The 9 Best Construction Employee Scheduling Software

Construction employee scheduling software can help you streamline communication. Let’s say you need five workers at two different job sites tomorrow. Traditionally, you would communicate with them using text messages and phone calls, which would impede your project planning.

When you use crew scheduling software, team members can automatically get notified each time you publish a new schedule or make a change to it — no need to manually reach out.

It can also help you increase employee accountability. If employees are dishonest about their day-to-day workload, then the business owner has to overpay. Added up over time, this can be a significant financial loss.

There are various features in construction scheduling software that can help you determine exactly when and where your employees punched in. These features keep your employees accountable, preventing time theft and saving you money.

In this post, we’re taking a look at the nine best construction employee scheduling software, focusing on those that are best equipped to help you streamline communication, increase employee accountability, and reduce labor costs.

1. Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch is an employee scheduling and time-tracking app that lets you manage your entire workforce in a single tool. It’s user-friendly, has high customer satisfaction ratings, and comes with all of the features construction companies need to create schedules quickly and make sure crew members are where they need to be when they need to be there.

Buddy Punch’s scheduling tool displays all of your employees in one column and the days you’re creating a schedule for in subsequent columns. To create a shift, simply click in an open area, specify the shift’s start and end times, and add any employees you want to work that shift.

Repeat this for all of the days your schedule covers, then publish your schedule. Your employees will receive notifications that the schedule is live, and they can view their schedule at any time in the Buddy Punch app, which is available on the web and has mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices.

If your scheduling is simple, that’s all you’ll ever need to do. However, construction scheduling is not quite so simple. The good news: Buddy Punch’s scheduling tool has all of the advanced features you need to manage the complexity of construction scheduling.

Locations

In all likelihood, your crews are working on different construction projects at different locations. Buddy Punch’s locations feature lets you add all of those job sites as locations. Then, you can assign locations to shifts so employees know not only when they’re working but also where. 

Your schedule can also be filtered by location so you can build schedules for each project quickly and easily, and different locations can be assigned different colors so you can quickly see where everyone will be working at a glance.

Departments

If you have crew members working in different roles — such as general crew and foreman — you can create those different roles as departments in Buddy Punch. After that, you can assign the appropriate department to shifts so employees know when they’re working, where they’re working, and what position they’ve been assigned.

Repeating shifts

If your employees work the same hours every day, every week, you can create repeating shifts to automatically add shift templates to future weeks. The future shifts won’t be published until you push the publish button, but it gives you a big head start on creating future schedules. All you need to do is add the right employees, locations, and departments and publish.

If you do need to shift something around on a future schedule, that’s easy too. Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to move shifts to different days and times.

Employee availability

Nothing is more frustrating than working hard on your schedule, publishing it, finding out that an employee isn’t available to work on a day you scheduled them for, and having to start over.

With Buddy Punch, you’ll never run into this issue again. Employees can specify their availability in the app, and times when employees aren’t available show up on your calendar view. Plus, if you try to schedule an employee when they’re unavailable, the system will give you an error message and prevent publishing the schedule.

Shift trades and covers

When an employee can’t make their scheduled shift, either the employee themself or an admin/manager can open that shift up to be covered. You can select who should receive the cover request, and if another employee accepts it, the schedule adjusts automatically.

Additionally, when employees work out amongst themselves that they want to trade shifts, they can make that request in Buddy Punch. The request then goes to a manager or admin to be approved before the schedule adjusts. 

Time tracking

While Buddy Punch makes creating work schedules for your construction crews easier than ever, that’s not all it can do. It’s also a time clock that compiles timesheets for you automatically, makes running payroll easier, and keeps your employees accountable with features like:

  • Clock in/out reminders: If your employees haven’t clocked in or out within a certain amount of time after their shift starts or ends, Buddy Punch will automatically send them a reminder to clock in/out.
  • Limit early/late punches: You can prevent employees from clocking in before their shift starts or automatically clock them out at the end of their shifts to prevent unplanned overtime and unexpected labor costs.
  • Variable rates: If employees earn different rates of pay for different jobs, such as prevailing wage projects, you can set those rates up in Buddy Punch and apply them to specific jobs so Buddy Punch calculates the hours for those jobs separately.
  • Job codes: Track exactly how much time was spent on different projects with job codes. You can attach these to locations, and when employees clock in and out, the hours they spend working are automatically attached to the right projects.
  • Geofencing: Prevent employees from clocking in or out when they’re not on-site by creating geofences. If employees try to punch when offsite, the system will block the action.
  • GPS tracking: Collect location data when employees clock in and out to make sure they are on the job site when they punch, or track their travels across an entire workday with real-time GPS tracking.
  • Photos on punch: If you’re concerned about buddy punching — where employees clock in and out for each other — you can require employees to take a selfie when they clock in and out. Those photos can be reviewed on their timecards.
  • Payroll integrations: Buddy Punch integrates with popular payroll providers like QuickBooks, ADP, Workday, Gusto, and more, letting you transfer your time data to payroll in seconds and run payroll more quickly than ever before.

There are lots of additional features available in Buddy Punch beyond what we’ve covered here, and you can use them all or just the ones you need. View a complete list of Buddy Punch’s features.

Pricing

Buddy Punch’s scheduling software starts at $5.49 per user per month plus a $19 per month base fee. With it, you get access to all of the scheduling features listed above, as well as the tool’s time, attendance, and PTO tracking features.

Want to learn more about Buddy Punch? Start a free trial — no credit card required — take an interactive tour of the product, or request a personalized demo.

2. Procore

Procore’s construction management software is a great option for scheduling, project, and finance management, as there are plenty of features that all work together to make one powerful tool for your business. 

Procore makes sure that you can keep everything in one place, and it’s especially useful as it offers prequalification to make sure the right people are getting hired and scheduled for each job. Some of the platform’s key features include:

Procore has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 2,732 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“All project financial-related items are in the one place — forecasting, subcontracts, POs, progress claiming, variations, etc. — which makes it extremely easy to track all project financial elements. It is especially convenient when Procore is used for project control too (i.e., RFIs, document control, etc.), making it even more streamlined.”

3. Jobber

Jobber’s scheduling app is a great option for those looking for client management, as Jobber has many construction project management features that focus on your relationship with your clients. 

A great example is the client hub, as well as their specific customer relation management features, both making that relationship stronger and helping you keep track of everything in one place. Other unique features include:

Jobber has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 805 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“The system is modern, clean, and efficient. There are multiple options for the collection of payments. The price book is just wonderful. My clients really appreciate the investment in the system, and it makes things so smooth to present to them. The internal processing is clutch and simplistic. Hands down a great product.”

4. Pro Crew Schedule

Pro Crew Schedule is a great option for construction businesses, like remodelers, that work with subcontractors. For example, Pro Crew Schedule allows you to schedule based on individual employee availability instead of crew-based scheduling, though you can still schedule with crews in mind as well. 

The time tracker is also useful for this, so you can make sure your employees and any specialty contractors you’re working with are getting paid correctly and that work is getting done. Other key features include:

Pro Crew Schedule has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 1 review. Here’s what the review says:

“It makes scheduling very easy and fast. When we started using the program, it cut my scheduling time way down, and now I don’t have to email the crews their schedule. Customer service was always available and helpful. The program was built with subcontractors in mind, and it did exactly what we needed without a lot of add-ons.”

5. Buildertrend

Buildertrend is focused specifically on the construction industry and has a gigantic list of features, making it perfect for teams looking for software that can do a lot in scheduling, sales, finances, and communication. It’s an all-in-one construction project management software. However, because of this, it is much more expensive than the other options on this list. 

Other key features include:

Buildertrend has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 1,636 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“It’s good because I don’t have to worry about long training or adaptation processes since this platform was designed with ease of use in mind.”

6. Smartsheet

Smartsheet’s cloud-based scheduling software works best for small businesses that are looking for an easy transition from Excel, as it’s fairly similar in the features it provides but gives much more and works much easier. It’s great for project management, but Smartsheet has the unique feature of including digital asset management. Other key features include: 

Smartsheet has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 3,349 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“With Smartsheet, you can easily create and manage projects, track progress, and collaborate with team members in real time. One of the most powerful features of Smartsheet is its Critical Path Highlighting feature. It makes it much easier for you to notice any issues early and try to sort them out.”

7. Fieldwire

Fieldwire’s scheduling solutions are a great option for businesses that have blueprints and building drawings. It specifically includes a lot of different features for both flat blueprint drawings and 3D modeling data. There are communication features included within these features, making connecting with contractors and customers incredibly easy. 

Other key features include:

Fieldwire has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 89 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“Fieldwire provides project documentation and tracking at our staff’s fingertips. The ability to link associated drawings and details to floor plans saves a huge amount of time every day. Project photos, markups, and as-constructed information is available to all team members at any time at any location on the project. This software has streamlined processes beyond our expectations.”

8. Oracle Primavera P6

Oracle Primavera P6 is entirely focused on workforce management. If you need project management, pay management, talent management, construction project scheduling management, etc., then it may be the right choice for you. It has a specific intelligence cloud for predicting projects and more. Other key features include:

Oracle Primavera P6 has an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 182 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform: 

“This software has every feature required for project scheduling and tasking. The most important feature is that it works on databases so you can work on many projects at the same time. I like the way it creates the critical path of a schedule and gives you all the important calculations that you need automatically based on any updates or changes on the schedule.”

9. Buildxact

Buildxact has some interesting, unique features and a different focus from the others on this list. It has a dealer connection feature that makes quoting easier with specific material counts and prices. Many parts of the software help with the financial aspects of your business, and if that’s what you need, then Buildxact is something to consider. Other features include:

Buildxact has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra across 156 reviews. Here’s what customers like about the platform:

“I am solving my scheduling and project tracking bottlenecks. This program makes it very easy for the client and myself to understand our overall project progress and what employees are working on what portions of our project.”

Choosing the best construction scheduling software for your crew

Choosing the right construction employee scheduling software can make a big difference in your day-to-day operations. The tools we covered here each bring something unique to the table, from easy scheduling to full-on project management and time tracking. 

By helping you communicate better with your crew, keep everyone accountable, and cut down on labor costs, these apps can make running your projects a whole lot smoother. So if you’re ready to simplify your scheduling and boost your team’s efficiency, there’s definitely an option here that’s the perfect fit.

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