(650) 332-8623Best Heavy Civil Construction Time Tracking Software in 2026
The best heavy civil construction time tracking software for GPS-verified hours, cost codes, and DOT compliance in 2026.
Quick Answer
Workyard is the best heavy civil construction time tracking software for contractors who need GPS-verified hours by job and cost code. It gives self-perform crews on scattered DOT sites accurate time cards and polygon geofencing, with data that flows straight into payroll, without a full project-management suite you won’t use.
HCSS HeavyJob fits crews already running HeavyBid for estimating. ExakTime and busybusy cover GPS clock-in and job costing on a budget. Raken’s geofencing is radius-based rather than polygon, so it’s strong on daily reporting but less precise on irregular sites. Procore’s time module only makes sense if you’re already paying for its full construction-management platform.
Disclosure: Workyard built this roundup using our own product knowledge, publicly available pricing and review data, and our review methodology. Workyard is a paid product. We’ve disclosed pricing for every competitor as accurately as public sources allow.
Heavy civil work doesn’t run like a residential remodeler’s five-person crew. Self-perform teams spread across a highway corridor, a bridge deck, and a lift station miles apart, tracking equipment hours alongside crew hours on DOT-funded jobs that require certified payroll.
Cost codes tie to pay items instead of simple task buckets, so a generic time clock app breaks down fast. The best heavy civil construction time tracking software has to handle GPS verification across those dispersed sites, split-shift cost-code allocation tied to job costing, and clean data handoff to whatever payroll system you’re already running. That’s the same core discipline as employee time tracking in general, just under harsher, more scattered jobsite conditions.
We compared six tools contractors actually ask about for this work: Workyard, HCSS HeavyJob, ExakTime, busybusy, Raken, and Procore. Below is how each one holds up on GPS accuracy, cost-code tracking, certified payroll fit, and price.
List of best heavy civil construction time tracking software
| Software | GPS & geofencing | Job costing/cost codes | Certified payroll support | Starting price |
| Workyard | Polygon geofencing plus GPS breadcrumb trails that separate drive time from jobsite time | Cost-code allocation, split shifts across multiple codes in one day | GPS-verified, audit-ready hours feed directly into payroll for certified payroll processing | $6/user/mo (Starter, billed annually) |
| HCSS HeavyJob | Geofencing is equipment-focused (via HCSS Telematics) | Deep pay-item and quantity tracking tied to HeavyBid estimates | Contract compliance and T&M billing features built for DOT work | Contact sales |
| ExakTime (Arcoro Time) | GPS, geofencing, and FaceFront biometric verification | Cost-code tracking on time cards | Payroll sync to Sage/Foundation; no native certified payroll calculation | $9/user/mo |
| busybusy | GPS breadcrumb tracking and geofencing | Job costing and material tracking | No native certified payroll; feeds accounting integrations | Free; paid plans from $9.99/user/mo + $40 admin license |
| Raken | Radius-based geofencing, can restrict clock-in to the jobsite radius | Production tracking on the Performance tier; daily reports are the core product | No native certified payroll | Contact sales |
| Procore | Time tracking is a module inside the PM suite, not a dedicated GPS clock | Tied to project financials, not job-costing-first | No native certified payroll; complementary to a dedicated time tool | Contact sales (volume-based) |
How we chose
We ranked these six tools on GPS accuracy across dispersed sites, cost-code and pay-item tracking, certified payroll fit, ease of use in the field, and transparent pricing, using public pricing pages, review-platform ratings, and Workyard’s own customer data. Full criteria are in our review methodology.
How to choose the best heavy civil construction time tracking software
The right tool has to handle four things a residential or light-commercial contractor never has to think about:
- GPS accuracy on dispersed, unmarked sites. A highway corridor or pipeline right-of-way doesn’t have a storefront address. Polygon geofencing, which traces the actual jobsite boundary, handles this better than a circle drawn around a point.
- Cost codes tied to pay items and equipment hours. Heavy civil job costing runs off pay items and unit pricing, not flat task buckets, so the software needs to split a single shift across multiple cost codes cleanly.
- Certified payroll and prevailing wage on DOT-funded jobs. Self-performing on federally funded projects means you need GPS-verified, audit-ready hours by classification. That’s what makes certified payroll time tracking software useful, over a tool that just claims generic “compliance.”
- Crew adoption in the field. Operators and laborers on 10-hour shifts in the heat won’t fight with a clunky app. Simple clock-in, minimal manual entry, and offline reliability matter more here than a long feature list.
Fit also depends on how your industry segment typically tracks time, since heavy civil differs from residential and light-commercial work in these exact ways. Heavy highway construction time tracking adds its own wrinkle to that broader heavy civil construction software picture: crews and equipment move along the route over weeks, so geofencing has to keep pace with a shifting job boundary, not just one fixed site.
6 of the best heavy civil construction time tracking software
Here’s a closer look at how each of these six stacks up for heavy civil and heavy highway contractors, based on the criteria above.
1. Workyard – Best overall
Workyard is built for contractors who need to know, without argument, where a crew was and what that time cost. It works as a construction operations platform, not a single point tool, so GPS time data connects to job costing and payroll instead of living in its own silo. On a heavy civil site, that means GPS-verified clock-ins across scattered locations and cost codes that match your pay items. Hours flow straight into payroll instead of a spreadsheet. One operations manager at a large civil contractor told us the switch freed up two full days a week for a four-person payroll team.
The core of Workyard’s GPS tracking is polygon geofencing. Instead of a circle around a point address, which misses the real boundary of a highway right-of-way, Workyard traces the actual jobsite property line. GPS breadcrumb tracking separates drive time from jobsite time. Workyard doesn’t calculate certified payroll itself; it captures GPS-verified hours by cost code and feeds that data into the payroll system that handles the math.
Features
- Polygon and radius geofencing with GPS breadcrumb trails
- Cost-code allocation across split shifts, tied to jobs and pay items
- Smart Forms for daily reports and safety, with geofence-triggered forms
- Time Assistant to reassign hours to the correct project or cost code
- Payroll export to QuickBooks, Gusto, Sage, ADP, and Foundation
GPS-verified time cards for dispersed crews
GPS verification has to hold up across multiple irregular jobsite boundaries at once. It can’t drain a worker’s phone battery over a 10-hour shift. Workyard’s tracking sleeps when a worker isn’t moving and reports battery status at clock-in.
Time Assistant fixes cost-code mistakes before payroll runs
Split-classification tracking lets a single shift span multiple cost codes and pay items, with GPS timestamps attached, so hours are audit-ready for certified payroll.
When a worker gets logged to the wrong job or cost code, Time Assistant lets an admin move that time with a plain-language request instead of digging through timecards by hand. Falcon Drilling & Blasting moved off email, text, and paper timecards scattered across a Midwest crew to one GPS-verified system for this reason.
Pricing
- Free trial or free plan: Yes, a 14-day free trial.
- Starter: $6 per user /month, billed annually. Monthly billing also available.
- Pro, Autopilot, and Enterprise: Contact our sales team for pricing.
If you have 50+ users, speak to our team for a discounted quote.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Polygon geofencing fits irregular, dispersed heavy civil sites better than radius-only geofencing | Doesn’t calculate certified payroll itself; relies on your payroll system for the compliance math |
| Cost-code data is audit-ready for certified payroll handoff, not just a generic time log | Pro, Autopilot, and Enterprise pricing requires a sales call |
| Transparent Starter pricing published up front, unlike most competitors here | No built-in estimating or bid tie-in like HCSS HeavyJob offers |
| Payroll exports work directly with QuickBooks, Sage, ADP, Gusto, and Foundation | Larger operations (500+ field workers) should confirm fit with sales |
Ratings
Workyard earns its highest marks where contractors leave the most detailed feedback, with Capterra and G2 both above 4.7, backed by solid 4.0 and 3.8 scores on the App Store and Google Play.
| App Store | Google Play | Capterra | G2 |
| 4.0 ⭐(241 ratings) | 3.8 ⭐(252 ratings) | 4.7 ⭐(102 reviews) | 4.8 ⭐(50 reviews) |
Workyard is best for heavy civil and DOT contractors who need GPS-verified, cost-code-level time data without buying a full estimating or PM suite. Book a demo to see how it fits your job structure.
2. HCSS HeavyJob – Best for heavy civil job costing and estimating tie-in
HCSS built HeavyJob specifically for heavy civil and heavy highway contractors, and it shows in how the product handles pay items. HeavyJob’s digital timecards capture crew hours, equipment hours, and production quantities together, then tie that data straight back into HCSS HeavyBid for estimating. That closes the loop between what a self-perform GC bid and what it actually spent, the core discipline of heavy civil job costing.
The tradeoff: HeavyJob is really the field-data half of a two-product system built around HeavyBid, so contractors who don’t already estimate there may find less value in the integration. Contractors researching an HCSS HeavyJob alternative for GPS time tracking, without also adopting HeavyBid, should look at Workyard, ExakTime, or busybusy instead.
Features
- Digital timecards covering crew hours, equipment hours, and quantities in one entry
- Pay-item and contract-compliance tracking built for DOT-funded work
- Time and materials billing support
- Integration with HeavyBid estimating and Sage, Viewpoint, and QuickBooks accounting
Pricing
HCSS does not publish pricing. Contractors need to contact HCSS sales for a quote.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Purpose-built for heavy civil pay items and equipment-hour tracking | No published pricing; every quote requires a sales call |
| Tight tie-in with HeavyBid for bid-to-actual comparison | Full value depends on also using HeavyBid, which adds cost and complexity |
| Strong fit for DOT contract-compliance and T&M billing needs | Less clear GPS geofencing depth compared with dedicated time-clock tools |
| Established vendor with a long history serving heavy civil contractors | Steeper learning curve than a standalone time clock app |
Ratings
HCSS’s suite-level reviews are strong, but HeavyJob-specific ratings are harder to isolate from the broader HeavyBid and Fleet product line, so treat the figure below as a starting point rather than a HeavyJob-only score.
| App Store | Google Play | Capterra | G2 |
| 4.7 ⭐(299 ratings) | 3.5 ⭐(76 ratings) | 4.5 ⭐(96 reviews) | 4.6 ⭐(264 reviews) |
HCSS HeavyJob is best for heavy civil contractors already running HCSS HeavyBid who want field time and quantities tied directly back to their estimate.
3. ExakTime (Arcoro Time) – Best for GPS time clocks and biometric verification
ExakTime, now part of Arcoro, focuses on the basics of GPS time tracking: geofencing, FaceFront biometric clock-in to stop buddy punching, and cost-code tracking on the timecard itself. It also offers rugged hardware for tough conditions. For a heavy civil crew that needs simple, verifiable clock-ins across a jobsite, that’s a reasonable starting point.
Contractor reviews since the Arcoro acquisition raise real concerns worth weighing. Repeated price increases, accounting-integration breakdowns that push crews back to manual CSV exports, and app reliability issues all show up often. Those problems show up most on a large, dispersed heavy civil crew, where every broken sync means a payroll headache.
Features
- GPS location capture and geofencing on time cards
- FaceFront biometric verification to confirm the right worker clocked in
- Cost-code tracking at clock-in
- Rugged kiosk hardware for jobsite entry points
Pricing
- Time Essential: Starts at $9/user/month (annual)
- Time Professional: Starts at $12/user/month (annual)
- Time + Payroll: Starts at $20/user/month (annual)
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Biometric FaceFront verification adds a layer against buddy punching | Reviewers report price increases and reduced support since the Arcoro acquisition |
| Published starting price | Multiple reports of broken Sage/Foundation accounting sync requiring manual workarounds |
| Rugged hardware option for harsh jobsite conditions | Low, inconsistent app-store ratings across sources |
| Cost-code tracking built into the clock-in flow | No native certified payroll calculation |
Ratings
ExakTime’s ratings are mixed. We used the legacy ExakTime Mobile App Store listing below, not Arcoro’s new unified app, which only has 5 ratings so far.
| App Store (legacy ExakTime Mobile) | Google Play | Capterra | G2 |
| 2.9 ⭐(278 ratings) | No ratings yet | 4.1 ⭐(280 reviews) | 4.5 ⭐(172 reviews) |
ExakTime (Arcoro Time) is best for heavy civil crews that want straightforward GPS clock-in with biometric verification and don’t need a deeper job-costing or reporting suite.
See our full ExakTime review or Workyard vs. ExakTime comparison.
4. busybusy – Best for job costing and material tracking on a budget
busybusy, now operating under parent company AlignOps, pairs GPS breadcrumb tracking with job costing and equipment tracking at a relatively low entry price, including a free plan for unlimited users. That makes it a common pick for heavy civil contractors who want GPS accountability without a big upfront commitment.
The catch is the base Pro tier doesn’t include documents, daily reports, or Zapier integrations. Contractors who need those move up to the Premium tier, which costs more per user. A separate Safety Module is also available for form-based safety compliance, though busybusy doesn’t publish its price; contact sales for a quote.
Features
- GPS breadcrumb tracking and geofencing
- Job costing and material tracking by project
- Optional Safety Module for compliance forms
- Zapier and accounting integrations (Premium tier)
Pricing
- Free: Limited features, unlimited users
- Pro: $11.99/user/month + $40 admin license ($9.99/user/month billed annually)
- Premium: $17.99/user/month + $40 admin license ($14.99/user/month billed annually)
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Free plan available, plus a 14-day trial on paid plans | Documents, daily reports, and Zapier require the pricier Premium tier |
| GPS breadcrumb tracking and geofencing included on every paid tier | Safety Module pricing isn’t published; requires a sales conversation |
| Fast initial implementation compared with larger enterprise suites | Reviewers report geofence misalignment and clock-in authentication issues |
| Strong Capterra rating from a sizable review base | No native certified payroll or project profitability tracking |
Ratings
busybusy’s ratings vary noticeably by platform, with stronger scores on Capterra and G2 than on mobile app stores.
| App Store | Google Play | Capterra | G2 |
| 4.0 ⭐(921 ratings) | 4.0 ⭐(651 ratings) | 4.5 ⭐(441 reviews) | 4.8 ⭐(159 reviews) |
busybusy is best for heavy civil contractors who want GPS tracking and job costing on a lower entry price and are willing to budget for the add-ons most crews end up needing.
See our full busybusy review and Workyard vs. busybusy comparison or our busybusy alternatives guide.
5. Raken – Best for daily reporting and photo documentation
Raken’s strength is daily reports: photo and video documentation, task tracking, and safety checklists that field supervisors actually like using. For a heavy civil GC that needs strong daily-log documentation for DOT reporting requirements or dispute protection, that’s genuinely useful.
Raken added GPS-verified, geofenced clock-in to its mobile time clock in December 2025, later than the dedicated GPS tools in this roundup. Admins can set a project radius that blocks clock-in from outside it, or just flag workers who leave the site while clocked in. The geofence is radius-based rather than the polygon boundaries Workyard uses, so it’s a looser fit for irregular heavy civil sites like highway corridors.
Features
- Daily reports with photo and video documentation
- Time tracking, production tracking, and document management
- Safety and quality checklists, Toolbox Talks library
- Integrations with Procore, QuickBooks, and Sage
Pricing
Custom quote only; request pricing directly from Raken.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Strong daily reporting with photo and video documentation | Geofencing is radius-based, not polygon |
| GPS-verified, geofenced clock-in with an option to block off-site clock-ins | Basic tier doesn’t include time tracking |
| Good integrations with Procore, Sage, and QuickBooks | No self-serve free trial; access to a trial requires a sales call |
| Solid Capterra and App Store ratings | Android app reliability has drawn significant complaints |
Ratings
Raken rates well on daily-reporting-focused platforms but noticeably lower on Android specifically.
| App Store | Google Play | Capterra | G2 |
| 4.7 ⭐(22K ratings) | 4.3 ⭐(2.62K ratings) | 4.6 ⭐(249 reviews) | 4.6 ⭐(110 reviews) |
Raken is best for heavy civil contractors who prioritize daily reporting and photo documentation and can accept radius-based rather than polygon geofencing.
See our full Raken review and Workyard vs. Raken comparison or our Raken alternatives guide.
6. Procore – Best for contractors already running Procore for project management
Procore’s time tracking module lives inside a much larger construction-management platform built around drawings, RFIs, submittals, change orders, and project financials. For a heavy civil GC already paying for Procore to manage the project, its built-in time module avoids adding another login to maintain.
Procore isn’t a purpose-built GPS time clock, and it isn’t priced or positioned as one. Its geofencing only sends a clock-in or clock-out reminder when a worker crosses a jobsite boundary; it doesn’t restrict clock-in the way a dedicated geofenced time clock does. A contractor who doesn’t already need Procore’s full PM suite would pay for a lot of software they won’t touch, for a time-tracking feature that isn’t the platform’s focus.
Features
- Time tracking module tied to project financials
- Unlimited users under Procore’s volume-based pricing model
- Integration with the broader Procore project-management suite
Pricing
Procore prices by annual construction volume across three custom tiers, with all quotes handled through sales.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Unlimited users under the volume-based pricing model | Geofencing only sends clock-in/out reminders; it doesn’t restrict or verify location the way a dedicated GPS time clock does |
| Time tracking sits alongside project financials already in Procore | No public pricing; costs can run well into five figures annually |
| Useful if you’re already committed to Procore for PM | Overkill for a contractor who only needs time tracking, not full PM |
| Established platform with wide contractor adoption | No native certified payroll calculation |
Ratings
Procore’s overall platform ratings are strong, though they reflect the full PM suite rather than the time-tracking module specifically.
| App Store | Google Play | Capterra | G2 |
| 4.6 ⭐(46K ratings) | 3.8 ⭐(3.24K ratings) | 4.5 ⭐(2,674 reviews) | 4.6 ⭐(4,274 reviews) |
Procore is best for heavy civil contractors already running Procore for project management who want time tracking in the same platform. See our Procore review or Workyard vs. Procore comparison.
Final recommendation
For most heavy civil and heavy highway contractors, Workyard is the best heavy civil construction time tracking software: GPS-verified hours, polygon geofencing built for irregular jobsites, and cost-code data that’s ready to hand off to payroll, at a published starting price.
HCSS HeavyJob is the right call if you’re already estimating in HeavyBid. Procore fits only if you’re already paying for its full PM suite. ExakTime and busybusy work for GPS clock-in and job costing on tighter budgets, and Raken fits if daily reporting matters more than polygon-precise geofencing.
References
- 1
HCSS. HeavyJob product page. https://www.hcss.com/products/construction-project-management-software/
- 2
Arcoro. Arcoro Time pricing plans. arcoro.com/exaktime/pricing-plans
- 3
busybusy. Pricing. https://busybusy.com/price/
- 4
Raken. Pricing page. https://www.rakenapp.com/request-pricing
- 5
Procore. Pricing. https://www.procore.com/pricing
Heavy civil construction is large-scale infrastructure work such as highways, bridges, pipelines, and site utility projects, most of it built on DOT-funded contracts by self-perform crews at heavy civil construction companies running heavy equipment across pay-item-based estimates rather than the fixed-scope work typical of residential or light-commercial building.
Because crews and equipment spread across long, irregular corridors instead of a single fixed address, heavy civil software has to handle scattered jobsites, split-shift cost codes tied to those pay items, and GPS accuracy that a simple point-radius geofence usually can’t provide.
Workyard is the best overall heavy civil construction time tracking software for most contractors, combining GPS-verified time cards, polygon geofencing built for irregular jobsite boundaries, and cost-code data that hands off cleanly to payroll, without bundling in a full estimating or project-management suite you won’t use.
HCSS HeavyJob is a stronger fit specifically for contractors already estimating in HCSS HeavyBid, since its timecards tie directly back into that bid data. Procore’s time module only makes sense if you’re already paying for its full construction-management platform for other reasons.
Geofencing draws a virtual boundary around a jobsite and only allows a worker to clock in from inside that boundary, which is how GPS time tracking for heavy civil contractors confirms crews were actually on-site rather than trusting a manual entry. Polygon geofencing traces the real property or right-of-way boundary instead of a simple radius around one point, which matters on long, irregular sites like highway corridors or pipeline easements, where a circle would either miss most of the actual work area or extend well past it into land the crew never touched.
Most of the software in this roundup, including Workyard, doesn’t calculate certified payroll itself; instead, the better options in this category are built to capture GPS-verified hours by cost code and worker classification and hand that clean data to whatever payroll or accounting system runs the certified payroll and prevailing wage math.
That distinction matters when you’re evaluating certified payroll time tracking software: you’re really shopping for accurate source data, not a compliance engine, so check what your payroll provider can actually do with the export before assuming any tool handles DOT compliance end to end.
HCSS HeavyJob’s digital timecards capture crew hours, equipment hours, and production quantities together on one entry, then tie that field data directly back into HCSS HeavyBid estimates, which is built specifically for pay-item tracking and contract compliance on DOT-funded heavy civil work.
Contractors who don’t already estimate in HeavyBid, and are really just looking for an HCSS HeavyJob alternative for GPS time tracking without the estimating tie-in, should look at Workyard or ExakTime instead, since both offer GPS-verified clock-in and cost-code tracking at a fraction of the commitment.
Raken leads on daily reporting and photo documentation and added GPS-verified, radius-based geofencing to its time clock in December 2025, though that’s still less precise on irregular sites than the polygon geofencing dedicated GPS tools use, while HCSS HeavyJob is strongest for pay-item and equipment-hour job costing tied to HeavyBid estimates. ExakTime and busybusy both provide GPS clock-in and geofencing at lower price points than HeavyJob, with busybusy adding job costing and equipment tracking, plus a free plan for smaller crews.
Procore’s time tracking module works well if you’re already running the full Procore platform for project management, since using its built-in module avoids adding a separate login and integration to maintain across drawings, RFIs, submittals, and financials that already live in the same system. It isn’t built or priced as a dedicated GPS time clock, though, so a contractor who only needs GPS time tracking for heavy civil contractors, not a full PM suite, would likely end up paying for far more software than the job actually requires.
ExakTime provides GPS location capture, geofencing, and FaceFront biometric verification to confirm the right worker clocked in, plus cost-code tracking at clock-in and rugged kiosk hardware built for tough jobsite conditions on a heavy civil crew, all starting at a published $9-per-user monthly price.
Reviewers since its Arcoro acquisition have flagged repeated price increases, broken Sage and Foundation accounting sync that pushes crews back to manual CSV exports, and inconsistent app reliability, so it’s worth confirming current terms and integration status directly with ExakTime before committing a large crew to it.
Pricing for heavy highway construction time tracking and heavy civil construction software more broadly ranges widely across these six tools: Workyard starts at $6 per user per month, ExakTime at $9, and busybusy offers a free plan plus a $9.99 Pro tier. Raken doesn’t publish per-user pricing; contractors need a sales conversation, and time tracking is only available on its Performance tier, not Basic. HCSS HeavyJob and Procore don’t publish pricing either and require a sales conversation, with Procore’s volume-based model potentially running into five figures annually.
Prioritize GPS accuracy across dispersed, irregular jobsites like highway corridors, cost-code tracking tied to actual pay items rather than generic task buckets, and a clean data handoff for certified payroll on any DOT-funded work you self-perform as a heavy civil contractor. Just as important is whether crews will actually use the app in the field without friction, since a clunky clock-in process on a 10-hour shift gets worked around fast. Price transparency and integrations with your existing estimating platform or accounting system round out the short list of what actually matters here.
