[0001] The present invention relates to time and activity management systems and more particularly to systems and methods for acquiring time and location information to be used in employee management systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Tracking workers' time has been a necessity since workers began working on an hourly basis or business charged on an hourly basis or tracked labour costs on an hourly basis. Historically, hourly time tracking was achieved using the punch clock system in which a time-card was assigned to each worker where upon commencing work, the worker had his or her card punched by a clock so that the work starting time could be recorded. Then, upon ceasing work, the worker had his or her card punched again so that the work ending time could be recorded. From these starting and stopping times, a record could be constructed for a period, etc. This record was then used in preparing a paycheck for the worker and in creating other records relating to the time worked by a partial or complete work force.

[0003] Originating from the factory environment in which all workers worked in a single location, the punch clock worked well. Even with multiple factories an enterprise could manage very large geographically distributed workforces. However, without fixed locations, employees other than factory floor workers, distributed mobile workforces time keeping was more difficult where a workforce was distributed. Further, other developments in the workforce such as employment agencies who specialize in placing workers in contract positions within different organizations and also have their own

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) employees. A contract employee, while being paid by an employment agency, reports to an employer (usually a supervisor) within the company. Accordingly, the contract employee creates a time sheet based upon the work they perform, passes the time sheet to their supervisor at the company for approval, and then once approved the time sheet is passed to the employment agency. The employment agency then produces a paycheck for the employee and bills the company for the employee's time.

[0004] Another difficulty relating to time keeping relates to distributed work forces. Distributed work forces are now the norm, instead of the exception, not only for employment agencies but for companies as well. In a distributed work force, employees/contractors may be distributed worldwide with temporary, part-time and full- time employees with flexible work schedules, flexible locations, etc. Each employee/contractor is required to submit time sheets for each pay period. Organization of time records is another difficulty faced in time keeping for many organizations as whilst employees may work for a single company, the employees may work for different divisions, in different departments, and for different supervisors within the same department. Time records must be segregated according to this organizational structure for accounting and budget tracking purposes. Further, in an employment agency scenario, the employment agency may service tens or hundreds of companies. While each of the contractors works for, and is paid by the employment agency, invoices must be submitted to the appropriate company. Further, within a particular company, a single contractor may work on more than one project, in more than one division, and for more than one supervisor. The contractor's time must be segregated accordingly when the invoice is submitted. To further complicate this effort, the contractor may be paid at different rates for this work, depending upon the project, division, etc. These complexities further increase the difficulty in not only paying the employee but in generating an invoice for the company.

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) [0005] These issues have resulted in multiple prior art solutions exploiting a variety of electronic time sheet systems. However, similar issues arise for all organizations from small to large and even for those without any fixed office apart from the owner's house. For example, even a small building contractor with two or more active projects employing a few employees will need to track them to allocate time and costs to the projects to either invoice the clients or understand whether they have made or lost money on the contract. However, the prior art solutions have been geared primarily to desk based employees wherein ease of use, location tracking, activity tracking, etc. are not primary drivers but rather entry of complex project and task codes together with time tracking to hundredths of a hour (e.g. to an accuracy of 36 seconds).

[0006] At the same time with employees, contractors, temporary staff etc. performing multiple tasks on multiple projects each day the supervisory role becomes extremely difficult to verify that a particular individual did actually perform the task they say they did and took the length of time that they say they did.

[0007] US Patent Publication No. 2015/0161553, entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS RELATING TO TIME LOCATION BASED EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS,” filed on October 29, 2014, which is herein incorporated by reference, discloses a network, and a portable electronic device (“PED”) connected to the network and associated with a user. The PED can execute a mobile client application where the PED can provide GPS location information as well as time/date information. The time/date information is used to update the time keeping database with the “work begin/punching in” or “work end/punching out.” The GPS information can be used to update the time keeping database and/or confirm that the user is within at the expected workplace.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:

[0009] FIG. 1 depicts a simplified network within which embodiments of the invention may be employed; and

[00010] FIG. 2 depicts a workflow for an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[00011] The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an exemplary embodiment. It being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[00012] A "portable electronic device" (PED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless device used for communications and other applications that requires a battery or other independent form of energy for power. This includes devices, but is not limited to, such as a cellular telephone, smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computer, pager, portable multimedia player, portable gaming console, laptop computer, tablet computer, and an electronic reader.

[00013] A "fixed electronic device" (FED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless and/or wired device used for communications and other applications that requires connection to a fixed interface to obtain power. This includes, but is not limited to, a laptop computer, a personal computer, a computer server, a kiosk, a gaming console, a

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) digital set-top box, an analog set-top box, an Internet enabled appliance, an Internet enabled television, and a multimedia player.

[00014] An "application" (commonly referred to as an "app") as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a "software application" and an element of a "software suite" as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a computer program designed to allow an individual to perform an activity. An application thus differs from an operating system (which runs a computer), a utility (which performs maintenance or general-purpose chores), and a programming tools (with which computer programs are created). Generally, within the following description with respect to embodiments of the invention an application is generally presented in respect of software permanently and/or temporarily installed upon a PED and/or FED for the purposes of presenting a micro-survey to a consumer and/or customer. [00015] Referring to FIG. 1 , a simplified network 200 within which embodiments of the invention may be employed. PED 210 is connected to network 200 and is preferably associated with a user, not shown for clarity, executing a mobile client application (MCA) 220. PED 210 may have a location data services module LD 260 to provide location data to the MCA 220.

[00015] Person skilled in the art shall recognize that LD 260 could provide global position system information received from a GPS module within PED 210. Alternatively and/or additionally, LD 260 may obtain location data without relying on GPS data as described below. LD 260 may also provide MCA 220 with time/date information such that the MCA 220 is independent of time/date on the user's PED 210.

[00016] Also interfaced to the network 200 is a remote server 230S that preferably provides the remotely hosted tasks, activities and services 230 and applications necessary for managing the overall time keeping/activity/project management activities as well as supporting the MCA 220. Remote server 230 may also support an administration client AC 240, which preferably allows an administrator to manage employees associated with the

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) services 230, tasks, activities, etc., as well as any additional third party Application Programming Interface (API) 250 in order to acquire additional information. Accordingly, an enterprise, individual, etc. may access the services 230 via AC 240, allowing them to establish an account, associate staff to the account, establish tasks/activities etc. and begin tracking staff time against the tasks and activities.

[00017] With such arrangement, an employee may send an email, whatsapp message, FB messenger message, slack message or SMS/text message, for example, from PED 210 to services 230, or log into a remote app or website from PED 210, to “clock in” or “punch in” to the worksite. To confirm the location of the employee, services 230 may prepare a validation message with a specific URL address, i.e. , a URL link. This validation message is sent to the employee via a pre-selected channel, such as text or email. The employee would proceed to click on the link and open the URL with the browser of PED 210. This in effect causes the browser to contact the services 230. Because browsers would have location information provided from cell networks, wifi networks, etc., the services 230 can query the browser for such location information, and used in the same manner as GPS location data. Persons skilled in the art shall recognize that, by having the employee check in, it provides for more accurate tracking than if the supervisor were tracking all the different employees.

[00018] An administrator and/or supervisor can access services 230 via her own PED and/or FED to establish a geo-fence, i.e. a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area, in association with the worksite. If the user’s PED 210 is sending location data periodically, the administrator and/or supervisor can set up services 230 so that when the location data provided by LD 260 shows that the worker/staff is within the established geofence, they are considered "logged in" or "punched in" to that worksite. Similarly, the administrator and/or supervisor can set up services 230 so that when the location data provided by LD 260 shows that the worker/staff is outside the geo-fence, they are

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) considered "logged out" or "punched out" of the worksite. The administrator and/or supervisor can set up services 230 so that the administrator and/or supervisor can receive a notification when the worker/staff has left the geo-fence. Persons skilled in the art shall recognize that a geo-fence can be established by accessing a mapping location services API, such as the Google Maps API, and setting up a first perimeter around the worksite. [00019] It may be advantageous to establish a second geo-fence along a portion of a nearby road adjacent to the worksite to allow for the fact that the worker/staff may have to park on the road and return to their vehicle sporadically for tools, materials, etc. Alternatively, the administrator may establish additional geo-fences for the particular worker/staff. In this manner, the administrator could receive notifications and/or track when the worker/staff has left the first geo-fence and entered a different geo-fenced area.

[00020] In many instances a worker may leave the geo-fenced area but may still be working and also working on the worksite associated with the current worksite as they are collecting supplies, materials, etc. Alternatively, they may have left the current worksite and be collecting materials for a subsequent worksite. Accordingly, the services 230 could accommodate geo-location tracking to associate travel time and time at a secondary location with an allocated activity and/or worksite according to embodiments of the invention. As the worker leaves the first worksite geo-fence, the services 230 would "punch out" the worker from the first worksite but continue tracking their location to a different location.

[00021] The services 230 may be configured to associate offsite locations with different allowed vendors. For example, services 230 may recognize the offsite location as an allowed subsidiary worksite to the primary worksite allocated for the worker. The association may be automatic or it may require administrator authorization to add the offsite location as a subsidiary worksite. Alternatively, the offsite location may be parsed through a third party

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) API wherein it is established that the offsite location is a Home Depot store, for example, where the worker is allowed to visit to obtain materials for the worksite.

[00022] Persons skilled in the art shall recognize that services 230 may also be configured so that, when the worker leaves a first geo-fenced area, an email or text message is sent to the worker’s PED 210 to confirm whether the worker is taking a break and punching out (thus stopping the work clock) or going to an offsite location to pick up materials (thus continuing the work clock). If the worker responds that she is going offsite and is not punching out, the worker’s PED 210 may continue transmitting location data to services 220 in order to track the worker’s path. Alternatively, if the worker responds that he is punching out, the worker’s PED 210 would stop providing location data to services 230.

[00023] Embodiments of the invention exploit location based information of the user's (worker's) PED. It would be evident that in many instances the location information may be derived from a global positioning system (GPS) which generally refers to Global Positioning Systems as operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. However, it would be evident that other location based systems employing satellite based navigation systems may be employed including, for example, the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), European Union Galileo, Chinese Compass, and the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System. However, other approaches including, but not limited to, triangulation, base station association, etc. may be employed without departing from the scope of the invention.

[00024] It would be evident to one skilled in the art that whilst descriptions have been provided with respect to embodiments of the invention from the viewpoint of the construction industry that the concepts described are applicable across a wide range of applications and industries. For example, a retailer with multiple locations may assign geo-fences to their retail locations and track staff with respect to these.

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) [00025] Specific details are given in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.

[00026] Implementation of the techniques, blocks, steps and means described above may be done in various ways. For example, these techniques, blocks, steps and means may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing units may be implemented within one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described above and/or a combination thereof. [00027] Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.

[00028] Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages and/or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, scripting

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) language and/or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium, such as a storage medium. A code segment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures and/or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters and/or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.

[00029] For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing the methodologies described herein. For example, software codes may be stored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor and may vary in implementation where the memory is employed in storing software codes for subsequent execution to that when the memory is employed in executing the software codes. As used herein the term "memory" refers to any type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or other storage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.

[00030] Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term "storage medium" may represent one or more devices for storing data, including read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/or other machine readable mediums for storing

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) information. The term "machine-readable medium" includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and/or various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

[00031] The methodologies described herein are, in one or more embodiments, performable by a machine which includes one or more processors that accept code segments containing instructions. For any of the methods described herein, when the instructions are executed by the machine, the machine performs the method. Any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine are included. Thus, a typical machine may be exemplified by a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. Each processor may include one or more of a CPU, a graphics-processing unit, and a programmable DSP unit. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM. A bus subsystem may be included for communicating between the components. If the processing system requires a display, such a display may be included, e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD). If manual data entry is required, the processing system also includes an input device such as one or more of an alphanumeric input unit such as a keyboard, a pointing control device such as a mouse, and so forth.

[00032] The memory includes machine-readable code segments (e.g. software or software code) including instructions for performing, when executed by the processing system, one of more of the methods described herein. The software may reside entirely in the memory, or may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the RAM and/or within the processor during execution thereof by the computer system. Thus, the memory and the processor also constitute a system comprising machine-readable code.

[00033] In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other machines, in a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. The machine may be, for example, a computer, a server, a cluster of servers, a cluster of computers, a web appliance, a distributed computing environment, a cloud computing environment, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. The term "machine" may also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

[00034] The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

[00035] Further, in describing representative embodiments of the present invention, the specification may have presented the method and/or process of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth in the specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of the present invention should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

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SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)