Construction time theft
Close the gaps in paid time without treating your crew like suspects.
Construction time theft is paid time that wasn't worked: late starts written as on time, early finishes, rounding that only goes one way, long breaks and supply runs that stretch. It is usually small and spread across a crew, and the same gaps also cut hours people did work. ZeroBadge records each shift from power-on to power-off and splits every minute into on site, in transit or other, so the office reviews gaps from a record instead of a hunch.
Treat it as a record problem first. Most of the gap is rounding, memory and habit, and the fix should be fair to the crew.
- Late starts and early finishes flagged, ask ZeroBadge AI
- Every minute on site, in transit or other
- Corrections logged with a reason
Tue Oct 6
- 6:30 AMShop & OfficeClocked in at the shop, loaded fittingsOn site · 25m
- 6:55 AMTransit to RiversideDrive to Riverside Medical PavilionTransit · 40m
- 7:35 AMRiverside Medical PavilionCrew hand-over with Marcus T.On site · 45m
- 8:20 AMTransit to Cascade SupplyDrive to Cascade Supply Co.Transit · 25m
- 8:45 AMCascade Supply Co.Vendor stop: valve pickupVendor · 25m
- 9:10 AMTransit to Harbor YardDrive to Harbor YardTransit · 30m
- 9:40 AMHarbor Yard Distribution CenterOn site with the Harbor Yard crewOn site · 6h 10m
Where paid time leaks
Paid time leaks in small pieces at the edges of the day.
Nobody writes down a 12-minute late start. It becomes 7:00 on Friday's sheet, and twenty workers doing the same thing adds up to real hours.
Late starts written as on time
A 7:12 arrival becomes 7:00 on the sheet. On a paper week, the foreman fills in what the day usually looks like.
Early finishes
Tools down at 3:05 and in the truck by 3:15, with 3:30 on the timesheet because that's when the shift ends.
Rounding that only goes one way
Starts rounded back to the quarter hour and finishes rounded forward. Each round is a few minutes. The direction is what matters.
Long breaks
A half-hour lunch that runs fifty minutes because the taco truck had a line and nobody was watching the clock.
Stretched supply runs
A 20-minute run to the supply house that takes an hour and a half, with a stop at the bank on the way back.
It runs both ways
The same gaps that overpay can also underpay.
A timekeeping problem is not a one-sided problem. The record that shows a long lunch also shows an unpaid early start.
Rounding
When it overpays
Starts always rounded back, finishes always rounded forward
When it underpays
An early start at 6:52 rounded to 7:00 every day
End-of-week memory
When it overpays
A late Tuesday remembered as on time
When it underpays
A 6:30 start at the shop remembered as 7:00 at the site
Before the shift
When it overpays
Clocked in, then coffee before work starts
When it underpays
Loading the truck at the shop before anyone writes a start time
Breaks
When it overpays
A 30-minute lunch that runs 50
When it underpays
A lunch deducted every day, including the days it wasn't taken
Supply runs
When it overpays
A run that includes a personal stop
When it underpays
A run after the last site that never makes the sheet
Missing punches
When it overpays
A forgotten clock-out filled in late
When it underpays
A forgotten clock-in filled in at the scheduled time after an early start
Underpaid hours are a liability of their own. Federal recordkeeping rules ask employers to keep hours worked each workday and each workweek ([29 CFR 516.2(a)(7)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/section-516.2)), and a record that only catches one direction isn't doing that job.
Size it with your own numbers
Six minutes a day, worked through with assumptions you can change.
There is no reliable industry figure for construction time theft, so this uses inputs, not averages. Every value marked as an assumption is a placeholder. Swap in your own and redo the line.
Unrecorded gap per worker per day (assumption)
Arithmetic
6 minutes
Result
0.1 hours
Per worker per week
Arithmetic
0.1 h × 5 days
Result
0.5 hours
Across the crew (assumption: 20 workers)
Arithmetic
0.5 h × 20
Result
10 hours a week
At a loaded labor rate (assumption: $45 an hour)
Arithmetic
10 h × $45
Result
$450 a week
Over a working year (assumption: 48 weeks)
Arithmetic
$450 × 48
Result
$21,600 a year
These are assumptions, not findings about any company. If those six minutes run the other way, as unpaid early starts or skipped lunches still deducted, the same arithmetic is wages owed to the crew. For a fuller estimate with your own inputs, use the [unclear labor hours calculator](/solutions/construction-payroll-losses).
Rounding and breaks
Federal rules accept rounding only when it evens out over time.
Under 29 CFR 785.48(b), recording start and stop times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth or quarter of an hour is accepted for enforcement purposes, provided it does not, over a period of time, result in failing to pay employees for all the time they actually worked. A rule that only ever rounds in the company's favor fails that test. Breaks matter too: rest periods of about 5 to 20 minutes must be counted as hours worked (29 CFR 785.18), while a bona fide meal period, ordinarily 30 minutes or more with the worker completely relieved from duty, is not work time (29 CFR 785.19). So a 15-minute coffee break is paid time, not a gap. Some states are stricter than the federal rules.
Sources: 29 CFR 785.48, 785.18 and 785.19 (eCFR). This is general information, not legal advice. Check your state's rules with counsel.
What each method can see
What paper, a site clock, a phone app and a badge show about each gap.
No method sees intent. The useful question is which gaps each one makes visible, and which it hides.
| Compare | ZeroBadgeWorn badge | Paper timesheetFilled in by hand | Site time clockKiosk or tablet | Phone appGeofence clock-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late starts and early finishes | Flagged against the schedule | Whatever was written | Punch times, if punched on arrival | Clock-in and clock-out times |
| Long lunch off site | Shown as time outside approved sites | Not recorded | Only with a punch out and in | Depends on settings |
| Long lunch on site | Looks like time on site | Not recorded | Only with a punch out and in | Looks like time on site |
| Supply runs | Transit and supplier stops, once suppliers are drawn | One line, or missing | Invisible | Location history while clocked in |
| Start and finish times | Kept as recorded | Rounded by whoever writes them | Depends on settings | Depends on settings |
| Early work at the shop | Starts at power-on, wherever that is | Often left off | Only if the shop has a clock | Only if clocked in at the shop |
Compare ZeroBadge with
| ZeroBadge | Paper |
|---|---|
| Late starts and early finishes | |
| Flagged against the schedule | Whatever was written |
| Long lunch off site | |
| Shown as time outside approved sites | Not recorded |
| Long lunch on site | |
| Looks like time on site | Not recorded |
| Supply runs | |
| Transit and supplier stops, once suppliers are drawn | One line, or missing |
| Start and finish times | |
| Kept as recorded | Rounded by whoever writes them |
| Early work at the shop | |
| Starts at power-on, wherever that is | Often left off |
The tradeoff
No system knows why a lunch ran long or a supply run took an hour. A badge shows where the time went and how long it took; a person decides whether it was a problem. A long break taken on the jobsite itself looks like time on site, because it is. Badges are also company hardware that has to be charged, assigned and recovered.
One week, read from the record
Three exceptions from one week, and how each one closed.
Exceptions are questions, not verdicts. None of these turned out to be theft, and that's typical.
Monday, 6:40 AM · mechanical rough-in crew
The foreman's habit was to write 7:00 for everyone. The record shows two apprentices powered on at the shop at 6:40 to load copper and fittings, then drove to the site. That's 20 minutes each of real work paper would have dropped.
Wednesday, 11:55 AM · service plumber
A supply house run shows 25 minutes at the drawn supplier, then 40 minutes outside any approved site before the next job. The plumber's reason: the part was out of stock, so he drove to a second branch. The office draws that branch as a location and clears the exception.
Friday, 2:45 PM · drywall finisher
Badge powered off at 2:45 at the jobsite against a 3:30 schedule, flagged as an early finish. The super had sent him home after the last coat. Marked approved with the reason, hours unchanged.
One exception is a question. A pattern across several weeks is something to talk about privately, with the record in front of both of you.
Fix it fairly
Four steps to close the gap without damaging trust.
Crews accept a record that protects their hours too. They resist one that only looks for reasons to dock pay.
- 01
Measure before you decide
Run a few weeks of badge records next to your current timesheets. Find out which gaps are real and which direction they run.Weeks 1 to 3
- 02
Write the rules down
Where the shift starts (shop or site), how breaks work, how supply runs are handled and how you round, if you round at all.Written policy
- 03
Review with the worker's side
Clear exceptions with a reason before approval. Workers can see their own hours and request corrections in the optional worker portal.Weekly
- 04
Fix the setup before the person
If supply runs keep landing outside approved sites, draw the suppliers. If lunches run long everywhere, look at the schedule before the crew.Ongoing
ZeroBadge AI
Ask ZeroBadge AI about the pattern, not the person
If something looks off, ask ZeroBadge AI for the pattern first. It answers from the badge records with the days listed, so a supervisor can have a fair conversation. It is read-only, and admins control who can see these answers.
You ask
Which workers started late three or more times this month?
Four of 41. Their late starts ran from 7 to 18 minutes and none fell on a day of approved time off. Each name opens the days so a supervisor can talk it through first.
You ask
Did any badge stay on well past the end of work?
Three shifts ran more than 2 hours past the scheduled end, and two of them ended outside every approved location. They are flagged for review as possible missed power-offs, not as extra time to pay.
You ask
How much of last week was transit or unverified?
Transit was 4.1% of paid time and unverified time was 1.8%, about 24 hours. Most of the unverified time was one stretch of missing reports on Wednesday.
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 about time theft on construction crews.
How common is time theft in construction?
Is rounding employee time legal?
Do short breaks count as paid time?
Can a badge tell a long lunch from work?
Should I discipline someone based on badge records?
Does tracking time this way also protect workers?
Keep exploring
Next: payroll losses, multi-site days and approval.
- SolutionThe cost of unclear labor hoursA transparent calculator for the labor value of unclear hours across your crew.
- SolutionMulti-jobsite time trackingSite transfers, transit and supply runs inside one shift record.
- SolutionTimesheet approvalExceptions cleared with a reason before a manager approves the week.
- SolutionTimesheet roundingHow rounding works, and when it stops evening out.
- SolutionLabor cost trackingLoaded rates, job budgets and forecasts from badge-recorded hours.
- Platform tourThe platformA walkthrough of what the office sees: crews, jobsites, timesheets, analytics and payroll.
Last updated
Sources
- 1.29 CFR 785.48, Use of time clocks (rounding practices) · eCFR, US National Archives
- 2.29 CFR 516.2, Employees subject to minimum wage or minimum wage and overtime provisions (records) · eCFR, US National Archives
- 3.29 CFR 785.18, Rest · eCFR, US National Archives
- 4.29 CFR 785.19, Meal · eCFR, US National Archives
Get started
See where your paid time actually goes.
We'll walk through a week of badge records, the exceptions it raises and how your office would clear them fairly.
What we will walk through
- 01Late starts, early finishes and time outside approved sites
- 02Supplier stops drawn as locations
- 03Corrections with reasons, and the worker portal