Key Takeaways
- ✔OnTheClock is the #1 pick for small contractor teams: GPS punches, job and cost code tracking, photo punch, and scheduling in one $5 base plus $4 per user plan.
- ✔Free can carry a small crew. busybusy's free plan covers unlimited users with GPS and job costing, and Connecteam is free for crews of 10 or fewer.
- ✔Read the contract before the demo. ClockShark applies a three-year contract term to all plans, and QuickBooks Time requires a QuickBooks Online account.
- ✔Location proof ends arguments. Geofences, GPS stamps, and photo punches turn arrival-time arguments into a record you can check.
- ✔Run any tool you pick through one full pay period before you commit.
The best time clock software for contractors survives the job site: gloved hands, weak signal, crews split across three addresses, and a cost code that changes before lunch. If a punch can't live through that, the time sheet behind it is fiction.
Most time clock apps were built for people who work near a router. Contractors don't. So the tools fail in the truck, at the gate, and in the dead corner of a basement remodel, and the office inherits the mess. Call it three hours every Friday spent rebuilding the week from texts and memory. At $30 an hour for the person doing the rebuilding, that's about $390 a month in admin time. The quieter cost is worse: when nobody knows which job an hour belongs to, your job cost reports lie, and every future bid inherits the lie.
Seven picks follow. Each one fixes a different version of that Friday.
What Contractors Actually Want From a Time Clock
Proof, first. Owners want to know the punch happened at the site, by the right person, at the real arrival time. A GPS stamp on every clock-in answers that without a phone call. A geofence goes one better and blocks the punch from the truck two blocks away.
Second, they want every hour landing on the right job. Crews jump between sites, and an hour coded to the wrong project quietly poisons the costing on both. Tools built for construction time tracking let workers pick the job and cost code at the punch. Labor flows to the right line, and the office stops guessing on Friday.
Third, they want the price to hold still. Base fees, per-user rates, feature gates, and contract terms change the real bill fast. The right pick depends on which of those three needs hurts your shop most.
Quick Picks: The Best Time Clock Software for Contractors at a Glance
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OnTheClock: Best for small contractor teams
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ClockShark: Best for scheduling multi-trade crews
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Workyard: Best for GPS proof on disputed hours
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busybusy: Best free plan for field crews
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Buddy Punch: Best for punch verification
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QuickBooks Time: Best for QuickBooks Online shops
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Connecteam: Best all-in-one app for growing crews
How We Evaluated the Best Time Clock Software for Contractors
We judged each time clock on what holds up in the field, on real job sites, with real crews. We compared every option against the eight needs contractors keep raising, what we call the OnTheClock Contractor Checklist:
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GPS punch proof: every clock-in records where it happened, automatically.
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Geofencing controls: the ability to block punches from outside a job site boundary.
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Job and cost code tracking: workers tag the job and task at the punch, so hours land on the right project.
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Punch verification: photo capture, PINs, or fingerprint options that stop buddy punching on shared devices.
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Crew scheduling: building and sharing schedules by job and site, with changes that reach the field.
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Overtime and multi-rate pay: automatic overtime math, plus pay rates that change by job, cost code, or certification.
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Payroll connection: approved hours flow into QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, or Paychex without retyping.
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Honest pricing: a bill you can predict, with no surprise base fees, feature gates, or long contracts.
OnTheClock earns the top spot here because it covers all eight of these needs in a single base plan: GPS and geofencing, job and cost code tracking, photo punch, scheduling, multi-rate pay, and payroll integrations. None of it is held back for a higher tier. That breadth at the base price is the basis for the small-contractor-teams label, never a ranking against the other picks. Each of those serves its own situation best.
The Best Time Clock Software for Contractors
Below, the best time clock software for contractors, with the right pick for each situation. For each one, we cover who it fits best, where it stands out, and where it may cost you.
OnTheClock: Best for Small Contractor Teams
Available on: Web, iOS, Android
Why OnTheClock Is Best for Small Contractor Teams
Picture the owner of a six-person remodeling outfit who still runs the biggest jobs personally. They don't have an office manager. They have a phone, a truck, and 40 minutes on Friday night to get payroll right. OnTheClock fits that owner because the whole job lives in one app. Crews punch in from their phones with a GPS stamp and pick the job and cost code as they clock in. Approved hours then flow straight into QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, or Paychex.
The top spot rests on coverage. Every item on the Contractor Checklist, from geofencing to multi-rate and prevailing wage pay, comes in the base plan. Photo punch stops buddy punching on a shared trailer kiosk, and foremen can review and approve crew hours from the field. More than 18,000 companies run on OnTheClock, and it holds a 4.8 rating on Capterra.
Why OnTheClock Is Different
One plan, no fine print. You pay a $5 monthly base plus $4 per user, and the math stays flat as you grow. An eight-person crew runs $37 a month; a 15-person crew runs $65. Geofencing isn't an upsell. Job costing isn't a tier. The price you calculate on day one is the bill you get in month six.
We've heard from contractors who left heavier platforms after a feature they relied on moved up a tier mid-contract. That sting doesn't happen here. The honest trade-offs: punches need an internet or Wi-Fi connection, so a true dead-zone site needs a hotspot or the trailer kiosk. Project analytics also run lighter than construction-specialist tools like busybusy or Workyard.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
- 30-day free trial, no credit card
- $5/month base plus $4 per user/month (see how OnTheClock pricing works)
- Optional payroll: $40/month base plus $6 per employee/month
ClockShark: Best for Scheduling Multi-Trade Crews
Available on: Web, iOS, Android
Why ClockShark Is Best for Scheduling Multi-Trade Crews
Running framers, finish carpenters, and a paint crew across three sites in the same week? That's the shop ClockShark was built for. Its drag and drop scheduler assigns people to jobs and tasks, attaches site addresses, documents, and notes to each shift, and pushes changes to the field, with built-in Spanish language support for mixed-language crews. GPS and geofencing ride along on every plan.
Know this going in: the pricing page states a three-year contract term applies to all plans, which is rare in this category, and reviewers on G2 and Capterra mention occasional GPS accuracy hiccups and app sync glitches. PTO tracking and advanced job costing also sit on the pricier Pro plan. If the scheduler isn't your main draw, see how it stacks up in our ClockShark alternatives breakdown.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
- 14-day free trial, no credit card
- Standard: $40/month base plus $9 per user/month; Pro: $60/month base plus $11 per user/month
Workyard: Best for GPS Proof on Disputed Hours
Available on: Web, iOS, Android
Why Workyard Is Best for GPS Proof on Disputed Hours
Disputed hours die fast when the record shows the exact arrival time at the geofence. Workyard's whole pitch is location precision: it can clock workers in automatically when they enter a job site boundary, trim clock-out times to the last geofence visited, and let a supervisor punch a whole crew in at once. One contractor on Workyard's own site reported workers who used to round to 7:00 a.m. now showing true 7:14 and 7:18 arrivals.
The trade-off comes down to cost and batteries. The $50 monthly base fee lands hard on a three-person crew, reviewers on Capterra flag phone battery drain from constant GPS, and a few note auto clock-ins firing when someone just drives past a site after hours. Tight location rules need tuning before payroll trusts them.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
- 14-day free trial, no credit card
- Time Tracking: $6 per user/month billed annually ($8 monthly) plus $50/month base; Workforce Management: $13 per user/month billed annually ($16 monthly) plus $50/month base
busybusy: Best Free Plan for Field Crews
Available on: Web, iOS, Android
Why busybusy Is Best Free Plan for Field Crews
Free rarely means much in this category. busybusy is the exception. Its free plan covers unlimited users and includes GPS-stamped time tracking, job costing, and equipment tracking, which is more field capability at $0 than some tools sell at $10 a head. Offline mode keeps punches working in dead zones and syncs them when signal returns, and a kiosk option turns a trailer tablet into a punch clock.
Where it stumbles is payroll complexity. Capterra reviewers running prevailing wage jobs hit the cap on pay categories. Some saw the app confuse who was clocked in versus out, and several found the canned reports either too thin or too heavy. Paid plans also add a $40 admin license on top of per-user rates. For a crew that needs GPS and job costing on a $0 budget, though, nothing else on this list touches it.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
- Free plan with unlimited users; 14-day free trial of paid plans, no credit card
- Pro: $9.99 per user/month billed annually ($11.99 monthly) plus $40 admin license; Premium: $14.99 per user/month billed annually ($17.99 monthly) plus $40 admin license
Buddy Punch: Best for Punch Verification
Available on: Web, iOS, Android
Why Buddy Punch Is Best for Punch Verification
A shared tablet in the job trailer is an open invitation to buddy punching. Buddy Punch closes it. The name says it all. Webcam photos, PIN kiosk mode, QR scanning, and geofencing confirm the person clocking in is the person getting paid. For a contractor who suspects the Monday 6:58 a.m. punches aren't all real, that verification stack pays for itself quickly.
Budget for the gaps before you commit. The app doesn't work offline, which reviewers call out as the sore spot for field crews in low-signal areas. Real-time GPS tracking costs an extra $2 per user, and geofencing plus kiosk punching require the Pro plan. Weigh those add-ons against the base rates, or compare the field in our Buddy Punch alternatives guide.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
- 14-day free trial, no credit card
- Starter: $4.49 per user/month billed annually ($5.49 monthly) plus $19/month base; Pro: $5.99 per user/month billed annually ($6.99 monthly) plus $19/month base
QuickBooks Time: Best for QuickBooks Online Shops
Available on: Web, iOS, Android
Why QuickBooks Time Is Best for QuickBooks Online Shops
If your books, invoices, and payroll already live in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Time keeps labor data in the family. Crews track hours in the Workforce app or on a tablet kiosk, and hours sync straight into QuickBooks for payroll and job costing. The Elite tier layers on geofencing, mileage tracking, project estimates versus actuals, and time sheet signatures for project sign-offs.
The catch: that convenience assumes the ecosystem. A QuickBooks Online account is required, so the true monthly cost is the time tracking bill plus the QuickBooks subscription, and geofencing only arrives on Elite. Reviewers also report app lag and overtime alerts that miss entries. Shops outside the Intuit world should start with our QuickBooks Time alternatives comparison instead.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
- Free trial, no credit card
- Premium: $20/month base plus $8 per user/month; Elite: $40/month base plus $10 per user/month (QuickBooks Online required)
Connecteam: Best All-in-One App for Growing Crews
Available on: Web, iOS, Android
Why Connecteam Is Best All-in-One App for Growing Crews
Some crews outgrow a plain time clock the day they hire worker number 11. Connecteam is what they grow into: a GPS time clock, scheduling, safety forms and checklists, task lists, and team chat in one app. The toolbox talk, the punch, and the schedule all live on the same screen. Crews of 10 or fewer get the whole platform free on the Small Business Plan. The Operations Hub covers the first 30 users at one flat price.
One thing to weigh: the hub model. Time tracking sits in the Operations Hub, chat in Communications, and training in HR, so a shop that wants everything pays for hubs separately. Geofencing needs the Advanced tier, and reviewers note there's no offline punch for dead-zone sites. The flat first-30-users pricing still makes growth math easy.
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Pricing
- Free Small Business Plan for up to 10 users; 14-day free trial, no credit card
- Operations Hub Basic: $29/month billed annually ($35 monthly) for the first 30 users; Advanced: $49/month billed annually ($59 monthly) for the first 30 users
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Tool | Best For | Pricing | Key Strengths | Top Integrations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OnTheClock | Small contractor teams | $5 base + $4/user/month | GPS, geofencing, job and cost codes, photo punch, scheduling in one plan | QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, Paychex, SurePayroll |
| ClockShark | Scheduling multi-trade crews | $40 base + $9/user/month (Standard) | Job and task scheduling, Spanish support, GPS on all plans | QuickBooks, ADP, Sage, Xero, Gusto, Paychex |
| Workyard | GPS proof on disputed hours | $6/user/month annual + $50 base | Geofence auto clock-in, clock-out trimming, supervisor crew punch | QuickBooks Online and Desktop, ADP, Sage, Gusto |
| busybusy | Best free plan for field crews | Free; Pro $9.99/user/month annual + $40 admin | Free unlimited users, offline mode, equipment tracking | QuickBooks, Zapier (paid plans) |
| Buddy Punch | Punch verification | $4.49/user/month annual + $19 base | Photo punch, PIN kiosk, QR codes, geofencing on Pro | QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, Paychex |
| QuickBooks Time | QuickBooks Online shops | $20 base + $8/user/month (Premium) | Native QuickBooks sync, kiosk, Elite geofencing and mileage | QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll |
| Connecteam | All-in-one for growing crews | Free ≤10 users; $29/month annual first 30 users | Time clock, scheduling, forms, checklists, and chat in one app | ADP, plus payroll-ready PDF and Excel exports |
Comparison data verified June 2026 against each vendor's own site; subject to change by respective providers.
What's the Best Time Clock Software for Contractors?
The one that fixes your most expensive problem first. Feature lists don't pay bills; matched fits do.
Start with one question: where does your money leak? Then pick the lane that plugs it.
- You want GPS, job costing, and scheduling in one flat plan: OnTheClock.
- You schedule several trades across several sites each week: ClockShark.
- You keep arguing about arrival times: Workyard.
- Your budget is zero but the crew is real: busybusy.
- Your shared tablet invites buddy punching: Buddy Punch.
- Your whole back office runs on QuickBooks Online: QuickBooks Time.
- You want the punch, the schedule, and the toolbox talk in one app: Connecteam.
The right tool removes friction from the problem you hit most, this week and every week.
What Is Time Clock Software for Contractors?
Time clock software for contractors is a digital punch clock that travels to the job site. Workers clock in and out on a phone, a shared tablet kiosk, or a web browser. Each punch records the time, the location, and the job. The software adds the hours, applies overtime rules, and sends payroll-ready totals to QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, or a built-in payroll engine.
For contractors, the location and job pieces matter most. A punch tied to a geofence proves the crew was on site. A punch tied to a cost code tells you what the work actually cost. Paper does neither.
Which Contractors Need Time Clock Software?
Any contractor paying hourly wages across more than one work location. That covers general contractors, remodelers, framers, roofers, concrete crews, painters, and every sub who sends workers to someone else's site. The math changes around the third employee: one padded quarter hour a day per person outruns the software's monthly cost in the first week.
A solo operator can wait. If you're chasing time sheets, guessing cost codes, or eating surprise overtime, you're the audience.
Why Contractors Rely on Time Clock Software
Construction labor is bid in advance and spent in the field. When recorded hours drift from real hours, the drift lands straight on margin, and a contractor running 20% gross can't absorb much drift. Accurate punches also feed the next estimate; you bid better when you know what the last job truly took.
The old way fails quietly. Paper cards ride around in trucks, get filled in from memory on Friday, and turn payroll into archaeology. A time clock with GPS replaces that reconstruction with a record made at the moment of work, where it can't be argued with later.
Key Features Contractors Should Look For in Time Clock Software
Before comparing prices, make sure any tool on your shortlist covers the basics for field work.
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GPS punch stamps: every clock-in records its location automatically.
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Geofencing: punches only count inside the job site boundary you draw.
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Job and cost code tracking: workers tag the job at the punch, not at the office.
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Punch verification: photos, PINs, or fingerprints that stop buddy punching.
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Overtime and multi-rate pay: automatic overtime plus rates that change by job or certification.
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Payroll export: one-click delivery into the payroll system you already run.
How to Choose the Proper Time Clock Software for Contractors
Step 1: Count your crew and run the real monthly math.
Start with headcount, because base fees change everything at small sizes. A six-person crew on OnTheClock runs $5 plus six times $4, or $29 a month. The same crew on ClockShark Standard runs $40 plus six times $9, or $94. On Workyard's Time Tracking plan billed annually, it's $50 plus six times $6, or $86. Three tools, one crew, a $65 monthly spread.
Now scale the math to where you'll be in a year. At 20 workers, OnTheClock is $85 and ClockShark Standard is $220. Connecteam's Operations Basic still sits at $29 on annual billing, since the flat price covers the first 30 users. Per-user pricing punishes growth; flat pricing rewards it. Know which curve you're buying.
Don't forget the quiet line items. Buddy Punch adds $2 per user for real-time GPS. busybusy's paid plans carry a $40 admin license. QuickBooks Time needs a QuickBooks Online subscription underneath it. Put every add-on in the spreadsheet before you compare totals.
Step 2: Name the problem that's costing you the most.
Be specific. "We need better time tracking" buys the wrong tool; "we lose two hours every Friday matching hours to jobs" buys the right one. Common contractor versions: padded arrival times, hours coded to the wrong job, buddy punching on the trailer tablet, surprise overtime, and payroll retyping errors.
Each problem points somewhere different. Padding points to GPS and geofencing. Wrong-job hours point to cost code tracking at the punch. Buddy punching points to photo verification. Pick the tool that's strongest on your named problem, and treat everything else as a tiebreaker.
Step 3: Match punch devices to how your crews actually work.
Walk through a normal Tuesday. Do workers arrive at one site and stay? A shared kiosk tablet in the trailer works, and it sidesteps the "company app on my personal phone" objection. Do they scatter across service calls? Phone punches with GPS stamps are the only honest option. Do some workers carry flip phones or nothing? Workyard's supervisor-led crew punch or a fingerprint reader in the shop covers them.
Most shops need two punch paths, a kiosk plus phones, and the tool has to support both without an extra fee. OnTheClock includes desktop, mobile, and kiosk punching in the base plan; Buddy Punch puts kiosk mode on its Pro tier. Check this before the trial, because retrofitting a punch path mid-rollout restarts the whole adoption fight.
Step 4: Decide how much location proof you need.
Location features come in three strengths. A GPS stamp records where each punch happened. A geofence goes further and blocks punches outside the boundary. Breadcrumb trails track movement all shift long. Each step up adds proof and subtracts privacy, and your crew will notice.
Match the strength to the dispute level. If hours are rarely argued, stamps are plenty. If you're eating 15 padded minutes per person per day, geofencing pays for itself. At $25 an hour across eight workers, that padding costs roughly $1,050 a month. Breadcrumbs are for fleets and service routes, and they drain batteries, which is the top complaint in Workyard and busybusy reviews. Tell the crew exactly what's tracked and when; OnTheClock, for example, only checks location at the punch.
Step 5: Check job and cost code depth, especially for prevailing wage.
Job costing lives or dies at the punch. The worker has to pick the job and cost code in two taps, or they'll skip it, and you're back to Friday guessing. Look at how the code list appears on a phone screen with work gloves on. Then check the office side: can you report hours by job, by cost code, and by worker without exporting to Excel?
Public work raises the bar. Davis-Bacon jobs pay a published prevailing wage by labor classification. The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #66 explains how those rates combine hourly pay and fringe benefits. Your time clock needs pay rates per job and per classification to support that, plus clean exports for the weekly WH-347 certified payroll form. busybusy reviewers doing prevailing wage hit pay category limits; OnTheClock and ClockShark Pro both handle multi-rate pay. Ask the vendor to show certified payroll output before you sign.
Step 6: Test signal-loss behavior on your worst site.
Every job site has a dead corner, and basements, steel buildings, and rural lots are full of them. Tools split cleanly here. busybusy stores offline punches and syncs them when signal returns. Buddy Punch and Connecteam don't punch offline, by their own reviewers' account. OnTheClock needs a connection too, which is why a hotspot or trailer kiosk belongs in the plan for remote work.
Run the test for real during the trial. Send one worker to the dead corner, have them punch, and watch what the time sheet shows an hour later. A tool that fails silently is worse than one that fails loudly, because silent failures surface as missing hours on payday.
Step 7: Confirm the payroll connection end to end.
The punch is half the job; the paycheck is the other half. Confirm the tool exports to your actual payroll system, QuickBooks, Gusto, ADP, or Paychex, at the detail level you need, with cost codes intact. busybusy reviewers note job notes dropping in QuickBooks transfers, so test with real data, not the demo file.
Run one parallel payroll during the trial. Process the same week through your old method and the new export, then compare totals line by line. Differences usually trace to rounding rules, lunch deductions, or overtime settings, and you want those fights in week two, never on a real payday.
Step 8: Run the trial through one full pay period, then read the terms.
A two-day test tells you the app installs. Only a full pay period tells you whether punches survive Monday chaos, whether the foreman actually approves hours, and whether payroll lands clean. Every tool on this list offers a no-card trial; use all of it, with your whole crew, on real jobs.
Before you convert, read the agreement. ClockShark's pricing page applies a three-year contract term to all plans. Annual billing locks you in for the year at most vendors, and cancellation terms vary widely. OnTheClock runs month to month with no contract. The trial costs nothing; the wrong terms can cost three years.
Tips for Rolling Out Time Clock Software to Contractor Crews
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Explain the why before the how. Crews assume tracking means distrust. Tell them the truth: accurate punches protect their overtime, kill paycheck disputes, and prove their hours if a customer challenges the bill. Frame it as their record, and adoption gets easier fast.
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Set the location rules in writing. Say exactly what the app records and when, especially that punch-only GPS doesn't follow anyone after clock-out. A one-page policy now beats a job site rumor later.
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Keep the federal records the law expects. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires accurate daily and weekly hour records for nonexempt workers. The DOL's recordkeeping fact sheet says time cards must be kept for two years. Digital punches satisfy that automatically; shoebox paper rarely does.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the best time clock software for contractors?
OnTheClock is the best time clock software for small contractor teams. It includes GPS punch recording, geofencing, job and cost code tracking, photo punch, and crew scheduling in one $5 base plus $4 per user plan. ClockShark fits shops scheduling several trades, Workyard leads on GPS proof, busybusy has the best free plan, and QuickBooks Time fits shops already on QuickBooks Online.
Is there good free time clock software for contractor crews?
Yes. busybusy's free plan covers unlimited users and includes GPS time tracking, job costing, and equipment tracking. Connecteam's Small Business Plan is free for crews of 10 or fewer. Expect limits: busybusy holds scheduling and GPS breadcrumbs for paid tiers, and Connecteam's free plan ends at the 11th hire.
How does GPS time tracking work on a job site?
The phone records its location when a worker clocks in or out, stamping each punch with the time and place. Geofencing adds a boundary you draw around the site, so punches from outside it are blocked or flagged. Most tools, including OnTheClock, only check location at the punch, never after clock-out.
Can time clock software handle prevailing wage and certified payroll?
The right ones can. Davis-Bacon work needs pay rates set per job and per labor classification, plus hour records clean enough to feed the weekly WH-347 certified payroll form. OnTheClock supports multi-rate and prevailing wage pay in its base plan, and ClockShark's Pro plan adds advanced job costing controls. Ask any vendor to demonstrate certified payroll output before you commit.
How much does time clock software for contractors cost?
From $0 to about $16 per user per month. busybusy's free plan costs nothing for unlimited users. OnTheClock runs $5 base plus $4 per user, so a 10-person crew pays $45 a month. ClockShark Standard runs $40 base plus $9 per user, and Workyard runs $50 base plus $6 to $16 per user. Watch for base fees, add-ons, and contract terms; they move the real bill more than the per-user rate does.
Do crews need cell service to clock in?
It depends on the tool. busybusy punches offline and syncs when signal returns. Buddy Punch and Connecteam need a connection, and OnTheClock does too, so dead-zone sites call for a hotspot or a trailer kiosk on Wi-Fi. Test your worst site during the trial before you commit.
Put Every Hour on the Right Job
GPS-verified punches, job and cost code tracking, and payroll-ready time sheets, all in one plan built for contractor crews.
No credit card required, and you'll be set up in minutes.
