A No-Nonsense Review of OnTheClock

With a more than capable time tracker, scheduler, and payroll management tools, OnTheClock supports businesses focused on productivity, efficiency, and growth.

Its multiple punch options and easy scheduling features can streamline your day-to-day operations and get complete visibility over your employees and their activities.

But is it the best time and attendance solution for your construction business?

Let’s find out in this extensive OnTheClock review, in which we’ll examine the app’s key features, its pricing, what other users say about it, and more.

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What Is OnTheClock?

OnTheCloud is a cloud-based system to help businesses with time tracking, especially for their remote workforce.

It has GPS tracking and geofencing to monitor your employees’ locations, a mobile app, and a dashboard where you can access its employee details, time and attendance, scheduling, PTOs, and other account setting information.

OnTheClock Overview

Some of the most notable features of OnTheClock include:

• Online time clock on multiple devices
• Secure fingerprint punch
• Drag-and-drop scheduling
• Automatic PTO tracking
• Location and punch controls
• Alerts and reminders
• Reports and payroll integrations

Sign-Up and Onboarding

OnTheClock offers an easy and quick sign-up process. To create a business account, you only need to enter your name, email, and mobile number. Then, set a password and verify your OnTheClock account via email. That’s it.

After verifying your account, you’ll be brought to the OnTheClock dashboard. The live chat box is on the right, and more tutorial videos on finishing your account setup will show up in the middle of your screen.

You can set up your time zone using the dropdown menu. We found this step a little inconvenient because the options did not list countries within that specific time zone to serve as a guide. But this won’t be an issue if you know your time zones well.

After setting your time zone, you can choose which time to track. You can track just your hours or your employees’ hours. If it’s the latter, you should choose the number of employees to track as well.

You don’t need to send an invite link to your employees right away, though. There’s an option to try OnTheClock first as an employee. This is a good way to test all features before rolling the app out to everyone on your team.

Choosing to test out its features first will bring you to another page showing tabs for Clock In and Out, iOS and Android app QR codes, more OnTheClock tutorial videos, and the dashboard.

The time clock has a dedicated page that displays your name, current status, local time, IP address, and the punch-in button. If you’re ready to start tracking your hours, just click the Punch In button, and you will receive the ‘Success! You have been Punched In’ message.

The Web App Experience – Busy But Organized Dashboard

On the dashboard, you’ll find the Punch Map with date ranges and markers, such as punches, locations, current positions, and GPS tracking trails. You can also view it in map and satellite views.

The left navigation panel shows who’s in, your managers, and your employees. At the top are tabs for the dashboard, schedule, settings, employees, who’s in, PTO, and time cards.

Meanwhile, your chat messages, notifications, and account and billing information are on the upper right.

The dashboard may have many features, but it is relatively simple to navigate. OnTheClock offers a simple web app experience, with tabs and features neatly organized so users can quickly find the right one.

The Mobile Experience – Organized and Feature-Rich

OnTheClock’s mobile app lets you perform all the essential tasks on the web version. Employees can punch in and out on the app and view their start and end times and hours worked.

There’s also an attachment feature where they can attach proof of work so you can see what they worked on for that particular day.

Employees can view PTO and PTO history and file PTO requests. They can also start conversations on the app with admins, managers, and other employees on their account.

As an administrator, you can see all employees logged in and off for that particular day – the mobile app has the punch map to view your employees’ punch locations. You’ll also see all PTO requests on the dashboard.

Your dashboard settings are on the left panel. If you need to access a feature not on the mobile app, there’s a link to launch OnTheClock in a browser.

The mobile app allows you to view and review employee time cards and punch in for your employees if they forget to do so.

Overall, the OnTheClock mobile app allows you to do many things on the go. Its simple dashboard neatly categorizes the essential features for both employees and admins.

More construction companies trust Workyard for time tracking

Discover why

OnTheClock Key Features

Online Time Clock

One of OnTheClock’s strengths is its online time clock, which allows you to punch in and out effortlessly. Teams can do it on the web or from their mobile devices and tablets.

The time clock also has GPS tracking and work IP recognition to help you know their locations, which can be very beneficial if you’re managing remote workers and mobile teams.

For your in-office teams, OnTheClock also offers fingerprint sign-ins via a biometric fingerprint time clock to validate their clock-ins and let you know who’s working on-site. The fingerprint scanner is fast and easy to set up, and you can connect it to any tablet, desktop, or computer.

Shift Scheduling

OnTheClock also has an easy-to-use scheduler that eliminates manual employee shift scheduling. The drag-and-drop scheduling allows you to build and publish schedules with only a few clicks.

You can set up shift definitions or fixed punch schedules for each day of the week. But before creating schedules, you must first set up your employee locations, jobs, shifts, and labels.

Afterward, you can customize your start and end times and use filters for jobs, tasks, departments, and locations for a more customized view.

A beneficial feature is creating schedules for one or all employees and copying the shift to other days and weeks. This saves a lot of time when creating schedules for a large team.

When you publish the schedule, OnTheClock automatically sends it to your employees via email. Your employees will receive a link to view their schedule for the day or the week. The schedules are presented on a neat, simple screen, like the web version.

Time Off Tracking

OnTheClock makes it easy to handle time off requests by providing a quick and easy view of all your employees’ PTO details.

You can automatically handle time off requests by setting rules and categories and adding holiday and regular off days.

Moreover, you can set up PTO for individual and multiple employees. For the latter, you can do it by employee groups or bulk PTO.

Meanwhile, employees can easily request time off online by logging in to their OnTheClock accounts.

Integrating Other Business Apps With OnTheClock

OnTheClock offers one-click integrations with QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, Square, and Thomson Reuters. It also has integrations with ConnectPay, Payroll Connect, Paychex, Paychex Flex, Sage, Ceridian, and Paylocity using CSV exports.

OnTheClock Might be a Good Fit for You If…

• You have remote and in-office employees.
• You want the flexibility for your employees to clock in and out from various devices.
• Your business needs a user-friendly time tracking and scheduling tool.
• You want an intuitive interface and robust features like PTO management and payroll integrations.

You Might Not Want to Use OnTheClock If…

• You need advanced GPS tracking and comprehensive workforce management.
• You need something that offers advanced customizations and integrations.
• You prefer a free plan for more than two users.

More construction companies trust Workyard for time tracking

Discover why

OnTheClock Cost/Pricing

OnTheClock offers tier pricing per number of users. Although it provides a free plan, it’s limited to just two users.

OnTheClock Reviews

OnTheClock reviews are generally positive, with users noting its simplicity and ease of use. It received its highest rating of 4.7 on Capterra from over 500 reviews, while it received a 4.4 and a 4.1 rating on the App Store and the Play Store respectively.

You can check out some OnTheClock reviews below.

iOS user Roughmatter gave it a four-star rating because of its many features. However, this user noted the annoying chat pop-ups during setup and the inability to customize the dashboard to remove features he wouldn’t be using.

I think it will work for me ⭐⭐⭐⭐
There are plenty of features available. Some I don’t need, and I would like to have a more customizable dashboard to remove those features (punch map, paid time off). It took a few minutes to set up (setup via a web browser was annoying, with live chat popping up every five seconds). Some areas of setup were easy, and some were less intuitive. But I got there in the end. My biggest complaint is the lack of a widget for iOS. I got used to that with my previous hours-tracking app (HoursTracker… a brilliant app if you don’t need Windows integration).

Android user Darrell “Dejay” Akers doesn’t like how administrators can change tracked hours.

⭐⭐ 
The app works good. What I don’t think is right is that the administrator can change times without notifying you and make it whatever they want. They can take a few minutes off each day if they want and screw you out of hours by the end of the week. A notification needs to be added to the worker if their hours are changed. If that happens, I’ll re-rate it to five stars.

For Julie S., OnTheClock is easy to use, especially for employees who clock in and out and request time off.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
I have found it easy to work with. The online chat support is extremely helpful. It is very easy for my employees to clock in and out every day. It also makes requesting days off for vacations and doctor appointments very easy. But I don’t like how it takes the PTO time off before the date comes around.

Our Score (and Why We Chose It)

OnTheClock is a good option for time tracking and scheduling to help simplify PTO management and payroll. Sign-up and onboarding are easy, and you can quickly learn how to navigate the dashboard. But it also has its disadvantages and limitations.

So here’s how we rated it.

Alternatives to OnTheClock

OnTheClock has features that can be beneficial for your business. Still, if you’re not 100% sold with what it offers, you can explore other alternatives with more customization, workforce management features, and cost-effective pricing. Here are some good examples.

Final Thoughts

OnTheClock does not disappoint when it comes to time tracking capabilities and scheduling features. Its mobile app, automatic time calculations, payroll integrations, and PTO management also help streamline many tasks. It is a compelling option for any business looking for a reliable time tracking solution.

But if you’re looking for something more construction industry-focused, check out Workyard.

It’s tailored to the needs of construction, property maintenance, and home service companies and offers features such as GPS time tracking, scheduling, real-time job costing, and labor compliance management.

Learn how Workyard can help your business with its advanced time tracking capabilities and all-in-one workforce management platform. Or you can sign up for a free 14-day trial today!