Guides  ·  Exhale Time & Attendance

What happens if a carer has no phone signal?

Short answer

Nothing changes for the carer. A properly built app records the clock in on the phone itself, with the time and the location captured at the moment of the tap, then uploads it the instant a signal comes back. The office sees the real arrival time, not the upload time. If an app cannot do this, it is not fit for care work.

Where signal actually fails

Rural rounds are the obvious case, but the common one is indoors: a client's flat on the ground floor of a solid Victorian block, a care home with thick walls and a basement laundry, a hospital corridor. Signal comes and goes several times a shift. Any system that needs a live connection at the exact second of a tap will fail somebody every day.

What "works offline" has to mean

  • The time is stamped at the tap. Not when the phone reconnects. The record must carry the original moment.
  • The location is stored with it. GPS does not need mobile signal; the phone's position can be fixed and saved even when there is no data connection. The map may not draw, but the coordinates are there.
  • It is signed on the phone. The stored record is sealed so it cannot be altered before it uploads.
  • Upload is automatic. The carer does not open the app again to "sync". The moment the phone sees a network, the record goes.

What the manager sees

The clock in appears when it uploads, sometimes an hour later. It shows the original time, marked as having arrived late, so nobody mistakes a delayed upload for a late carer. The geofence check runs on the stored coordinates, so the visit is still verified against the client's address.

Wi-Fi, data and the phone itself

The app needs a data connection at some point in the day, which every smartphone has through mobile data or Wi-Fi. It does not need it during the visit. Location services must be allowed while the app is in use. Battery use is small because the app only reads the position at the tap, not continuously. See can staff clock in on their own phone for the rest of what the phone needs.

Questions to ask any supplier

  1. If I clock in with the phone in flight mode, what time does the record show when it uploads?
  2. Does the geofence still verify a clock in made offline?
  3. Can the stored record be edited on the phone before it uploads?
  4. Does the carer have to do anything to make it sync?

Exhale Time and Attendance answers those: the original time, yes, no, and no.

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.

See Exhale Time & Attendance →
  • 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

Yes. The phone fixes its position from GPS satellites, which do not need a mobile network. The position is saved with the clock in and checked against the site when the record uploads.

The record is stored on the phone, so it uploads when the phone is charged and back online. If a phone is lost, the manager records the visit from the rota and marks it as a manual entry.

No. The app reads the location at the moment of a tap and, if mileage tracking is running, during a journey. It does not track continuously through the day.

Keep reading

Related guides

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Can staff clock in on their own phone?

Yes. Clocking in on a personal phone is now the standard way to record attendance in care, and it costs nothing in hardware.

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Guide

How to prove care staff attended a visit

A visit is proven when the record shows who was there, where, when, and what was done, and that record was made at the time rather than written up later. A clock in tied to the client's…

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Talk it through with the people who built it

We build and host Exhale Time & Attendance ourselves in Liverpool. Ring us with the problem, not the product, and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.

Book a demo 0151 208 2612