Construction time tracking: a plain guide for contractors

What should construction time tracking record?

At minimum, record who worked, when the shift started, when it ended, and where each stretch of time was spent. Federal law sets the floor: an employer must keep the hours a nonexempt worker put in each workday and the total for each workweek, and the Department of Labor's recordkeeping fact sheet says payroll records are kept at least three years and time cards two. Everything past that is what your office needs to run jobs.

Worker and day

A named person and a calendar date. Name the apprentice, not the crew, because overtime and prevailing wage rules attach to the individual.

Start and end

The time the shift began and the time it ended, as close to real time as the method allows. Times written from memory on Friday drift toward round numbers.

Location

The jobsite, the shop or the supply house each stretch was spent at. This is the field paper handles worst and the one job costing leans on hardest.

Travel

Drive time between locations during the day, kept as its own line so it can be paid and coded under whatever rule applies to you.

Breaks

Whatever your policy deducts or does not. Record the rule you actually use, not the one in the handbook.

Changes

Who edited a record, when and why. A correction with no reason attached is an argument waiting to happen.

Cost codes and phases are optional on day one. Add them when someone in the office will actually use them, which is usually when job costing starts. See construction job costing for labor for how far to take it.

Which time tracking method fits a construction crew?

The method that fits depends on how many different places a worker is in a week more than on which tool is newest. Every method records a start and an end. They differ on who has to remember something and on whether the record follows the worker.

No method is free of a weak point. A site clock cannot see the drive to the next job. An app depends on a phone the company does not own. A badge is another device to charge, assign and collect. Pick the weak point your crews can live with.

What do labor laws require of construction time records?

Federal law requires accurate hours for each nonexempt worker, overtime above 40 hours in a fixed workweek, and pay for travel between job sites during the workday. State law often adds to this, and the details differ enough that each has its own guide here. What follows is the high-level frame only.

• Records. Hours worked each day and each week must be recorded for nonexempt employees (DOL Fact Sheet 21).
• Overtime. Covered employees get at least one and a half times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. A workweek is a fixed, regularly recurring 168 hours, and hours cannot be averaged across weeks (DOL Fact Sheet 23).
• Travel. Travel from job site to job site during the workday counts as hours worked, while normal travel from home to work does not (29 CFR 785.38 and 785.35).
• Rounding. Rounding to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth or quarter hour is acceptable only when it averages out so employees are fully paid for time worked (29 CFR 785.48).

Where to go next depends on the question. Paying for drives: travel time between job sites. Daily overtime in California: California construction overtime rules. Notice and consent for location records: is it legal to GPS track employees. Public works jobs: certified payroll explained.

What does good construction time data look like?

Good time data is complete, recorded close to when it happened, attributed to a location and adds up. The last test is the quickest one to run: every minute between start and end should land in exactly one bucket.

• Every worker who was paid has a record for the day, and every record has a start and an end.
• Times were captured by the method, not reconstructed on Friday.
• Each stretch of the day has a location, including the shop and the supply house.
• Drive time shows as its own line, not folded into a job or dropped.
• The buckets add up to the shift length, with nothing left over.
• Every edit has an author and a reason, and the original is still there.

How often should you review construction time records?

Review exceptions daily and approve once a week. A missing clock-out is easy to fix the same afternoon and hard to fix the following Monday, when the foreman has to remember which badge, sheet or phone it was.

The same records feed the weekly payroll process, the foreman's weekly timesheet checklist and the daily manpower report.

How do you choose a time tracking method?

Count how many different locations a typical worker touches in a week, then work down these questions in order and stop at the first yes.

1. 1

   Does the crew stay on one site for the whole job?

   A site clock or kiosk is enough. One device covers everyone, and you can check who is at the device at the punch.

2. 2

   Do workers already carry company phones they keep charged?

   A phone app costs the least to start. Confirm that location permission stays on and that someone owns the app rules.

3. 3

   Is one foreman always present and reliable?

   Foreman entry works for a small crew, as long as you accept that it records when the foreman tapped, not when each worker arrived.

4. 4

   Do workers change sites, or start at the shop and finish elsewhere?

   Pick a record that travels with the worker: an app on company phones, or a worn badge if you do not want phones involved.

5. 5

   None of the above, and the crew is tiny?

   Paper with a weekly approval habit. Budget the office hours it takes, because the cost lands there. The hidden cost of paper timesheets shows how to measure it.

How do you roll time tracking out to a crew?

Tell crews what is recorded and why before the device shows up, start with one crew, and keep the old method running for one pay period. The people, not the software, decide whether the data is good.

• Say plainly what is recorded, when and who sees it. The longer guide is rolling out time tracking to crews.
• If you are leaving paper behind, see how to switch from paper timesheets.
• If your crews are union, talk to the business agent first: introducing tracking with a union.
• Pick one thing to watch the first month, such as the number of exceptions per week, and judge the rollout by it.

How does tracked time reach job costing and payroll?

Time turns into job cost only if each hour carries a location or a code, and it turns into payroll only after someone approves it. Hours with no location can be paid, but they cannot be costed to a job without a guess.

To put a dollar figure on an hour, you need a loaded rate. How to calculate labor burden walks through it, and the labor burden calculator does the arithmetic. Splitting a day across several jobs has its own rules, covered in tracking hours at multiple job sites.

Time theft and shared punches are a separate problem with a separate fix. What buddy punching is and how it shows up covers it without turning it into an accusation.

How ZeroBadge handles this

ZeroBadge is the worn-badge method. Each worker wears a company-issued badge with its own cellular connection. Power on starts the shift and power off ends it. Every minute is classified on site, in transit or other and allocated to a jobsite, and a manager approves the week before approved hours go to your payroll provider. Nothing is installed at the site and no personal phone is involved. A badge records the badge, not who is wearing it. See construction time tracking with ZeroBadge.