A No-Nonsense Review of WorkMax

WorkMax is a mobile project cost management platform built for the construction industry. It also serves mining, oil and gas, and STO (shutdown, turnaround, and outages) industries.

Aside from offering tools to manage project costs from your mobile phone, WorkMax offers solutions in time-tracking, document management, assets tracking, and productivity analytics.

WorkMax aims to provide you with visibility across different areas of project management such as employee productivity, project progress, time, and assets— all to fulfill its bold promise: instant reduction in labor costs.

In this no-nonsense review, we’ll take a look at WorkMax and see whether it addresses the most important needs of your construction business.

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What Is WorkMax?

WorkMax is a Foundation Software company launched in 2003. It positions itself as the “number one platform for mobile project cost management.”

It primarily focuses on project owners, EPCM (engineering, procurement, and construction management), and contractors. The company aims to provide visibility across different project areas, including compliance, safety, productivity, time, assets, and progress.

WorkMax claims that it instantly cuts down labor costs, improving profits by up to 32%. This is a bold claim, and one that needs to be proven by potential users like you. Let’s take a look at what WorkMax has to offer.

WorkMax Overview

WorkMax offers four main products:

• TIME – Workmax’s digital employee time-tracking solution. This product features GPS and geofencing, facial recognition and biometric data, and digital timesheets.
  
• FORMS – WorkMax’s data collection and e-form solution offers customizable and shareable mobile forms for your workforce.
  
• ASSETS – WorkMax’s asset and equipment tracking tool. This module tracks inventory, tools, equipment, usage, and employee asset assignments.
  
• INSIGHTS – WorkMax’s productivity tracking and reporting tool. This solution offers custom reports, project and progress visibility, and predictive metrics.

We’ll look at each of these products in detail below.

Sign-Up and Onboarding

There’s not much information available about WorkMax’s signup and onboarding experience. However, users say setting up the app was made quick and easy with help from the service team.

When you open the web app, WorkMax’s dashboard greets you with links to its mobile app and a Getting Started guide to help you with basic actions and tasks.

The Web App Experience

WorkMax’s web app includes all of its modules: TIME, FORMS, ASSETS, and INSIGHTS. You can access these via the overhead menu. Unless you purchase the complete suite, you may only access the individual modules you’ve paid for.

Each section brings up its own dashboard and menu since the modules are sold as individual products within WorkMax.

The Mobile Experience

WorkMax’s app greets you with the time clock, along with home buttons for the other modules in your subscription.

The time clock offers options for clock-in and clock-out, creating timesheets, and reviewing time.

You can also view trending projects for over- or under-budgeted hours at the bottom of the screen.

The app offers several form templates, including:

• Daily forms
• Expense/Reimbursement Forms
• Injury Reports
• New Hire forms
• Pre-job checklist
• Tool Box

You can also track assets on the mobile app, including their inventory details, usage, and current assignment.

Insights lets you view data visualizations on the mobile app relating to your project’s costs, pacing, and trends.

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Key Features

TIME

WorkMAX TIME tracks worked time for mobile, remote, and local office employees. The tool runs on desktops, web browsers, and mobile devices.

The Time Entry feature allows employees to clock-in and -out as well as change tasks in real-time using any device.

It captures GPS location on each clock-in/out and task change, letting you know what’s happening on worksites. You can also use the platform to set up custom geofences per location.

Supervisors have the ability to clock groups in and out, change group tasks, and fill in digital sheets. The app displays who is working on what task via the Control Center.

Time Entry runs offline and allows employees to jump between devices as long as they are WorkMax-enabled. It also breaks up worked time with its visual Allocate Time feature to help teams understand how labor time is being spent.

You can set up unique employee privileges and permission levels, create custom names for location and task fields using Flex-Fields, and perform bulk edits on group time.

The Management feature in WorkMax Time allows you to review, edit, sign off, approve, and close-out time records of your team.

It also allows you to assign specific time shifts to employees per diem. You can set up auto-lunch periods for shifts, configure shift rules, and track unlimited tasks.

The feature helps you handle multiple pay periods (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.), automate attendance and overtime rules, and export timesheets for payroll processing.

The Reports feature lets you create the following reports from templates:

• Average time attendance
• Employee time card
• Geofence discrepancies
• Labor hours worked
• Location cost code summary / detailed hours / hours summary
• Location sign-in sheet
• Payroll detail / summary
• Pending records
• Rollcall

You can also use the following filters to customize reports: data, open/closed records, device, division, employee, department, task, and asset.

Time Entry allows you to import and export CSV for processing. It also offers a web API and web connector to integrate with third-party business systems.

FORMS

WorkMax’s FORMS lets you create and deploy e-forms on any mobile device or web browser.

FORMS Capture integrates with TIME to request and require forms to be filled out on every clock-in and out. The tool captures forms and signatures on any device, auto-saving them as completed documents or drafts for later access.

You can create, deploy, and submit unlimited forms.

The tool includes GPS location to let you know where a form was submitted based on mobile device location. It also runs in offline mode to enable employees to enter data while disconnected. Employees can attach photos, videos, and blank canvas sketches to forms.

FORMS Creation lets you build and deploy forms without coding.

You can use widgets from WorkMax’s Control Center library to customize forms. You can also embed sub-forms and triggers within forms, clone existing forms, and insert formulas for accurate calculations within your forms.

FORMS Security gives you additional protection against unauthorized access to private forms and data.

You can limit access to approved mobile devices only using security tokens. You can also set role-based user permissions and routing controls to determine who can complete and submit forms.

ASSETS

WorkMax ASSETS enables you to keep track of inventory, equipment usage, and asset assignments.

ASSETS Inventory lets you add assets together with relevant information. This information includes the asset’s name, description, image, condition, status, code, and relationship to other assets.

You can assign an asset to a company division, employee, or location. The feature gives you the option to add mileage and hours to select assets.

ASSETS Assignment shows which assets are being actively used, who they’re assigned to, and where they are at present.

You can assign assets using the Assignment Grid Editor and select responsible employees or locations for accountability. You can also add notes to asset assignments, reassign from one employee to another, and set a due date for assignments.

ASSETS Usage lets you track equipment in current use. The feature shows how long the equipment will be in use, total usage hours, actual usage hours on the job, and a machine reading.

ASSETS Inventory displays all assets in your warehouse or inventory. You can add assets to the list by creating entries through the WorkMax Control Center or by integrating them from your account software.

The feature lets you add pertinent details such as asset name, image, asset costs per hour/day/week/month, manufacturer, purchase price, and warranty. You can also add service dates to keep assets well maintained. The module also lets you edit and delete assets to keep inventories accurate.

INSIGHTS

WorkMax’s INSIGHTS helps you track employee productivity and project progress. It also provides project cost management solutions as well as predictive metrics to keep tasks aligned with your timeline and budget.

The Productivity feature visualizes data from your jobs, tasks, and budgets.

You’ll need to have an INSIGHTS license to use this tool. After importing jobs, time tracked, and budgets per task, you can start Productivity analysis.

The Productivity dashboard shows you active jobs, locations, and locations hours/units complete vs. budget. The dashboard also shows you active jobs trending to go over or under their budgeted hours. These predictive metrics help you manage project costs and protect profits.

INSIGHTS’ Task Details section visualizes the following data for a selected task:

• Budget
• Pace
• Completed hours and/or units
• Remaining hours and/or units
• Estimated Complete

‘Pace’ drills down further into a) pace needed, b) current pace, and c) hours left to finish a project according to its budgeted hours. ‘Estimated Complete’ refers to the percentage of hours completed for a particular task.

The Location Details section shows you the productivity health of a specific location. The dashboard visualizes completed hours compared to budget, remaining hours, over- and under-budgeted hour trends, and tasks that are trending to go over- or under-budgeted hours.

INSIGHTS comes with custom reporting capabilities for all your data within the WorkMax platform. These include the following custom reports:

• Employee time cards
• Locations detail
• User reports
• Daily reports
• Asset list
• Safety
• Compliance

You can also schedule custom reports on a weekly, monthly, or custom period basis. WorkMax exports reports in several formats, including PDF, XLS, CSV, image, or text.

Integrating Other Business Apps With WorkMax

WorkMax integrates with a few payroll, accounting, ERP, and HR systems. These include Foundation, QuickBooks, Sage, and Acumatica.

WorkMax Might be a Good Fit for You If…

…you need granular details on project costs and labor spend for your mobile workforce.

There’s no denying that WorkMax specializes in project cost management and has managed to tailor their solution to mobile work teams. It offers advanced analytics into project costs and predictive metrics to help you assess project progress.

However, it’s not clear if you’ll get the full benefit of its solutions if you don’t purchase the complete suite for an unknown price. WorkMax’s flexible pricing allows you to pay for modules sepatately, but it doesn’t state how much these modules are interdependent among themselves.

As WorkMax keeps its pricing under wraps, it’s hard to tell if purchasing one, two, or all four modules is worth the cost to keep tabs on your project costs.

You Might Not Want to Use WorkMax If…

…you need a well-rounded construction project management app that doesn’t break the bank.

As mentioned above, WorkMax provides its solutions as individual modules instead of a single, comprehensive app. While it offers only one app, its solutions are presumably locked away until you fork out the subscription fee for each module or the entire suite.

So, if you’re looking for an all-in-one construction app with straightforward pricing (which you can test beforehand), WorkMax probably isn’t the app you’re looking for.

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WorkMax Cost/Pricing

WorkMax does not publish its prices, but offers flexible and tailored pricing according to your business size and needs. You’ll need to book a demo to request a quote from WorkMax.

WorkMax Reviews

WorkMax users say the app costs a lot of time and effort, but for some, it’s worth it.

iOS user Z-rated421 says the app is slow and won’t let him clock in:

iOS Review:

Horrible app ⭐ 
If I could give zero stars, I would. My company has been using this program for about a year now, and it has been a horrible experience from day one. Everything you do is so SLOW. Tap a button, and its 5-10 seconds before it responds. Trying to search for a job, I have to type the job number in, set my phone down and do something else for 10 minutes. By then, MAYBE it will have found it and I can clock in.

Now, after the most recent update, I cant clock in at all. I click the button, it blinks like it knows someone clicked it, but the next screen never loads. Haven’t been able to use it for a week or more.

WorkMax user R.J. W. says the time and cost savings were worth the trouble his team went through:

Capterra Review:

We have worked through a number of glitches and overcame hurdles. The team has worked very hard. ⭐⭐⭐
Overall: The time and cost savings have been worth it.

Pros: I like the flexibility and great potential of the product. The app provides an ease of use for all employees. It’s a huge improvement over paper time sheets, and no more worrying with constant inconsistencies. The GPS tagging is also a huge plus. You can really manage time effectively.

Cons: I don’t like no having the ability to add or deduct days from the Time Sheet module. I would like to see the time records transfer all of the data over, including notes and custom fields. The sync process to Quickbooks has it’s limits.

Our Score (and Why We Chose It)

Based on our sign-up and onboarding experience with the free trial, here’s how we scored WorkMax:

Top Alternatives to WorkMax

WorkMax offers job costing tools for construction businesses, but there are plenty of alternatives offering similar dedicated features.

The Bottom Line

WorkMax prides itself on being the premier project cost management app for mobile teams. It offers granular detail on construction project costs through its predictive analytics and progress tracking tools.

While it’s clear WorkMax is locked on a particular trajectory, what’s not clear is how much it will cost you to get the full benefit of its solutions.

WorkMax offers its tools as individual modules or as a complete suite. Furthermore, it offers ‘flexible’ pricing tailored to individual businesses.

Want to see how the platform works before committing? Alas, there’s no free trial for you to gauge how its modules work together to deliver the functionalities you need. All these roadblocks serve to increase speculation about how much you’ll actually pay to test WorkMax’s claim: instant reduction of labor costs for your company.

If you want a simple yet powerful app to track workers’ time, take a look at Workyard’s offerings. Unlike WorkMax, this is one app you can test beforehand— Workyard offers a two-week free trial with no credit card required. Find out why construction managers and field workers love the Workyard mobile experience. Our iOS and Android apps are designed around the needs of team managers in the construction business. Our web platform also simplifies scheduling, job management, time tracking, and more for construction managers.

Try Workyard free for 14 days and see how we can simplify your field service management and make your business more profitable!