Time and attendance systems give you new, better, and easier ways to manage your employees, stay compliant with labor laws, and run payroll. But finding the right option for your small business can take a lot of time and effort, and choosing the wrong solution can cause a lot of headaches.
To save you from having to do deep research to find the right option — and to help you avoid making the wrong choice — we tested and compared dozens of tools to put together this list of the nine best time and attendance systems for small businesses. For each tool, we share what teams they’re best for, what their unique features are, and how they compare to other tools on the market in terms of cost.
Time and attendance systems compared
Just want the tl;dr version of this long article? Here’s a side-by-side comparison of what we think are the nine best time and attendance systems for small businesses, highlighting all of the most important details:
Platform | Best For | Rating | Starting Price |
|---|---|---|---|
Affordability and ease of use | 4.8/5 | $4.49/user/month | |
Project tracking | 4.8/5 | $5.49/user/month | |
Team communication | 4.5/5 | $4/user/month | |
NFC punching | 4.9/5 | $5.99/user/month | |
HR teams | 4.7/5 | Free for up to 10 users | |
Complex scheduling | 4.6/5 | Free for limited tracking | |
Very small businesses | 4.2/5 | Free for up to 5 users | |
Productivity tracking | 4.5/5 | $6.42/user/month | |
Services businesses | 4.7/5 | $6.90/user/month |
What is a time and attendance system?
A time and attendance system is a tool that helps businesses track employees’ working hours, arrival times, and departure times by logging when employees clock in and out of work. It turns this data into detailed timesheets with total hours automatically calculated, and it provides notifications and reports that let you know when employees were late for or missed a shift.
Time and attendance systems come in both hardware and software versions. Hardware versions (physical punch clock devices) usually — but not always — need to be paired with software that lets you access your time and attendance reports. And software versions can generally be turned into a physical time clock by downloading the software onto a shared computer or tablet to create a time clock kiosk.
Why small businesses need time and attendance systems
In my previous business, I managed 20 employees working across three different locations. We used paper timesheets to track time, and we ran into many of the same challenges that other small business owners face when tracking time with this method.
We had to calculate all employees’ hours manually, which took our time away from growing the business and often led to payroll mistakes that were bad for employee morale. And we had no way of knowing if employees were being honest about their arrival and departure times or if they were committing time theft because we couldn’t be at all three of our locations at the same time.
Time and attendance systems solve these problems for small businesses and deliver several additional benefits:
- Time and attendance software can be used on any device (computers, tablets, and phones), making it possible to track employees’ hours and attendance no matter where they work.
- It tracks the exact amount of time employees work, and it automatically calculates their total hours (regular and overtime) and pay for you. This saves you time when it comes to running payroll, and it helps prevent miscalculations and other payroll mistakes, which improves employee morale.
- It provides reports that show employee absences and tardiness. This makes it easier to stay on top of attendance and gives you a record to reference when you need to have a discussion with an employee about excessive tardiness or absenteeism.
- It has features that help you prevent time theft, blocking employees from doing things like buddy punching or clocking in/out while offsite.
- It helps you stay compliant with FLSA regulations by tracking the exact amount of hours employees work, automatically identifying overtime hours, and enforcing paid and unpaid breaks.
Features to look for in a time and attendance system
While a small business may not need all of the time and attendance features that a larger company might look for, there are some key features you’ll want to make sure you have access to in order to get the biggest benefits from your system:
- Multi-device access: Unless your employees all work at the same location 100% of the time, you’ll want to look for systems that are accessible on any computer, tablet, or mobile device so employees can clock in and out no matter where they’re working.
- Automatic timesheets: The system should compile employees’ clock in and out data into timesheets that you can review, plus automatically calculate total hours (regular and overtime) and pay for you. This will save you a ton of time when it comes to running payroll and help you avoid payroll errors.
- Payroll integrations: Another way to save a lot of time on payroll is to look for a time and attendance system that integrates with your existing payroll provider. This lets you pass all of your time data to payroll in just a couple of clicks.
- Absence management: The system should provide notifications and reports that help you identify absences, late arrivals, and early departures. PTO tracking features are also nice to have so you can track scheduled time off and automatically add paid time off to timesheets and payroll.
- Scheduling: Systems that only track time put more onus on you to identify when employees missed a shift or arrived late. But systems that let you build work schedules and track time can identify when an employee’s clock in/out times are a mismatch with their schedules and notify you of the discrepancy.
- Reports: Look for systems that give you detailed reports on all of the information you need. You’ll definitely need time reports to stay compliant with FLSA record-keeping regulations, and you’ll also likely want to see reports showing no-shows, late arrivals, and possibly even time theft attempts.
- Employee self-service: In addition to using the software to clock in and out, you’ll want employees to be able to self-serve specific actions to save you time. Look for a system that lets them view their hours and pay, submit their time cards for approval, enter their availability, and request time off.
Businesses with more complex operations may also want to look for features like geofencing (prevent employees from clocking in/out while offsite), project tracking or job costing (attribute hours worked to specific jobs or projects), and integrations with other systems (project management or accounting tools).
The 9 best time and attendance systems for small businesses
If you’re looking for a time and attendance system for your small business, you can’t go wrong with one of the nine options below. Read on for our detailed reviews of each system, including the unique features they bring to the table, what their current customers have to say about them, and how much they cost.
1. Buddy Punch — Best overall
Buddy Punch is an ideal time and attendance system for small businesses because of its affordability, exceptional customer support, and intuitive interface that makes it easy to use for even your least tech-savvy employees. It offers a wide range of features that help you track employee time and attendance, reduce labor costs and prevent time theft, and run payroll quickly and accurately.
Time tracking
Employees can clock in and out using Buddy Punch in multiple ways. They can do so on their computers or mobile phones, or you can use Buddy Punch on a central computer or tablet as a time clock kiosk. This lets you track time easily no matter where your employees work.
That work hours data is compiled into timesheets that automatically calculate employee hours and overtime, and they can be easily edited in case an employee forgets to clock in or out for a shift.
Employee scheduling
Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop employee scheduling tool makes it faster and easier than ever to create your work schedules. You can assign multiple employees to a shift, create repeating shifts, and assign employees to work in different positions or at different locations. You can also let employees add their availability to the system so you never schedule someone when they’re unable to come into work.
Combining time tracking and scheduling lets you take advantage of lots of additional features, such as punch limiting (prevent employees from clocking in before they’re scheduled), automatic clock-outs (automatically clock employees out at the end of their shifts), and attendance tracking.
Attendance tracking
Buddy Punch offers a variety of methods for tracking employee attendance. First, you can see exactly who is clocked in and out at any given moment on the Buddy Punch dashboard. If an employee was late, you’ll see a label near their name showing that they were late and how many minutes late they were.
You can also run attendance reports to see who was absent/late during a specific timeframe and how many times they were late or absent during that period.
Finally, you can set up notifications that alert you when someone was late for, left early from, or missed a shift entirely. This lets you keep track of attendance in real-time even when your employees work at a different location than you.
Payroll
Buddy Punch offers three great ways to speed up your payroll processing.
- You can use Buddy Punch as your payroll provider to consolidate time tracking and payroll into one tool.
- You can integrate with your payroll provider to send your time data to payroll in seconds. Buddy Punch integrates with 20 different payroll systems like QuickBooks, ADP, Gusto, Paychex, and more.
- You can download a report of your timesheet data to send to your existing provider.
Employee accountability
Beyond time and attendance tracking, Buddy Punch also offers a number of optional features that help you keep your employees accountable, reduce labor costs, and prevent time theft:
- GPS tracking: Log employees’ locations when they clock in and out to make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be. Or turn on real-time GPS tracking to see exactly where employees traveled over the course of the entire workday.
- Geofencing: Prevent employees from clocking in or out when they’re not at the right job site by setting up geofences. If employees aren’t on-site when they try to clock in, they’re prevented from doing so.
- IP address locks: IP address locks prevent employees from clocking in unless they’re connected to your office’s Wi-Fi. This is great for preventing office workers from clocking in before they arrive at the office.
- Photos on punch: Require employees to take a photo of themselves when clocking in and out to prevent buddy punching.
- Facial recognition: Combining Buddy Punch with Face ID lets you verify the identity of your employees before they’re allowed to clock in or out.
Other key features
Buddy Punch is more than just a time and attendance tracker; you can use it to manage your entire workforce. Beyond what we already discussed above, you can also use Buddy Punch to:
- Let employees self-service: Your employees, managers, and admins can all access Buddy Punch on computers, tablets, and phones. Employees can clock in, clock out, review their timecards and schedules, request shift trades/covers, and submit their timesheets for approval.
- Manage time off: Set up your PTO accrual rules, and Buddy Punch automatically calculates accrued time off for you. Your team can see their accrued time off anytime in Buddy Punch and make time off requests that are sent to their managers for approval.
- Track time spent on jobs/projects: If you need to see how many hours were spent on specific tasks or projects, you can create job codes in Buddy Punch. Employees select the appropriate code when clocking in and out, then you can run reports to see the exact number of hours logged per project. This streamlines invoicing if you work on customer projects.
Even with all we’ve mentioned so far, there’s still more that Buddy Punch has to offer. If you want to dig deeper, you can see all of Buddy Punch’s features here.
Customer reviews
Buddy Punch’s time and attendance solution has earned a 4.8 out of 5-star rating from its customers on Capterra. Here’s what a few customers have to say about the platform:
- “It has transformed how we manage employee schedules and track attendance. The mobile accessibility and seamless integration with payroll systems have saved us significant time and reduced errors.”
- “The most impressive feature of Buddy Punch is its intuitive interface and ease of use. The mobile app functionality allows employees to clock in and out, request shift changes, and view their schedules from anywhere, which is particularly useful for remote or field-based teams.”
- “The Buddy Punch customer service team is EXCELLENT! When I have a question, they really LISTEN and always walk me through the answer or offer to help themselves.”
Onboarding onto Buddy Punch is simple. You can either add your employees one by one or send a list of them to Buddy Punch’s customer support team to do it for you. The support team is available at any time via live chat, or you can access Buddy Punch’s help center to get quick answers to FAQs.
Pricing
Free trial available. Paid plans start at $4.49/user per month plus a $19 base fee. Admin users are free — the base fee covers the cost of all admin users you add to the platform.
Learn more about Buddy Punch
- Start a free trial — no credit card required
- View pricing
- Watch a video demo
- Take an interactive product tour
- Request a personalized demo
2. Clockify – Best for project tracking
Clockify is a great option for businesses that work on projects for clients. Rather than clocking in and out, Clockify lets your employees start a timer when they begin a task. They can then log that time to specific projects. Managers and admins can also view an attendance report showing anyone who hasn’t worked as many hours as planned each week.
Key features
- Timesheets
- Automatic time tracking
- Attendance reports
- Billable rates
- Project tracking
- Shift scheduling
Customer reviews
Clockify has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about it:
“Clockify gives me control over all parts of a project. I can focus on tasks that are really important and manage my team easily. Clockify is integrated with my Gmail, Calendar, Asana, Google Docs, and spreadsheets, making the work very productive and tasks on each of them easy to control.”
Pricing
Free trial available. Plans that include attendance tracking start at $5.49/user per month.
3. When I Work – Best for team communication
When I Work is a great time and attendance system for those looking for better and easier communication with their employees. In addition to letting you track time and attendance and create employee schedules, it has a built-in team messaging tool called WorkChat that lets you and your staff send messages and images to each other in real time. Managers can also use WorkChat to send one-way messaging to all employees.
Key features
- Labor budgeting
- Break management
- Automatic scheduling
- Schedule templates
- Team messaging
Customer reviews
When I Work has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about the platform:
“By shifting to When I Work, we have been able to eliminate the need for a separate staff member to oversee employee attendance and productivity. Prior to implementing this, just checking in with each of our site managers took up most of the mornings. Now, within five minutes, we are able to get a complete view of where our company assets are at any given time.”
Pricing
Free trial available. Plans that include attendance tracking start at $4/user per month.
Related: Compare Buddy Punch vs. When I Work
4. Jibble – Best for NFC punching
Jibble is best known for its free plan that lets businesses track time for an unlimited number of employees at no cost whatsoever. And while that might make it a good option for small businesses on a budget, its attendance insights report isn’t available on its free plan. The attendance insights report lets you see your team’s expected work hours, number of absences, total overtime hours, late ins, early outs, and more.
Key features
- Clock in/out using NFC tags
- Timesheets
- Facial recognition
- Geofencing
- Absence tracker
Customer reviews
Jibble has an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about the platform:
“My overall experience with the Jibble app has been excellent. It provides seamless functionality, an intuitive interface, and effectively meets my attendance and time tracking needs. I haven’t encountered any cons, making it a reliable and efficient tool.”
Pricing
Free trial available. Plans that include attendance tracking start at $5.99/user per month.
5. Connecteam – Best for HR teams
Connecteam has a free plan that’s great for small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. The free plan gives you access to time tracking, attendance tracking, employee scheduling, payroll integrations, and a variety of other HR-specific features. You can use it to create an internal knowledge base, set up an internal help desk, create an org chart, store files and documents, and even create courses and quizzes.
Key features
- Timesheets
- Forms and checklists
- Employee communication
- Compliance resources
Customer reviews
Connecteam has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about it:
“Connecteam’s time tracking is amazing! We’re able to select from multiple jobs and sub-jobs, add notes, and even add attachments such as mileage, meals, hotels, etc. This helps our accounting department invoice for the exact amount of time spent at each client’s facility and gives an overview of exactly where and what our staff was doing.”
Pricing
Free plan available for up to 10 users. Paid plans start at $29/month per hub — Connecteam’s paid features are spread across 12 different plans in three different hubs.
Related: Compare Buddy Punch vs. Connecteam
6. Deputy – Best for complex scheduling
Deputy is a good time and attendance system for small businesses that have very complex employee scheduling needs. It has an AI-powered auto scheduling feature that builds schedules based on forecasted sales, delivery orders, foot traffic, and other trends. And its labor forecasting feature lets you optimize your labor costs by making use of hour and wage budgets for cost-effective scheduling.
Key features
- Automatic scheduling
- Timesheets
- Break planning
- Leave management
- Demand forecasting
- Fair workweek compliance
Customer reviews
Deputy has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about it:
“In my view, Deputy has an easy-to-use interface that simplifies the process of creating and managing schedules, and I especially highlight the mobile app, which allows our employees to access their schedules and clock in easily. I think Deputy is a solid tool for workforce management, especially for companies that focus on scheduling and timekeeping.”
Pricing
Free plan available with limited time tracking and scheduling. Paid plans start at $6/user per month.
Related: Compare Buddy Punch vs. Deputy
7. Findmyshift – Best free option
Findmyshift is a good, basic time and attendance tracker for very small businesses. It offers a free plan for teams with five or fewer members. It’s also good for teams that would prefer to keep things simple: Findmyshift specifically makes its software look and function like Excel, which can limit the time it takes admins to get it set up and to train employees to use the software.
Key features
- Timesheets
- Analytics
- Reminders
- Time off management
Customer reviews
Findmyshift has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about it:
“This software has helped us schedule more accurately according to our business level, which helped us save hours and relieve our team during busier periods. Its use is very straightforward, and it does pretty much anything you need it to with a bit of fiddling. The customer support team is very quick to respond to your queries through live chat as well.”
Pricing
Free plan available for up to five users. Paid plans start at $25/team per month.
8. DeskTime – Best for productivity tracking
DeskTime is a great time and attendance system for small businesses with employees who do all of their work on computers. It tracks the activities employees are engaging in on their computers and puts that time into one of three buckets: productive, unproductive, or neutral. This helps you not only determine when employees were late for/absent from work but also when they were billing time but not working.
Key features
- Automatic time tracking
- Computer usage monitoring
- Screenshots
- Productivity calculation
- Time reports
Customer reviews
DeskTime has an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about it:
“DeskTime has kept an outstanding performance: boosting productivity, saving us time and resources, and keeping work organized and professional. It has helped me manage shifts and, most importantly, calculate overtime pay based on how employees spend their time. It is secure for handling confidential information.”
Pricing
Free plan available for one user only. Paid plans start at $6.42/user per month.
9. Paymo – Best for services businesses
Paymo is a great option for teams that need both project management and invoice management. It offers multiple options for every aspect of time and attendance, with multiple types of work timers, project management boards, and timesheet options. Paymo also makes invoicing easy as it keeps clients, time tracking, and payments all in one easy-to-use system.
Key features
- Project time tracking
- Invoicing software
- Timesheets
- Task management
- Kanban boards
- Gantt charts
Customer reviews
Paymo has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra. Here’s what customers like about the platform:
“I use it daily to create estimates and invoices in two languages and formats. Following up on projects so I never miss a deadline. Following up on payments. I am a one-man show, and accounting can be time-consuming. But with Paymo, I get everything in one place.”
Pricing
Free trial available. Paid plans that include time and attendance reports start at $6.90/user per month.
Choosing the right time and attendance system for your small business
In addition to features and cost, there are some other factors you should consider to find the perfect time and attendance system for your small business:
- Team size: If your team is small — only 5-10 employees — you can likely get away with using one of the more basic free options. Larger teams will quickly run into limits on the features available in those plans. You should also consider if you’re going to grow your business in the future. It’s difficult to switch time and attendance tracking systems down the line, so consider the future cost if you hire more employees.
- Industry: Some platforms cater better to companies in different industries. Software and services companies will likely want to choose one of the options with project tracking, productivity tracking, and invoicing. Restaurants and retail shops might want to go with a tool that has a feature-rich scheduling feature. Field services companies will want to choose an app with geofencing and GPS tracking.
- Budget: Software costs tend to be confusing, and something that looks like it fits within your budget at a glance might actually cost much more than you expected. Make sure to spend extra time reviewing plan comparisons on each system’s pricing page to ensure you’ll actually get the features you need at the price you can afford to pay.
- Integration availability: You’ll absolutely want a tool that integrates with your payroll provider to speed up the process of running payroll, but you may also want something that integrates with your accounting, project management, team communication, or other business-critical tools to streamline passing data back and forth between those systems.
Make sure to at least get a demo of the system you’re considering or, better yet, start a free trial of it. Demos are great for getting answers to questions you couldn’t find the answers for on your own, and free trials let you get hands-on with the tool to make sure it will work for you. You might also want to consider sending a request to the system’s support team to make sure you’ll get a quick, helpful response when you need help.
Related Reading:
- 8 Best Face Recognition Attendance Systems for Work
- How to Identify and Prevent Excessive Tardiness at Work
- The 9 Best Attendance Management Systems for Employees
- Creating an Employee Attendance Policy: Guide & Template
- Can You Terminate an Employee for Excessive Absenteeism?
- The 7 Best Mobile Attendance Systems for Businesses
