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
Triggers are set 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.
On a geofence trigger you can add as many geofence rules as you need to the one form. Each rule has its own geofences, assignees and reminder.
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 when setting up the geofence trigger rules, you can pick the relevant project/geofence 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.
It lands on the clock screen. If a worker is already inside the geofence when they clock in, the form is there straight away - either open on screen, or waiting in the Forms to complete list.
A push notification follows about two minutes after they arrive at a geofence during their shift. Tapping it opens the form.
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 geofence 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.
Optional: add another rule. Repeat steps 4 to 6 for as many geofence rules as this form needs.
Save & Exit.
There is no limit on rules per form, so one form can behave differently by site or team - the arrival safety check goes to the whole field crew at your three big sites with a 15 minute reminder, and to the foreman alone at the yard with no reminder.
NOTE: New rules and geofence changes can take up to 15 minutes to reach your crew's phones.
What your crew sees
A geofence-triggered form lands on the clock screen tagged with the geofence it came from. How it announces itself depends on whether your crew were already inside the geofence when they clocked in.
Already inside the geofence at clock in
The form is waiting as soon as they clock in - it opens on screen if it's the only one, or sits in the Forms to complete list if there's more than one, each tagged with the geofence it came from.
Arriving at a geofence during the shift
Moving to the next job counts as a new arrival, and the following happens:
The clock screen updates with a banner - Visited [Geofence name]: tap to complete forms, with a count of the forms still outstanding.
About two minutes later, a push follows - Entered [Geofence name], with the forms to complete listed underneath.
Tapping either one opens the form, or the Forms to complete list if there's more than one for that geofence.
Inside the form
A geofence-triggered form opens with You visited [Geofence name] at the top, then asks Which project were you on?
It's usually pre-filled with the project your crew picked at clock in.
That said, this question is here so that if there are geofences associated with multiple projects in your organization, your crew can select which project is the right one.
For example:
Your organization might have the following project/geofence setup:
An apartment block is a single address, which means it would be a single geofence, but
Each floor can be its own project.
That means the trigger fires on the geofence, so Workyard knows where your crew arrived, but might need the worker to confirm which project, aka which apartment level, they were working on.
If a form gets submitted against the wrong project, an admin can edit the submission afterwards.
If they don't fill it in
If you turned on a reminder notification, a second push follows after the delay you set - 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes - for any form still outstanding. Reminders behave the same in both cases above, on both platforms.
The form also stays in Forms to complete and shows up again in the Clock out checklist, so it doesn't get missed.
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.
Push notification timing is approximate. The geofence trigger push notification lands around two minutes after a worker enters the next geofence, and the reminder notification 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 notification.
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.