Field staff tracking: start of work, the working day and hours worked

Why recording a field team is hard

In an office, clock-in passes through a door; in the field there is no door. Service technicians, site crews, sales reps or delivery staff start the day directly at the customer or on site. Without records, working time, overtime and travel time are estimated at month end and none of it can be defended.

Three methods compared

Setting up location-verified clock-in

• Define work areas. Location and radius are entered for each branch, site or regular field location.
• Separate field permission. For staff working at different customer addresses during the day, a clock-in outside the defined area should not be rejected but kept separately as a “field clock-in”.
• Plan for offline. Connection drops in basements, tunnels or rural sites; the record should be held on the device, sent when connection returns, and visible as such.
• Set up work notices. Days without attendance such as training, meetings or remote work should enter the record by notice; otherwise a worked day looks like an absence.

Is travel time working time?

Where the employer sends the employee to work somewhere other than the workplace, travel time counts as daily working time (art. 66). A technician sent from base to the first customer in the morning is therefore working while travelling. How travel from home straight to the first site is treated depends on how the work is organised; set your company rule in writing.

Proportionality: how much tracking is enough?

Location is personal data, and KVKK art. 4 requires data to be processed in a way that is relevant, limited and proportionate to the purpose. What is defensible for a field team is location verification at clock-in and clock-out and, where needed, visibility during working hours for a specific purpose. Tracking outside working hours or continuously all day risks exceeding the proportionality limit.

Legal basis, privacy notice and retention period are a separate topic; we cover them in the KVKK-compliant employee tracking guide.

In our clock-in tracking, location is taken only while a shift is open; a field-permitted employee’s clock-in from a customer address is kept separately and shown on the map; a record made without connection is stored on the device and sent later. The live tracking screen counts staff as working, on break, in the field, clocked out and not clocked in. Details: mobile clock-in.

This guide is for information only and is not legal or payroll advice. Your collective agreement or employment contract may contain more favourable terms.