Field Activity Level

The Field Activity level is where you create the Tracking Rounds of a Field Activity and choose its field staff, ODK forms and base layers. Organization Focal Points and Field Activity Focal Points can work at this level.

To open it, click the Field Activity name in the Field Activities tab of the Organization level.

The Field Activity level offers four tabs: Tracking Rounds, Field Staff, ODK Forms and Base Layers. The Field Activity settings themselves (tracking interval, working hours, team codes, additional base maps…) are edited from the Field Activities tab of the Organization level.

GTS Dashboard available tabs at the Field Activity level

Note

Device monitoring is no longer available at the Field Activity level. Use the Device Monitoring tab of each Tracking Round (see Tracking Round Level).

---

1. Tracking Rounds Tab

A Tracking Round is a time-bound instance of the Field Activity, for example Round 1 of a campaign or Q1 2026 of routine immunization. It defines the dates and the field staff whose tracks are displayed, and holds the Targeted Areas, indicators, Teams Deployment and microplan. Maps, indicators and exports are always displayed for one Tracking Round.

The list shows the Tracking Rounds of the Field Activity, the most recent first:

Tracking Rounds list

Column	Description
Globe icon	Open TR on map: opens the map of the Tracking Round in a new browser tab.
Name	Click to open the Tracking Round level.
Description	Description of the Tracking Round.
Status	Planned, In progress, Completed or Archived (see Archived Tracking Rounds).
Round Start / Round End	Dates of the Tracking Round.
Lower / Upper Bound Speed	Speed limits (meters per second) used to validate tracks.
Speed Unit	Always mps (meters per second).
Public link	Yes, No or Expired (see Public link).

Use the Search box to filter by name, code or description.

Note

Field Activities created before Release 3.10 also have a default Tracking Round named “All tracking data”. It has no date limits, uses the speed limits of the Field Activity and includes all its field staff. It is not shown in this list and cannot be edited or deleted. It has no Targeted Areas, so it only shows tracks and form submissions on the map. New Field Activities do not get this round: create a Tracking Round to see their data on the map.

Create a Tracking Round

Creating a Tracking Round requires the Organization or Field Activity Focal Point role.

1. Open the Tracking Rounds tab and click New. The New Tracking Round window opens.

2. Dates (required): select the From and To dates. Only tracks recorded between these dates are displayed and counted.

3. Field Staff: select the field staff whose tracks belong to the round (Select All / Unselect All). The field staff of the Field Activity are selected by default. Only the tracks of the selected field staff are displayed and counted.

4. Name (required): must be unique in the Field Activity. Add an optional Description.

5. Speed: No limit, or turn it off and set the From / To speeds in m/s (0 to 999). By default, the speed limits of the Field Activity are proposed.

6. Click Save.

New Tracking Round window

Then open the Tracking Round to upload its Targeted Areas and configure its strategy, indicators and teams (see Tracking Round Level).

Edit or delete a Tracking Round

Hover over the Tracking Round row and click the pencil icon (Edit this tracking round). The same form opens, with the Public link section (see the figure in Public link). Click Save to apply the changes.

Warning

• Changing the dates recomputes, in the background, the track and form maps, the indicators and, if it is configured, the stationary activity detection of the round. This can take a long time on large rounds, and the maps and indicators are incomplete until it is finished. It also removes the Teams Deployment values (the expected number of teams), which you must enter again (see Tracking Round Level).

• Changing the speed limits recomputes the indicators and the track maps.

Avoid these changes during the daily review of a campaign.

To delete the Tracking Round, click Delete Tracking Round in the edit form and confirm. Deleted Tracking Rounds disappear from the lists and cannot be restored from the administration.

Public link

A public link lets people without a GTS account view the map of one Tracking Round, for example partners or district authorities. Only people who have the link can open it. The complete procedure (expiration options, deletion) and what viewers see are described in the User Guide: Public Links and Sharing.

Creating a public link requires permission to edit the Tracking Round. The Public link section is only shown when you edit an existing Tracking Round (it is not available in the New Tracking Round form).

1. Edit the Tracking Round (pencil icon).

2. In the Public link section (This Tracking Round is not shared.), click Create a public link.

3. Click Copy public link and share the address.

Changes in this section are saved immediately (messages such as Public link created): you do not need to click Save, and Cancel does not undo them.

Public link section of the tracking round form

A new link expires 1 week after the end of the Tracking round. Use the Expiration date switch and the list below it to choose another delay or a Custom date, or to make the link permanent. To stop sharing, click Delete public link (there is no confirmation); a link created later has a different address.

A link stops working at the start of its expiration day (00:00 UTC). People who open an expired or deleted link see Tracking round not found… and are asked to sign in.

Archived Tracking Rounds

To keep GTS fast, Tracking Rounds that ended more than 30 days ago are archived automatically every night. Archiving keeps only the final, high-level indicators of the round:

• the Status column shows Archived;

• on the map, the indicators of the Targeted Areas and of each team and day are no longer available, and the map cannot be zoomed in as far;

• in the downloads, the options that need these detailed indicators are disabled. Tracks remain available through the track exports;

• the numbers of teams entered in the Teams Deployment tab are kept;

• the Excel and PDF microplans of the Microplan tab are deleted, and their links are no longer shown.

To restore the full indicators of an archived round (Organization or Field Activity Focal Point), you do not need the GTS team, even if the tooltip of the Archived status still says so:

1. In the Tracking Rounds tab, hover over the archived round and click the restore icon (Restore this tracking round).

2. Read the message and click Restore. GTS recomputes all the indicators with the current configuration. This can take from several minutes to a few hours depending on the amount of data.

A restored round is archived again 30 days after its restoration. Changing its dates, its speed limits or its Targeted Areas configuration also restores the round.

---

2. Field Staff Tab

The Field Staff tab lists the field staff who work in the Field Activity. The columns are the same as in the Field Staff tab of the Organization level.

Click New to add field staff to the Field Activity. It opens the same wizard as at the Organization level, where you import an existing field staff of the Organization or create a new one. The last step lists the Tracking Rounds of the Field Activity instead of the Field Activities.

GTS Dashboard Admin Field Staff tab at the field activity level

---

Creating Field Staff

Follow the steps described in Creating Field Staff at the Organization level: nominative or generic account, identity, logout code (required for generic accounts), roles (nominative accounts only), then the Tracking Rounds in which the person works. Click Create.

Editing Field Staff

Hover over the field staff row and click the pencil icon. The form is the same as at the Organization level: the Username cannot be changed; Email, names, Nominative, Tracking Rounds and Logout code can be edited. » Change password and Role(s) are only shown to Organization Focal Points.

Tell the field staff before changing their password.

GTS Field Staff edit form

3. ODK Forms Tab

The ODK Forms tab defines which ODK forms are available in GTS Collect for this Field Activity.

The tab has two columns, each grouped by level (Field Activity level, Organization level, GTS level):

• Available ODK Forms: forms that can be used;

• Selected ODK Forms: forms that field staff will see on their phone.

Click a form, or drag it to the other column (Drag form here), to select or unselect it. The change is saved immediately.

To add a form that is only available for this Field Activity, click New and follow the same steps as at the Organization level. Then select the new form.

Adding an ODK form at the Field Activity level

Each form shows icons to edit it (Edit ODK form definition: forms of the Field Activity and Organization levels, for focal points) and to download it (Download ODK form definition). If the Organization uses NtDot trackers, icons show whether the form can be used on phones and on trackers. GTS level forms cannot be edited.

ODK Forms tab of the MDG D2D demo Field Activity: the ODK forms available and the forms selected for the Field Activity (here, the form uploaded at the Organization level)

Warning

Deleting a form (Delete in the edit window) removes it from every Field Activity that uses it, not only from this one. To stop using a form in this Field Activity only, unselect it.

---

4. Base Layers

The Base Layers tab lists the base layers available to the Field Activity: those of the Organization and those uploaded at this level. Base layers uploaded here are only available to the Tracking Rounds of this Field Activity.

Click New to upload a base layer. The steps are the same as at the Organization level (Base Layers tab): upload the .zip shapefile, enter the Name and Description, then select the Unique ID and Label fields and click Save.

Uploading Base Layers at the Field Activity level

Base layers are then combined with the Targeted Areas of a Tracking Round, from the largest to the smallest area, in the Targeted Areas tab of the Tracking Round level.