Building automation contractor time tracking
Building automation contractor time tracking: the office build and the checkout days.
Building automation contractor time tracking has to follow a job that lives in two places: the office, where the database, graphics and sequences are built, and the building, where panels go up, every point is checked out and the system is commissioned. ZeroBadge records both from a company-managed badge. The office is a location you draw and each building is a location you draw, so office programming hours and on-site checkout hours stay separate on one timesheet.
- Office and site hours kept apart
- Checkout days tied to the building
- One month or more of battery life*
*Under qualifying operating conditions. Battery life varies with reporting frequency, signal conditions, usage, and configuration.
Paid vs on site
Paid time · 1,045.2 h
On a jobsite 96.1%
- Jobsite
- Shop / office
- Supplier stop
- Between locations
- RiversideJobsite375.0 hOT 38.3 h · $28,070
- Harbor YardJobsite300.8 hOT 3.8 h · $20,530
- NorthgateJobsite328.9 hOT 17.6 h · $24,008
- ShopShop / office15.3 hOT 14.8 h · $1,496
- Cascade SupplySupplier stop6.2 hOT 5.8 h · $386
- Transit between locationsBetween locations19.0 hOT 15.4 h · $1,595
Loaded labor cost
$76,085
Overtime share
11.6%
OT hours at loaded rate + premium
What ZeroBadge does for you
How ZeroBadge helps controls contractors
One company badge per worker covers safety alerts, timekeeping, labor analytics and ZeroBadge AI. Here is what each part does in your line of work.
01
Worker safety
A technician alone in a mechanical room can press the alert button and the office sees which building raised it, with restricted-area alerts for areas you mark.
Learn more02
Workforce management
See which programmers are at the office and which commissioning techs have reached a building, so checkout days start on time.
Learn more03
Automated timekeeping
Office programming and on-site checkout are separate drawn locations, so each shows as its own hours on one timesheet with no phone to carry.
Learn more04
Workforce productivity
Compare recorded office and on-site hours against the estimate for each controls job, and see whether checkout is running past the plan.
Learn more05
Location analytics
GPS outdoors and Wi-Fi inside place a technician at the office or at a building, which keeps programming hours apart from commissioning hours.
Learn more06
Field logistics
Shift techs between buildings in commissioning using the record of hours already spent, so the job that is behind gets the help.
Learn more07
AI advisory and analytics
Ask ZeroBadge AI how many hours each building has used on point-to-point checkout, and the answer links to those visits.
Learn more
Safety alerts support your safety program. They do not replace supervision or training, ZeroBadge does not monitor alerts or contact 911, and in an emergency workers should call 911.
Where controls hours hide
A controls job is mostly done before and after the days the crew is on the roof.
The submittal, the point database and the graphics are built at a desk. The on-site days are short and busy, and they depend on when the mechanical contractor says the equipment is ready.
Programming hours that never name a project
A programmer builds sequences for three jobs in a week, switching between them. A card that reads forty hours at the office doesn't say which job spent them.
Point-to-point checkout is a two-person day
One person stands at the panel and one at the equipment, driving each output and reading each input. A building with several hundred points is days of this, and the days land when the mechanical contractor finishes, not when the schedule said.
Waiting for equipment and power
The air handler isn't started, the power isn't on to the panel, the valves aren't piped. The controls tech is on site and cannot check out what isn't there. That wait belongs to a job and to someone else's schedule.
Commissioning, trending and training
After checkout come functional tests with the balancer or the engineer, a few weeks of trend review, and an owner training session. These are separate visits spread across weeks on the same building.
Warranty callbacks
A sensor that drifts or a schedule that no longer matches the tenant is a return visit to a closed job. Without hours by building, a pattern at one site looks like a series of one-offs.
Two places, one job
Only the office hours need assigning to a job.
Draw the office as an office-type location and each building as a jobsite. Everything a technician does at a building is placed there by the badge, including programming done on site and a checkout day. What's left over is the office programming time.
The badge cannot see which project a laptop was open on. A programmer assigns office hours to jobs in your own project or time system, and the badge supplies the total those assignments should add up to. If they don't, the gap is visible.
Labor by jobsite
Recorded
1,045.2 h
Overtime
95.7 h
Workers
24
Riverside Medical Pavilion
375.0 h
▲ +129.9 h vs prior week · OT 38.3 h◆ Plan 340.0 hHarbor Yard Distribution Center
300.8 h
▼ −97.0 h vs prior week · OT 3.8 hPlan 310.0 hNorthgate Tower
328.9 h
▼ −1.4 h vs prior week · OT 17.6 hPlan 330.0 h
What changed
Riverside Medical Pavilion recorded 375.0 hours, up 129.9 hours (+53%) from the week of Sep 28.
3 workers (Ben C., Mateo G., Rosa D.) recorded time at Riverside from Tue Oct 6 after working at Harbor Yard. Their time accounts for 108.8 of the added hours.
Phases and what the record can say
Submittal, install, checkout, commissioning and warranty, by date.
The badge places a person at a building and does not know the activity. A controls job's phases are runs of dates, and recorded hours for each run is the phase cost.
Submittal and database build
Mostly office time. Assigned to the job by the programmer in your own system, against the office total from the badge.
Panel and device install
On site, by building and day. Where mechanical or electrical installs the field devices, your crew's hours are only the panels and the wiring you own.
Point-to-point and functional testing
Pull a building's recorded hours for the checkout dates, then for the functional test dates with the balancer or the engineer.
Trend review and training
Short return visits weeks later, each placed at the building. They are separate stretches on the same job, so they add together instead of getting lost.
Payroll wrinkles
Salaried programmers, home work and the rush before turnover.
Work from home
A badge is powered on for the paid shift and off between. Remote programming from home with the badge off is not recorded. Decide your own rule for it and apply it in payroll.
Exempt and non-exempt staff
Hours are recorded for anyone who wears a badge. Who is exempt, and how overtime applies, is decided by your payroll provider and your state's rules, not by ZeroBadge.
Overtime before a turnover date
A few long days at a building to meet a handover show on the days they happened, so the overtime goes to that job.
Public and private buildings
A school and a private office tower are separate locations, so their hours reach payroll separated. Certified payroll forms stay in your payroll process.
Why phones don't fit controls work
A laptop, a ladder and a rooftop.
The laptop is already in use
A controls tech has a laptop and a handheld tool in use for most of the day. Adding a time app on a personal phone is a third device that gets missed.
Rooftops, plant rooms and ceiling panels
Panels are in mechanical rooms, above ceilings and on rooftops. The badge uses GPS in the open and the Wi-Fi networks it can see indoors, and stores reports where it cannot reach cellular.
Many buildings across a year
A single building might get a dozen short visits over a year. A phone app that needs a site entered ahead of time loses the early ones. The badge records each visit at the building once it's drawn.
Where this page stops
Equipment install, piping and rooftop units belong on mechanical contractors, and commercial service routes on HVAC contractors.
Controls work sits between them, so many controls contractors read all three. The badge and the weekly timesheet are the same for each.
Rolling it out
Badge the programmers and the commissioning techs together.
- 01
Draw the office and each active building
Type each address and adjust the geofence. Add your warehouse or panel shop if you build panels in-house.Office · first day
- 02
Badge the programmers and the field techs
Badging both for a week shows office time and on-site time on a single job.Office · first week
- 03
Reconcile office hours to job assignments
Compare each programmer's office total to what they assigned to jobs in your system. The difference is the first thing to look at.PM · week two
- 04
Approve and send
Timesheets run Saturday to Friday. Clear the exceptions, approve, and approved hours are sent to your payroll provider.Payroll · weekly
Go deeper
Where controls contractors usually look next.
- Industry guideSpecialty contractorsSmall crews on many small jobs, with shop time and drives separated, and a page for each specialty.
- Industry guideMechanical contractorsField, fab shop and supplier time for HVAC, piping and sheet metal crews.
- Industry guideHVAC contractorsCommercial service techs, start-ups and maintenance agreements, with every visit placed by building.
- Industry guideConstructionGeneral and specialty contractors with crews across several jobsites, the shop and the supply house.
- SolutionLabor cost trackingLoaded rates, job budgets and forecasts from badge-recorded hours.
- SolutionMulti-jobsite time trackingSite transfers, transit and supply runs inside one shift record.
- SolutionPayroll integrationApproved hours sent to your payroll provider automatically. Nobody re-keys a timecard.
ZeroBadge AI
Ask about office and site hours
ZeroBadge AI reads your own badge records and answers in plain English, with each figure linked to the shifts it came from.
You ask
How many hours has the Northgate Library job used on site compared with the office?
Northgate Library has 96 recorded hours on site and 142 at the office. The split links to each week's timesheets.
You ask
Which technicians spent the most time at the Parkview Hospital checkout this month?
Three technicians logged 31, 27 and 22 hours at Parkview Hospital. Arrival and departure times are in each linked record.
You ask
Which commissioning days ran past eight hours?
Four days at Parkview Hospital ran past eight hours, the longest at 10 hours 20 minutes. Each day links to its recorded shift.
Answers come only from your company's own records. Every number links to the records behind it. Read-only; admins control access.
How ZeroBadge AI worksQuestions
Questions controls contractors ask.
How do building automation contractors separate office and site hours?
Can ZeroBadge tell which project a programmer worked on at the office?
Does it track point-to-point checkout time?
What about programming done from home?
How are warranty callbacks counted?
Last updated
Get started
See the office build and the checkout days in one job's record.
We'll walk through ZeroBadge with your programmers, your commissioning techs and the way your jobs are estimated.
What we will walk through
- 01How office hours and building hours appear on one timesheet
- 02Checkout time per point from recorded hours at the building
- 03Weekly timesheets, review and the payroll integration