Guides  ·  Exhale Time & Attendance

Is there an alternative to electronic call monitoring?

Short answer

Yes. The visit still has to be proven, but it does not have to be proven with a landline call or a tag on the wall. A carer's own phone can record arrival and departure, verify the location against the client's address, and work without signal. Most councils that require visit logging now accept app-based, location-verified records. Ask yours before you switch.

What electronic call monitoring was built for

ECM came from councils wanting to pay for the minutes actually delivered. The carer rang a number from the client's landline on arrival and again on leaving, or tapped a tag fixed in the home. The council got start and end times; the provider got paid by the minute.

Why providers want out of it

  • Clients no longer have landlines, or are using the phone when the carer arrives.
  • Tags fall off, get moved, or are refused by families who do not want a sticker in the hall.
  • Per-minute billing punishes a carer who finishes a visit well and early.
  • Staff find it demeaning, and the system records nothing about the care itself.
  • The office sees a list of calls, not a map of who is where.

What any alternative still has to prove

Dropping ECM does not drop the need for evidence. The replacement has to show the same four things: who attended, where, when, and what was done. How to prove care staff attended a visit sets these out. If it cannot, you have swapped a system for a gap.

Phone-based clocking with a geofence

The carer taps once on their own phone on arrival. The app records the time and fixes the location, checks it against a radius around the client's address, and puts the visit on the office map. A second tap on departure. No signal in the house? The record is stored with its original time and uploads later. Nothing is attached to the client's home, nothing is dialled, and the carer keeps their dignity.

Because the same tap starts the care record, the notes and the medication entries are tied to a verified visit rather than floating separately.

If your council names a specific system

Some frameworks list approved ECM suppliers. Most also have a clause accepting equivalent electronic evidence. Send the commissioner a sample export showing worker, location check, arrival and departure, and ask for written confirmation. In our experience the answer is usually yes, provided the location is verified and the times are system-stamped.

The product behind this guide

See it working on your own rota

Everything above is how Exhale Time & Attendance already works. A demo takes about twenty minutes; bring the thing you find most annoying about your current setup.

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  • Clock in on their own phone, no hardware to buy
  • A geofence proves they were on site
  • Works with no signal and uploads later
  • One click from the week to payroll

Questions people ask alongside this one

Straight answers

No. The location is read at the clock in and clock out, and during a mileage journey if the carer starts one. It is not continuous tracking, and staff can see exactly what was recorded.

Yes. The verified arrival and departure times produce the delivered minutes per visit. The difference is that the same record also feeds the carer's pay and the care notes, so it is entered once.

A geofence is drawn around the building, so it works the same way. For a large site, the radius is set to the site rather than a single door.

Keep reading

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