What is the difference between GPS, geofencing, and kiosk clock-ins?

GPS, geofencing, and kiosk clock-ins are different attendance concepts, but they are not all BetterDesks features today. BetterDesks uses GPS coordinates for geofence checks, while shared kiosk clock-in is not available today.

Detailed answer

GPS is the location signal from the employee's device. It supplies the latitude and longitude used by the attendance workflow.

Geofencing is the enforced rule. BetterDesks compares the employee's location to the configured coordinates and radius for the site. If geofencing is enabled and the employee is outside the allowed radius, the clock action is blocked.

Kiosk clock-in usually means a shared tablet or terminal at the work site. BetterDesks does not offer that shared-device flow today. For indoor or GPS-poor locations, the supported alternative is supervisor OTP attendance, where an admin or scheduler creates a temporary passcode for the site.

Example

A security company uses geofencing for outdoor client sites where GPS is reliable. For an indoor site where GPS is inconsistent, the supervisor creates an OTP passcode for that client site. Employees use the passcode, and the attendance records flow into timesheets for manager review.

How BetterDesks helps

BetterDesks supports geofenced attendance and supervisor OTP attendance today. Both feed into the same timesheet workflow, where managers review, approve, reject, reopen, or close missed clock-outs.

Related questions

• How does a geofencing time clock work?
• What is OTP attendance?
• Can employees clock in from a shared kiosk or tablet?

Next step

Explore attendance methods