A Workyard alternative for crews that should not use their phones

What Workyard does well

Workyard is a broad field operations app built around a GPS time clock. Its site lists hours by job and cost code on each time card, live job costs by employee and cost code, a team calendar that pushes schedules to workers' phones, mobile forms with more than 200 templates, and Expense Cards with spend controls and receipt coding.

• Labor compliance built in. Workyard lists overtime and break-law compliance and a GPS audit trail.
• Supervisor clock-in. A supervisor can clock a whole team in or out.
• A kiosk without facial recognition. Its iPad kiosk takes a name, a PIN and a photo, and Workyard states it does not use facial recognition, citing biometric privacy.
• Support in two languages. Workyard lists U.S.-based support in English and Spanish, by phone or online, and a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

How Workyard captures time

Workyard records time on the worker's phone. Its help center says it tracks location only while an employee is clocked in and stops at clock-out, and that the app requires location services set to always on so clock events work without the app open. Crews without a phone can use the kiosk, a single shared iPad that Workyard says needs iPadOS 17.5 or later.

How much of the day is automatic depends on the plan. Workyard's pricing page places the features this way:

Where ZeroBadge differs from Workyard

ZeroBadge moves the record off the phone entirely. The badge belongs to the company, has its own cellular connection and asks nothing of the worker beyond turning it on and off, so there is no permission screen to approve and no personal phone in the loop.

• Allocation is the default, not a tier. Every minute of a ZeroBadge shift is classified on site, in transit or other and allocated to a jobsite. A move from one site to the shop and on to another site stays one shift.
• No kiosk to place. Jobsites are geofences drawn from an address. Nothing is installed or set up at the site.
• Exceptions come to the office. Missing clock-outs, late starts, early finishes and time outside approved sites are listed for review before the week is approved.
• Narrower scope. ZeroBadge does not do forms, expense cards or cost-code entry. It records presence and time and hands approved hours to payroll.

Workyard and ZeroBadge side by side

A quick test before you decide

The deciding number is how many of your workers you can rely on to keep a work app running with always-on location on a phone you do not own. Count them before you compare features.

• How many field workers carry a company phone you manage?
• How many would install Workyard on a personal phone and leave location on always?
• How many have no smartphone, or share one?
• For the rest, would a shared iPad kiosk work, or do they start the day at different sites?
• Do you need cost codes and expense cards from the field, or hours by jobsite?

If most answers point to company phones and field paperwork, Workyard is a strong fit. If the count of reliable phones is low and crews start at different sites, a company-issued device avoids the question.

When Workyard is the better choice