Some of the best service happens where no coordinator can scan every student: a beach cleanup along a mile of shoreline, a park planting with volunteers spread across the fields, a 5K with students at every water stop. With GPS location verification, students attach their phone's location to their commitment while they are at the event, and Helper Helper compares it to the venue. Before your admins validate a single hour, they can see whether each student's location matched the event.
Self-reported service is covered too. When no coordinator is on site, a student who records their hours right as they are leaving can attach their location on the same form, so your admins can see they were at the service location.
Location sharing works alongside the other attendance validation methods, like QR codes, validation codes, and coordinator signatures.
Location Sharing Built Into Check-In
One Tap in the Check-In Form
When location matching is on, the check-in, check-out, and log-time forms include a Share My Current Location field. One tap captures the student's position and shows the result before they submit: Your position matches the event location.
Saved With the Check-In
The location is sent with the check-in itself, so the record and its evidence always arrive together. Students who forget can attach a location from their commitment screen, from an hour before the event starts until four hours after it ends.
Never a Roadblock
Sharing is optional, and a weak signal or a declined permission never stops a check-in.
Not There Yet? The Map Shows the Way
See the Matching Area
If a student's position falls outside the event's matching area, Helper Helper opens a map with the event's check-in pin, the shaded area around it, and a blue dot for the student, along with how far away they are and in which direction.
Walk Over and Check Again
A link opens walking directions to the pin. Students can move closer and tap Check Again, or attach the location as it is. Your admins see the distance either way.
What Your Admins See
A Pin on Every Commitment
Commitment lists show a location pin colored by the best result, so matched check-ins stand out at a glance. Open it to see the event's pin and matching area with every location the student shared.
A Clear Result for Each Location
Each one is marked At location, Nearby, or Far with the distance, along with when it was shared (at check-in, at check-out, when logging time, or with a past commitment), its accuracy, and when it was captured.
Set Up Each Venue Once
Coordinates From the Address
Helper Helper looks up each event's coordinates from its street address and shows them on a map with the matching area shaded around them. If they land in the parking lot instead of on the field, type in the right coordinates and they stay put. Coordinates saved for an organization carry over to its new events.
A Matching Area That Fits
Locations match within 200 meters of the venue unless your school sets a different distance. Give a park, beach, or race course a larger area of its own, or turn matching off for roving work. Online events never ask for a location.
Built to Hold Up
- Only around event time. A location can be attached from an hour before the event starts until four hours after it ends, so no one can add one from home a week later.
- Locked in when it is shared. The distance and result are saved with the venue location and matching area in effect at that moment. Moving a venue pin later never changes past results.
- Accuracy counts. Every phone reports how far off its position might be, and Helper Helper allows for that margin at the edge of the matching area. A rough position that could be off by more than 500 meters, common on desktop computers, never counts as a match.
- Your admins decide. A match is evidence, not an automatic approval. Admins weigh it alongside QR codes, validation codes, and signatures, and validate hours the way they always have.
Private by Design
Students Choose When to Share
A location is captured only at the moment a student taps to share it, never in the background, and only after they allow location access on their phone or browser. The first time, the app explains what is shared and why.
Only Your Admins See Coordinates
Students see their own map and whether they matched. Coordinates are available only to your administrators, and our privacy policy spells out exactly what is stored with each shared location.
Every Device, Every Kind of Hour
iPhone, Android, and the Web
Location sharing works in the Helper Helper app for iPhone and Android and in the web app, so students who bring a tablet or laptop to the event can share too.
Matched at a Glance
After check-in, the student's commitment shows Your location was matched to the event location right above the event map.
Past Commitments Too
A student who logs a past commitment while still at the site can attach their location on the same form, matched against the organization's location when your school has set one up.
GPS location verification, answered
Anything else? Call (734) 531-8806 or email info@helperhelper.com.
Do students have to share their location?
No. Sharing is always optional, and a check-in never fails because a location is missing. Commitment lists show your admins which commitments have a matched location, so you can decide what to ask for at each event.
Does Helper Helper track where students are?
No. A location is captured only when a student taps to share it, after they allow location access, and never in the background. Each shared location is stored with that one commitment.
What if the GPS signal is weak?
The app waits a few seconds for the most precise position it can get, and the match allows for the margin of error the phone reports. A rough position that could be off by more than 500 meters, which is common on desktop computers, is shown to admins as low accuracy and never counts as a match.
Our event covers a whole park. Will students match?
Give that event a larger matching area. Locations match within 200 meters of the venue by default, and any event or organization can have its own distance, so a park, beach, or race course can match across the whole site.
What about service that moves around, like deliveries?
Turn matching off for that event or organization with one click. Students are not asked for a location there, and online events never ask for one.
Can students add a location to hours they log later?
Only around the time they served. A student who adds a past commitment within four hours of finishing can attach their location on the same form. After that the option closes, so a shared location always comes from near the time of service.
How do we turn it on?
Location matching is a school-wide setting. To turn it on the first time, contact our support team at info@helperhelper.com. Once it is on, every in-person event offers location sharing, and you can turn it off for any event or organization where matching does not fit. Schedule a demo to see it with one of your own events.