If you’re looking for a modern way to track your team’s hours, a time-tracking app could be just the tool you need. It will not only automate time tracking, but transform your construction business for the better with a project management database, and will handle many other business details.
Time-tracking apps streamline payroll by automating the process while leveraging a bunch of neat tools and features that make life easier. You can rid your workforce of the tedious manual methods that are prone to mistakes, such as manual data input.
If you’ve got this far, you’ll already know that many apps and platforms are out there. But any leader in the construction trade looking for the best time-tracking apps for general contractors will need to know which app is best for their business, and the only way to do this is to review what’s out there.
Well, you’re in luck. We’ve taken the liberty of looking at 10 of the most renowned time-tracking platforms as ranked by Google so that you can make an informed decision.
10 Best Time-Tracking Apps for the General Contractor
Remember that many of these apps offer free trial periods!
1. ClockShark
ClockShark is a clock-in and clock-out app designed specifically for trade industries. It is great if you are currently looking at how to grow your construction company.
Key Features
Redacted manual errors and enhanced payroll accuracy
ClockShark's software eliminates manual errors, making certain that your employees are paid fairly and accurately. Automatic tracking, Geofencing, and overtime policy enforcement all work together to make payroll accurate and compliant with labor regulations.
Real-time location insights
The GPS tracking tool allows you to see your workers in real time. Accurate location tracking data simplifies payroll processing by providing a verified record of hours worked. This includes time taken to travel between job sites. With ClockShark, you will reduce payroll errors and disputes.
Detailed reports
The platform’s reporting capacity provides contractors with comprehensive summaries of labor costs so that companies can easily track and control expenses based on the project, each task component that makes it up, and crew numbers needed. This enables the identification of cost drivers and allows the contractor to optimize spending.
Real-time visibility
When you can see everything your team is working on, the hours they will take to do so, and other real-time updates, every important work aspect is streamlined. This makes it easier to prioritize, redact, and alter as you see fit. This visibility minimizes the risk of running over budget.
2. Harvest
Key Features
Convenient invoicing
Harvest has a simple invoicing system that makes it easy on both ends. Sending them is simple, with no more than a few clicks, and clients pay directly from the invoice with a single click. Reminders and follow-up messages are built in too, to assist with communication.
Comprehensive reports
The contractor is able to make reports instantly and for countless projects at a time. They can also gather informative data on budgets, the amount of time spent on tasks, and the size of your crew. This is how expenses are controlled.
Budget tracking
The platform also allows you to set budgets for projects so that the system can update the contractor when they are not on schedule. This gives you plenty of time to correct the issue. This tracking system is in motion for each client and project, so you can oversee everything.
3. Procore
Key Features
Multi-Faceted system
The time tracking element is only one of Procore’s products. It has some innovative systems such as Project management, “preconstruction” (a project planning app), and Financials (invoicing, project price projections, etc). Truly an all-encompassing system for general contractors.
Mobile field tools
Using live data, Procore allows field operators to track and collect time clocks, and location insights, which can be reviewed at the office via the desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Leverage this to report on crew productivity in real-time, with maximum ease.
4. FreshBooks
Key Features
Project Timelines
FreshBooks has a user-friendly database that breaks tasks down into hours, meaning that projects can be managed and optimized from a device.
Accessible Time-tracking
The time-tracking cards are particularly accessible and simple to use, with basic boxes for details. Start and complete your time logs, and then send invoices out accurately and in good time.
Time and Place
The timer can be used with desktop and mobile devices, so no matter where you are, you can track time easily and keep your team on the right lines. When issues arise, you will see them long before they become major issues.
5. Teamwork
Key Features
Autonomy-Inducing
Teamwork is a standout time-tracking app due to its collaborative nature. Users can log their hours directly to project tasks, which encourages teamwork, and communication, and ultimately drives productivity by leveraging autonomy.
Automated Reports and Analytics
Using comprehensive data and analytics, Teamwork empowers the team with optimized workflows. Over time, the data analysis will become more informative, giving you more power over your company and how it runs.
6. TimeCamp
Key Features
Automated time tracker
TimeCamp’s tracker is automated and operates with a single click. It even has keyword-based tracking which works in the background and is terrific for accurately capturing the billable hours. Plus, the customer support system is particularly great.
Minimal usage
TimeCamp’s app/website is particularly good at blending into the working background. All your team has to do is clock in and out in the correct way and the app does the rest.
Categorized hours
The app will break the billable hours down into how hours are spent, employee locations, and what they are working on at present on the relevant site. This crafts the in-depth reports and attendance tracked down to the finest point.
7. Buddy Punch
Key Features
Administrative Perks
The buddy punch database has some of the most handy HR details that we have seen in time-tracking applications. As well as the basics covered, it also alerts the user to the status of hours, whether they are pending, changed, or approved. This and other tools make an efficient filing system for your timesheets and employee records.
Efficient Cash Flow Management
Buddy Punch is capable of making detailed calculations. Paid hours, unpaid hours, time off, and owed time, are all represented within the app. This streamlines the entire process for you so that you can manage it with a few convenient clicks.
Customization Options
We all know how complex a team load of timesheets can be. Each with a different number of hours, salaries, and appropriate deductions. Buddy Punch offers customizable reports so that you can organize each worker’s hours individually.
8. Timely
Key Features
Work Funnel Streamline Options
Timely uses a tagging system that contributes to automatic filing, and keeping all pieces of information relevant to a particular job, together in one virtual space. The addition of customizable cost rates, billable rates, and professional invoicing options, means that Timely has everything you need for a streamlined work funnel.
Project Management Features
Timely is not just a time-tracking app, but a project management platform. The project dashboard allows you to oversee, with convenience and ease, the whole of your company’s operations.
9. Homebase
Key Features
Compliance and Regulation
Homebase is not unique in this regard, but it’s worth noting their superb compliance features which the app leverages to ensure your business is within regulatory rules at all times. If something is amiss in the database, it will inform you.
Mobile Management
One of Homebase’s key ethos is to facilitate an autonomous, mobile workforce. Its time-tracking features and functions are built for on-the-go team members, leveraging location-based clock-ins and clock-outs, and also include an accessible list of all field activities and project headers.
10. Hubstaff
Key Features
Intricate project management
Hubstaff isn’t a one-trick pony. It doesn’t only feature report generation, invoicing, and project progress tracking amongst an array of tools, but others such as screen capturing that are great for remote teams. Having everything in one app saves time and makes project management as efficient as possible.
Tool integrations
Ensuring that your new time-tracking tools integrate properly is important, and Hubstaff has smooth integration alongside other work management platforms like Asana. This minimizes the team’s workload and removes the entire need for manual data input.
Super insightful reports
Despite its not-so-great customer support, Hubstaff’s reports are effective due to their team performance insights, paving the way for improvements and optimization. The data collected over time is also useful for future business decisions, meaning you can shape your team quite nicely with this app.
Key Features Your Time-tracking App Can Not Miss
There are certain features in time-tracking apps that are must-haves. Not in terms of what they can do, but how they transform business acumen and responsibility. Anybody seeking tips to manage payroll more effectively would do well to seek the universal benefits.
Here are the key factors to observe as you test different apps.
Greater Sense of Responsibility
Once implemented, the best time-tracking apps for general contractors should facilitate an enhanced sense of responsibility. Not only for the field operator but each member of the team. It should also give you a detailed oversight of your construction company as a whole, which will make
Better Timekeeping Records
The timekeeping records, from invoices to clocked hours, should be more precise, accurate, and informative. This means that payroll will be simplified, and you will have to deal with fewer oversights, due to the accuracy of the timesheets and virtual admin.
More Efficient Schedules
Your crew should be more informed than before, knowing exactly what site they are working on throughout a particular workweek, and what hours they are working. The clock-in clock-out system should also grant members a sense of autonomy, further fueling the efficiency fire.
Optimized Payroll Processes
You should also experience a payroll process that is efficient, detailed, and optimized. They should pay your members fairly based on the number of hours worked, and be able to break each day down categorically. Discrepancies and errors will therefore have more clarity.
ClockShark: How it Keeps Track of Your Team and Boosts Productivity
Practical project management
ClockShark gives you full oversight of all of your team members and projects. Hence, insights on progress, potential setbacks, and information on how to make the right adjustments.
Drag & Drop Convenience
ClockShark's drag-and-drop interface allows you to easily assign workers to projects, set up the shift lengths/times, and see schedules for each individual. That’s not just for the team, but every team in your company.
Pricing
After the trial period, ClockShark’s standard package comes in at $40, whereas the Professional option is merely $20 more.
Thorough Attendance Tracking
ClockShark offers thorough and full attendance tracking. By matching the right workers with the right jobs, you ensure the necessary skills and expertise for each project.
The Verdict
ClockShark is one of the best time-tracking apps that you will find in the market. It helps with project costing, productivity, and accurate billing. It also helps businesses handle compliance management and resource optimization, and it helps to create a transparent and trusting culture for employers and employees.
ClockShark offers a free trial period so you can give it all a try at no cost: Get started now
