Attendance & fieldwork

For office teams, attendance is a tap. For field teams, it's geo-tagged. This page covers both — and the small list of safeguards we put in place so location tracking stays a tool, not a surveillance device.

Check in, check out

The default attendance flow is two taps per day:

1. Check in when you arrive
2. Check out when you leave

The mobile app shows a big check-in button on the home view between 6 AM and 11 AM (configurable). Tapping it:

• Records timestamp
• Records location (if attendance is geo-tagged for your role)
• Adds a row to your attendance log

Check-out is symmetric in the evening.

Geo-tagged attendance

Geo-tagging is per-role, not per-person. The HR admin decides which roles use geo-tagging in Settings → HR → Attendance.

Typical configurations:

• Office staff — no geo-tagging
• Field sales — geo-tagged check-in and check-out
• Construction site team — geo-tagged plus required-radius (must be within 200m of the site)
• Multi-site visitors — geo-tagged but no radius (can check in from any client site)

When required-radius is on, the check-in button is greyed out if the user is more than the configured distance from the assigned site. Tapping shows the distance and the direction to the site.

Leave applications

To apply for leave from mobile:

1. Attendance → Apply leave
2. Pick dates
3. Pick leave type (casual, sick, earned)
4. Add a note (optional)
5. Submit

The HR agent validates against your policy (quota, blackout dates, manager approval requirement) and routes for approval. You get a push when approved or rejected.

Regularisation

If you forgot to check in or had a network issue, you can request regularisation:

1. Open the day in your attendance log
2. Tap Request regularisation
3. Enter actual in/out times
4. Add a note (often required by policy)
5. Submit for manager approval

Regularisation has its own audit trail — abuse is visible in the Team dashboard.

Field route tracking

For field-sales and field-service teams, route tracking is opt-in per workspace and per-role. When enabled, the app records location pings periodically during the working day.

Important safeguards we put in place:

• Always off outside working hours. No pings before check-in or after check-out.
• Always opt-in for the employee. The first time route tracking is enabled, the employee sees a clear disclosure and must accept.
• Visible to the employee. Employees see their own route. Their manager sees aggregate "miles travelled" and "sites visited" — not minute-by-minute pings.
• Retention. Detailed pings expire after 30 days; aggregates after 1 year.

We built thola in markets where attendance abuse is real on both sides — workers padding hours, employers spying on workers. The defaults are deliberately balanced.

Site visits

A site visit (see Projects on the road) is a richer alternative to plain geo-attendance. It records:

• Visit start and end
• Notes / photos / voice memos taken at the site
• The project the visit is tied to

For field-service teams, site visits replace plain attendance — every working hour is structured by what was visited and what happened there.

The location-permission flow

When you first open a screen that needs location, you see a clear prompt:

"thola uses location for attendance and site visits. We do not track you outside working hours. You can revoke at any time."

Tap Allow. The OS-level permission prompt follows. You can choose:

• Always — pings work when the app is backgrounded
• Only while using — pings only when the app is foreground
• Once — single-use, prompts again next time

For most users, Only while using is the right default. Field-sales teams whose route tracking is enabled will be asked for Always at the relevant moment.

Common questions

Will the app drain my battery if location is on? The location service is power-aware — pings throttle when battery is low. In our internal tests, attendance + occasional pings adds under 2% to daily battery use over a baseline.

My check-in shows the wrong location. GPS in dense urban areas can be off by 50–100m. The HR agent has a small tolerance; if you're within that, the check-in still counts. For repeated mis-locations, Settings → Devices → Re-calibrate location.

Can my manager see my location right now? No. Managers see aggregates, not live pings. Even for emergencies, there is no "track Priya right now" button. The product does not have it.

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