Construction time tracking
Construction time tracking that records the whole day, not just the punch.
Construction time tracking means recording when each worker started, which jobsite the hours were spent at and when the shift ended, then turning that into a timesheet for payroll. ZeroBadge does it with a company-issued badge: power on starts the shift, power off ends it, and every minute is allocated to a jobsite without a phone, a punch or a clock at the gate.
Built first for general contractors and other commercial crews that move between jobsites, the shop and supply houses.
- No employee phones
- Nothing installed at the site
- One month or more of battery life*
*Under qualifying operating conditions. Battery life varies with reporting frequency, signal conditions, usage, and configuration.
Week of Oct 5
Lena O.
Foreman
Day
Locations
Recorded
- Mon2 locations9h 31m
- Tue4 locations9h 20mOn site7h 20mTransit1h 35mOther25m
- Wed2 locations9h 36m
- Thu2 locations9h 16m
- Fri2 locations8h 56m
Week recorded
46.7 h
Overtime
6.7 h
The problem with a punch
A clock-in tells you when. It doesn't tell you where the day went.
Most time systems capture two moments, the start and the end, and leave the office to reconstruct everything in between.
Crews don't stay put
A foreman starts at the shop, hands over a crew at one job, makes a supply-house run and finishes at another. A single punch charges the whole day to one job number.
Job costing runs on memory
When hours aren't split by site as they happen, labor gets allocated from recollection at the end of the week, and the job cost report inherits every guess. See labor cost tracking.
Exceptions surface at payroll
A missing clock-out or a 7:25 start on a 7:00 crew usually shows up when timesheets are already due, which is the worst time to chase a foreman for answers.
Every method needs someone to act
Phone apps need the worker's phone and permissions. Site clocks need someone to walk to them. Paper needs someone to remember. The record is only as complete as the habit behind it.
How a day is recorded
A foreman's four-stop day, kept as one shift and split by jobsite.
Here a foreman clocks in at the shop, hands a crew over at one jobsite, stops at a supplier and finishes the day at a second jobsite. ZeroBadge keeps it as one shift and allocates every minute to where it was spent. Power-on is the clock-in, so there is nothing to tap (see automatic clock in and out).
Time is classified three ways: on site (inside a jobsite, shop or office you've drawn), in transit (measured movement between locations) and other (vendor stops and anything that can't be attributed to a site). A transfer mid-shift never splits the record in two. More on site transfers in multi-jobsite time tracking.
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
From badge to payroll
Capture, review, approve, send.
The badge handles the first step on its own. The office handles the exceptions, not the whole week.
- 01
Capture
Power on and the shift starts. GPS outdoors and Wi-Fi indoors place each report at a jobsite you drew in software (how geofence time tracking works).Badge · automatic
- 02
Review
Missing clock-outs, late starts and time outside approved sites are flagged. Corrections carry a reason and a full audit trail.Office · daily
- 03
Approve
Managers sign off on the week with the site-by-site breakdown in front of them, not a column of totals.Manager · weekly
- 04
Send
Approved hours are sent to your payroll provider automatically. ZeroBadge integrates with the payroll you already run, so nobody re-keys a timecard. Details on the payroll integration page.Payroll · weekly
How a badge-recorded week works
A badge-recorded week runs Saturday to Friday, with one review pass and one approval.
Here is the rhythm for one worker. The Thursday and weekly figures are a hypothetical foreman, there to show the arithmetic, not a customer result.
Monday to Wednesday
What the badge records
Each shift starts at power-on and ends at power-off. Reports about every 5 minutes place the worker at a jobsite, the shop, a supplier or in transit.
What the office does
Clears exceptions as they are flagged: a missing clock-out, a late start. Each fix is entered with a reason.
Thursday
What the badge records
A shift from 6:02 AM to 2:30 PM is 8h 28m: 7h 05m on site across two jobsites, 1h 12m in transit and 11m at a supplier (other). 7h 05m + 1h 12m + 11m = 8h 28m.
What the office does
Nothing to do. The day reconciles by construction, and the transfer between sites stays inside one shift.
Friday
What the badge records
The last shift of the period. If the badge lost signal, stored reports upload on reconnect with their original timestamps and the day back-fills.
What the office does
Final exception pass. Anything still open gets a supervisor's answer before the weekend.
Saturday
What the badge records
The weekly timesheet for the Saturday-to-Friday period is generated per worker. In the hypothetical week above, 43h 10m under a 40-hour weekly threshold reads 40h regular and 3h 10m overtime, with the overtime still attached to the jobsites where it was worked.
What the office does
Opens the timesheets and the exceptions list. The weekly PDF is kept as an unchangeable version.
Approval day
What the badge records
Nothing new. The approved record is final unless a correction is made, which creates a new version and keeps the old one.
What the office does
A manager approves the week. Approved hours are sent to the payroll provider. Corrections after approval go out as adjustments.
Daily and weekly overtime thresholds are the ones you set. ZeroBadge applies your rule; it does not decide which overtime rules apply to your workforce.
Methods compared
Five ways to track construction time, compared on what the office ends up with.
Each method works for some contractors. The difference is what the office has by Friday and who had to remember something to get it there.
| Compare | ZeroBadgeWorn badge | Paper sheetWritten by the worker | Foreman sheetOne sheet for the crew | Phone appWorker's own phone | Site clockKiosk or tablet at the site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| When the office can see the week | During the week, as shifts record | After sheets are collected | When the foreman turns it in | As punches sync | As punches sync from each unit |
| Hours split by jobsite | Allocated by location, minute by minute | Whatever the worker wrote | One job per entry unless the foreman splits it | By job pick or geofence, if the worker uses it | Only the site where the unit is |
| Who has to remember something | Power on, power off, charge | Every worker, every day | The foreman, for everyone | Every worker, with a charged phone | Every worker, at the unit |
| Drive and supply-run time | Recorded as transit and other | Rarely written down | Only if entered | Recorded while location is on | Not seen |
| Handoff to payroll | Approved hours sent to your payroll provider. CSV, Excel and PDF too | Re-keyed by the office | Re-keyed or uploaded | Export or integration, varies by product | Export or integration, varies by product |
| What you have to manage | A badge per worker: charging, spares, collection | Printing, collecting, filing | Nothing extra, but one person carries the record | App rollout, permissions, phone rules | Moving, powering and securing a unit per site |
Compare ZeroBadge with
| ZeroBadge | Paper |
|---|---|
| When the office can see the week | |
| During the week, as shifts record | After sheets are collected |
| Hours split by jobsite | |
| Allocated by location, minute by minute | Whatever the worker wrote |
| Who has to remember something | |
| Power on, power off, charge | Every worker, every day |
| Drive and supply-run time | |
| Recorded as transit and other | Rarely written down |
| Handoff to payroll | |
| Approved hours sent to your payroll provider. CSV, Excel and PDF too | Re-keyed by the office |
| What you have to manage | |
| A badge per worker: charging, spares, collection | Printing, collecting, filing |
The tradeoff
A rule of thumb: if every crew stays on one site for the life of the job, a site clock or a careful foreman sheet is enough. If workers change sites during the week, or start at the shop and finish elsewhere, the record should travel with the worker. A badge adds hardware you charge, assign and collect, and it records the badge rather than who is wearing it (how to prevent buddy punching). Each option in depth: time tracking without phones, jobsite time clock alternatives and replacing paper timesheets. The full side-by-side lives in construction time tracking methods compared.
What the office sees
Missing clock-outs and late starts show up for review before payroll.
Weekly timesheets are generated automatically for every worker on a Saturday-to-Friday period and kept as versioned PDF reports (automatic timesheets). Anything that doesn't add up lands in a review queue with the badge record behind it.
Nothing is silently edited. The original badge record stays intact, every correction is logged with who made it and why, and workers can flag a problem or record time off from an optional web portal.
Exceptions
Timesheets
24
Generated
Shifts
120
Recorded
Open items
3
Before payroll
- Corrected
Late start · Hannah P. · Harbor Yard
Mon Oct 5 · Clocked in 7:24 AM; crew start 7:00 AM (24 min after).
- Corrected
Late start · Connor J. · Northgate
Wed Oct 7 · Clocked in 6:52 AM; crew start 6:30 AM (22 min after).
- Needs review
Missing clock-out · Ivan B. · Harbor Yard
Thu Oct 8 · No clock-out recorded. Shift closed at the last badge report (2:55 PM) pending supervisor review.
- Needs review
Late start · Kenji H. · Riverside
Thu Oct 8 · Clocked in 7:18 AM; crew start 7:00 AM (18 min after).
- Needs review
Early finish · Olivia V. · Northgate
Fri Oct 9 · Clocked out 12:15 PM; scheduled finish 1:30 PM (75 min before).
Approved hours go to
- Your payroll provider
- CSVexport
- Excelexport
- PDFexport
Operational details
What payroll leads ask in the first walkthrough.
The worker routine, location, coverage gaps, overtime, battery and security, in plain terms.
Worker routine
Power on at the start of the shift, wear it, power off at the end, charge it. No app, no PIN, no punch. More about the hardware on the badge page.
Location
GPS outdoors. Indoors, the Wi-Fi networks around your site, including site Wi-Fi ZeroBadge learns over time. Cellular serves as a low-confidence fallback. It answers which jobsite a worker is at, not which room.
Coverage gaps
The badge needs cellular coverage to report. Reports stored during a gap upload when coverage returns, and the day back-fills automatically.
Jobsites
Type an address and ZeroBadge draws a geofence you can adjust. No beacons, gateways or clocks to install at the site.
Attendance
Because every badge reports a jobsite, the office also gets crew counts by site and by day. See jobsite attendance tracking.
Overtime
Daily and weekly thresholds you set. Every timesheet splits regular and overtime hours, and overtime stays attached to the site where it was worked.
Battery
One month or more of battery life* between charges. Low-battery alerts show up in the dashboard before a badge goes dark.
Access and security
Role-based access for admins, supervisors and workers, multi-factor authentication for administrators, encryption in transit and an audit log of record access and edits.
Retention
Raw location history is deleted after 90 days. Timesheets and the shift record are retained.
Who it fits
Commercial construction first. See the guide for general contractors. It is not designed for retail shifts, office teams or crews working far outside cellular coverage. A step-by-step primer is in the construction time tracking guide.
*Under qualifying operating conditions. Battery life varies with reporting frequency, signal conditions, usage, and configuration.
Go deeper
Go deeper on each part of the process.
- SolutionConstruction time tracking guideA plain walkthrough of what to record, how often to review and how to run the week.
- SolutionTime tracking methods comparedPaper, foreman sheets, apps, site clocks and badges side by side.
- SolutionAutomatic timesheetsHow the weekly timesheet is built from badge records, with exceptions flagged.
- SolutionAutomatic clock in and outPower on starts the shift and power off ends it. No punch to remember.
- SolutionGeofence time trackingJobsites drawn from an address, and how each report is placed against them.
- SolutionPrevent buddy punchingWhat a badge changes about shared clocks and what it does not.
- SolutionJobsite attendance trackingCrew counts by site and day, without sign-in sheets.
- SolutionThe ZeroBadge badgeWhat the worker wears, how it connects and how it is charged.
- Industry guideZeroBadge for general contractorsSubs, self-perform crews and multiple jobs in one record.
- SolutionTime tracking without phonesA company-managed badge instead of an app on a worker's personal phone.
- SolutionJobsite time clock alternativesKiosks, tablets, portable site clocks and foreman punch, compared with a worn badge.
- 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 ZeroBadge AI about a day's hours
Every shift is already split into on site, transit and other. ZeroBadge AI lets you ask about those records in plain English, shows the records behind each figure and never changes them. Your admins set who can use it.
You ask
How did Tuesday's shift for the Elm Street foreman break down?
9 h 40 min in total: 7 h 55 min on site at Elm Street, 1 h 10 min in transit to and from the supply house and 35 min at the supplier. The shift began at 6:02 AM when the badge went on.
You ask
Which workers worked more than 10 hours yesterday?
Five. Four were at the Harbor Road clinic and one split time between the shop and Elm Street. All five have a recorded power-off time.
You ask
How many hours did the Elm Street job get this week?
612 on-site hours from 17 workers. Another 38 hours of transit started or ended at the job, and they are shown as their own line.
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 tracking construction hours.
How do you track time on a construction site?
Can you track field employees' time without a smartphone?
How does ZeroBadge decide which jobsite time belongs to?
What if a badge isn't powered off at the end of the day?
Is GPS time tracking of employees legal?
Last updated
Get started
See a week of your crews, split by jobsite.
We'll set up a walkthrough around your jobsites, your crews and the way your payroll runs today.
What we will walk through
- 01How a badge records a crew's shift, site by site
- 02The weekly timesheet and the exceptions queue
- 03Review, approval and the payroll integration