The Top 9 Time Tracking Apps With QuickBooks Integrations
If you use QuickBooks for accounting or payroll, finding a time tracking app that integrates with these systems will save you a lot of time. You no longer have to bother with downloading spreadsheets, making sure they’re formatted correctly, and uploading them to QuickBooks. Instead, you just set up the integration and let it do all of the tedious manual work for you.
In this post, we’re reviewing the nine best time tracking software that integrates with QuickBooks. View our detailed reviews below to learn more about each app we recommend, what types of businesses they’re best for, and how much they cost, or get a brief overview in this video.
The benefits of integrating your time tracking software with QuickBooks
A time tracking software to QuickBooks integration connects the two systems so that data can be passed between them seamlessly. This delivers several benefits:
- Streamlined payroll: Because your employee time data flows directly into QuickBooks, you no longer have to download spreadsheets/CSV files, format them properly, and upload them to QuickBooks. The data just shows up in QuickBooks when you need it.
- Fewer errors: When you have to download, edit, and upload files, it creates room for errors like accidentally overwriting a field or entering data incorrectly. With an integration, you can be certain that the data passed to QuickBooks is clean and accurate.
- Accurate billing: The integration will pass not only overall employee time data but also the time employees spend working on specific jobs and projects. This ensures that the billing data you have in QuickBooks is accurate for client invoicing.
- Improved decision-making and profitability: Getting your payroll expenses into QuickBooks gives you valuable data that you can use to make better decisions about budgeting, resource allocation, and pricing.
Features to look for in your time tracking software
As you review the options in our list below, it’s helpful to first understand what features you might need so you can pick the app that’s right for your business. Some important features for your business might include:
- Ease of use: Training every new employee on how to use your time tracking software becomes a huge, time-consuming burden. If the software you choose is easy to use and intuitive even for your least tech-savvy employees, you’ll spend a lot less time training employees and answering questions.
- Data syncing: Some QuickBooks integrations let you click a button to pass the data manually when needed, and some maintain a constant sync of data between the two platforms. Make sure the app you choose syncs the data in whichever way makes the most sense for your accounting and payroll processes.
- Varied time tracking methods: Depending on how your employees work, you may need a time tracking app with a web interface, mobile apps, and/or a time clock kiosk. You may also need something that doesn’t require every employee to have an email address.
- Project management features: If your employees perform client or project work, you’ll want to make sure that your time tracking app has project- and job-costing features. Some will even let you create entire project plans in the same system where you track time.
- Reporting and analytics: Being able to sync your time tracking data to QuickBooks may eliminate the need to do analysis inside of your time tracking software, but it’s still good to make sure that you’ll have access to the reports you need in the time tracking tool, too.
- Great customer support: While customer support isn’t always thought of as a feature, it’s really something worth considering when narrowing down your options. Having a helping hand to get your QuickBook integration — and any other features you need — set up can be invaluable when adopting a new tool.
The 9 best time tracking software that integrates with Quickbooks
These nine time-tracking apps integrate directly with QuickBooks — either QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or both — to help you simplify and automate payroll processing.
Platform | Best For | Rating | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
Best overall | 4.8/5 | $4.49/user/month | |
Seamless integration | 4.7/5 | $8/user/month | |
Freelancers | 4.8/5 | $5.49/seat/month | |
Productivity tracking | 4.6/5 | $7.50/user/month | |
Restaurants & retail | 4.6/5 | $20/location/month | |
Small businesses | 4.7/5 | $29/month | |
Law firms | 4.2/5 | $9.60/user/month | |
Professional services | 4.6/5 | $20/user/month | |
FAR and DCAA | 4.0/5 | $8/user/month |
1. Buddy Punch – Best overall
Integrates with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
Buddy Punch is an affordable, user-friendly time tracking app that integrates directly with both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. It has one of the highest ratings of all time tracking apps on Capterra with a 4.8 out of 5-star rating for ease of use and customer support.
With Buddy Punch, employees can clock in and out using web browsers, mobile devices (iPhone and Android), or tablets used as an on-site kiosk. There are a number of options employees can use to log in to Buddy Punch, including usernames and passwords, PINs, facial recognition, or QR codes. Employees don’t need their own email addresses to use Buddy Punch.
Administrators can see employees’ timesheets in real time, access detailed reports, and send timesheet data directly to QuickBooks for payroll processing. Admins or managers can also be required to approve timesheets before they’re sent to payroll for processing.
Time clock features
Beyond basic time tracking, Buddy Punch also offers a lot of additional features that can help business owners keep their staff accountable, improve productivity, and reduce time theft:
- Location tracking: Log team members’ GPS locations when they clock in and out, monitor their locations in real-time across the entire workday, or set up geofences that prevent employees from clocking in or out when they’re not at your job site.
- Overtime calculations: Set up customizable rules specifying when employees hit overtime, and Buddy Punch will automatically calculate overtime and pay rates for you.
- Reduce payroll costs: Get an alert when an employee is nearing overtime, automatically round punches to the nearest preset interval, prevent employees from clocking in before they’re scheduled to work, or clock employees out automatically at the end of the day.
- Employee accountability: Require employees to take a photo of themselves when clocking in and out to prevent buddy punching, or disable clocking in and out unless the employee is connected to your office’s IP address.
- Job costing: Set up job codes and assign them to employees or teams to easily track hours worked on specific projects, clients, or customers.
- Employee scheduling: Use a drag-and-drop tool to create employee schedules, then automatically notify employees of new schedules and shift changes. Create recurring shifts that will get automatically added to your schedule every week.
- PTO tracking and accruals: Set up rules for how PTO is accrued, then easily track time off for your entire company. Employees can request time off in the Buddy Punch app, which triggers an alert for their manager or admin to approve the request.
You can also set up blackout dates for days when employees cannot request time off, allow employees to clock in and out via text message, and set up single sign-on for employees to log in to Buddy Punch using Google, Okta, or OneLogin. See all of Buddy Punch’s features.
Pricing
Buddy Punch’s plan that includes its QuickBooks integration starts at $4.49 per user per month plus a $19 per month base fee. The $19 per month fee covers all admin users on your plan, so you can add as many admin users as you need without impacting the cost of the software.
Try Buddy Punch for Free
2. QuickBooks Time – Best for seamless integration
Integrates with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
For the most straightforward way to connect your employee timesheet data to QuickBooks, look no further than QuickBooks’ own time-tracking software: QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets).
Because QuickBooks’ Payroll, QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks Time are all Intuit products, the tools work together for seamless accounting — no automation or integration is required. You can use the products together for reporting, tracking time, generating invoices, tracking expenses, and paying employees.
And while QuickBooks Time may offer the simplest integration of all of the apps on this list, it comes with a fairly hefty price tag — almost double what you’ll pay for some of the other options on this list. You also have to be a QuickBooks Online subscriber to use QuickBooks Time, so that can increase the cost if you don’t already subscribe to QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Time offers all of the time-tracking features you need. Employees can clock in and out using the QuickBooks Time mobile app (iOS or Android), web browser, or time clock kiosk. And administrators can generate detailed reports on employee hours and job/project costs for invoicing or to determine profitability.
Pricing
QuickBooks Time’s pricing starts at $8 per user per month plus a $20/month base fee (discounted to $10/month for the first three months). Note that you must also be a QuickBooks Online subscriber to use QuickBooks Time.
3. Clockify – Best for freelancers
Integrates with QuickBooks Online
Clockify is a combined time- and project-tracking tool. It’s best known for its free-forever plan that includes unlimited users, but unfortunately, its QuickBooks integration is not available on Clockify’s free plan.
Clockify’s time tracking is tied directly to projects and tasks, making it a great option for freelancers who need to track their time in order to invoice clients correctly. You simply start the timer and select the specific project/task you’re working on. Clockify will total up all of the time you spent on specific tasks and client projects so you can create detailed, accurate invoices.
The other great thing about Clockify is that in addition to integrating with QuickBooks, you can integrate with your project management tool of choice to automatically sync tasks and projects to Clockify so you don’t have to create them in two different systems. Clockify has integrations with project management systems like Asana, Trello, Basecamp, GitHub, ClickUp, Monday, and more.
Once you connect Clockify to your QuickBooks Online account, you can sync customers between the two platforms to easily pass time data to the right customer in QuickBooks.
Pricing
Clockify’s QuickBooks integration is available on its Standard plan, which starts at $5.49 per seat per month.
Alternative option: If Clockify isn’t right for you, you may also want to consider Harvest, which is another great option for solopreneurs. However, Harvest’s plan that includes its QuickBooks integration starts at $11 per seat per month, so given that the cost was more than double, we opted to recommend Clockify instead.
4. Hubstaff – Best for productivity tracking
Integrates with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
Hubstaff is a great time tracker for employees who do their work on computers because it has features for both time and productivity tracking. In addition to letting employees manually clock in and out, you can improve productivity and identify time theft with features like:
- Automatic time tracking: Employee time tracking starts and stops based on computer activity, eliminating the need for manual clock-ins.
- Keyboard and mouse activity: Hubstaff monitors keyboard strokes and mouse movements to gauge activity levels during employee work hours. This data is used to generate activity reports that show how active an employee is during their work day.
- Idle time detection: Hubstaff can detect periods of inactivity and prompt employees to confirm if they are still working — or to adjust their work hours accordingly.
- Automatic screenshots: The app captures random screenshots showing what employees are working on at set intervals (e.g., every 10 minutes) during working hours.
- App and website tracking: Hubstaff tracks the applications and websites employees visit while working.
This data can all be viewed by managers and admins in detailed reports that provide insights into hours worked, activity levels, application usage, and more. These reports help managers understand team productivity and identify areas for improvement.
One standout feature of Hubstaff’s Quickbooks integration is that once the integration is set up, time data is sent to QuickBooks every hour.
Pricing
One integration is included as part of Hubstaff’s Grow plan, which starts at $7.50 per user per month with a two-seat minimum. If the only integration you need to add is QuickBooks, that plan will work for you. If you need QuickBooks and other integrations, you’ll have to upgrade to the $10 per month Team plan that includes unlimited integrations.
5. Homebase – Best for restaurants and retail businesses
Integrates with QuickBooks Online
If you don’t need some of the more advanced time-tracking features and just want the basics, Homebase is a good option to consider. It charges by location rather than user, so if you only have one location, it can be a really low-cost option.
Homebase’s Essentials plan starts at $20 per location per month and includes basic time tracking, its QuickBooks integration, employee scheduling, and integrations with point-of-sale (POS) systems like Square, Clover, Toast, and Shopify that make it a great option for retail shops and restaurants.
Pricing
Homebase’s plan which includes integration with QuickBooks Online starts at $20 per location per month.
6. Connecteam – Best for small businesses
Integrates with QuickBooks Online
While Homebase is an affordable option for single-location businesses, Connecteam offers the best deal for multi-location businesses with fewer than 30 employees. It’s flat-rate pricing of $29 per month covers up to 30 users, making it one of the most affordable options for small businesses.
Connecteam’s time clock includes GPS tracking and geofencing, and it automatically generates timesheets from clock-in and clock-out data. Managers can create and assign shifts, send notifications to employees, and handle shift swaps. The system also supports overtime calculations and custom workweeks.
As far as its QuickBooks integration, it’s worth noting that it only currently supports passing payroll data to QuickBooks — not invoicing data. So if you want to pass both types of data, it may not be the right option for you. However, if you’re just looking to integrate the two tools to run payroll faster, it’s worth checking out.
Pricing
While Connecteam offers a free plan, its QuickBooks integration is not available on that plan. Plans that include the integration with QuickBooks start at $29 per month for up to 30 users.
7. LawBillity – Best for law firms
Integrates with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
As far as time tracking goes, LawBillity has all of the basic time clock features: employee time tracking, GPS tracking, geofencing, employee scheduling, and project tracking. However, as a simple time tracker, it’s one of the more expensive options on this list.
Where LawBillity shines is with its additional features for lawyers and legal teams. You can use the platform to check for conflicts, run realization reports, use LEDES and LAA invoice formats, add ABA codes, and create trust accounts. Additionally, you can track expenses and attach them to client invoices.
Pricing
LawBillity’s pricing starts at $30 per user per month and includes its QuickBooks integration.
8. BigTime – Best for professional services
Integrates with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
BigTime is a professional services automation platform that has both time tracking and everything else you need to run a professional services business. Its time-tracking features connect directly to its project management features, allowing you to easily tie employee hours to billable and non-billable tasks.
As far as project management features, you can:
- Create budgets, schedules, and scopes for projects
- View project progress on Gantt charts
- Set project KPIs and monitor progress toward them
- Track time and expenses toward projects
- Identify who on your team is available to work on new projects
Pricing
BigTime’s plans start at $20 per user per month and include time tracking, expense management, and project management features, as well as its QuickBooks integration.
Alternative option: For agencies that like the features in BigTime but can’t afford its cost, a good alternative to consider is Everhour. While it’s not quite as robust as BigTime, it has a lot of the same budgeting and project costing features for half the cost ($8.50 per seat per month when paying annually).
9. Hour Timesheet – Best for FAR and DCAA compliance
Integrates with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
Hour Timesheet is a great time-tracking app if your company often works on government or defense contracts and needs to follow FAR- or DCAA-compliant time tracking:
- It provides a detailed audit trail of all timesheet entries, including usernames, IP addresses, and date and time stamps.
- Automated timesheet reminders make sure everyone remembers to record their time daily.
- Users can track time to both billable and non-billable tasks.
- Employees and managers can both sign submitted timesheets.
- Charge codes can be limited to only the employees approved to work on them.
- Supervisors and admins receive alerts when timesheets are edited, and the person editing the timesheet must provide a reason why it was edited.
Pricing
Hour Timesheet has only one plan, which is $8 per user per month and includes all of its compliance features and its QuickBooks integration.
Choosing the right option for your team
Choosing the right time tracking solution can make a big difference in how smoothly your business operates. Integrating your time-tracking app with QuickBooks can simplify payroll processing, save time, minimize errors, and make your process hassle-free.
Whether you need advanced features like GPS tracking, productivity tracking, and project management or are just looking for simple clock-in/clock-out functions, there’s a solution here that can meet your needs and help you run your business more efficiently.
