Do you have teams that carry out operations remotely and need to keep track of your employees location? In this blog we will delve into creating an Employee Tracking App, where you create an app that not only tracks employee location but also you can customize it exactly to how you need it to be. And you can do this by yourself with Clappia and its live tracking capabilities. Imagine a solution that you can use for attendance tracking, location monitoring, work hours logs, payroll and much more, all without having any coding skills.

The Need for Employee Tracking

Managing a mobile or remote workforce can be a real headache. It encompasses many attributes to take into account such as:

• Making sure your employees are where they’re supposed to be during work hours.
• Accurately tracking and calculating work hours for payroll and compliance.
• Boosting employee accountability and productivity.
• Ensuring the safety of your employees, especially if they’re working alone.

An Employee Tracking App, particularly one with GPS location capturing ability or live tracking feature, can tackle these issues head-on. It will give you real-time visibility into where your employees are and with additional fields, can let you know what they are doing, which helps streamline workforce management.

Understanding Employee Tracking

How to track employee location? It’s simple but before we get into how to create an employee tracking app, let’s understand what employee tracking is all about first. Employee tracking means you monitor attributes of your employees’ activities such as their location, time spent on tasks, work hours, etc. This is useful to know and keep a track for your business operations, especially when it comes to having field employees because it ensures that time and resources are being used efficiently.

Employee tracking software should come with important features like live tracking that easily and automatically captures an employees’ location at all times. It can also have options to simply capture the GPS location at a time, such as for logging in and out, and also geo-fence the location, so that employees cannot give inaccurate information. Plus, employee tracking apps can also help you track and calculate work hours accurately, which is essential for payroll and compliance.

Building Your Own Employee Tracking App with Clappia

Clappia is a no-code platform that lets you easily create customisable apps without knowing how to code which makes it perfect for business users. It also makes it super quick for developers to create apps and allocate more time for other work. You can make use of the readymade template available in the platform, or if you would like to create your own custom Employee Tracking App, with live tracking, then here’s how you can do it:

1. Sign up for Clappia if you haven’t already. Once you’re logged in, start by creating a new app in your dashboard.
2. Design the structure of the app using the pre-coded blocks to capture data about your employees and their tasks.
3. Add the live tracking feature available in the app. This lets you keep an eye on your employees’ location especially when they are on the go, and that’s it.
4. You can calculate the start and end time of their journey, as well as the start and end locations.

Additionally you can,

5. Use workflows to trigger alerts based on locations or tasks.
6. Monitor progress with live dashboards.

You can then make informed decisions based on the tracking data, like finding more efficient routes.

Here’s a simple guide to help you create your own custom employee tracking app:

Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your App

1. Design Your Employee Tracking App
   With Clappia, comes a variety of pre-coded blocks that you can use to design your app. These blocks allow you to capture the information that you require. For example, you can capture simple information like name, date, roles and tasks, and you can also have additional fields for capturing photos, calculation, gps etc. These blocks ensure that you have the flexibility to mold the app to cater to your specific business needs.
2. Checking which feature you require for employee tracking
   There are plenty of ways to design an employee tracking app with the plethora of features available. For instance, you can have;
   Selectors or dropdowns - Add this if you only need your employees to simply select an option such as for clocking in, or the location they are at from a list of locations.
   GPS location - Add this option if you need to verify the exact location of your employee on Google maps to create a GPS Employee Tracking app.
   Geofencing - If you need someone to only be able to submit their information/location only when they are in or within a distance of a specific location, this option is available.
   Live Tracking - This feature will allow you to get real time location data of your employees on the move.
3. Implementing Live Tracking Features
   Once you have added all the blocks to your app, you can then add the live tracking feature to truly turn it into an employee tracking app. This feature is integrated with Google maps, therefore you will be able to pinpoint exactly where the employee is once they have started the live tracking feature using the GPS signal from their mobile device. All the employee needs to do is simply click on the button in the app to start live tracking, click it again to end it, and that’s it. You will be able to see the exact route that the employee takes, and also know the exact location that they started and ended their journey. This option is best to get accurate visibility into their movements.
4. Use the ‘Calculations & Logic’ block to automatically calculate distance travelled and time taken. This will help you to keep track of work hours, time logged,etc. crucial for payroll, compliance purposes and other information. This information can also be used to generate reports and pdfs automatically which can be sent on a timely basis to relevant teams or stakeholders.
5. Make Informed Decisions with Data
   The data that you collect through your Employee Tracking App can be used to make informed decisions that enhance efficiency and productivity. For example, you can analyze the routes taken by your field employees to find more efficient routes or allocate tasks based on employee locations. This data driven approach ensures that your workforce is operating at peak efficiency.
6. Automatic Trigger Alerts and Notifications
   Use Clappia’s workflow features to let you set up automated alerts and notifications based on specific triggers. Workflows is best for automating your app to mimic your business process flow and create a holistic employee tracking system.
   For instance, if you have utilized live tracking, you can receive a mobile notification, or whatsapp alert when an employee starts or ends their trip, or maybe if a task has been completed, or even send out approvals. You can set up workflows to check for certain criteria that have been fulfilled from the data in the app and then follow different paths for automation. Stay informed about employee activities and respond promptly to any issues that come up.
7. How to Track Employee Status
   You can set multiple statuses in your employee tracking app, such as ‘Start’, Completed, ‘In-Progress’, or whatever you need. These statuses can give you an immediate idea on the status of your app submissions and also perform automations based on these statuses as mentioned above.
8. Employee Tracking Dashboards
   Live dashboards give you a real-time overview of your data such as employee activities and progress on tasks. You can use a variety of customisable charts that can display key metrics captured in your app. You can also integrate with Power BI for a more advanced dashboard.
9. Employee Tracking in Excel
   Clappia allows you to integrate and maintain a tracker with spreadsheets. You can easily download your employee data in Excel format, which is especially useful for businesses that prefer working with spreadsheets. You can also integrate and automatically transfer data to spreadsheets in real-time. This ensures that you have a backup of all your updated data and can perform additional analyses if required.

Here is a simple help guide on how you can create your own custom employee tracking app:

Unique Benefits of an Employee Tracking System in Clappia

Beyond addressing basic needs, Clappia's Employee Tracking System offers several unique benefits:

• Customizable PDFs and Automated Reports: You can create your own PDF that automatically captures details from data submitted from the app. With this you can get detailed, customizable reports that can be sent to various stakeholders on a timely basis.
• Enhanced and Efficient Communication: Use the system to improve communication between managers, teams,remote or field employees by integrating messaging features within the app. You can get automated emails, Whatsapp messages, SMS, or even Teams notifications in an instant.
• Integration with Other Systems: You can integrate your employee tracking system with other software like payroll systems, HR management tools, project management apps and much more for a cohesive workflow.
• Automated Compliance: Automatically ensure compliance with labor laws and company policies by tracking work hours and locations accurately.
• Data Security: Clappia provides robust data security features, ensuring that sensitive employee information is protected against unauthorized access.
• Offline mode: This is beneficial for remote employee tracking, where internet connection is not the greatest. They can still submit information, which will automatically get uploaded once they get back the internet connection.
• Using AI: Adding artificial intelligence (AI) to employee tracking can further enhance your app’s capabilities. The AI feature can analyze images and detect potential issues, documentations and even extract data from the images like deviations from planned routes or unusual activity patterns. This elevates manual processes even further and smoothening operations.

Case Study: Transforming Workforce Management with Clappia

Let’s look at a real-world example. One of our customers, a logistics company, was having a tough time managing their field employees. They had issues making sure their employees were on-site, and tracking their work hours accurately to manage payroll. After they implemented an Employee Location Tracking System with Clappia, things changed drastically.

• Real-time Tracking: The company could now monitor the real-time location of their employees, ensuring they were on-site and on task.
• Accurate Payroll: With precise tracking of work hours, the company streamlined their payroll process, reducing errors and making sure employees were paid accurately.
• Improved Efficiency: The company used data insights to optimize routes and task allocation.
• Integrating with other Clappia apps: They made use of the data collected from their employee tracking app to use it for other apps in their Clappia workspace. They had created separate ticketing and maintenance apps, for any problems that occurred when on the go which allowed the company to know exactly where the maintenance was required.

Conclusion

So, if you're looking to improve how you manage your workforce, creating an Employee Tracking App with live tracking in Clappia is a great solution. It’s easy to create, use, provides real-time tracking, and can be customized to fit your unique business needs. Sign up for Clappia today and see how it can help you manage your team better.

Whether you're managing a small team or a large workforce, Clappia's solutions are designed to meet your needs and help you stay ahead.