Skip to content

Time tracking for plumbing contractors

Plumbing time tracking for the service van and the construction crew.

Time tracking for a plumbing contractor has to handle two very different days: a service plumber working through several stops, a counter run and the drives between them before lunch, and a construction crew on one building from underground to finish. ZeroBadge records both from the same company-managed badge. Every stop lands on one shift with its own time, drives are measured separately, and a call that runs past midnight is recorded on both days.

Get startedAfter-hours calls
  • Every stop on one shift
  • Drive and counter time shown separately
  • One month or more of battery life*

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

Tue Oct 6

Stops

4

Customer & job

At stops

4h 20m

Driving

2h 15m

Supply house

20m

HARBOR ISLANDSODOEast WaterwayWest WaterwaySR 991st Ave S4th Ave SI-5W Seattle BridgeS Lander StSHOP & OFFICE1S234RayAlder CourtRidgeline SupplyBayview DentalNot a listed siteHarborview Lofts
Ray6:50 AM
© OpenStreetMap contributors
6:50 AM2:20 PM
  1. 6:50 AMShop & OfficeLoaded the van, picked up today's work ordersShop · 20m
  2. 7:10 AM▲ Drive · 25m
  3. 7:35 AMAlder Court ApartmentsCommercial water heater swap, mechanical roomService call · 1h 15m
  4. 8:50 AM▲ Drive · 15m
  5. 9:05 AMRidgeline Plumbing SupplyCounter pickup: PRV and fittingsSupply house · 20m
  6. 9:25 AM▲ Drive · 20m
  7. 9:45 AMBayview DentalPressure-reducing valve replacementService call · 1h 25m
  8. 11:10 AM▲ Drive · 20m
  9. 11:30 AMAddress not set up as a siteStop outside your drawn sites, flagged for the officeNeeds review · 40m
  10. 12:10 PM▲ Drive · 25m
  11. 12:35 PMHarborview LoftsNew construction: rough-in walk with the GC's superNew construction · 1h
  12. 1:35 PM▲ Drive · 30m
  13. 2:05 PMShop & OfficeRestocked the vanShop · 15m
One shift, 6:50 AM to 2:20 PM.

What ZeroBadge does for you

How ZeroBadge helps plumbing

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 plumber on a late call alone in a crawl space or plant room can press the alert button or SOS, and the office sees which site it came from.

    Learn more

  • 02

    Workforce management

    See which service plumbers are on which stops and which crews are on new construction, and spot a late start before the first customer waits.

    Learn more

  • 03

    Automated timekeeping

    Badge on at the shop and every stop, supply-house run and drive becomes its own line, with an after-hours call recorded across midnight on both days.

    Learn more

  • 04

    Workforce productivity

    Compare hours against the bid by stage, underground, rough-in and finish, and see a job drifting over budget while the next stage can still adjust.

    Learn more

  • 05

    Location analytics

    GPS places service stops outdoors and Wi-Fi positioning helps inside buildings, answering which customer site or jobsite without any equipment installed.

    Learn more

  • 06

    Field logistics

    Balance service routes and construction crews by seeing how many stops each plumber made and how much of the day went to drives and supply counters.

    Learn more

  • 07

    AI advisory and analytics

    Ask which service trucks spent the most time at the supply house last week and get an answer from your records, with each number linked to its source.

    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.

Two divisions, one payroll

Service and new construction don't fit on the same timecard.

Most commercial plumbing contractors run a service side and a construction side on one payroll. Their days look nothing alike, and both are hard to rebuild on a Friday afternoon.

  • Many short stops

    A service plumber can work four or five addresses in a day. A timecard that reads 7:00 to 3:30 says nothing about which customer the hours belong to, or how much of the day was spent in the van.

  • The supply-house run

    Counter runs are part of the work: a pressure-reducing valve, a water heater kit, the fitting the van didn't have. They're paid time, and they rarely make it onto a work order.

  • Stages with gaps between them

    New construction runs underground, rough-in, top-out and finish, with inspections and other contractors in between. A crew can leave a job for three weeks and come back, and the hours have to follow them.

  • Calls that don't wait for a schedule

    A burst line at 11 PM starts at home, runs past midnight and lands on two calendar days, with a drive at each end.

  • Wet, dirty work

    Trenches, crawl spaces and plant rooms are hard on anything with a touchscreen or a fingerprint reader. The badge isn't handled during the shift: power on, clip it on, power off.

Reading a service day

A service day from badge on at the shop to badge off, every stop placed.

The service day at the top of this page, step by step. Nobody fills anything in.

  1. 01

    Start at the shop

    The plumber powers the badge on while loading the van. That's the clock-in, and shop time is its own line.

    Clock-in

  2. 02

    Stops become lines

    Each customer or jobsite you've set up gets its own time on the shift: a water heater swap, a valve replacement, a walk-through with the GC's super.

    On site

  3. 03

    Counters and drives

    The supply house is a location like any other. Drives between stops are measured as transit, never folded into the next call.

    Other · transit

  4. 04

    New addresses go to review

    A stop at an address you haven't set up still shows on the day's timeline, for the office to review. Add the address and later visits are recorded against it.

    Review

  5. 05

    Badge off

    Power off and the shift closes. The timesheet is already built; there's nothing to submit.

    Clock-out

After-hours and on-call

The late-night call, recorded on both days it touched.

An on-call plumber doesn't need a schedule in ZeroBadge to be on the record. The badge goes on when the call comes in, at home or in the van, and the drive out, the repair and the drive home are recorded as they happen.

A call that runs past midnight is split at midnight, so each calendar day carries its own hours for daily overtime and payroll. Whether the drive from home is paid is your policy and your state's rules; the record shows it separately so you can apply them.

After-hours call

Ana V.

11:20 PM → 1:55 AM

Service plumber, on call

12:00 AM

Thu Oct 8

40m

Before midnight

Fri Oct 9

1h 55m

After midnight

  • Drive11:20 PM – 11:50 PM · Badge on at home, drive to the call30m
  • Maple Court Apartments11:50 PM – 1:25 AM · Burst supply line, riser shut-off and repair1h 35m
  • Drive1:25 AM – 1:55 AM · Drive home, badge off30m

Operational details

Phases, job rates, service customers and crawl spaces.

  • Underground, rough-in, finish

    Hours are recorded by job and date, so the hours for a stage are the job's hours for the dates that stage ran, even when the crew left for weeks between inspections.

  • Different rates by job

    Every hour carries its job, so prevailing-wage, union and private work stay separate all the way to payroll. The rates themselves are applied in your payroll process.

  • Service customers

    Set up repeat customers, property managers' buildings and new-construction sites by typing the address. ZeroBadge draws the geofence; you can adjust it.

  • Crawl spaces and plant rooms

    Indoors the badge places itself from nearby Wi-Fi networks. Where cellular drops out it stores its reports and uploads them when it reconnects, and the day back-fills.

One week, both divisions

The service side and the construction side end up in the same weekly timesheets, the same review queue and the same payroll integration.

Timesheets generate for every worker for each Saturday-to-Friday week. A missing clock-out or a late start is flagged for review, and every correction carries a reason and an audit trail. Approved hours are sent to your payroll provider automatically.

Go deeper

Where plumbing contractors usually look next.

ZeroBadge AI

Ask ZeroBadge AI about your plumbing crews

Type the question you would ask your office manager. The answer comes from your records, and each number links to them.

  • You ask

    Which service trucks spent the most time at the supply house last week?

    Truck 6 logged 6h 10m at supply counters across five days, the most in the service group. Each visit is linked by day and location.

  • You ask

    How many hours has the Riverside Plaza rough-in used?

    Rough-in has used 326 of 400 budgeted hours, 82%, with construction crews on site for 11 days. The hours link to shifts by date.

  • You ask

    How many after-hours calls ran past midnight last week?

    Three calls crossed midnight, totaling 9h 05m, and each was recorded on both days it touched. They are listed with the customer location.

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 plumbing contractors ask.

How do you track a plumber's hours across several stops in a day?
With a record that travels with the plumber. ZeroBadge places each badge report at the customer, jobsite, shop or supply house you've set up, so one shift becomes a list of stops with their own times and the drives between them. See multi-jobsite time tracking for how site transfers work.
How do you record time at a supply house?
Set the supply house up as a location. A counter stop then appears on the shift as its own line, between the drives that got there, instead of disappearing into the next call.
How do plumbing contractors handle different pay rates on different jobs?
By keeping every hour attached to its job. Hours stay split by worker, job and day, so prevailing-wage, union and private work reach payroll already separated. The rates are applied by your payroll provider; ZeroBadge doesn't calculate wages or pay anyone.
What happens when a service plumber stops at an address that isn't set up?
The time still shows on that day's timeline, outside your drawn sites, for the office to review. Adding the address as a site takes a few seconds, and later visits are recorded against it.
How is an after-hours call that crosses midnight recorded?
As one call split at midnight: the time before midnight belongs to the first day and the rest to the next. Daily overtime and payroll then see each day's actual recorded hours.

Last updated

Get started

See a service day and a construction week side by side.

We'll walk through ZeroBadge with your service routes, your construction jobs and your payroll process in mind.

Get startedSee the platform

What we will walk through

  • 01How a service plumber's stops, counter runs and drives are recorded
  • 02After-hours calls and the midnight split
  • 03Weekly timesheets, review and the payroll integration