Successful construction companies depend on accurate time clock systems for their employees and contract workers – and when every minute matters, you’ll want a construction time clock app with to-the-minute accuracy.
But time tracking precision is just one of several essential features many construction companies need in their time clock apps. In this article, we’ll share in-depth reviews of the X best construction time clock apps in 2024, based on user reviews, real-world project demands, available features (and their resulting benefits to your company), and more. If you need a better way to…
- Ensure highly accurate timesheets for every worker
- Control project costs from every angle
- Manage the schedules of anywhere between 10 and 10,000+ workers
- Ensure compliance with federal and state labor laws
- Integrate with other mission-critical business apps
- And perhaps most importantly…
- Give everyone on your team an app they can use with ease
… then this is the article you need to make an informed decision!
Just below, you’ll find quick links to each app we’ve reviewed, with detailed lists of the app’s key features, the industries and/or types of businesses for which the app might be best suited, and some pitfalls or shortcomings to consider that might make the app a less than ideal solution for your business.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We created Workyard – the first app reviewed here – to address issues we encountered while struggling to track and manage construction payrolls for over 700 workers in over 50 construction businesses. We built the Workyard app from the ground up to support construction companies like yours, with industry-essential features like the industry’s most accurate time clock app with GPS and geofencing, intuitive contractor scheduling, construction cost tracking tools, and more.
Learn more about how Workyard works on our main website, or sign up for a 14-day free trial today to see what Workyard can do for your business.
1
Workyard: 9.05
Software Scoring: Workyard
Overall Score: 9.05
Ease of Use
9
Job Tracking
8
Time Tracking Accuracy
10
Labor Law Compliance
9
Scheduling Features
8
Integrations
7
Customer Support
9
Company
9
Key Features
- Precise GPS tracking and geofencing
- Rule-based and easily reviewed timecards
- Simplified worker scheduling for complex projects
- Automated workforce compliance
- Detailed job and project tracking
- Real-time job costing
- Integrations with essential construction business apps
Best For
- Smaller and midsize construction companies
- Businesses with field workforces serving numerous clients
- Specialty contractors (electricians, HVAC, plumbers, etc.)
- Companies tracking labor compliance across multiple locations
- Companies struggling with time theft and inaccurate timecards
- Real-time job costing
- Construction businesses running payroll on, ADP, or Sage
Potential Pitfalls
- No native integrations for CRM systems like Salesforce
- Privacy-centered workers may not like its location-tracking app
- Occasional high battery use on phone app
- May require employee training and onboarding for team comfort
Workyard is a newer construction time clock app to the market, which means it’s been built from the ground up to support many common construction workforce management needs with efficiency, accuracy, and ease.
One of Workyard’s most essential features is its time clock app with GPS. This function uses a combination of real-time GPS tracking through your workers’ phones and pinpoint-accurate geofencing rules you and your team can set up in the Project Hub section of your Workyard management dashboard.
Workyard’s combination of GPS and geofencing makes clock-ins and clock-outs automatic, saving time for your team and ensuring accurate hours for every worker – especially when you manage a workforce that regularly travels from location to location to handle your business’ projects.
This overview merely scratches the surface of what Workyard can do for your workforce management efforts. Let’s dig deeper into Workyard’s essential functionality and explore how each key aspect of the Workyard construction time clock app can make your job easier and your company more profitable…
Precise GPS Tracking and Geofencing
Inaccurate time clocks and employee self-reports can quickly add up, costing construction businesses thousands of dollars in payroll waste per worker.
Workyard’s core feature, which combines live mobile phone-based GPS tracking for each worker with highly customizable geofencing rules, ensures you’ll only pay for time actually worked – no matter where the work takes place.
With intuitive map-based team views, you can always see where everyone in your workforce is while on the job. If someone’s in the wrong place, it’s a simple thing to ping them through their Workyard mobile app with corrections or updated guidance.
This precision also makes tracking worker movements from site to site or worksites to other key locations like construction supply stores or your company’s equipment and storage depots easy. Workyard’s GPS tracking system automatically records distances driven while on the job to simplify mileage reimbursement and other project costing considerations.
Rule-Based and Easily Reviewed Timecards
Of course, time tracking by itself wouldn’t be especially helpful if the app you use doesn’t simplify recordkeeping and reporting as well. That’s why Workyard’s time card system records clock-ins and clock-outs, real-time worker movements with timestamps, and any potential time clock inaccuracies.
Your project managers can use the Workyard dashboard to quickly review a single time card or manually modify an entire team’s time card entries. When those time cards are approved for payroll, it’s a cinch (and an easy sync) to process worker wages and validate project costs.
Simplified Worker Scheduling for Complex Projects
Got a big team on a demanding project with tight timelines? Need to coordinate a scattered field workforce across numerous one-off jobs?
Workyard’s contractor scheduling software replaces manual processes and cumbersome systems better suited for other industries with an intuitive visual calendar scheduling dashboard. You can switch between calendar and task-based views to fit your operating style best. You can also create color-coded custom labels to further segment your schedule entries by job type, urgency, or any other categorization scheme your construction business might need.
Schedule entries can be assigned to any worker (or multiple workers) on any timeframe from start to finish, tracked by completion status, connected to geofence rules, and even set to repeat on a regular basis. Once you’ve set up a task in Workyard’s scheduling system, it’ll be instantly available on the mobile apps of any workers assigned to it.
You can also create to-do checklists for each scheduled task to keep assigned workers on track, and assigned workers can easily add images and other notes to their tasks to keep the home office informed of their progress – and to ensure there’s a solid record of work done in the unlikely event a client complains.
Automated Workforce Compliance
Construction businesses in California have different compliance considerations than similar businesses in Arizona or Texas. The laws governing your relationships with your workforce can even vary between cities and counties within easy driving distance of each other. Navigating this maze of laws and regulations by hand can be a headache at the best of times… but you don’t have to navigate it by yourself.
Just as importantly, Workyard’s dedication to extensive and FLSA-compliant recordkeeping can keep your company safe in the unlikely and unfortunate event you’re ever sued by a worker or pursued by a labor-regulating agency. Workyard’s time card records include every worker movement, including clock-ins and clock-outs. You can also access a complete change log for every time card, so if anything has ever been manually changed, you can quickly figure out why – and quickly make corrections if needed.
Detailed Job and Project Tracking
Great software is supposed to make your life easier, right? Workyard’s comprehensive job tracking software transforms the constant flow of incoming worker and project data into easily understood progress reports.
With Workyard, labor costs, worker movements and travel time, materials receipts, and task updates flow into clear visual dashboards, creating detailed reports for every project to keep you and your construction business on time and under budget.
Real-Time Job Costing
Businesses need to make money to stay alive. All the great software in the world is ultimately meaningless if it can’t help your construction company complete its projects profitably – and that’s why Workyard’s construction cost tracking software takes the flood of data we’ve been talking about and renders it into a live (yes, that’s real-time) view of your costs on each project.
Labor costs are the key aspect of Workyard’s job-costing functionality. With customizable cost codes for every project, you can easily see how much money flows to workers on each and every aspect of those projects.
The job costing dashboard lets you sort costs by code, employee, or date, so you can drill down into the data to find and address inefficiencies. You won’t have to wait until a project’s done to do a financial post-mortem, because Workyard’s detailed metrics are constantly updated as your workforce goes about its day.
And thanks to the next feature on our list, you can also easily translate job-based labor costs into accurate invoices, ensuring your clients get billed the right rate for a job well done every time…
Integrations with Essential Construction Business Apps
The last thing you’d want to do after juggling torrents of labor data is manually re-enter it all into your payroll system. Workyard offers native two-way integrations with all the construction industry’s top payroll and financial management platforms, like QuickBooks (both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online are fully supported), Gusto, Paychex, ADP, Sage, and others.
If you use other apps you’d like to connect to Workyard, and have access to developers, you can put them onto the Workyard developer API to create custom integrations with any supportable app or platform. You can also export your data as Excel-based spreadsheets, which are fairly universally supported by most business apps that deal with finances in any way.
Check out all of Workyard’s integrations by clicking here.
What Users Say About Workyard
We highlight aggregate user review scores at the top of every app we discuss – at the time this article was published, Workyard boasted the following numbers:
- 96 ratings and a 4.4 average score on the iOS App Store
- 122 ratings and a 4.2 average score on the Google Play Store
- 53 ratings and a 4.8 average score on Capterra
…but let’s drill a bit further down to see what real people are saying about Workyard…
On the iOS App Store, one user calls Workyard “by far the best app I’ve ever used”:
Randy Jordan calls the Android version of Workyard’s app “amazing”:
On Capterra, construction manager Jose M. says “our business has improved dramatically” thanks to Workyard’s scheduling functionality:
To see all user reviews on any of these three platforms, just click the links above each screenshot!
Workyard in Review (the TL;DR Version)
If you’d rather dig into Workyard’s features and benefits yourself, you’re in luck! There are several detailed product feature pages on the main Workyard website. Here’s what you’ll get when making Workyard part of your company’s software stack – just click the links to find out more about each feature:
- The industry’s most accurate GPS time clock app
- Job tracking software designed for the construction industry
- Simple and intuitive contractor scheduling software
- Detailed reporting insights for every worker and project
- Accurate live construction cost tracking
- Easy-to-use labor compliance rules and recordkeeping
- Integrations with your favorite payroll and business apps
And if you’re curious about how to introduce Workyard to your team and get them on board with using the Workyard time clock app, check out this quick video:
Want to try Workyard right now? It’s easy and free (for 14 days)! Just click here to sign up for a 14-day free trial, no credit card needed.
- Free trial (no credit card needed) for 14 days
- Time Tracking: $6 / mo. per user (annual) or $8 / mo. per user (monthly) + $50 company base fee
- Workforce Management: $13 / mo. per user (annual) or $16 / mo. per user (monthly) + $50 company base fee
Test drive Workyard, no card required.
2
QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets): 8.25
Software Scoring: QuickBooks Time
Overall Score: 8.25
Ease of Use
8
Job Tracking
8
Time Tracking Accuracy
8
Labor Law Compliance
8
Scheduling Features
9
Integrations
10
Customer Support
7
Company
8
Key Features
Best For
- Companies that need to integrate many apps with their time-tracking
- Companies already using QuickBooks to run payroll
- Larger companies looking for a familiar onboarding process
- Construction businesses needing Fortune 500-level security
- Businesses that don’t operate in one clearly defined industry
Potential Pitfalls
- May lack certain key industry-specific features
- Recent app updates have been error-prone, according to reviews
- Not built for the construction industry
- Support is sometimes disappointing (per reviews)
QuickBooks Time is an important part of the Intuit QuickBooks ecosystem, which establishes it as the obvious 800-pound corporate gorilla in the competitive arena of time-tracking apps.
It’s the safe and simple time-tracking choice for hundreds of thousands of businesses across the economic spectrum, if for no other reason than its seamless integration with other QuickBooks products makes it an easy app to adopt for many businesses already using those products.
While QuickBooks Time might be the “safe” choice, it’s not necessarily the best choice for certain industries such as construction. You may not be able to conduct accurate job-costing processes with QuickBooks alone – at least not unless you’ve paired QuickBooks Time with a construction-focused version like QuickBooks Contractor, which adds industry-specific customizations to the QuickBooks Desktop app.
QuickBooks Time also doesn’t appear to let you customize clock-in and clock-out rules to ensure workers don’t report spending more time at the job site than you’ve allocated.
However, if your business doesn’t need too much (if any) of these construction-specific features, QuickBooks Time could be a solid choice, particularly if your time-tracking needs are fairly straightforward and consistent and you’re already using QuickBooks to manage other aspects of your operations.
What Users Say About QuickBooks Time
QuickBooks Time – and its companion mobile app for field workers, QuickBooks Workforce – is one of the few construction time clock apps we’ve reviewed with no notable differences between its app store scores and its Capterra score.
- 96 ratings and a 4.4 average score on the iOS App Store
- 122 ratings and a 4.2 average score on the Google Play Store
- 53 ratings and a 4.8 average score on Capterra
As by far the largest company offering a time clock app for construction companies, Intuit (QuickBooks’ parent org) can afford to throw substantially more development resources into optimizing mobile experiences than its competitors.
However, scale alone is never a guarantee of quality, so QuickBooks Time’s 4.5-plus average scores on all three platforms should be worth noting, especially if you’re already using QuickBooks for payroll or other financial processes.
Despite this advantage, QuickBooks Workforce might be on the downslope of quality, as more recent App Store reviews seem more negative than those posted before 2020. The only front-page iOS reviews posted for QuickBooks Workforce in 2023 give the app one star, with user harveyarley calling its recent iterations “very disappointing”:
(Click here for more QuickBooks Time / Workforce iOS reviews.)
Android user Dawson Stroud also gives QuickBooks Workforce one star on the Play Store, calling it “basically unusable” and prone to crashing and freezing within the past month of this article’s publication:
(Click here for more QuickBooks Time / Workforce Android reviews.)
Over on Capterra, recent reviews are more positive, with managers or admins from many different industries highlighting QuickBooks Time’s ease of use. This ease is one of the most common upsides mentioned by Capterra reviewers like construction director Joe J., who gets right to the point – it’s “worth it” as an alternative to client-focused scheduling apps like Calendly.
This is an interesting comparison, since we don’t talk to many construction businesses looking to switch from this type of scheduling app:
- Free trial for 30 days
- Premium: $8 / mo. per user + $20 monthly base fee
- Elite: $10 / mo. per user + $40 monthly base fee
3
ClockShark: 7.65
Software Scoring: ClockShark
Overall Score: 7.65
Ease of Use
7
Job Tracking
8
Time Tracking Accuracy
7
Labor Law Compliance
9
Scheduling Features
9
Integrations
6
Customer Support
8
Company
8
Key Features
- GPS time clock and geofencing
- Mobile, web-based, and physical kiosk-based time tracking
- Employee scheduling app
- Track employee vacation and sick leave
- Job management and job costing
- Customer management and recordkeeping
- Built-in quoting, invoicing, and payment processing
- Popular payroll integrations
Best For
- Smaller and midsize field service businesses
- Franchise businesses with distributed (field) teams
- Companies needing integrated customer invoicing and payments
- Home services businesses (healthcare, house cleaning, etc.)
- Businesses needing different clock-in options (mobile, web, kiosk)
Potential Pitfalls
- Recent app updates have produced inaccurate GPS tracking results
- Lack of customizable clock-in and clock-out rules
- Time and data entry can occasionally be cumbersome
- Can have mobile connectivity issues while phone is online
ClockShark is one of the more established construction time clock apps on the market. Its value proposition centers on helping construction and field service companies track crew time, so users should expect ClockShark to offer a range of tailored features to help them handle industry-specific issues.
Over time, ClockShark has built other helpful features for construction businesses into its time-clock offering, too. The app’s built-in customer relationship management (CRM) system focuses less on customer acquisition than standalone CRMs. Still, it provides a helpfully centralized dashboard for maintaining records of new and existing customers, which can also streamline job and project management.
ClockShark also offers integrated invoicing and payment processing functions, a great value-add for businesses serving large volumes of customers with smaller-value projects, like handymen or cleaning services. These features might not completely eliminate the need for dedicated payroll and finance apps like QuickBooks, but they could save time while improving cash flow by speeding the time it takes to settle customer payments into a business’ bank account.
What Users Say About ClockShark
Users on Capterra love ClockShark – almost more so than any other app we’ve reviewed here – but the front-line employees more likely to use ClockShark’s mobile app are a bit more divided. Let’s take a closer look at what folks are saying about the ClockShark experience across these three review platforms…
- 239 ratings and a 3.0 average score on the iOS App Store
- 914 ratings and a 3.5 average score on the Google Play Store
- 1,890+ ratings and a 4.8 average score on Capterra
A recent review from user “Awesumpossum” (a cool name some older Millennials will recognize as the title of an underrated Sega Genesis game from the early 90s) highlights conveniences, offset by some inconveniences with reporting their time. This may or may not be an onboarding issue, as ClockShark responded to note their app has default shift times.
It’s unclear if this is what Awesumpossum was referring to, as “duplicating consistent info” could go beyond tracking time with pre-set shift periods. Still, it’s good to see the ClockShark team chiming in to try helping this user with their issue!
(Click here for more ClockShark iOS reviews.)
Ray Vincent gave ClockShark’s Android app 4 stars less than two months ago, calling it “overall… pretty good at keeping track of time,” but also noting issues with time zones (which could be Google’s fault), battery usage, and location-based clock-ins.
Battery drain is a commonly reported issue with many construction time clock apps, but many developers have responded to these issues by noting their app isn’t supposed to drain your battery. The one ClockShark-specific quibble, over GPS accuracy, is worth noting for companies that need precise location-based time tracking.
(Click here for more TimeShark Android reviews.)
Over on Capterra, recent reviews are more positive, with managers or admins from many different industries highlighting QuickBooks Time’s ease of use. This ease is one of the most common upsides mentioned by Capterra reviewers like construction director Joe J., who gets right to the point – it’s “worth it” as an alternative to client-focused scheduling apps like Calendly.
This is an interesting comparison, since we don’t talk to many construction businesses looking to switch from this type of scheduling app:
- Free trial (no credit card needed) for 14 days
- Standard: $8 / mo. per user + $40 base fee
- Pro: $10 / mo. per user + $60 base fee
4
Time Doctor: 7.05
Software Scoring: Time Doctor
Overall Score: 7.05
Ease of Use
6
Job Tracking
7
Time Tracking Accuracy
7
Labor Law Compliance
7
Scheduling Features
7
Integrations
9
Customer Support
7
Company
8
Key Features
- Automated time tracking with offline functionality
- Worker productivity reporting and analytics
- Real-time employee monitoring dashboards
- Scheduling and workforce management
- Scheduling and workforce management
Best For
- Hybrid workforces (in-office and field workers)
- Technology-focused companies (service providers and agencies)
- Larger businesses operating from a centralized location
- White-collar companies needing compliance (breaks, PTO, etc.) tracking
Potential Pitfalls
- Integrations only available on Standard and Premium plans
- No native project and/or job cost tracking tools
- Some frustrating UI / usability issues for managers
- May not be ideal for field services businesses
- Time tracking seems somewhat inconsistent on mobile devices
Like QuickBooks Time, Time Doctor is a more generalized time-tracking tool, but it does focus more on white-collar workforces – customer experience teams and technology providers are two use cases the company highlights on its website.
This focus on businesses more reliant on desktop PC connections could explain the massive discrepancy between Time Doctor’s review scores on Capterra (a desktop-focused review platform) and its scores on the iOS and Android app stores.
Time Doctor’s unfortunate reality is that it’s offered mobile apps for years – some highlighted reviews on the Apple and Android app stores are from 2015 or even earlier – but seems to have been putting off making its mobile apps truly functional for years as well, since more recent posts echo the same usability issues highlighted nearly a decade ago.
If your team’s time-tracking needs could be handled by a centralized PC or tablet “kiosk” at a single location, Time Doctor’s simplified time-tracking could be beneficial. If your team’s always on the move, it’s probably not the best choice.
What Users Say About Time Doctor
Time Doctor has one of the largest scoring gaps between its mobile apps and its Capterra reviews of any construction time clock app we reviewed:
- 28 ratings and a 2.8 average score on the iOS App Store
- 220 ratings and a 2.4 average score on the Google Play Store
- 521 ratings and a 4.5 average score on Capterra
Time Doctor’s recent iOS users seem to want the app to succeed, but can’t overlook its glaring issues. C. L. Crocker wrote an extensive negative review highlighting Time Doctor’s “wasted potential,” which is a bit long to screenshot in full. You can read C. L.’s entire review at the link below this screenshot, which is one of the most informative user reviews we’ve seen lately for any time clock app:
(Click here for more Time Doctor iOS reviews.)
Android user Heather Shaw doesn’t mince words, getting right to the point by calling Time Doctor’s Android app “horrific” due to its frequent crashes and inaccuracies:
(Click here for more Time Doctor Android reviews.)
As has often been the case with this type of app, Capterra’s reviewers are far kinder to Time Doctor than its mobile reviewers.
Construction agent Ezechiel D. praises the app’s simplicity and ease of use, but also calls out an unspecified “confidentiality problem,” which might be worth investigating for any company looking for tight data security from their time-tracking apps:
- Free trial for 14 days
- Basic: $7 / mo. per user
- Standard: $10 / mo. per user
- Premium: $20 / mo. per user
5
ExakTime: 5.85
Software Scoring: ExakTime
Overall Score: 5.85
Ease of Use
6
Job Tracking
5
Time Tracking Accuracy
7
Labor Law Compliance
0
Scheduling Features
7
Integrations
7
Customer Support
6
Company
8
Key Features
Best For
- Companies with large workforces in one location
- Construction businesses that need easy time-tracking on multiple devices
- Companies that need biometric verification for clock-ins
- Construction businesses looking for an “all-in-one” package (with Arcoro)
Potential Pitfalls
- Most price tiers require you to contact sales for a custom quote
- Can be finicky for field workers traveling to multiple locations
- Time tracking records have been reported as inaccurate in reviews
- App runs slowly on some worker phones
ExakTime’s construction time clock app works for teams of all sizes. It’s optimized for construction companies with larger crews, providing the tools team leaders and managers need to streamline time tracking and workforce monitoring.
ExakTime is built to help you manage multiple teams working across multiple locations, and it also offers actionable reporting on project costs and compliance.
The company that makes ExakTime, Arcoro, also provides modular HR management software for construction companies and similarly-positioned contractors. This makes ExakTime a key component of Arcoro’s end-to-end employee lifecycle management solution, situated between Arcoro’s hiring and onboarding functions and its larger-company growth tools for learning management and succession planning.
What Users Say About ExakTime
ExakTime’s users have given it a range of reviews and scores across the three main app-review platforms:
- 223 ratings and a 2.9 average score on the iOS App Store
- 1,320+ ratings and a 3.8 average score on the Google Play Store
- 174 ratings and a 4.0 average score on Capterra
Unfortunately, many of ExakTime’s written mobile app store reviews tend to be negative, which is somewhat typical of online reviews – the old(ish) marketing adage is that people are much more likely to leave bad reviews, and a business often needs 20 positive reviews to offset a single bad one.
JTron isn’t a fan of ExakTime’s recent update on iOS:
(Click here for more ExakTime iOS reviews.)
The Android app has a mix of upbeat and negative reviews, which may be due to improvements made over time – user Drew Markezinis upgraded his initial rating thanks to ExakTime’s on-point customer service:
(Click here for more ExakTime Android reviews.)
The app has more fans on Capterra than on these other platforms. HR manager Brandon H. gave ExakTime 4 stars across the board just a few months ago:
- Advanced: $9 / mo. per user + $50 monthly base fee
- Premium: Must contact sales for a custom quote
- Elite: Must contact sales for a custom quote
6
Clockify: 7.75
Software Scoring: Clockify
Overall Score: 7.75
Ease of Use
9
Job Tracking
9
Time Tracking Accuracy
7
Labor Law Compliance
8
Scheduling Features
7
Integrations
6
Customer Support
8
Company
8
Key Features
- Time tracker (mobile app, web-based, and kiosk)
- Timesheet reminders, manual editing, and approvals
- Integrations with popular payroll and productivity apps
- Visual analytics dashboard and reporting
- Map-based worker activity tracking
- Project tracking and budgeting
- Calendar-based scheduling with Outlook + Google integrations
- Expense reporting and invoicing
Best For
- Smaller businesses looking to start with a free time tracker
- White-collar service providers with centralized offices
- Companies looking for integrated expense tracking and invoicing
- Companies that want to integrate other calendars (Outlook or Google)
- Businesses focused on productivity and project management
Potential Pitfalls
- Few payroll integrations (only connects natively to QuickBooks)
- Can have syncing issues between devices (PC and mobile apps)
- May not work for widely distributed teams (multi-state or time zone)
- Time tracking relies too much on manual user input
- Lack of industry-specific features
There’s a reason Clockify floats to the top of most searches for and discussions about “free time clock apps” – it’s one of the few tools on the market with a truly unlimited free trial that actually works for tracking employee time.
Clockify’s lack of upfront costs make it a great choice for businesses just beginning to hire and expand their workforces, as it can be actively tested for months before team size and business requirements might demand an upgrade to one of the company’s paid plans. These paid plans add critical features to the Clockify toolkit, such as break tracking, manual timesheet editing, complex reporting, and (at higher subscription tiers) GPS tracking and budgeting, among other things.
However, larger companies might need more precision and adaptability than Clockify provides in its time clock app.
One area of weakness is the app’s available integrations for construction companies. Clockify has a native QuickBooks integration, but there are no other payroll and finance apps with native support – you’ll need someone with decent tech skills to set something up through Zapier if you use Zero or FreshBooks, for example. There are plenty of project-management integrations available for office workers who rely on such apps, but Jira and Trello aren’t as popular among construction companies as they are with software development teams and marketing orgs.
What Users Say About Clockify
Clockify’s “free forever” time tracking functionality has earned it quite a few fans across the three major review platforms we examined. Not only does it have more reviews in total on each of the platforms than any app we reviewed other than QuickBooks Time, its average scores hold up quite well on all three platforms as well:
- 2,000+ ratings and a 4.6 average score on the iOS App Store
- 1,930+ ratings and a 4.0 average score on the Google Play Store
- 4,770+ ratings and a 4.7 average score on Capterra
A recent App Store review from lulu008 highlights the value of Clockify’s free app – this statement isn’t as oxymoronic as you might think, since any software, regardless of its price, still has to be functional and beneficial for people to keep using it. This review also highlights the “grace period,” so to speak, many users give to good free apps, as lulu008 politely mentions Clockify’s learning curve without dinging its score.
(Click here for more Clockify iOS reviews.)
Over on the Play Store, Max Pierson-Lienard recently gave Clockify three stars because, as he says, “there’s not a lot of benefit [to the Android app] over using Clockify in the browser” – which seems to undermine the use case for field workers, who are typically the ideal users of mobile construction time clock apps:
(Click here for more Clockify Android reviews.)
Clockify’s free-first approach and focus (at least according to Max above) on its web app has brought it nearly 5,000 user reviews on Capterra, averaging one of the highest Capterra scores for this category.
The only real drawback to such a wide range of reviews is that few come from construction professionals. We searched hundreds of recent reviews to find the most recent post from construction pro Ali J, who gave Clockify 5 stars across the board:
- Unlimited free trial for basic time tracking
- Basic: $4.99 / mo. per user
- Standard: $6.99 / mo. per user
- Pro: $9.99 / mo. per user
- Enterprise: $14.99 / mo. per user
7
Buddy Punch: 8.35
Software Scoring: Buddy Punch
Overall Score: 8.35
Ease of Use
9
Job Tracking
7
Time Tracking Accuracy
9
Labor Law Compliance
9
Scheduling Features
9
Integrations
6
Customer Support
8
Company
8
Key Features
- Employee time-tracking and time card app
- Time off tracking and overtime monitoring
- Flexible clock-in clock-out options (PIN, QR code, facial recognition, password)
- Online employee scheduling software
- Drag-and-drop schedule management
- Customizable clock-in and clock-out rules and limits
- Integrated automated payroll processing
Best For
- Companies that need flexibility in their clock-in and clock-out options
- Smaller and midsize businesses in need of detailed labor compliance tracking
- Companies managing workers across multiple offices or jobsites
- Businesses looking for biometric clock-in and clock-out functionality
- Companies that want to run payroll from their time clock app
Potential Pitfalls
- Only offers native integrations for payroll software (QuickBooks, Paychex, etc.)
- Better optimized for smaller businesses than enterprise companies
- Mobile apps may occasionally have connectivity issues or recordkeeping bugs
- Requires some setup before workers can use mobile apps
Buddy Punch offers robust time-tracking functionality in an app oriented towards smaller and midsized businesses looking for detailed solutions to handle employee wages. This functionality can be extended with a dedicated payroll app available for an additional (but undisclosed) fee – since this feature isn’t part of any core Buddy Punch subscription tiers, it wasn’t considered as part of our scoring criteria.
One thing Buddy Punch does have to put it above most competitors is its detailed labor law compliance functions and settings. The app allows you to choose from over a dozen overtime settings, track and/or manually manage PTO, sick leave, and vacation time, and even set up automatic break-time triggers.
What Users Say About Buddy Punch
Buddy Punch users have awarded it the highest overall scores across the three platforms we examined, which is notable because the app also has a solid number of reviews on each platform, indicating a fairly sizable user base of happy folks:
- 382 ratings and a 4.9 average score on the iOS App Store
- 203 ratings and a 4.7 average score on the Google Play Store
- 928 ratings and a 4.8 average score on Capterra
While most reviews on the App Store award Buddy Punch 5 stars, some users have discovered the app might not be properly tailored to their business’ needs. A South Florida caterer with a rather large field-based workforce found Buddy Punch to be a bit error-prone when tracking as-needed labor – but to be fair, we’ve yet to come across a time clock app that promotes its ability to “deactivate” workers to save a few bucks if they aren’t called in to work on a given month:
(Click here for more Buddy Punch iOS reviews.)
Buddy Punch Android user Dwight Kilgore gets right to the point – the app is “awesome at keeping payroll on time” for his company:
(Click here for more Buddy Punch Android reviews.)
Construction controller Kerry H. is also straightforwardly upbeat about his experience with Buddy Punch, awarding it a straight 5 stars across the board – his one quibble, regarding setup (an onboarding issue typically handled by support staff or a knowledge base) seems minor, as he seems to have been able to quickly overcome it:
- Free trial for 14 days
- Standard: $4.99 / mo. per user + $19 base fee
- Pro: $5.99 / mo. per user + $19 base fee
- Premium: $7.99 / mo. per user + $19 base fee
- Enterprise: Must contact sales for pricing
8
Timeero: 7.50
Software Scoring: Timeero
Overall Score: 7.50
Ease of Use
7
Job Tracking
6
Time Tracking Accuracy
8
Labor Law Compliance
8
Scheduling Features
8
Integrations
6
Customer Support
9
Company
8
Key Features
Best For
- Businesses with residential field workers (home health, direct sales, etc.)
- Smaller and midsize field teams
- Blue-collar businesses with outdoor workforces (energy, agriculture, etc.)
- Home care agencies in need of EVV-compliant software
Potential Pitfalls
- User interface can be frustrating for managers and/or admins
- Lacks job costing and project-tracking functionality
- Mobile apps occasionally have issues with bugs and crashes
- Offers native integrations for finance-focused software (QuickBooks, Paychex, etc.)
Timeero offers useful time-tracking to businesses ranging from agriculture to nonprofits, which is such a broad target as to present it as a something-for-everyone alternative to QuickBooks Time. This isn’t to say Timeero doesn’t have any valued features for specific industries. It’s the only time clock app we reviewed to highlight a tool built for healthcare – its EVV compliance system for home health care agencies.
In practice, this system appears to simply be Timeero’s team working behind the scenes to ensure its GPS time- and mileage-tracking and scheduling tools comply with federal Electronic Visit Verification guidelines. That’s an undoubtedly valuable benefit for home health agencies, but it’s somewhat less meaningful to construction companies.
Anyone responsible for implementing a construction time clock app but feeling nervous about the process might also want to consider Timeero. Its support team earned far more call-outs in its user reviews than any other app we examined, as you’ll see below.
However, one downside to Timeero is that users are expected to clock out and clock back in again when switching tasks for a job — even if it’s the same job. This may not be an issue for small-scale field service work like snaking drains or trimming trees, but tracking more complex projects through Timeero could result in worker frustration.
What Users Say About Timeero
Timeero is one of the newer construction time clock apps, reflected by the recency – and relatively small number – of its ratings. Most written reviews on the iOS App Store were posted on or after 2022, while most Timeero’s Android and Capterra reviews were given on or after 2020:
- 68 ratings and a 4.4 average score on the iOS App Store
- 137 ratings and a 3.8 average score on the Google Play Store
- 70 ratings and a 4.4 average score on Capterra
One common element in Timeero’s mobile app store reviews is its dedication to customer service and support. These words show up repeatedly, often preceded by “great” or other superlatives, as in Ty H.’s review from this past December:
(Click here for more Timeero iOS reviews.)
Android Sam Massaro also praised Katelyn’s help in overcoming an unspecified issue with his mobile app (maybe software support executives should consider hiring her away from Timeero):
Unfortunately, Timeero’s amazing support team seems to be carrying a heavy load for its Android app, which has been repeatedly dinged for bugs and crashes over the past year – user Bo Hunt called out these problems less than a week before Sam praised their support experience:
(Click here for more Timeero Android reviews.)
Guess what Timeero’s Capterra reviewers love? If you guessed “great customer support,” you’d be right! The trend across these three platforms certainly highlights the value of world-class service, which has helped Timeero retain customers and earn better reviews despite its occasional bugs. Construction executive assistant Kimberly B. gave Timeero a 4-star average in no small part because of Amy’s dedication to helping fix her issues:
- Free trial for 14 days
- Basic: $4 / mo. per user
- Premium: $8 / mo. per user
- Pro: $11 / mo. per user
- Enterprise: Must contact sales for pricing (250+ users)
9
busybusy: 7.85
Software Scoring: busybusy
Overall Score: 7.85
Ease of Use
9
Job Tracking
9
Time Tracking Accuracy
7
Labor Law Compliance
9
Scheduling Features
8
Integrations
8
Customer Support
7
Company
7
Key Features
- Easy employee time tracking with mobile time clock and timesheets
- Heavy equipment tracking app (usage-based)
- Construction job costing software
- Scheduling with map views and real-time notifications
- Employee and equipment GPS tracking
- Project, activity, employee, and equipment reporting
- Compliance tracking and reporting (breaks, OT, injuries, etc.)
Best For
- General and specialty construction contractors working multiple locations
- Construction (or other) companies reliant on heavy equipment
- Blue-collar businesses in need of extensive compliance recordkeeping
- Specialized field workforces (fire protection, janitorial, moving, etc.)
Potential Pitfalls
- Free trial is not fully featured (may not be able to fully assess usability)
- GPS tracking is sometimes less precise than needed
- Workers sometimes dislike the feeling of being “constantly” tracked
- Customization options (projects, scheduling) seem somewhat limited
Busybusy (which insists on being uncapitalized, as in “busybusy,” whenever it isn’t the first word of a sentence) has two unique top-line selling points we didn’t see from the other construction time clock apps in this review.
First, it’s the only time-tracking app to promise effective equipment management tools, which could be valuable for construction companies in the demolition or excavation niches – or really, for any construction company fielding a lot of expensive, powerful, and typically yellow-painted big boy toys.
Busybusy is also the only app to promote injury reports in its labor compliance toolkit. This feature seems like a no-brainer for construction companies. While the construction industry overall has fewer reported injuries per 100 workers than the U.S. average, the strenuous physical nature of the work can result in more serious injury when it does occur, making compliance essential to avoid legal issues and serious penalties or jury awards against your business.
What Users Say About busybusy
Busybusy is one of just a handful of time clock apps we reviewed to put a focus on construction companies front and center – the other apps to highlight support for construction on their homepages were Workyard, ClockShark, and ExakTime.
This focus makes it somewhat easier for construction companies to assess busybusy’s value, and at least on this basis, busybusy holds up well against these direct competitors, as Workyard’s construction time clock app is the only one with higher user ratings across these three review platforms:
- 835 ratings and a 4.2 average score on the iOS App Store
- 418 ratings and a 4.1 average score on the Google Play Store
- 174 ratings and a 4.5 average score on Capterra
Most of busybusy’s written iOS user reviews are on the older side – only two on the main App Store reviews page were posted after 2019, and neither are positive. User langggg408 found the busybusy iOS app hard to navigate, at least to features that matter for different types of construction employees:
(Click here for more busybusy iOS reviews.)
Busybusy’s Android users are divided between general contentment with the app’s accuracy and resentment at the sense they’re being tracked all the time – and frustration with some of its bugs.
As with most other apps we’ve reviewed, user resistance to “constant tracking” seems like something companies could address with more comprehensive onboarding processes, which explains why busybusy’s support staff has been seen gently pushing back against Android reviews accusing it of invading their privacy:
(Click here for more busybusy Android reviews.)
On Capterra, civil engineering administrator Kelly M. appreciates the greater ease of time-tracking and timesheet entries with busybusy, especially when integrating the app with her company’s QuickBooks accounts. She also praises busybusy’s “great customer service,” which has been shown to make a real difference in a user’s experience with construction time clock apps throughout these reviews:
- “Free forever” free trial with limited features
- Pro: $11.99 / mo. per user
- Premium: $17.99 / mo. per user
Our Scoring System Explained
Our 8-part scoring system was created to help you understand the potential value of any software we review simply and fairly.
We created it after reviewing dozens of software products, which we covered in depth, but without providing a direct and simple way for readers to compare products on their merits – without spending a lot of time looking through our articles for the information they needed to make an informed decision.
Every app we review will include Customer Support and Company scores, which we’ll explain in more detail below. Many of the factors reviewed in this article will also be consistent across most (or all) of our software reviews, with some differences:
The 8 factors assessed and their contribution to a product’s overall score may differ slightly from product to product based on various factors, such as the use case we’re reviewing for, the type of business these products are tailored to, and other considerations. However, all reviews will feature an 8-part score, weighted and combined to calculate each product’s overall score.
You’ll find more detail on our methodology and process in the expandable items below.
All factors in our reviews are scored on a 10-point scale – technically 11 points – from 0-10. However, we only give products a score of 0 if it does not include an essential feature at all, and we try to avoid giving out 0 scores if a product can demonstrate any functionality in line with the specific factor being reviewed.
In general, the 0-10 range translates as:
- 9.0 – 10 – One of the absolute best in its category (amazing).
- 7.5 – 8.9 – Very good, but with some minor issues (very good).
- 6.0 – 7.4 – Mediocre performance with notable shortcomings (average).
- 3.0 – 5.9 – This feature is not ready for prime time (borderline).
- 1.0 – 2.9 – This feature actually makes its product worse (unacceptable).
- 0 – The product doesn’t include this important feature at all.
The 8 factors reviewed are weighted based on an overall total of 100%:
- Ease of Use: 20%
- Time Tracking Accuracy: 20%
- Scheduling Features: 15%
- Job Tracking: 10%
- Labor Law Compliance: 10%
- Integrations: 10%
- Customer Support: 10%
- Company: 5%
Ease of Use
We evaluate a product’s ease of use based on three main considerations:
- How easy is it to set up this app?
- How easy is it for managers to use the backend dashboard?
- How easy is it for frontline workers to use the (mobile) app?
These three considerations cover the main ways you and your team would use the software being reviewed – when you first obtain it, when someone (a manager, executive, team leader, or similar role) needs to use it to manage people, money, data, and other things, and when workers you’re tracking use the app (usually a mobile version of the software designed for frontline and/or field team members) to clock in, clock out, record time worked, or address other day-to-day needs.
Time Tracking Accuracy
Every minute matters when you’re trying to control payroll costs. This factor accounts for various features and common needs in time-tracking apps, such as…
- How accurate or precise is its GPS tracking capability?
- How accurate – and how customizable – is its geofencing feature?
- How accurate is its travel and mileage tracking (if available)?
- Can it automatically clock workers in and out based on the above?
- Can you set and/or restrict rules for clocking in and out?
- Can the app continue tracking workers while offline?
- How easy is its mobile app and/or kiosk for frontline workers?
Scheduling Features
Many construction businesses prefer to manage as many aspects of employee labor activity as possible in a single app, which is why many time-tracking apps also include worker scheduling as a core feature.
When we consider a product’s scheduling features, we look at:
- Its dashboard customizability (daily, weekly, or monthly views).
- Its project-based scheduling and visibility.
- Its real-time updates and notifications for workers.
- Its real-time map views of worker locations for best-fit scheduling.
- Its recurring schedule (copies to subsequent weeks, etc.) functionality.
Job Tracking
This factor helps you understand if the software can also provide insight into specific projects, which is particularly handy when your business deals with many customers or clients who generally need shorter-term work. Effective job tracking typically also includes accurate job costing functionality for construction companies.
We assess several things when calculating a product’s job tracking score:
- Its project-based tracking for multiple projects per day/week/etc.
- Its ability to track multiple / many projects simultaneously.
- Its use of (and your ability to customize) construction cost codes.
- Any built-in job costing views.
- Any integrations for cost coding (QuickBooks etc.).
Labor Law Compliance
The best time-tracking apps go beyond simply recording employee time on the job – they also include one or more features to help ensure your construction company complies with all relevant local, state, and federal labor laws. Compliant time tracking can make a big difference to your bottom line!
Here’s what we look at when assessing a product’s compliance features:
- Is overtime calculated automatically (and accurately)?
- Are breaks tracked and recorded (automatically or otherwise)?
- Are there built-in location-based compliance rules (cities and states)?
- Are there detailed change logs for any manual timesheet edits?
Integrations
No business can operate on a single app, which is why integrations with other apps and tools are such important aspects of modern business software.
To calculate a product’s integration score, we’ll examine:
- How many native integrations (the simplest connection) does it offer?
- How effective and easy-to-use are its integrations with payroll software?
- Does it have robust data import and export features?
Customer Support
Learning how to use a new app can be frustrating, even if it’s meant to be the most user-friendly app around. That’s why great customer support is so essential when considering which time-tracking app to use.
Customer support scores are calculated based on:
- Live support channels available (phone, email, chat, etc.).
- Live support hours (business hours only, 24/7, etc.).
- The strength of the product’s online help center and/or FAQs.
- What other users say about support in online reviews.
Company
A great company with a highly customer-friendly approach can often make up for shortcomings in their software products – at least up to a point.
When assessing this score, we’ll examine:
- Transparency (easy-to-find pricing, etc.)
- Trial period (duration, feature availability, credit card requirements, etc.).
- Subscription flexibility (contracts, required durations, etc.).
- Ease of cancellation or pausing subscriptions.
- Customer perceptions (online product reviews).
- Website (a minor consideration, but great companies tend to have great websites).
Any questions about our scoring system? Have any suggestions on how we could make it even better? Click here to send us your feedback – we’d love to hear from you!
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