7 Best Employee Time Clock Software For Small Business

ByEric Czerwonka Last Updated
employee time clock software small business

Whether you are looking to establish the roots of a community-centered enterprise, or you are trying to expand your small business’s operations, your team represents your most important asset. And yet, according to new studies, hiring and retaining qualified candidates is the main challenge for over 90% of US small businesses.

In part, this might be due to the fact that small businesses can only offer limited salaries and advancement opportunities. Nonetheless, there is a lot that you can do to attract world-class talents. For example, you could:

  • Create an inclusive and inspiring workplace culture
  • Promote work-life balance and embrace a hybrid work model
  • Work towards a stellar and honest employer reputation
  • Provide personal and professional development opportunities

While no single software is enough to do all this, the best employee time clock software for small business can help you maximize your workforce potential, reduce absenteeism, boost morale, and keep up with payroll tasks.

Learn about the best time tracking system for your small business below.

7 Best Employee Time Clock Software For Small Business

Buddy Punch

Let’s Start With The Basics: What is Buddy Punch?

  • Buddy Punch does not require additional hardware and can be accessed by employees via their mobile, tablet, or laptop.
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  • The Payroll on Demand Feature on Buddy Punch allows business owners to track and record each employee’s time at work, overtime, and time off.
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Now that you have an overview of what to expect from introducing Buddy Punch into your workplace, let’s look at how the app can help you create a better workplace.

Establishing the Right Employer Reputation with Buddy Punch

When looking at what employees wanted from their employers in the Great Resignation era, it becomes obvious that talents are looking for respect, honest pay, and better work-life balance.

Of course, most serious employers do their best to pay their employees correctly and on time. But mistakes can happen! Buddy Punch offers exclusive features that allow you to eliminate human error and build a relationship of trust and respect with your valuable team members.

Payroll Excel spreadsheet.

When your employees punch or out, data is immediately transferred to Buddy Punch administrators, who can see the information in a clear, easy-to-read, plotted way. This means that you no longer have to deal with issues related to incorrect time-keeping, and your employees can be sure about what to expect from their pay.

Reports can also be easily exported on Excel or Word or used for all of your payroll-related needs.

Payroll Integrations with Buddy Punch

In today’s digital era, no software can be truly useful and efficient if it cannot integrate with other systems. Buddy Punch offers a range of integrations with some of the most popular systems, including QuickBooks, SurePayroll, and Paychex.

This feature allows you to streamline the payroll process, avoid tax errors, and ensure that each of your talents is paid correctly and without delays.

Promoting Employee Work-Life Balance

PTO summary report.

As more and more employees struggle with burnout and high levels of stress, taking some time off work has never been more important. But, for managers, it can be tricky to manage each employee’s schedule while making sure that there is enough manpower to fuel the business forward.

Buddy Punch allows you to manage every time-off request, communicate with your employees, and ensure that you have enough employees each shift to distribute the workload.

Manage time off accrual rules.

Most businesses use an accrual system to manage their employee’s time off work. But, of course, each business is unique! Buddy Punch allows you to modify accrual rules and requests to suit your specific needs.

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Work from home is here to stay, and companies have to adapt to offer their employees hybrid work solutions and a better work-life balance. But how can you check the work time of employees working remotely or from another location?

Buddy Punch utilizes a GPS tracking system that allows you to check where your employees clock in and out from.

Creating a Transparent Work Culture

Occupational abuse – such as buddy punching and time theft – can cause significant financial losses and reputation damage to your company. The best time clock software or time tracking system can help you create a more honest workplace for all. Here’s how.

Require a picture to be taken on punch in.

Photos on punch is a unique feature of Buddy Punch that takes a selfie of the employee who attempts to clock in or out. The photo is then added to the administrator’s record, who can check which employees clocked in and whether they match their name.

See all punch in pictures in the timesheet.

Similar to Photos on Punch, Buddy Punch’s Face Recognition features allow employees to punch in and out by showing their face to the camera – not differently from unlocking their iPhones!

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Geofencing feature.

Incidents such as buddy punching and shift swapping can decrease your business’s efficiency and throw off balance other employees’ workload. In turn, if you have noticed one or more of your employees stealing time, your other workers might be suffering from burnout and high levels of stress.

Buddy Punch features such as IP Address Lock and Geofencing allow employees to punch in only in certain locations or using enabled WiFi connections – which can reduce episodes of time theft, low morale, and absenteeism.

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Other Features and Functionalities For Small Businesses

Buddy Punch is created to help small business owners look after each aspect of payroll-related tasks and employee management operations. While the ones above are the salient features of these apps, there are many more worth mentioning, including:

Buddy Punch features are not limited to the ones above. Discover more by getting in touch with our team or click here to explore our comprehensive feature list.

Buddy Punch Online Reviews: Here’s What Small Business Owners Say

At the time of writing, Buddy Punch has 4.8 out of 5 stars and 669 reviews on Capterra.

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Below, we’ll list just a few reviews that speak to Buddy Punch’s ease of use and great customer support service. (Click here to explore the full list of reviews.)

The below testimonials are just a meaningful extract of what business owners around the world think of Buddy Punch. Find out more at Capterra or on our website’s Reviews page.

“This program does exactly what I want it to do. I needed a simple time-keeping app where I could customize things to suit each employee and I found it. They haven’t had any issues minus forgetting to clock in or out but those are easy fixes. “

Click here to read the full review.

“It is so easy to use, particularly for the employees. We simply give the employee the ID and password, and a 30-second demonstration. Although on other software, we tend to get numbers questions, so simplicity and ease are very important for our HR department.”

Click here to read the full review.

Easy to use, cost-effective. We run it off of one computer in the shop and all of the techs punch in and out. My office opens up the software and all the hours are already listed. Works like a charm

Click here to read the full review.

“Buddy punch is easy to use and exactly what we need for our small business. Keep track of our employee’s hours and no need to use time cards or time clocks.”

Click here to read the full review.

Try Buddy Punch for Free   

If you feel that Buddy Punch might be the right fit for your business, sign up for a free trial. You can also book a one-on-one demo, or view a pre-recorded demo video.

OnTheClock

OnTheClock is an easy web-based application that small business owners can set up in three minutes or less. While this app boasts a range of functionalities, it is mainly designed to be an employee time clock system. This time tracking software can be used on PC (Windows) and Mac and most iOS and Android devices.

You can find an overview of the features and standards of OnTheClock in the YouTube video below:



OnTheClock offers various features and functionality, some of which include:

As of the writing date, OnTheClock has 4.7 out of 5 stars and 504 reviews on Capterra.

“Best Time-clock App!!! This app does everything I need it to do and more! I chose this one over the others because it does a timesheet/stub I can include with my employee’s checks. It’s the perfect app for my cleaning business!!”

Click here to read the full review.

Workpuls (Now Insightful)

Insightful (once known as Workplus) is a workforce analytics software that allows you to boost your team’s productivity and morale through data. Aside from time clock features, Insightful also offers employee productivity monitoring systems and remote work management capabilities.

You can learn more about this software in the YouTube video below:

Here are some of the best features of Insightful

At the time of writing, Workpuls has a total of 46 reviews on Capterra (see here), with an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. Here’s a valuable extract:

“Perfect for small businesses and freelancers! Very good. It lacks a few features but the price they advertise is the price you pay. No hidden cost written in size 2 font. Support was quick to reply. This is the service I decided to use!”

Click here to read the full review

DeskTime

Unlike other software on this list, DeskTime is designed to be an all-in-one solution for time-tracking. That is why the app offers an endless range of features, including the following ones:

DeskTime is a great option for small businesses, but it is particularly suitable for those enterprises looking to grow and expand operations. You can learn more about the company’s ethos and features in this YouTube video:

 

Today, DeskTime has a total of 238 reviews on Capterra (see here), with an average of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Here’s just one of the hundreds of reviews left by satisfied customers:

“ We use Desktime on our daily work to track the productivity of our colleagues, though it is not used as a key for employee’s evaluation, it is a tool to help our company boost their attention, which also comes with a good healthy competition, and we will award the best employee of the month thru it”

Click here to read the full review.

Sling

Sling is a powerful app that allows you to manage your small business’s employees’ work shifts, time-off, and overtime. Thanks to its Multiple Work Location feature, it is especially suitable for small remote teams.

While you can visit Sling’s website to explore a full list of features, here are a few:

Learn more about the features of Sling for your remote team in the YouTube video below:

Sling has 108 reviews and 4.6/5 stars on Capterra (as of the writing date). Find one of the many reviews below:

“Sling has made tracking hours a lot easier and has helped the payroll department immensely. It’s organized and fairly user-friendly, there’s a slight learning curve but it’s not bad. It’s been nothing but useful!”

Click here to read the full review.

ZoomShift

ZoomShift is a different type of software, specifically designed for those businesses that employ their workers by the hour. From hospitality businesses to retail outlets, managing employees on an hourly contract can be extremely challenging for business owners.

ZoomShift allows you to automate all payroll-related tasks to eliminate chances of human error and inaccuracies.

You can learn more about this software in the video below:




Here are just some of the ZoomShift features small business owners can look forward to:

As of this writing, ZoomShift has garnered a total of 93 reviews and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Below, you can find just one of the many reviews of the company:

“I run a small business, 3 employees, so a traditional time clock is insane overkill, but I needed something for employees to clock in and out, view their schedules, and make requests. Zoomshift has worked well for us – we have had them for 3 years and I have never questioned getting rid of the program. It’s nice for scheduling on my end, but also notifies the employees of new shifts and shift reminders.”

Click here to read the full review.

Timely

Unlike other apps on this list, Timely is specifically designed for time tracking needs. The app is suitable for both desk-based and home-based teams and allows managers to keep track of employee time, projects, and teams.

Some of its key features include:

Eager to learn more about Timely? Check out the YouTube video below:

At the time of writing, Timely has a total of 207 reviews on Capterra (see here), with an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars. Below, you can find just one of the many reviews left by customers:

“Using Timely has allowed us to better visualize our business as a whole, from a high-level project and scheduling perspective down to reporting and identifying the most profitable / desired type of work to pursue in business development.”

Click here to read the full review.

Try Buddy Punch for Free   

If you feel that Buddy Punch could be the right fit for your business, sign up for a free trial. You can also book a one-on-one demo, or view a pre-recorded demo video.

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