Time Trackers for Construction Companies

actiTIME
5 min readAug 12, 2020

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Photo by Scott Blake on Unsplash

Construction industry is one of the most complex industries with its structure, job factors, and regulations that is hard to fit into a single time and attendance system. Most construction companies still use old-school Excel sheets to deal with payroll and invoice calculations and worksite budgeting, which is ineffective, time-consuming, and inaccurate.

Why Construction Companies Need Time Trackers

Time-tracking software gives construction companies a huge advantage.

Workers can use mobile apps to set timers or add time manually to record time spent on each project or job site. This allows managers to track attendance, identify bottlenecks, and improve team productivity.

With time trackers, managers can use reports and data analysis to evaluate productivity by projects and employees. Data export features allow them to download charts and spreadsheets to share them with clients and CEOs.

Accountants can set up hourly rates, calculate billable hours, and overtime. Based on tracked time, they can send invoices and pay the employees. This allows them to create accurate payrolls and client bills.

So that raises a question of which time tracking software could deliver these benefits.

Top 5 Construction Time Tracking Software

actiTIME

Price: Free for up to 3 users with limited functionality.
Paid tiers start at $5 per user per month. 30-day trial period.

Overview: actiTIME is a web-based timesheet tool that covers almost any management and accounting needs.

First of all, it’s a powerful time tracker with built-in data analytics and reports. Charts and spreadsheets allow you to identify bottlenecks and maximize productivity. All analytics is available for download in CSV and PDF formats.

Next goes a handy mobile timesheet tool available for Android and iOS. Employees can start timers or manually submit work and leave time, manage tasks, and review timesheets. All data is securely stored and synchronized with the corporate account.

Managers can set up workflow according to the company’s needs. Customize the work level structure, add task estimates and deadlines, assign tasks to team members according to their responsibilities, and use statuses to monitor the work process.

Accountants need to make a one-time setup and automate their weekly and monthly routines. They can define leave and work types, automate leave calculation and accruals, adjust balances and pull reports, calculate project costs, and invoice the clients.

Deployment: Web-based, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS.

ExakTime

Price: Starting at $6 per user per year.

Overview: ExakTime is tailored for construction and field-based industries.

It uses cloud sync to share data between the cloud software and time tracking & scheduling app. Admins and managers can log in and view time records and activities by employee or location. Exaktime shows all the GPS time punches on the map, allows you to edit time in bulk, set up policies, shifts, and create reports.

The software is also compatible with a portable weatherproof time clock specially designed for construction and job sites. It’s completely wireless and made to send worker’s time and activities to the cloud every hour.

The mobile app supports GPS tracking, photo verification, digital notes, shifts and task assignment, crew and job site tracking. It also provides equipment tracking so that you always know which employee used the equipment, when and for how long.

Deployment: Web-based, Android, and iOS.

Connecteam

Price: Free for up to 200 users with limited functionality.
Paid tiers start at $29 per month.

Overview: Connecteam is an employee app with time tracking, job scheduling, and communication features.

The app provides powerful scheduling features and allows you to set up individual and team shifts, assign projects and tasks, register job locations, manage notes, customer details, equipment, and more. The app is GPS-powered and allows employees to update their job statuses.

The app takes safety seriously and allows you to add regulations, safety documentation with images, videos, and PDFs. To make day-to-day processes even more automated, it offers online checklists and forms to prepare inspection and training manuals.

Deployment: Web-based, Android, and iOS.

TSheets

Price: Starting at $8 per user per month+ $20 Base Fee per month.

Overview: TSheets is an employee time tracking and scheduling solution with payroll, invoicing, and job costing features.

It offers a mobile app with GPS tracking support, making it perfect for construction and field crews. It records employee location only when they are on the clock. The tracking is off when an employee is on a break or off the clock.

As long as managers are aware of the team whereabouts and availability, they can easily schedule activities and share them with employees to get alerts to clock in and out as they enter and exit.

Deployment: Web-based, Android, and iOS.

Hubstaff

Price: Free for 1 user with limited functionality.
Paid tiers start at $14 per 2 users per month.

Overview: Hubstaff is a time card app for construction.

The algorithm behind it is simple. Crew members track their time via the mobile app, accountants pay the crews and send client invoices based on tracked time and bill rates.

Hubstaff uses geofences to create job sites and GPS tracking to monitor time on site. Managers can see the location of their crew members in real time.

Deployment: Web-based, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Construction Time Tracking Made Easy

Time tracking software market offers dozens of solutions, but it’s hard to find the one that is one-size-fits-all. That’s why you need to prioritize the essential features and narrow down your search up to a handful of options. Because only you know what’s best for your business, right?

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actiTIME

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