Site Check-In and Geofencing

Overview

Site check-in gives a Builder a live answer to "who is on this site right now" — without requiring every visitor to install an app. It runs through a kiosk at the gate, a scan with the worker's own phone, and a roster the site team manages. Around it sit the site's geofence and zones, which shape what happens when machines work inside them.

How checking in works

1. 1

   The worker scans the kiosk's QR code with their own phone camera — the gate kiosk displays a rotating, single-use code, so a photographed QR can't be reused.

2. 2

   They verify by SMS — a code to their phone number proves who's checking in. No app install, no account setup at the gate.

3. 3

   Location is captured — check-in requires the phone's position; it's part of what makes the roster evidence rather than a guest book.

4. 4

   The roster updates live. Known workers (with site access already granted) check straight in. Unknown walk-ups are accepted only on sites that allow walk-in registration — otherwise they're turned away at the scan, and the gate stays a gate.

The check-in can also gate on the site's compliance requirements — a worker who hasn't completed a required induction or today's toolbox talk is told exactly what's outstanding. See Site Inductions and Toolbox Talks.

Checking out

• Self check-out happens the same way the worker arrived.
• The site team checks people out from the roster — end of shift sweeps, or a correction.
• Auto check-out at a configured time catches everyone who forgot, so the roster starts each day honest.

Sites, geofences, and zones

A site carries a boundary — a circle or polygon on the map. Within it, zones mark areas with their own rules, and machines working the site interact with them at pre-start time:

The one hard zone gate is qualifications on a restricted zone — and it's judged against the site host's qualification catalogue, so a visiting contractor's operator is held to the site's rules, not their own org's. Zone crossings by machines are also recorded as events for the site's history.

Two details worth knowing about that gate:

• Offline pre-starts are kept, not refused. The zone check runs when a pre-start reaches PreStartGo, and the app doesn't carry it offline — so a pre-start done without signal has already unlocked the machine by the time it syncs. Refusing it then would only throw away the record. Instead it's kept, with a warning naming the zone, and flagged for review — see Reviewing Flagged Pre-Start Checks.
• No location, no zone test. If a pre-start arrives without the phone's position at a site with zones, it goes ahead with one warning that the location wasn't available.

Equipment on a site

Machines are connected to a site by equipment induction — a deliberate act by the site team, not a scan — which is what puts a machine under the site's policies (and its zones) for pre-starts. A machine sits on at most one site at a time. See Site Inductions and Toolbox Talks for the equipment-induction half.

Edge cases

• No coverage at the gate — the kiosk's tablet needs a connection to display codes; the worker's phone needs one to verify. Site the kiosk accordingly — see Setting Up a Kiosk.
• A worker with no phone — the site team can manage their presence from the roster directly; the kiosk is the usual front door, not the only door.
• Zone rules and visitors — restricted-zone qualifications apply to whoever operates there, including contractors' operators; grant qualifications ahead of the day they're needed.

Troubleshooting