Audit locations
Most frontline workers don't spend their day in a single location; generally, they travel to various locations throughout the day. Schedulers and dispatchers should know where workers are at any given time because it's helpful in managing daily schedules. For example, if an emergency occurs, a dispatcher can view who is the closest and then schedule the worker for that item.
Frontline workers who are using the Dynamics 365 Field Service Mobile app can enable location sharing from the app. This feature allows schedulers to visualize their location on the schedule board and it provides an audit list that shows the frontline worker's location history.
To configure location tracking for an individual, follow these steps:
Enable location tracking.
Allow Field Service Mobile to access the worker's location.
Verify that location tracking is being displayed.
Enable location tracking
The first task in configuring location tracking is to enable it in the Field Service environment. A person who has administrative access to the application needs to complete this task. Enabling this setting allows the worker's location data to be sent to Dynamics 365 Field Service and will display their location on the schedule board. All location data is stored in a Dataverse table called Geolocation Tracking.
Location tracking is in the Settings area of the Field Service application under Geolocation Settings. When in geolocation settings, you can set Enable Location Tracking to Yes, which will ensure that location tracking records will be created.
You'll also need to enter a Refresh interval, which indicates how often the system will check the user's location. This setting helps ensure that schedulers have the most up-to-date information possible as a worker is on the move. Based on organization needs, we recommend that you set the refresh interval to between 60 and 300 seconds. The refresh interval only specifies how often the system will check the user's location. It does not indicate that Geolocation Tracking records will be created. The refresh interval works with location tracking events to create tracking records.
Three location tracking events are:
On sign-in - When a user signs in to the Field Service mobile app, geolocation tracking records are created as the system assesses the user's location. Records will continue to be created when the user stops moving.
On move - When a user moves away from their location by more than 800 meters, tracking records will be created based on the defined refresh interval (60 seconds by default) until they stop moving.
On stop after moving - When the user comes to a still position after moving, a few more tracking records will be created as it settles and then stops.
Another item to consider is when location tracking should be enabled for your organization. Because many frontline workers won't have a company provided device, they might be using the Field Service Mobile application on their personal device. In these instances, you're not going to track their location outside of business hours. For this reason, you can specify when location tracking is enabled for each day of the week. In the following screenshot, it's configured so that tracking happens 24 hours a day, Monday-Friday, but it could be set up as Monday-Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
For more information, see Location auditing for the Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile app.
Allow the mobile app to access location information
After location tracking has been enabled on the scheduler's side, it will also need to be enabled on their mobile device. Complete this task by selecting Settings from the home screen and then ensuring that the Location toggle is set to Yes.
After location tracking is enabled, when a worker launches and signs in to the mobile application, they'll likely be prompted to allow access to their location. They can select Don't Allow, Allow Once, or Allow While Using App. If the worker selects Allow Once, they'll be prompted again the next time that they sign in.
Important
To ensure that they're prompted after tracking is enabled, the frontline worker should exit the application, launch it, and sign in again to be prompted for location.
Verify location tracking
After location tracking is enabled on the mobile device, the bookable resource's (frontline worker) current location appears on the schedule board. You can select the map pin icon next to the bookable resource's name, and the map will display the location with a Truck icon instead of a pin icon.
Location audit records
Another advantage to using location tracking is that you can access the Geolocation Tracking information to audit locations by using Advanced Find. You can access Advanced Find by selecting the Filter icon in the upper-right corner of the application. After the feature has loaded, set the Look For field to Geolocation Tracking.
From within the Advanced Find screen, you can modify filter criteria to limit the results that are returned. For example, you might only want to see the tracking records for an individual user or for a specific time period. The following image shows a list of locations throughout the day, listed by user.
For more information, see Create, edit, or save an Advanced Find search.
For more information and a video demonstration, see Location auditing for the Dynamics 365 Field Service mobile app.