portatour® can optionally store where the call report was entered. You can use this functionality to show your employer, without any additional effort, that you were indeed at the customer’s premises. Geotagging helps with documentation for tax-free allowances (per diems) and is also used to avoid mistakes, since you would see if a report is about to be entered for the wrong customer. The only prerequisite is that you always create the report immediately after the customer visit, i.e. while you are still geographically close.
By default, geotagging is deactivated. To activate the function, go to Options > Reporting. See also Reporting.
Creating a geotagged call report
If you have configured the setting to Add automatically in the options, when you create a new call report, for example by clicking Called now at the customer, your location is automatically determined and added as a geotag to the report. Your device typically takes 1 to 10 seconds to find your location. You can already start filling in the report during this time. The geotag is shown in the report form below:
You can find the following additional information in the call report:
Address
The report address, i.e. the address of the customer or appointment, is displayed.
Geotag
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Distance from your location to the report address: This value shows how far away you are from the actual address visited when you create the report.
Values up to several hundred meters are perfectly normal, e.g. due to large company premises, a distant parking space, any inaccuracy in the geocoding of the customer address or in the determination of the location. If the distance is significantly greater, this can be a warning sign that you are not entering the report for the right customer! - Accuracy of the found location: The location is determined by your device, and accuracy can vary due to technologies used and any signal hinderances. The actual distance should be considered in relative terms with regard to the precision of the geotag. If the accuracy is too imprecise, you can use the “Update” button to launch a new determination of the location.
- Address of your location: Keep in mind that the street and building number will rarely coincide exactly with the visited address. Small distances or inaccuracies can easily lead to a crossroad, parallel street or to another building number.
If the address of the report does not match the current customer address, e.g. in the case of customer appointments that do not take place at the customer address, an additional line is displayed in the geotag: the distance from your location to the customer address.
You then see:
- Address: the report address (e.g. the address of the appointment)
- Geotag
- about X mi away: Distance of your location to the report address
- about Y mi away from the customer: Distance of your location to the customer address
- Address of your location
If you have set the option to Add optionally, the geotagging is not automatically launched when the report is created. It takes a click on the Add button for the geotag to be appended to the call report.
Tip: If you have little time immediately after the customer visit, we recommend immediately creating and saving the call report . This only takes a few seconds and also works in offline mode. Later, you can enter any missing information (e.g. notes), in the evening.
Hints on creating call reports with geotags
- A call report can only be geotagged at the time of report creation. It is not possible to subsequently add, change or delete a geotag in a call report.
- The location function must be enabled for your device to find your location. Furthermore, you have to instruct the web browser to allow portatour® to actually use it. If there are problems finding your location, you will receive an error message after 30 seconds, at the latest, which will be stored in the geotag of the call report.
- Hint: Geotags are only available for “Call” and “Missed” reports. No geotags can be assigned for other report types ('Start of work', 'End of work', 'Day off', 'Other').
Display call reports with geotags
Geotags are displayed in three places in portatour®:
- Call report: When you open a call report for editing, the geotag is displayed but cannot be edited.
- portatour® Report: The geotags for call reports of the last 7 days can also be displayed in the portatour® Report.
Activate the function once under Options > Reporting (see Reporting).
- Excel/CSV export of the call reports: There are columns that contain the geotag information detailed above.