11 Features Every Field Employee Management Software Should Have

Managing a mobile workforce is no joke! You need an advanced employee management solution with essential features like real-time GPS tracking, task optimisation, and order tracking.

Gone are the days when field employee management was something fancy that only specific industries needed. Today, every sector from sales and pharma to HVAC, that employs off-site workers, needs field employee management software to monitor employees remotely and manage workflow.

The software achieves this through an integrated GPS system. Apart from location and activity tracking, an employee management solution also offers modules to manage attendance and expenses. These features are essential in any field employee management software and that’s what we’re going to explore in this blog. But before that, take a look at some challenges of field employee management.

7 Common Problems in Field Employee Management

Field employees have to be managed remotely. If they have to visit the office for all routine tasks, it defeats the purpose of their job. They should be out on the field visiting clients and carrying out remote tasks.

Hence, every organisation needs to ensure that its field staff is not bogged in redundant admin tasks. These are just some of the problems field businesses face. And that is why you need field employee management software.

It streamlines workflow, maintains employee efficiency, reduces operational costs, and more. Here are the problems that necessitate the implementation of field force management software.

1. Who All Are on the Field Today? – Managing Attendance

If you have a team of over five people, it is next to impossible for managers to remember each executive’s attendance records. Moreover, simple biometric systems risk time wastage but remote attendance logging risks fraudulent entries. Not knowing executives’ attendance status can lead to unclear task management and faulty payrolls.

2. Where Are My Executives? – Managing Time and Location

Knowing where executives are at all working hours is crucial in determining productivity and strategies. However, it is difficult to know where executives are with manual management. You’ll have to constantly call or text them to get updates about their activity status and location. This can cause difficulty in task scheduling and team collaboration.

3. Who is Doing What? – Assigning and Tracking Tasks

Knowing executives’ presence and location is obviously important in determining compatible people with tasks. However, the process can be tedious and confusing without a digital system for both managers and executives to access. Anybody can forget tasks and cause major dents to the organization. Moreover, managers need to maintain timely task completions.

4. I Need All Records – Building and Maintaining Documents

No organizational function can be complete without proper documentation. However, without a proper system in place, drawing, organizing, storing, and locating these documents will be nearly impossible. After all, you might need different fields from different clients, and all executives collect and carry multiple documents that could be related.

5. Workflow is Becoming Confusing – Multi-Platform Workflow

Most organisations are unaware of the existence of one-stop solutions to handle payroll management, expense management, and leave & attendance management. As a result, businesses invest in multiple costly apps that take up teams’ time to switch between them. However, this is a highly problematic thing to do since switching between apps to maintain a smooth operational flow is paradoxical.

6. Which Executives Are the Best? – Managing Productivity

Managers need to know how each executive is performing. It is important to formulate strategies and resolve skill gaps, if any. It is tough to effectively calculate employee productivity or their performance with manual tracking methods.

7. How Much Are My Executives Spending? – Expense Management

Ethical companies will not make employees spend from their pockets while they are on duty. Therefore, they could either dispatch allowances or track executives’ verified expenses. Doing the former is subject to approximation and is not ideal for large companies and the latter is subject to neglect or fraud.

Trivia! According to research, between 2021 and 2030, the field services market is bound to increase at a CAGR of 19.7%.

11 Essential Features in Field Employee Management Software

Field services are far too important and complex if managed via unrefined or outdated software solutions. Therefore, you should look for the following 11 features while choosing field employee management software.

1. Real-time GPS Tracking

Real-time tracking using GPS technology is the best way for managers to know each executive’s location, activity status, and performance. Plus, you don’t need any fancy or costly GPS device either. You can track your staff using just handheld smartphones. Here is what you can track with Employee GPS Tracking Software apart from their location:

• Verify staff attendance & visits at the task site.
• Check employees’ availability.
• Check staff’s proximity to the client/task site.
• Track task status with accurate start and completion times.
• Ensure the safety of employees on the field using locational supervision.
• Track employees even when offline.
• View the distance covered by executives in a day.

2. Battery and Network Status

Executives may hide their location for whatever reasons. For this, they might turn off their devices or deceive managers about their battery or network status. Field employee management software can prevent such excuses. It displays the live battery and network status of executives’ devices.

3. Remote Task Management

Through software aid, managers can assign tasks with proper contemplation and planning. Moreover, executives do not have to memorise or note task details by themselves. They get every task detail with complete customer details and task types over their mobiles. Effective task management allows:

• Tasks to be visible and accessible to both managers and employees.
• Managers to assign tasks according to executives’ availability
• Assign tasks in bulk to save managers’ time and executives’ energy in planning
• Managers to check which executive is suitable for what kind of job

4. Geo-Verified Attendance Management

Field employee management software helps record precise geo-verified attendance. You can mandate a verified login or selfie upload option from the task site. The software records the selfie proof with timestamps and geo coordinates to validate check-ins. This way, companies can prevent fraud, time theft, and other disputes.

The software also archives the attendance data on a safe cloud server. Managers can access it anytime to analyse executives’ activities and productivity. The software ensures correct attendance through features like:

• Remote, geo-verified logins and logouts.
• Mandatory geo-coded pictures from the task site.
• Attendance and task syncing so that employees do not start working until marking their presence.

5. Automated Leave Management

Like attendance, managing executives’ leaves can be a hassle. An employee management system can auto-track leave data and balance easily. It lets employees apply for leave on their mobile apps.

All they have to do is select the dates, and the type of leave and provide a reason. The request instantly reaches the managers for approval. Plus, managers can also create custom leave categories (maternity, half-day, casual, sick, etc.). HRs will also love the software as it lets them compile all leaves as per custom policies or the official holiday calendar.

6. Expense Management

Field employee tracking software has an in-built expense management software that helps managers seamlessly approve and reimburse field expenses. They can also set upper limits for the expenses and create custom categories. Plus, the entire process is fully secure.

Companies can create custom hierarchy levels for expense approval. They can also mandate uploading visual proof for employees while requesting reimbursements.

7. Digital Media Uploads

Field employee management software digitally stores a variety of documents and files. Employees can upload expense receipts, food bills, custom bills, etc. Managers can also add special instructions for tasks using voice notes in the task allocation module. This helps to better understand tasks and prevent any communication gaps.

Plus, all the media is stored on a cloud server for maximum privacy and security. Field sales agents can also submit customer forms with attached media. Furthermore, software like TrackoField offers options for barcode scanning and digital signatures to authenticate the POD process.

8. Actionable Reports

Insightful and actionable reports are the best way for managers to track each executive’s productivity in the field. In field employee management software, you’ll find over 50 reports centred around tasks, sales, staff performance, attendance, leave trends, and more. These can be helpful in making data-driven decisions from the get-go. These reports help managers to:

• Make better incentive decisions
• Train executives in a more informed manner
• Build informed business strategies according to current trends in the team

9. Payroll Management

It makes sense to have a payroll module in your field employee management software. After all, it already tracks employees’ attendance, leave, and expenses. This data can be consolidated to compute accurate salary of employees. Other benefits of the payroll management system are security and accessibility. It archives all employee data securely in case it is needed for audits.

This way, managers and HR teams won’t have to verify all employee data and calculate payroll hours manually. They also won’t have to sit and make sense of the variables like scattered shift timings, overtime, expenses, and missed tasks. Because everything is done automatically.

10. Built-in Chatboxes

In-built chatboxes reduce reliance on third-party communication apps. It allows employees to coordinate with managers easily. Managers too can guide their staff in real time and reduce any communication gaps.

Plus, they can relay information regarding tasks and order updates instantly. Software like TrackoField also ensures seamless communication between teams with an inbuilt chatbox.

11. Third-Party Integration

External integration is important for all operations to be accessible on a single app. The right field force management software will easily integrate with any key internal application you use. These include HRMS, accounting, CRMS, and ERP software.

Thus, it is best to choose software that offers flawless connectivity with multiple internal CRM or ERP tools through robust and safe API integrations. For example, if you opt for TrackoField as your field employee management software, you get options to integrate over 200 apps you rely on for proper workflow.

Summing Up

The right field employee management software can be a one-stop solution to simplify all your remote staff operations like task allocation, attendance tracking, expense reporting, or order management. But how to identify the right software?

Well, the right field employee management software should have 11 essential features that we’ve listed in the above blog. But very few software have most of these features. Luckily, TrackoField is one such software solution.

It streamlines task and sales order management and uses locational intelligence via GPS technology to track all employee activities. This results in higher sales output, smooth workflow, and enhanced employee efficiency.

Get in touch with TrackoField staff today to learn how to integrate the software into your field business.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What are the essential features of field employee management software?

  Every field employee management software should offer certain key features like:
  - Real-Time Tracking
  - Battery & Network Status
  - Task Management
  - Attendance Tracking
  - Leave Management
  - Expense Management
  - Digital Media Uploads
  - Actionable Reports
  - Payroll Management
  - Built-in Chatboxes
  - Third-Party Integration

• Why is field employee management software important?

  Field employee management software can be very helpful for your businesses with a mobile workforce. Which could include pharma reps, MRO, retail, or HVAC technicians. Using an automated employee management solution lets you:
  - Monitor employee activity in real-time
  - Manage field staff’s expenses and salary
  - View sales order status, task status, and attendance
  - Optimise and track tasks
  - Review and improve staff productivity