Table of Contents
Overview
Track time automatically with location timers in the Jobber app.
Location timers in the Jobber app track your time automatically using geofences. When you enter or leave a geofenced area (in this case, your client's property) you will automatically have a job timer start, or you will be reminded to start a timer, depending on your preferences. Since the timers are triggered automatically you'll never forget to clock in or out or have to deal with the manual work of tracking your own time.
Location timers are available on the Grow Plan. View our current pricing plans.
To check what plan you're on, navigate to the Gear Icon > Account and Billing. If you have any questions about your plan's features or pricing, our support team is here to help!
How to set up location based time tracking
There are two modes of location based time tracking in Jobber:
1. Track time automatically when near a visit: The timer starts automatically upon arrival at a client's property. Automatic mode is great for teams that want to "set it and forget it" when it comes to time tracking.
2. Receive reminders to start or stop timers when near a visit: You are sent a push notification reminder to start your timer upon arrival at a client's property. Timers can be started or stopped directly from the push notification. Reminders are a good fit when you have several visits located near each other or for times you want more control over your schedule, which might include tracking lunch breaks or supply runs.
These settings are account-wide and managed from Jobber.com from the Gear Icon > Settings > Location Services. To use location based timers, set the toggle to ON, then select the type of location timer your team will use. To use location based time tracking, team members also need to have certain user permissions and device permissions.
Set up user permissions in Jobber.com
To edit user permissions, start from Jobber.com and navigate to the Gear Icon > Manage Team. Then click on a team member to edit their user permissions.
Team members will need the following permissions to use location timers:
- Schedule permission turned ON and at minimum the ability to "view and complete their own schedule"
- Time tracking and timesheets turned ON and at minimum the ability to "view and record their own"
Device permissions
In order to use the location timers, you will need to give the Jobber mobile app permission to access your location so Jobber can track when you've arrived and departed your visit.
From the Jobber app, navigate to the More > Gear Icon > Preferences and toggle Location timers to ON.
Note: The preferences page will be hidden in the Jobber app if you do not have location services enabled from Jobber.com and if you do not have the correct user permissions to use location timers.
Next, you will need to give the Jobber app permission to access your device's location when not using the Jobber app. This enables your timers to start automatically once you've entered the geofence for your visit, even if you are using another app at the time.
iPhones and iPads
For iOS devices, select Always allow when prompted to allow the Jobber app to use your location even when you're not using the app.
Androids
For Android devices to allow the Jobber app to access the device's location when the app is closed or not in use, select Allow all the time.
Android users will also be asked to give the Jobber app access to the device's physical activity settings, select Allow from the prompt.
Since the Jobber app needs to be backgrounded to track time, Android users will need to navigate to their device settings and set the battery to Unrestricted. This disables battery optimization for the Jobber app to make sure the Jobber app stays running in the background.
With both iOS and Android devices, since you have selected that you always want to share your location you will see prompts from your device in the future to make sure you still want to share you location.
How do location timers track team members?
Location timers are a way to keep your timesheets up-to-date without the manual work of recording your time, which requires access to your device's location services. Location timers are not meant as an employee tracking service so your live location is not shared with other team members or the account owner however GPS waypoints will be logged (on select plans) when certain actions are taken. A team member must be assigned to a visit in order for the location timer to start automatically, however a user can start a timer manually on a visit they are not assigned to.
Actions that trigger a GPS waypoint are:
- Clocking in/out of the general timer
- Starting/stopping a timer on a visit
- Adding a note or attachment (on requests, quotes, jobs, or invoices)
- Marking a visit complete
- Marking an on-site assessment complete
- Marking a task complete
The location timers in the Jobber app are triggered within 200 meters (or 656 feet) of the geofence for your visit. It can take up to three minutes upon leaving the geofence for the time entry to update.
If you are in a location where you have multiple visits, you will be prompted to start your timer manually so that time is logged for the correct visit.
Note: Time tracking is only available on visits, assessments do not support time tracking.
Notifications
When the Jobber app is backgrounded, a push notification will be sent to your device as you enter the geofence for your visit to let you know a timer has been started automatically or to remind you to start one. The notification includes the property address for the visit.
When you enter or exit the geofence with the Jobber app open, you will see an in-app message that your timer has started automatically.
Multiple visits in a location
If you have multiple visits in a location (for example, multiple units in a building or multiple visits close to each other in the same neighborhood), when these visits are within the geofence, even if you have selected to start timers automatically you will receive a reminder notification to start your timer from the visit on your schedule. This ensures the right timer is started for the job.
Timesheets
Location timers have the same relationship to the general timer that manually started timers do. If you started the general timer before arriving at your client's property, the general timer will be stopped and the visit timer will start automatically. When you leave the property, the location timer will be stopped and the general timer will resume.
To view your timesheets, including time entries where the timer was automatically started, select Timesheets from the bottom menu in the Jobber app.
Learn more about
timers and timesheets in the Jobber app
Turn off location timers
To turn off location timers, sign into Jobber.com, then navigate to the Gear Icon > Settings > Location Services. Set the Location timers toggle to OFF.
Note: This must be managed from Jobber.com (rather than the Jobber app) by an admin user.