Gusto - Best all-in-one payroll & time tracking software for construction
Overview
Gusto tops our list for best all-in-one payroll & time tracking software for construction with a wealth of easy-to-use features and fully integrated functionality that take the complexity out of managing hours for your team. Clocking in is easy for employees and can be done from web, mobile, or time kiosk. With GPS-enabled clock-ins you can see where employees are clocking in from and restrict clock-in access based on custom locations.
Gusto’s intuitive interface simplifies even the most complex tasks, and their suite of time tracking tools together with their robust reporting and team management elevate HR to enterprise level even for startups and small businesses.
TIME & REPORTING
Gusto’s time and productivity tools go well beyond clocking in and out. Employees can easily request time off and check their balances, and managers can review and approve timesheets and hours from anywhere that sync to payroll with the push of a button.
For extra accountability and peace of mind, Gusto’s time clock kiosk is a centralized system that lets employees easily clock in and out with a 4-digit PIN. And it’s included in both the Plus and Premium plans. Got multiple locations? Add as many kiosks as you need at no extra cost.
In addition, Gusto’s powerful project tracking and AI-powered reporting options help leverage data to optimize labor costs and distribute your team’s time more wisely. They don’t offer native shift scheduling, but they provide easy integration with all of the most popular construction shift scheduling tools like Workyard, ClockShark, and more.
FULLY INTEGRATED PAYROLL, TIME, BENEFITS & HR
Gusto may not offer the most feature-rich time tools on the market, but having a single system to handle payroll, taxes, hiring, time tracking, PTO, sick days, performance management, and benefits administration sets them apart from most competitors in the space.
With Gusto, you can easily pay the whole team—whether salaried, hourly, or contractor—in just a few clicks. Gusto supports multiple pay rates and schedules, as well as multi-state tax filing, unlimited payroll runs each month, and built-in wage garnishment. And every time you run payroll, all federal, state, and local taxes are automatically calculated, filed, and paid, along with benefits deductions, workers’ comp, and PTO.
BUILT-IN COMPLIANCE
Gusto’s built-in compliance means you never have to worry about missing breaks, meal times, or miscalculating overtime. Gusto also offers full-service compliance as part of their Premium plan, or as an add-on to their Plus plan. Unfortunately, Gusto doesn’t currently support union job codes, but you can manually create your own job codes to help stay on top of prevailing wage requirements.
Key Features
- Seamlessly integrated payroll, HR, and benefits
- Automated timesheets
- Centralized clock-in kiosk or mobile app clock in
- Custom PTO policies and automated accruals
- Built-in compliance for employee breaks, overtime, and labor laws
- GPS tracking while clocking in and out
- Time tracking by project
- Job & workforce costing reports
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Intuitive, easy to use interface | No biometric clock-in support |
All-in-one solution for payroll, time tracking, and HR | Time tracking isn’t available with the Simple plan |
Transparent pricing, no hidden fees | Doesn’t support union payroll codes |
Job-specific time tracking and workforce costing reports | Benefits only available in 38 states + Washington, DC |
Great customer service | |
Easy to fix employee clock-in errors | |
Time tracking is included with Plus and Premium plans |
Pricing
Gusto offers three pricing plans, with the Simple plan starting at $40 per month plus $6 per person per month. But to access their time tracking tools, including time kiosk, you’ll need to sign up for either the Plus or Premium plan. Plus plans start at $80/mo plus $12/mo per user.
Dedicated support from certified HR pros along with compliance alerts is available only with the Premium plan or through the HR add-on at $8 per person per month.
Premium plans are priced exclusively, and include everything Gusto has to offer with no hidden monthly fees. For more info on Premium pricing, contact their sales team today.
Free Trial? Yes, you don’t pay until you run your first payroll.
Free Plan: No.
Transform your payroll processes with Gusto, a platform that’s already the choice of over 300,000 businesses.
Get startedClockShark – Best dedicated construction time keeping software
Overview
ClockShark is a powerful time-tracking tool that was built specifically with field-based businesses in mind. ClockShark’s mobile clock-in options include GPS-based, facial recognition, and CrewClock, which allows crew leaders to track time for the whole team. Scheduling is easy with drag & drop functionality, and it’s easy for team members to request changes or ask for time off straight from the app. Changes to the schedule are quickly communicated to the whole team.
It’s no secret that many construction crews have a high percentage of Spanish-language speakers, and ClockShark’s app is one of the only ones to offer built-in Spanish support. This helps to reduce miscommunication and ensures your team members know where to be and what to do. They also support asking clock out questions when an employee is about to sign off for the day, increasing safety and accountability and making sure nothing slips through the cracks.
ClockShark offers detailed job costing so you can know exactly how much time your team is spending on different projects, as well as a job management dashboard to show at-a-glance status on all your current projects. Team members can switch from one job to another right in the app so your invoices stay accurate and you can improve your estimates and billing over time.
ClockShark has everything you need to optimize your construction business. But it doesn’t come cheap, and you’ll still need a separate tool for payroll, benefits, and HR. Luckily, they integrate with the most popular payroll providers including Gusto, which we think is the best overall solution.
Key Features
- Time tracking and time-off management
- GPS clock-ins
- Facial recognition clock-in
- CrewClock team lead clock-in
- Clock out questions
- Drag & drop scheduling
- Job progress management tool
- Accurate job costing and invoicing
- Payroll and accounting integrations
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Solid native communication tool | The Pro plan is expensive |
Bilingual support | Analytics and reporting could be improved |
Multiple clock-in options | Requires third-party payroll and accounting integration |
Automated job budgeting alerts | |
Easy integration with major payroll and accounting platforms |
Pricing
ClockShark offers two different packages, Standard and Pro. The Standard plan is $40 per month + $8 per user per month (with one free admin included). It includes their basic time and attendance tracking, GPS tracking, job and task management, built-in Spanish language support, drag and drop scheduling, and payroll and accounting integrations.
Their Pro plan comes in at $60 a month + $10 per user per month and adds on PTO, multi-department/admin controls, advanced job costing, clock out questions, and draft schedules.
Free Trial? Yes, free for 14 days.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about ClockShark
Workyard – Best construction time tracking software for GPS tracking
Overview
Workyard’s construction-focused solution provides some of the most-accurate time keeping on the market. Their reporting and analytics are in-depth, and their scheduling tool was built to address industry-specific pain points.
Since Workyard doesn’t rely solely on geofencing to tell you when an employee is working, you don’t have to add a job site for every Home Depot in town. Workyard automatically switches to high accuracy mode when it detects driving, recording driving routes, travel time, and mileage. Get live updates on employee locations anytime you need them.
Within the app you can easily assign jobs and tasks, add checklists, and even delegate workers by their current location. Push notification reminders pop up when employees arrive on site to make sure they don’t forget to clock in, and Workyard records labor costs by job and project type. Their native communication tool also makes it easy to stay on top of who’s needed where and what needs to be done.
Workyard is a powerful time tracking tool that has everything you need to optimize your construction business. But it is expensive, and you’ll still need a separate tool for payroll, benefits, and HR.
Key Features
- High-accuracy GPS tracking
- Push notification clock in and clock out reminders
- Powerful scheduling tool
- Track and apply workers’ comp into labor costs
- Add hours and expenses by location and project type
- Real-time project and labor costing
- Robust reporting and invoicing options
- Payroll and accounting integrations
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Easy-to-use app increases accountability | Expensive, starting at $50 per month + $8 per month per user |
Higher accuracy than most GPS-enabled employee clock in apps | Team leads cannot clock in crew members |
Robust job and workforce costing reports | |
Easily integrates with major payroll providers |
Pricing
Workyard offers two pricing plans along with custom Enterprise pricing. The Time Tracking plan costs $50 per month plus $8 per month per user (with annual billing). It comes loaded with the full suite of time tracking tools including GPS tracking, break and overtime compliance, timesheet control, and payroll integrations.
The Workforce Management plan costs $50 per month plus $16 per user per month (with annual billing) and comes with all of the time tracking tools in addition to scheduling tools, checklists, project tracking, labor cost reporting, and accounting software integrations.
Free Trial? Yes, 14 days.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about Workyard
Homebase – Best construction time tracking for employee performance
Overview
Homebase is an all-in-one scheduling, time tracking, payroll, and HR solution created for shift-based businesses. HR needs for construction companies differ significantly from traditional white collar offices. But a lot of time tracking tools are targeted toward salary-based businesses and lack even basic scheduling functionality.
Homebase has one of the most robust scheduling tools on the market. Auto-schedule by availability or using sales and labor forecasts. You can further optimize your workforce with team management tools like collecting shift feedback to take employee pulses, team ‘shouts’ to give kudos to fellow employees, and powerful shift swapping tools to save time with minimal involvement from management.
While Homebase is more of a time-tracking tool with an HR add-on, they’ve got everything construction businesses need to manage their teams across multiple locations. They offer GPS-based clock-ins as well as push notifications when employees are clocking in late.
Their HR suite includes hiring and onboarding with automated job postings across multiple job boards, employee happiness surveys and no-cost benefit options, and secure document storage and compliance. Sick leave, PTO, and vacation time are easy to manage and track, and a team of HR pros is available to answer your compliance questions.
While there are more powerful HR-focused platforms on the market, Homebase is the easy winner for construction companies looking to streamline their tech stack while still accessing all the people tools and functionality they need.
Key Features
- Powerful time and scheduling tools
- Recruiting, hiring, and paperless onboarding
- Payroll add-on available with automated tax filings
- Track employee certifications
- Built-in compliance for meal time, breaks, and minimum wage
- Integrations with popular POS, recruiting, accounting, and payroll software
- Robust, native communication tools
- Employee happiness surveys and retention tools
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Automated scheduling saves hours each month | Payroll add-on is expensive |
People-focused tools to reduce turnover | Full suite of HR tools is only available in the All-in-One plan |
Competitively priced, even for top-tier plan | Difficult to correct time for incorrect clock-ins |
Easily integrates with payroll providers | Occasional software bugs reported |
Pricing
Homebase offers four pricing tiers. Their Basic plan is free and includes basic scheduling and time tracking and POS integration for up to 20 employees at a single location.
The Essentials plan is $20 a month per location and includes advanced scheduling and time tracking and team communication tools.
At $48 per location per month (billed annually), the Plus plan adds on hiring, performance management, and PTO, as well as permissions and policies. The All-in-One plan adds the HR tools you need to thrive including new-hire onboarding, employee document storage, labor cost reporting, and their full HR and compliance suite at $80 per month.
For the payroll add-on, it’s $39 a month + $6 per employee paid per month.
Homebase offers no-commitment monthly plans at slightly higher prices than listed above.
Free Trial? Yes, 14 days.
Free Plan: Yes, basic scheduling, time, and hiring features for up to 20 employees at a single location.
Learn more about Homebase
Deputy – Best construction time tracking app for scheduling
Overview
Deputy is built specifically for shift-based businesses and it shows. While their time clock app is well-rated and comes loaded with biometric, geolocation, and touchless clock in options, Deputy really shines when it comes to their powerful scheduling tools.
Construction companies can all benefit from AI-optimized schedules, streamlined employee shift swapping, SMS shift notifications, and robust workforce costing reports. Scheduling by skill set is another powerful tool to make sure you have the people you need onsite at the right time—whether it’s first aid certification or heavy machinery expertise.
Deputy also offers robust labor law compliance including fair workweek, meal times and rest breaks, and proactive compliance alerts to keep you one step ahead. Their employee break compliance tools schedule legally mandated breaks and deliver break-prompt messages to team members. The app also creates a clear record of schedule compliance, including late clock-ins, work conducted in unscheduled time blocks, and early clock-outs.
Key Features
- Clock in via web, mobile, or kiosk
- Facial recognition & geolocation clock-in options
- AI-optimized schedules
- Employee shift swapping
- Scheduling by skill set
- Built-in meal and break notifications and compliance
- POS integration
- SMS shift notifications
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Built specifically for shift-based businesses | Requires third-party payroll and accounting integration |
AI-optimized scheduling can save hours each week | Time Clock app for Android tablet has limited functionality |
Strong value for the price | |
Good for businesses with multiple locations |
Pricing
For the basic scheduling functionality, Deputy costs $4.50 per user per month. However, their scheduling tool does not include Time Clock, Timesheets, or Payroll Integration.
If you want time & attendance tools, it’s also $4.50 per user per month, but does not include any scheduling tools, schedule templates, or meal and break planning. The time & attendance package includes both POS and payroll integrations.
To get both scheduling and time and attendance tools, their Premium plan costs $6 per user per month. For businesses with more than 250 employees, contact Deputy for custom pricing.
Free Trial? Yes, one month.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about Deputy
ADP Workforce Now – Best construction software for industry compliance
Overview
ADP is a behemoth in the space and offers two payroll and HR solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses: ADP Run for businesses with fewer than 50 employees and ADP Workforce Now for businesses with 50–999.
While ADP Run is a highly rated platform, and includes hiring and onboarding tools, it’s primarily a payroll tool with a few extra HR functions, and their pricing puts them out of reach for many. For this reason, we don’t recommend it for startups or smaller businesses. For businesses with more than 50 employers, however, their Workforce Now packages provide a robust solution for managing growing teams.
Workforce Now offers everything any team might need to manage HR, payroll, benefits, and more, along with over 700 integrations. They have time tracking, PTO, accruals, performance management, compensation management, a huge library of learning materials, and advanced reporting and analytics. Best of all, you can build a package that includes only the services you need.
For construction companies in particular, they offer built-in safety trainings, certified payroll reporting, and automated union wage compliance. Their time tools include skill-based scheduling, biometric clock-ins, and real-time reporting dashboards to see who’s working where and when. You can easily manage workers’ comp and get help with OSHA compliance.
There’s no question ADP’s industry-leading solution can help ease administrative burdens and compliance risks for larger, quickly growing companies. But their robust support and endless features come at a cost. Figuring out how much requires reaching out for a custom quote.
Key Features
- Fully integrated HR, payroll, benefits, and time tracking
- Flexible and mobile time collection
- Geofencing, GPS, tracking, and kiosk
- Biometric clock-ins
- Robust employee scheduling capabilities
- PTO / Time-off accruals
- Built-in compliance
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting, including overtime
- Over 700 software integrations available
- Every HR, time, and people tool imaginable
- Highly rated payroll tool
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Fully integrated payroll, time, benefits, and HR | Pricing quickly adds up |
Powerful time tracking tools | Software feels clunky and dated |
Robust, customizable options for businesses with 50–999 employees | Slow customer service |
Best-in-class compliance support | Time tracking, scheduling, and PTO only available in Premium plan or as add-ons |
Largest offering of learning & development courses | Paying contractors requires a separate tool |
Pricing
ADP’s pricing tiers are confusing at best. For businesses with fewer than 50 employees, they offer 4 pricing tiers: Essential Payroll, Enhanced Payroll that includes wage garnishment, unemployment, background checks and job postings, Complete Payroll and HR+ that adds on some HR tools like employee handbooks, proactive compliance alerts, a job description wizard, and access to the HR help desk, and HR Pro Payroll and HR, that includes an applicant tracking system, onboarding tools, and an LMS.
Where ADP stands out is their Workforce Now packages for medium-sized businesses from 50–999 employees. They offer three tiers: Select, Plus, and Premium. Select is a basic suite of HR and payroll tools. Plus includes benefits administration, and Premium adds on their suite of workforce management tools including time tracking, scheduling, and PTO management.
With any of the Workforce Now packages, you can add on modules for Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Compensation Management, HR Assist, Analytics and Enhanced Insights, and Learning Management.
According to Forbes, users reported pricing starts from $62 per month, but the average business should expect to spend a lot more than that. For example, the ADP support team quoted payroll only for 50 employees at $400 per month. And as soon as you’re adding on time tracking, PTO, and scheduling, the cost continues to add up.
Free Trial? Yes, three months free on select products.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about ADP
Connecteam – Best free time tracking software for construction
Overview
While plenty of apps for employee time tracking offer a free version with limited functionality, Connecteam’s free version offers access to all of their scheduling, clock-in, communications, and HR features for up to 10 employees at a single location.
For construction companies in particular, Connecteam sports a powerful scheduling tool allowing you to automatically create schedules by employee qualification, preferences, time off, overtime limits, and includes shift-swapping functionality. They offer job site geofencing, kiosk and mobile clock-ins, automated meal and break enforcement, and a native communication feature that helps team members stay on top of important safety updates or schedule changes.
Connecteam touts itself as an “all-in-one solution for managing employees,” but their product offering isn’t quite robust enough to support this claim. Payroll has to be processed through a third-party app, their HR tools are somewhat limited, they don’t have job and workforce cost reporting, and they don’t offer any benefits or benefits integrations. Connecteam is better thought of as a great time tracking and communication app with extra features to help take care of your team.
Key Features
- Powerful scheduling tool
- Job site geofencing
- Clock in- and out-reminders
- Meal and break management
- Native communication and chat features
- Track time by job, project, or client
- Export timesheets or integrate with accounting and payroll processors like Gusto and Quickbooks
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Great for businesses with fewer than 10 employees | The Basic plan lacks functionality |
Powerful clock in, scheduling, and time tracking features | Complex pricing structure for communications and HR tools |
More free features than most competitors | Price jumps up very quickly for larger teams or access to all tools and hubs |
Payroll integration with Gusto, Quickbooks, Xero, and Paychex | Limited reporting and integration support |
Pricing
Connecteam is packaged in three different “hubs:” Operations, Communications, and HR & Skills. The Operations hub contains all the time tracking tools including time clock, geofencing, kiosk, shift scheduling, and task management. The Communications hub includes in-app chat, employee directory, surveys, and knowledge base, and the HR & Skills hub includes time off, document storage, courses and quizzes, as well as recognition and rewards.
They offer 3 pricing tiers in addition to the free and enterprise versions, though depending on if you’re looking for communications and HR tools, the price per month can quickly jump up.
All of their pricing plans are based on a single price for up to 30 users, and add a cost per user per month above that, which varies depending on the plan you choose.
All time tracking and scheduling features are bundled in their “Operations” packages. The Operations Basic plan is $29 a month for the first 30 users, the Advanced plan jumps up to $49 per month, and the Expert plan is $99 per month. All Operations plans come with limited access to the Communications and HR & Skills hubs, though it’s unclear how much “limited” means.
You are free to mix and match pricing packages in each hub (for example, going “Expert” in Operations but adding the “Basic” plan for Communications), but these monthly costs add up quickly.
Free Trial? Yes, 14 days.
Free Plan: Yes.
Learn more about Connecteam
Harvest – Best construction time card software for reporting & analytics
Overview
Harvest is a time-tracking app and expense management platform largely focused on professional service industries such as law offices and architecture firms. But their powerful time tracking, job costing, reporting, and invoicing make them a solid candidate for construction companies as well.
Though Harvest’s clock-in options aren’t nearly as robust as competitors designed specifically for field-based industries, their reporting, analytics, and invoicing are a step above the rest. Client invoices along with job-specific expenses can be created automatically from project-based timesheets, and their user-friendly dashboard makes it easy to keep track of jobs and clients, understand your budget, and better allocate your team members where they’re needed most.
At its core, Harvest is a workforce management tool that helps you make more informed decisions about how much your team is working, where they are spending their time, and how they can be best utilized.
Unfortunately, Harvest is lacking in more powerful time-tracking functionality that helps field-based work run smoothly such as geofenced clock-ins, mobile time clock kiosks, GPS team tracking, and automated scheduling. But if you’re looking for deeper insights into team performance with minimal oversight into your field-based clock-ins, Harvest is a solid solution.
Key Features
- Mobile clock in
- Upload expenses on the go
- Automated invoicing
- Robust reporting
- Analytics per job, project, employee, and more
- Burnout dashboard
- Integrations with productivity tools
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
User-friendly app | Minimal field-based clock-in options |
Robust job costing and reporting dashboards | No GPS tracking |
Tech-forward integrations | |
Straightforward pricing |
Pricing
Harvest has two different plans, though their forever free plan is targeted at freelancers and solopreneurs, and isn’t useful for construction businesses.
Their Harvest Pro plan costs $10.80 per seat per month (or $12 per seat billed monthly) and includes everything they offer.
Free Trial? Yes, 30 days.
Free Plan: Yes.
Learn more about Harvest