Tracking employee time and attendance using traditional methods (paper timesheets and spreadsheets) becomes very time-consuming once your team hits a certain size. The more employees you track time for, the bigger the headache: employees are not honest about when they clock in/out, and calculating hours and running payroll becomes increasingly complex.
We learned that lesson ourselves when struggling to run payroll for a team of over twenty employees across three different business locations. Time theft was hard to detect. Payroll took a full day to complete. Often, we had to re-run payroll because of mistakes made when calculating hours or entering data.
Timesheet apps are designed to solve all of these problems for businesses. They calculate hours for you automatically, send your time data to payroll in seconds, and even have features to help you reduce labor costs and prevent time theft.
If your company is growing and looking for a better way to track your team’s time, one of the 10 best timesheet apps for multiple employees below should solve the issues you’re running into.
The benefits of using a timesheet app
Upgrading to a timesheet app for employee time tracking delivers many benefits:
- Save time on payroll: Timesheet apps automatically calculate total hours — eliminating manual calculations — and integrate with popular payroll providers, allowing you to transfer time data instantly.
- Ensure payroll accuracy: Automating hour calculations reduces payroll errors. Many apps also include features to verify timesheet accuracy before transferring data to payroll.
- Maintain compliance: Timesheet apps help you stay compliant with federal, state, and local regulations. Most automatically identify overtime hours, and some retain timesheet records indefinitely.
- Create more accurate invoices: For client-based projects, timesheet apps capture work hours down to the second, ensuring all billable time is accounted for.
- Improve budgeting and estimates: Tracking time on tasks and projects helps you better understand completion timelines, allowing for more accurate budgeting and future project estimates.
- Reduce labor costs: Most timesheet apps have features that prevent time theft and unplanned hours, which helps lower your overall labor expenses. Plus, employees can clock in and out from anywhere using a computer or mobile device, eliminating the need to come to the office to clock in/out.
Important timesheet app features to look for
The specific features you’ll want to look for will depend on how you run your business and what problems you’re trying to solve. However, there are some must-have features that every business needs to make sure that their timesheet app provides:
- Automatic timesheets: The apps that will save you the most time and prevent the most payroll errors are those that compile timesheets for you and automatically calculate total regular and overtime hours per employee.
- Time card editing: You’ll want to be able to edit timesheets in the case of missed punches, but you may also want to look for options like duration entry for salaried employees who need to log their hours but don’t actually need to clock in and out.
- Historical time card reports: Staying compliant with federal laws means keeping historical records of employees’ timesheets. You should be aware that some of the free timesheet apps will not let you download timesheet reports or access historical data.
- Payroll transfer: At the very least, you should be able to download reports you can send to your payroll provider. However, you’ll ideally want a solution that integrates with your payroll provider so your timesheet data can be transferred to payroll automatically.
- Multiple options for clocking in/out: If your employees work in the field, look for options with mobile apps. If employees don’t have their own email addresses, look for apps that don’t require unique emails. If they work in places where phone/internet service isn’t available, look for options with offline access.
Consider these the baseline features to expect from even the most basic timesheet apps. Then, you can start to consider the more advanced features you might need, such as GPS tracking, URL monitoring, facial recognition, and automatic time tracking.
The 10 best timesheet apps for multiple employees
Below, you’ll find our picks for the 10 best timesheet apps for multiple employees. We tested and researched each of the apps in depth to provide you with detailed reviews, feature lists, and pricing for each app so you can easily find the one that’s perfect for your business.
1. Buddy Punch
Best overall timesheet app for multiple employees.
Buddy Punch is an easy to use and affordable timesheet app that helps you simplify time, attendance, and PTO tracking, streamline your payroll processes, and keep your employees accountable. Employees can access it to clock in and out using a computer or mobile phone, or you can download the app onto an iOS or Android tablet to create a shared time clock kiosk.
Setting up Buddy Punch is an intuitive experience that takes just a few clicks. You can add your employees manually one by one, or you can take advantage of its bulk uploading option: just add your employee data to a CSV template that Buddy Punch provides, and they’ll create your employees in the system for you.
Another great thing about Buddy Punch is that your employees do not have to have their own email addresses to access the platform. Simply create a username and password for each of your employees, and they’ll be able to use that info to log in. If you’re using the system as a kiosk, you can also create unique PINs for employees or have them clock in/out using facial recognition.
Key features
Buddy Punch comes with multiple features that help you increase employee accountability, streamline payroll, and simplify scheduling:
- GPS tracking: Whenever one of your employees punches in/out, Buddy Punch logs their location on their timesheet. You can review this data to make sure they were at work when clocking in and out. Real-time GPS tracking is also available; it tracks employees’ locations throughout the workday.
- Geofencing: When this feature is active, your team will only be able to clock in or out when they’re on-site. You simply enter an address in Buddy Punch and choose the size of the radius. If someone tries to punch when outside of the radius, the app will block the action and show them an error message.
- Photo clock-ins: This feature requires employees to take a selfie when clocking in and out. Selfies are added to employees’ timesheets and can be reviewed to ensure no one was buddy punching.
- Facial recognition: Facial recognition (available on iPad and iPhone devices only) can also be used to prevent buddy punching by blocking employees from clocking in/out if the app can’t identify them. It’s also helpful for speeding up lines for clocking in/out at a kiosk since employees don’t have to spend time manually entering usernames and passwords or PINs.
- Payroll integrations: Buddy Punch integrates with almost every popular payroll provider, including QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Paychex, Workday, and more, meaning you can send all your payroll data to your existing payroll system effortlessly.
- Payroll reports: If Buddy Punch doesn’t integrate with your payroll provider, you can download an Excel or CSV file showing time worked per employee, time off, and more.
- Time off tracking: Buddy Punch automatically calculates PTO accruals and balances based on the rules you set. Employees can request time off using the app, and if it’s approved, that time off is automatically added to timesheets for the days when the benefit was used.
- Job costing and project tracking: Create different job, department, or location codes that your team can clock into and out of. This lets you generate reports showing labor hours by project, job, location — anything you need to track separately from total labor hours.
- Employee scheduling: Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop scheduling tool lets you easily create work schedules for your employees. You can create recurring shifts and assign employees to specific roles or locations. Plus, employees can enter their availability and request shift trades and covers in the app.
These are just some of the app’s most popular features. You can view all of Buddy Punch’s features here.
Customer reviews
Buddy Punch has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars across more than 1,000 customer reviews on Capterra. Here’s what a few customers love about the platform:
- “Buddy Punch is super easy to use and has all the features one needs to have an efficient time tracking system. The customer service is top tier, and the reps are incredibly knowledgeable. It is affordable, even for a small business. I’ve recommended Buddy Punch to others, and they love it.”
- “The time tracking part of the app is easy to use and was integrated fairly rapidly for staff. I especially like the report systems which include detailed reports breaking down time to the minute for full transparency. Time card approval and tracking PTO along with scheduling PTO is clear and easy to do. This system has made payroll so much easier overall.”
- “We needed a new solution for timekeeping ,and Buddy Punch came through! Onboarding and integration was so easy. It’s really easy to customize to exactly what you need. Employees love using it because it’s so straightforward to use.”
Pricing
Buddy Punch offers a 14-day free trial — no credit card required. Pricing starts at $4.49/user per month plus a $19/month base fee (that includes all admin users) for time, PTO, and GPS tracking. Employee scheduling and geofencing are available starting at $5.99/user per month.
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2. QuickBooks Time
Best for companies already using other Intuit products.
QuickBooks Time is a great option if your organization relies heavily on other Intuit products like QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Payroll. The app lets you easily share data between Intuit applications — no separate integration is required.
In addition to timesheets, QuickBooks Time offers GPS and mileage tracking. This can be helpful if you have traveling employees. Instead of having to check odometers constantly, you can simply set the system up to reimburse employee for miles traveled and recorded in the app.
Another helpful feature you’ll find in the app is automatic clock-ins and outs based on an employee’s location. If you set up geofences, you can have the system automatically clock an employee in when they get inside of the geofence and automatically clock them out when they leave the geofence.
Finally, QuickBooks Time’s API allows you to make quick, bulk changes to your data — adding or deleting employees, geofences, locations, job codes, and more. This is a great benefit for large companies.
Key features
- Mileage tracking
- Robust API
- Automatic time tracking
- Clock in and out reminders
- Team activity feed for sharing progress
Pros
- Integrates seamlessly with other Intuit products like QuickBooks Online and Payroll
- Track employee drive times and work times separately, which can be helpful for home service businesses where clients are only billed for time spent on-site
Cons
- Pricier than many other apps with the same features
- Must have a QuickBooks Online subscription to use it
Pricing
QuickBooks Time does not offer free trials or demos. For the first three months of your subscription, QuickBooks Time’s base plan is $8/user per month plus a $10/month base fee. After that initial discount, the base monthly fee increases to $20/month.
3. Timely
Best timesheet app for agencies.
If you run an agency or consulting business where you have employees working on tasks for multiple clients over the course of the week, Timely might be the right option for you. Its time-tracking app captures every second of your employees’ work days, ensuring no billable time goes unbilled.
While Timely excels in automatic tracking, it also supports manual time entries. Employees can track time by project, client, or task, and the platform automatically prompts employees to complete their timesheets when needed.
The platform also supports billing and invoicing so you can quickly create invoices based on the hours your employees spent on client work. Finally, it integrates with a wide range of tools that agencies use daily, including Asana, GitHub, QuickBooks, Gmail, Office 365, Photoshop, Salesforce, and Stripe.
Key features
- AI-driven automatic time tracking
- Activity history
- Project budgeting and timelines
- Team capacity reports
- Productivity trends reports
Pros
- Features an anti-surveillance message, which can reassure employees of their privacy
- Features both automatic time tracking and automatic scheduling
Cons
- Customers report that it has a very steep learning curve for its users
- Doesn’t have an app available for Android devices
Pricing
Timely offers a free trial of its product. Its pricing starts at $9/user per month for a max of five users and 20 projects. To get access to its integrations with other project management tools, you’ll need to be on the $16/user/month Premium plan.
4. ADP Workforce Now
Best timesheet app with biometric identification.
If you’re looking for a timesheet app for an enterprise company and need advanced biometric login features like facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, or voice recognition, ADP is worth considering.
ADP is one of the only tools on this list that offers biometric features natively — most others only offer facial recognition, and even at that, it’s usually done via integration with another app. Additionally, employees can use their ID badges to clock in and out on compatible ADP devices.
Other ADP time clock features include GPS tracking and geofencing, employee scheduling, and overtime calculations. The platform also integrates seamlessly with ADP’s payroll services for efficient payroll processing.
Key features
- Mobile apps and kiosks
- Face and fingerprint recognition
- Location tracking
- Employee scheduling
- Real-time cost predictions
Pros
- Integrates quickly with ADP’s other services
- Offers multiple features that streamline scheduling and make predictions for you
Cons
- No accessible pricing, making it difficult to compare potential costs at a glance
- Mostly catered to large businesses
Pricing
No public pricing is available for ADP; you have to talk to someone on their team to get a quote.
5. Hubstaff
Best timesheet app for healthcare companies.
Hubstaff is the most feature-rich of all of the timesheet apps on this list. With it, you get accountability features like GPS tracking and geofencing, payroll integrations with major accounting software, and productivity tracking features like idle detection and keyboard/mouse activity monitoring.
Hubstaff’s time clock includes automatic time tracking, which starts and stops based on computer activity, eliminating the need for manual clock-ins. It also supports project-based time tracking, allowing employees to allocate their billable hours to specific projects or tasks.
This makes Hubstaff usable by any type of company — its features will cover you if you manage field workers or remote workers and if your team works on projects for your business or for your clients.
However, where Hubstaff really stands out is that it’s one of the few time-tracking tools that has a HIPAA-compliance feature. This makes it a more compelling option for employers in the healthcare industry who may have timecard entries that include protected patient data.
Key features
- Time and productivity tracking
- HIPAA compliance
- Employee scheduling
- Payroll
- Billing and invoicing
Pros
- Has employee accountability features for all types of work models (on-site, off-site, fully remote, etc.)
- Easy to use and has good customer service
Cons
- The plan with HIPAA-compliance is far pricier than most of the other tools on this list
- No offline mode for workers without an internet or data connection
Pricing
Hubstaff offers a free 14-day trial. Its basic plan start at $4.99/seat per month with a two-seat minimum. To get access to its HIPAA compliance features, you’ll have to be on the $25/seat per month Enterprise plan.
Want to learn more about Hubstaff? Read our detailed Hubstaff review.
6. Insightful
Best timesheet app for fully remote companies.
If most or all of your employees do knowledge work from home, Insightful is a great time-tracking platform to consider. It’s built around time and productivity tracking, allowing you to see what employees are working on and when they’re wasting time — as well as compare your performance to benchmarks from other companies like yours.
The platform captures real-time data on workers’ activities, including active and idle times, applications used, and websites visited so you can see how employees spend their time and identify potential productivity issues.
As far as its time clock, employees can track time manually or automatically, and they can allocate their hours to specific projects and tasks. Managers and administrators can also create custom rules to dictate what specific activities are tracked for each employee.
Key features
- Time and productivity tracking
- Focus tracking
- Productivity analytics
- Productivity dashboards
- Benchmarks
Pros
- Automatically track time and attach it to projects
- Measure productivity of remote employees
- Great customer support
Cons
- Tracking features must be applied to everyone rather than setting them up for individuals
- No mobile application
Pricing
Insightful offers a free trial of its product — no credit card required. Customers get all of its time clock and productivity features on its Productivity Management plan, which starts at $6.40/seat per month.
7. Hellotracks
Best timesheet app for logistics companies.
Hellotracks is specifically built for logistics, delivery, and transportation companies. It not only tracks employee time, it also tracks their location in real-time on a map, capturing employees’ routes across their entire shifts and logging exactly when they arrive at and leave locations.
Where some of the other apps on this list offer employee scheduling tools, Hellotracks takes things a step further with route scheduling and dispatching. You can create routes for your employees, ensure they’re optimized, and then send them to employees. Employees then use the Hellotracks app to guide them on their routes.
Additionally, the app can collect signatures from customers when deliveries are completed, consolidating all of your data into a single platform.
Key features
- Real-time GPS tracking
- Route scheduling and dispatching
- Route optimization
- Geofencing
Pros
- Eliminates paperwork and streamlines data collection with digital forms
- Dispatching and route optimization are simple
Cons
- Lacks certain advanced features found in other fleet management software
- Not very customizable
Pricing
Hellotracks does not offer a free trial of its product. Its base plan starts at $10 per user per month and includes real-time GPS location tracking, geofencing, on-site time recording, and unlimited location history.
8. LawBillity
Best timesheet app for law firms.
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 it shines is with its features that are built specifically 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.
Key features
- Realization reports
- ABA codes
- Legal invoicing format
- Trust accounts
- Conflict checker
Pros
- Quickly provide monthly accrual estimates to clients
- Memorized reports feature speeds up month-end and billing processes
Cons
- Can be difficult to learn how to use
- No integration with Microsoft Outlook
- Specific features and reports can be difficult to find and navigate to
Pricing
LawBillity offers a free trial of its product. Its plans start at $30/user per month and include all of its basic time tracking and lawyer-specific features.
9. Hour Timesheet
Best timesheet app for government contractors.
Hour Timesheet is a great time-tracking app if your company often works on government or defense contracts. It provides a detailed audit trail of all timesheet entries, including usernames, IP addresses, and date and time stamps. Charge codes can be limited to only the employees approved to work on them.
Automated timesheet reminders make sure everyone remembers to record their time daily, and users can track time for both billable and non-billable tasks. Employees and managers can both sign submitted timesheets.
Finally, supervisors and admins receive alerts when timesheets are edited, and the person editing the timesheet must provide a reason why it was edited.
Key features
- Audit trail of timesheet entries
- Track non-billable time
- Required “reason late” entries
- Timesheet correction process
Pros
- Easy to use with good documentation
- QuickBooks integration works well
- Great DCAA-compliant features
Cons
- The system has occasional glitches and outages
- Reports are slow to load
- Features can be difficult to find in the interface
Pricing
Hour Timesheet offers a 30-day free trial of its product. It has only one plan, which is $8 per user per month and includes all of its DCAA compliance features.
10. BigTime
Best timesheet app for professional services companies.
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; and identify who on your team is available to work on new projects.
On BigTime’s higher-cost plans, there are also features that allow you to adhere to FAR and DCAA compliance, track expenses and send invoices in multiple currencies, and set up multi-level approval workflows.
Key features
- Resource management
- Project management
- Invoicing
- Performance modeling
Pros
- Easy to use and very intuitive
- Seamless QuickBooks Online integration
- Great customer support
Cons
- Occasionally glitchy
- Some features are released as standalone products that require additional costs
Pricing
BigTime offers a free trial of its product. Its plans start at $20 per user per month and include time tracking, expense management, and project management features.
Choosing the right timesheet app for your business
The key to choosing the right timesheet app is finding an option that has the features you need at a price you can afford. However, that is easier said than done. Here are some tips on how to make the right choice:
- Separate features into a list of must-haves and nice-to-haves. In general, the more features you want, the more you’ll pay. Understanding what you absolutely need and what you’d like to have but can live without is a good way to shop on a budget and keep costs low.
- Make sure you fully understand what you’ll have to pay for the features you need. Pricing pages can be deceptive, and apps sometimes drop users into the most feature-rich plan for their free trials. It’s important to take extra time to validate that you will get the features you need at the price you’re expecting to pay.
- Take free trials of the apps you’re considering. Consider bringing in someone else to help you test the app as well. There’s no better way to determine if the app you’re considering will work for you than to actually try to make it work for you.
- Request a demo even if you don’t think you need one. Salespeople often know their apps better than anyone else at the company and will be able to help you answer any questions that you couldn’t find the answers to on your own.
- Test their support. You’ll want to make sure that someone will be there to help you if you run into issues. Send the provider’s support team a request to see how long it takes them to get back to you and if the answer is helpful. You don’t want to be on a payroll deadline waiting for a support team that takes ages to respond.
Finally, it can be helpful to read customer reviews of the apps you’re considering or ask people in your network if they have any experience with them. This may help you uncover issues you wouldn’t think about considering during an evaluation period.
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