not reach a worker who is off the clock.
Once per site visit, per job. Re-crossing the same boundary during one visit will not fire it again.
Reminder timing is approximate. Reminders can land a few minutes later than the 15/30/45/60 min delay you set, depending on the phone's battery settings. The form also stays in Forms to complete and shows up again in the Clock out checklist, so it is not relying solely on the reminder.
Kiosk clock-in is not covered. Geofence triggers do not fire for workers who clock in on a kiosk.
Which trigger should I use?
The same form at every geofence or site that a crew visits - geofence.
A daily report for a crew that works one job all day - clock in or clock out.
A vehicle or equipment pre-start check - clock in. On a geofence it would fire at every site.
If different locations require different forms to be filled out because the job done is different, for example, snow plowing at one location vs tree-logging at another - geofence.
A timesheet or meal-break attestation - clock out.
Troubleshooting
The form did not fire when my crew arrived. Check in this order:
Is the worker clocked in? The geofence trigger only fires if the worker is clocked in.
Is their rule group set to continuous location tracking? This is the most common cause.
Is the geofence they arrived at one of the geofences set in the forms trigger step?
Does that project have a geofence, and were they actually inside it?
Are they on the assignee list for that rule?
Are they on the current version of the Workyard app?
My crew got notified to fill out a form for Geofence B but they were in Geofence A.
This may be an issue if the two geofences that are set up in your organisation are very close to each other. In this case, the worker can still complete the form submission, and the admin can edit the submission to select the relevant geofence afterwards.