Check-in Monitoring (Dead Man's Switch)
Check-in monitoring (German: "Lebendmeldung") is LiteLog's lone worker protection — often called a dead man's switch. Employees working alone (e.g. night watch, patrol duty, single shifts on site) must actively check in at a defined interval. If the check-in fails to arrive, LiteLog escalates automatically in several stages — up to alerting the control center via push, e-mail, SMS, or automated phone call.
:::warning Assistance feature Check-in monitoring is an assistance feature for protecting lone workers. It is not a certified personal emergency signal system (PNA) within the meaning of applicable standards. Check in your risk assessment whether a certified system is required. :::
How it works
- Checking in — The employee submits a regular check-in via the status reporter widget on the app dashboard. Every status report counts as a sign of life and restarts the interval.
- Pre-alarm — If the employee does not check in within the interval, LiteLog sets the shift to pre-alarm: the employee receives a push prompt on their device asking them to check in, and the automation trigger "Check-in overdue (pre-alarm)" fires.
- Main alarm — If there is still no check-in after the grace period expires, the main alarm follows: the automation trigger "Check-in main alarm" fires, LiteLog automatically creates an incident with the employee's last known GPS position and sets their status to Emergency — visible in the live view.
- Unreachable — If the push prompt cannot be delivered (no device signed in, delivery failed), LiteLog additionally attempts an SMS to the phone number stored in the employee profile and fires the trigger "Check-in undeliverable" — so the control center can react specifically to an unreachable lone worker.
Every check-in resets the escalation: as soon as a new status report arrives, monitoring returns to "OK" and the interval starts over.
Enabling
Check-in monitoring is disabled by default and can be switched on in two places:
Per shift template (planned shifts)
In the shift planner, open the shift dialog and enable Check-in monitoring (lone work) under "Advanced settings". There you define:
| Setting | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Interval | How often the employee must check in | 30 minutes |
| Grace period | Additional time after the pre-alarm before the main alarm is raised | 5 minutes |
Monitoring then applies to all employees signed in within the planned shift window of this template.
Per property (spontaneous shifts)
For shifts without a planned template — e.g. spontaneous clock-in on site — enable check-in monitoring in the property settings in the Check-in monitoring section, again with interval and grace period. This property-level setting also acts as a safety net when a shift keeps running outside its planned window.
:::info Feature activation The check-in monitoring section in the property settings only appears when the feature is enabled for your account. :::
Configuring the escalation chain
Who gets notified on pre-alarm, main alarm, or unreachability is controlled via the rules in the Automation area. Three triggers are available in the Safety category:
| Trigger | When |
|---|---|
| Check-in overdue (pre-alarm) | Interval expired, no check-in |
| Check-in main alarm | The grace period has expired as well |
| Check-in undeliverable | The prompt could not reach the employee |
For each trigger you choose recipients and channels — push notification, e-mail, SMS, or automated phone call (SMS and calls require the SMS notification package, see Notifications & alarm channels). Default rules are pre-created for new accounts; adjust recipients and channels to your organization.
:::tip Recommendation Configure at least the main alarm with a channel that reliably reaches your control center — e.g. an automated call to the duty phone. The pre-alarm works well as a quiet early warning (push/e-mail), the main alarm as the loud one. :::
Traceability
- Every escalation stage is logged — including the delivery outcome of the prompt to the employee. The course of an alarm can be reconstructed completely afterwards.
- The main alarm automatically creates an incident in the Reports area with the last known position, employee, and property.
- The live view shows the check-in state per employee in a dedicated column.
Good to know
:::tip Note
- Every activity counts — Check-ins are submitted via the status reporter in the app; other status reports also reset the interval.
- Choose the interval carefully — Too short an interval creates many interruptions, too long delays the alert. 30–60 minutes is common, depending on the risk level.
- Maintain phone numbers — For the SMS fallback on unreachability to work, a phone number must be stored in the employee profile.
- Deliberate planner choice — If check-in monitoring is explicitly disabled on a shift template, it stays off for shifts within its window even when the property has check-in monitoring configured. :::
Permissions
:::info Permission To configure it on the shift template you need Create time tracking or Edit time tracking; for the property settings, Edit properties. Automation rules are edited by anyone holding the corresponding automation permissions. :::