The best construction time tracking software, by crew type

How this list is maintained

The criteria we used

There is no single best tool for every contractor, so we judged each product on the questions that decide whether hours are right on Friday.

1. How crews clock in. Personal phone, company phone, foreman, kiosk, site clock or worn device.
2. Who has to act. Every action required of a worker or foreman is a chance to miss a punch.
3. Hardware you manage. Devices per site scale with jobsites; devices per worker scale with headcount.
4. Moves between jobsites. Whether a site transfer or supply-house run lands in the same shift.
5. Identity at the punch. Whether the tool confirms who clocked in, such as a face check.
6. What else it does. Job costing, scheduling, daily reports, forms or equipment.
7. Path to payroll. Whether approved hours leave the tool without re-keying.

Nine tools at a glance

How each product captures time

Each note below says how the product records hours and what its vendor emphasises, in the vendor's own terms.

ZeroBadge

Each worker wears a company-issued badge with its own cellular connection. Power on starts the shift; the badge reports about every 5 minutes (GPS outdoors, Wi-Fi positioning indoors, cellular continuity marked low confidence). Time is allocated to jobsites and transit, a manager approves the week, and ZeroBadge integrates with payroll providers, with CSV, Excel or PDF export.

Workyard

Built around a GPS time clock app. Workyard says it captures hours worked per job and/or cost code with every time card, offers time clock rules and auto clock-in, and adds scheduling and an expense card.

ClockShark

Mobile clock in and out for construction and field service businesses, with scheduling and reporting. Crew Clock lets supervisors or foremen clock in entire crews; Kiosk Clock turns a device into a shared clock with a 4-digit PIN and facial recognition.

busybusy

A construction time clock app with supervisor clock-in for entire teams, a Required Onsite setting that blocks clock-in outside project boundaries, facial recognition alerts, an Offline Mode and equipment tracking.

ExakTime (Arcoro)

Rugged JobClock units with colored key fobs for job codes. The Hornet's rechargeable batteries last up to 21 days and it uploads hourly over a data plan; the LE syncs over Bluetooth. Both are weatherproof and store up to 20,000 punches.

SmartBarrel

TimeClock captures time with AI facial verification on portable, weatherproof, magnetic devices that are solar or battery powered and LTE connected. A mobile app turns a phone or tablet into a shared check-in station with geofencing. Daily logs and cost codes sit alongside.

QuickBooks Time

A mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android, location recorded only while on the clock, geofence reminders, and a Time Kiosk digital punch clock with optional facial recognition.

Connecteam

A time clock inside a wider team app. It offers geofenced work areas, GPS auto clock-out when leaving the site, NFC tag clock-in, a shared tablet kiosk, scheduling and team chat.

Raken

Field management software centred on daily reports. Time can be entered by a supervisor for the crew, on a shared device in kiosk mode, or by each worker on their own device, with GPS geofencing.

Where ZeroBadge differs from the rest of the list

The other eight rely on a phone, a foreman or a site device to record the punch. ZeroBadge records time from a device the worker wears, owned by the company, with no installation at the jobsite. That changes two things on a multi-site week.

• A worker who moves from one jobsite to the shop and then to a supply house stays on one shift record, with transit between sites classified on its own. See multi-jobsite time tracking.
• No worker phone is involved, so there are no app permissions, personal data plans or dead-phone punches. See time tracking without phones.

When another option is the better choice