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Time tracking for electrical contractors

Electrical time tracking that doesn't need a phone in anyone's pocket.

Time tracking for electrical contractors runs into a rule most apps ignore: on many jobs, personal phones are kept away from energized gear, lifts and ladders. ZeroBadge records each electrician's shift from a company-managed badge instead, with no screen and nothing to tap. It splits the week across the tenant-improvement jobs, service calls and public work your crews cover, and keeps journeyman and apprentice hours on the job they were worked.

Get startedHours on public work
  • Nothing to tap or sign in to
  • Crew mix by job, every day
  • One month or more of battery life*

*Under qualifying operating conditions. Battery life varies with reporting frequency, signal conditions, usage, and configuration.

Crew by job

  • Meridian #300

    Rough-in

    60.9h

    5 days · 3 people

  • Larch St Clinic

    Trim-out

    34.8h

    4 days · 3 people

  • Fern Hill Dental

    Rough-in

    17.3h

    4 days · 2 people

  • Lincoln Elem.

    Public work

    96.8h

    5 days · 4 people

  • Westgate Retail

    Service

    8.9h

    4 days · 1 person

  • Cedar CU

    Service

    6.4h

    3 days · 1 person

Jobs

6

This week

TI jobs

3

Tenant work

Foreman

4

Jobs visited

J = journey-level (foreman, journeyman) · A = apprentice, from the crew's titles on your roster.

What ZeroBadge does for you

How ZeroBadge helps electrical

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 journeyman working alone near energized equipment can press the alert button, and the office sees which jobsite it came from.

    Learn more

  • 02

    Workforce management

    See which electricians are on which tenant improvement job today, and spot a late start or a no-show before the walk-through.

    Learn more

  • 03

    Automated timekeeping

    No personal phone is needed near energized work: badge on starts the shift, and hours by worker, day and site are recorded for review.

    Learn more

  • 04

    Workforce productivity

    Compare recorded hours with the estimate for rough-in and trim on each job, and see which small jobs are running long.

    Learn more

  • 05

    Location analytics

    GPS outdoors and Wi-Fi inside place each electrician at the jobsite, the shop or the supply house, one location per drawn address.

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  • 06

    Field logistics

    Balance journeymen and apprentices across the week's many small jobs by recorded hours, so crews are sized to each job's pace.

    Learn more

  • 07

    AI advisory and analytics

    Ask ZeroBadge AI how many apprentice hours a job used compared with journeyman hours, answered from the badge records.

    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.

The electrical week

Small jobs, mixed crews and rules about phones.

An electrical contractor's labor is spread thin by design: a few journeymen and apprentices covering several tenant improvements, a public job and a steady stream of service calls.

  • Phones are restricted where the work is

    Company safety programs and GC site rules often limit personal phone use around energized equipment, in lifts and on ladders. An app-based clock asks electricians to reach for the phone anyway, or the foreman punches for them from memory.

  • A handful of TI jobs, one crew sheet

    A foreman who walks four suites and a dental office in a week writes it all down on Friday. Hours end up on whichever job was loudest that week.

  • Rough-in and trim are different labor

    Rough-in is pulls, boxes and conduit with a heavier apprentice share; trim is devices, fixtures and terminations. Bidding the next suite well depends on knowing what each phase actually took.

  • Public work raises the stakes

    On prevailing-wage jobs, hours on the public site are typically reported by worker, day and classification, and kept apart from the same worker's private-job hours that week.

Built around the phone rule

No screen to check, no PIN to enter, nothing to sign in to. The badge records the shift while the phone stays wherever your safety program says it goes.

Power on at the start of the shift, off at the end. The badge reports over its own cellular connection, so nothing goes on a personal phone and there's no kiosk to walk to between the lift and the electrical room.

Prevailing wage and public work

Hours on the public job, by worker, day and title.

On a public job the question is narrow: who worked on this site, on which days, for how long, under what classification. ZeroBadge answers the first three from the badge record and shows each worker's title from your roster. A foreman who stops by for an hour shows up for that hour, and the time the same people spent on private jobs that week stays on those jobs.

What ZeroBadge does not do: it doesn't apply prevailing wage rates or fringes. ZeroBadge aids certified payroll reporting by supplying verified hours by worker, day and jobsite. It does not produce or file certified payroll on its own; final certified payroll reports require review by a qualified person. Hours export as CSV, Excel or PDF to whoever prepares forms such as the WH-347: your payroll provider, your accounting system or your office. Confirm the reporting rules for each contract with your payroll provider or counsel.

Hours by worker

Lincoln Elementary Modernization

Mon Oct 5 – Fri Oct 9

Public work

Worker · title

Total

  • Dana R.

    Foreman

    1.01 day

  • Luis P.

    Journeyman wireman

    40.55 days

  • Omar J.

    Apprentice

    39.35 days

  • Victor N.

    Journeyman wireman

    16.02 days

Journey

57.5 h

Incl. foreman

Apprentice

39.3 h

On this job

Elsewhere

63.2 h

Other jobs

Export

CSVExcelPDF
ZeroBadge aids certified payroll reporting by supplying verified hours by worker, day and jobsite. It does not produce or file certified payroll on its own; final certified payroll reports require review by a qualified person.

A TI-heavy Friday

Friday goes from rebuilding the crew sheet to clearing a review list.

Crew sheet week

  1. Mon to ThuThe foreman keeps a running list of who went to which suite, when he remembers to.
  2. Fri 2 PMCrew sheet written up from the list, every job rounded to the half day.
  3. Fri 4 PMThe office splits the foreman's own hours across jobs by estimate. The service calls are a guess.
  4. MonPayroll asks which job the apprentice's Tuesday supply run was for. Nobody is sure.

Badge week

  1. DailyEach badge places its reports at a job, the shop or the supply house. Crew mix by job builds up as the week runs.
  2. FriTimesheets generate for the Saturday-to-Friday week, split by job, with exceptions flagged.
  3. FriThe foreman reviews only the flags, such as a missing clock-out, and corrects with a reason on record.
  4. MonApproved hours are sent to your payroll provider automatically.

Operational details

What electrical contractors ask before rollout.

  • Rough-in vs trim

    Hours are kept by job and date. Pull a suite's hours for the weeks rough-in ran, then for trim, and you have what each phase took, split by journey-level and apprentice hours.

  • Crew mix

    ZeroBadge doesn't set or enforce apprentice ratios. It shows who was recorded at each job each day, with their roster title, so a ratio question can be answered from the record.

  • Suites and floors

    Indoors the badge places itself from the Wi-Fi networks it can see. Separate buildings separate cleanly; two suites on one floor of the same building are best set up as one location.

  • Union and pay rules

    Regular and overtime hours by worker, job and day go to payroll under the thresholds you set. Rates, fringes and union reporting stay in your payroll process.

Go deeper

Where electrical contractors usually look next.

ZeroBadge AI

Ask about your jobs and crew mix

Plain-English questions are answered from your own badge records, and each number links to the hours behind it.

  • You ask

    How many hours did the Cedar Street tenant improvement use for rough-in compared with trim?

    Cedar Street recorded 184 hours at rough-in and 96 at trim, against 170 and 110 estimated. The split links to the daily shifts.

  • You ask

    What is the apprentice to journeyman hours ratio on the county library job?

    The county library job has 310 journeyman hours and 205 apprentice hours, a ratio of about 1 to 0.66. Each total links to worker hours.

  • You ask

    Which electricians worked at more than one site on Thursday?

    Five electricians were recorded at two sites on Thursday, with the supply house stop shown separately. Each worker's moves link to their record.

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 works

Questions

Questions electrical contractors ask.

Can electricians track time if phones aren't allowed on the job?
Yes, as long as the clock isn't on the phone. ZeroBadge uses a company-managed badge with its own cellular connection: the worker powers it on at the start of the shift and off at the end. There's no screen and no sign-in, so it fits a job where phones stay in the truck. More in time tracking without phones.
How do electrical contractors track time across several jobs a day?
Each job, the shop and the supply houses you use are drawn as locations. The badge places each report at one of them and measures the drive in between, so a foreman's day across three suites becomes one shift split by job. Multi-jobsite time tracking walks through a full day.
Does ZeroBadge produce certified payroll reports?
No. ZeroBadge aids certified payroll reporting by supplying verified hours by worker, day and jobsite. It does not produce or file certified payroll on its own; final certified payroll reports require review by a qualified person. Hours export as CSV, Excel or PDF with each worker's roster title. Prevailing wage rates, fringe benefits and forms such as the WH-347 are prepared in your payroll process. This isn't legal advice; confirm the obligations of each public contract.
How is travel time between electrical jobs recorded?
As transit, separate from time on site. Drives between jobs, to the supply house or back to the shop are measured movement between locations you've drawn, so they appear on the timesheet as their own lines. Whether and how travel is paid follows your policy and your state's rules.

Last updated

Get started

See your TI jobs, service calls and public work in one week.

We'll set up a walkthrough around your crews, your job mix and the way your payroll runs today, public work included.

Get startedSee the platform

What we will walk through

  • 01How a badge records a crew across several jobs without a phone
  • 02Crew mix and hours by job, day and title
  • 03The payroll integration and CSV, Excel or PDF exports