Accurately tracking employee time and attendance is crucial for all businesses, but especially critical in field service and construction. In these industries, where workers are spread across multiple job sites and projects have complex labor requirements, precise time tracking directly impacts project profitability, compliance and operational efficiency. Choosing the right time tracking system can strengthen compliance, productivity, cost accuracy and more.

Construction companies face unique challenges that generic time tracking solutions often can’t address. From managing prevailing wage requirements to tracking equipment usage and handling certified payroll, construction businesses need specialized tools designed for their industry-specific needs. The right system should not only track hours but also provide insights that help manage labor costs, improve project estimation and ensure regulatory compliance.

Let’s examine Homebase and Arcoro’s ExakTime, two of the top solutions for managing hourly workforces. By evaluating their features, technology, integrations, capabilities and construction-specific tools, you’ll understand which solution best meets field service time tracking needs.

What is Included in Time-Tracking Software?

Time-tracking software contains a suite of tools to record and analyze employee work hours. At its core, it replaces manual timecards and processes with automated tracking of clock-ins, clock-outs, breaks and overtime.

Robust solutions move far beyond just digital punch clocks to also provide verification of attendance, integration with payroll, job costing analytics, compliance features and reporting.

Key elements included in time tracking systems are mobile apps, geolocation manager dashboards and configuration of rules like overtime and rounding policies. Mobile apps allow employees to conveniently clock in and out from their smartphone, even offline, when out of service areas. Built-in GPS tracks location to validate attendance and show work patterns.

Manager dashboards provide real-time visibility into who is currently clocked in, along with timesheet approvals, editing exceptions and access to reporting.

Software is configurable to properly calculate overtime, meal deductions, rounded hours and adhere to complex union policies. Regional tax rules can be applied. Reporting offers insights into overtime alerts, individual productivity, job costing, schedule adherence and more. These can be exported or accessed on the go through tablets and smartphones.

Integrations with payroll, accounting, HRIS and other back-end systems allow sharing of hours worked and job details. This eliminates duplicate data entry and reconciliation.

By automating time tracking and tying it to verification, analytics and systems integrations, modern software provides accurate real-time workforce management.

Understanding Employee Time Tracking in Field Service Industries

Before diving into the comparison, let’s recap the importance of automated employee time tracking:

  • Eliminates Manual Processes: Apps and cloud clocks replace inefficient paper timesheets, spreadsheets, whiteboards and manual calculations.
  • Improves Payroll Accuracy: Connected systems mean payroll has accurate hour totals and job details, preventing errors. This helps alleviate the burden on human resources departments, too.
  • Increases Productivity: By tying hours to projects and tasks, management gains visibility into production rates, bottlenecks and efficiencies.
  • Enhances Compliance: Advanced tracking provides audit trails and data needed for prevailing wage, certified payroll, overtime rules, rest breaks and other regulations.
  • Deters Time Theft: Biometric validation, geofencing and more cut down on falsified hours, buddy punching and rounding errors.
  • Provides Data Insights: Reporting empowers better staffing decisions, identifies training needs and helps plan job costing.
  • Facilitates Better Field Ops: Tools like equipment logging, route tracking, time-on-site monitoring, schedule syncing and more coordinate techs.

For the construction and field service sectors specifically, digital time tracking delivers even more advantages:

  • Accurate Job Costing: Tying labor to cost codes lets you derive precise costs for materials, subcontractors, equipment and overheads on projects.
  • Optimized Job Scheduling: Understanding exact job durations, travel times and employee efficiencies allows smarter scheduling.
  • Productivity Benchmarking: Historical performance data helps set targets for tasks, crews and project phases to identify issues sooner.
  • Enhanced Logistics Monitoring: GPS tracking provides visibility into vehicle routes, arrival/departure times, mileage, fuel usage and more.
  • Lone Worker Safety: Features like man-down alarms, check-ins and geofences around dangerous areas help protect isolated staff.
  • Linking Back-office Data: Connect customer information, service histories, warranties and more from CRM and ERP systems for an integrated view.

Clearly, for field service and construction, time tracking is far more than just digital punch clocks. When capabilities align with industry needs, it becomes an invaluable management platform. Now, let’s explore a comparison between ExakTime and Homebase.

Ready to see how ExakTime’s construction-specific time tracking can benefit your business? Schedule a demo today.

ExakTime Review

ExakTime is a time and attendance software specifically designed for construction industry requirements. With decades of experience in refining time tracking solutions for field service teams, every feature of ExakTime is carefully tailored to meet the needs of this industry.

Here are some of the core capabilities ExakTime offers:

  • Mobile and Web Clocking: Employees can punch in/out via GPS-enabled smartphone apps with offline access.
  • Rugged Timeclock Terminals: Rugged time clocks provide an all-weather electronic in/out station at the job site or office.
  • Biometric Facial Detection: FaceFront requires a selfie photo during punch-in to validate employee identity against a stored profile, preventing buddy punching.
  • Geofence Validation: Managers are notified if clock-ins occur outside predetermined geo-boundaries like job sites.
  • GPS Location Tracking: Mobile clocks log GPS breadcrumbs showing employee movements and time on location without additional fees.
  • US-based Support: Get US-based phone, email, chat and screen share support instead of outsourced assistance.

Want to experience ExakTime’s construction-focused features firsthand? Let our team show you how ExakTime can streamline your workforce management.

Homebase Review

Homebase is a web and mobile workforce management platform for hourly employees. Their core features include time clocks where employees can punch in and out via Homebase’s mobile app, online employee scheduling and automated online timesheets. Homebase does not have industry-specific features as it serves many different types of businesses.

ExakTime vs. Homebase: A Comparison

When evaluating time tracking solutions for construction and field service businesses, it’s crucial to understand how different platforms meet industry-specific needs. While both ExakTime and Homebase offer time tracking capabilities, their approaches and specializations differ significantly. Construction companies require features that go beyond basic time clock functions, from handling complex job costing to managing multiple job sites and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.

In this comparison, we’ll examine how each solution addresses the unique challenges of construction workforce management. 

Features and Functionalities

When looking at features and functionality, significant differences emerge between ExakTime and Homebase.

ExakTime offers a wide array of capabilities purpose-built for field service and construction needs. These include job costing with cost codes, equipment and asset tracking, mileage logging, advanced shift scheduling optimization, prevailing wage tracking, certified payroll reporting, union reports, geofencing, detailed GPS tracking and custom questionnaires like safety inspections. The system is available in both Spanish and French.

Having these construction-focused features allows ExakTime to provide accurate job cost insights, oversight of field logistics and support for compliance requirements like certified payroll and union rules – critical capabilities contractors require.

In contrast, Homebase provides more basic time tracking features like GPS tracking, group messaging, payroll integration, multiple language support and order management. While these meet general workforce management needs, Homebase lacks specialized solutions for construction requirements. Their focus is usability across hourly work environments rather than field service support.

ExakTime dedicates development to advanced field service and construction-specific capabilities, which gives the system an advantage in meeting the complex needs of contractors and field services.

Businesses Served

Differences also emerge when examining the industries ExakTime and Homebase serve. ExakTime is purpose-built for construction and field service teams and integrates with leading construction software. It’s also designed for scalability and for enterprise businesses, ExakTime boasts easy integration with your enterprise software stack. On the other hand, Homebase serves a range of industries (healthcare, retail, etc.) and therefore lacks the specialized features and pre-built integrations of ExakTime.

While Homebase serves some construction firms, it’s a generalist solution not tailored to address construction-specific challenges. This makes ExakTime a preferable choice for most contractors.

Advanced Technology

Examining the underlying time tracking technology of ExakTime and Homebase reveals additional distinctions:

ExakTime

  • Geofencing with notifications.
  • Continuous GPS tracking – not just punch in/out.
  • Location breadcrumbs within geofences.

Homebase

  • Photos for facial matching – no AI recognition.
  • Mobile phone GPS tracking only.
  • Basic GPS tracking – no geofencing.
  • Tracking only during punch in/out.

ExakTime invests in advanced field tracking technologies that increase accuracy, like geofencing alerts and continuous GPS monitoring. Customizable questionnaires can be used to gather important data from the field, like site conditions, safety concerns or incidents. This robust technology helps ExakTime better serve the construction industry with features that offer insight like never before.

Main Considerations Before Purchasing Time Tracking Software

With these differences in mind, it’s important to take your time before choosing a time tracking software. A time tracking platform impacts your workforce management processes, compliance, costs accuracy and field oversight. When evaluating solutions, here are crucial considerations for field service and construction businesses:

  • Mobile access is key so employees can clock in and out easily from any device, even without connectivity using offline modes. The software should offer GPS location tracking, native iOS and Android apps and multi-language support.
  • Look for robust verification features like geofencing, continuous GPS tracking during shifts and audit trails. These validate identity, attendance and prevent falsified punches. System logic should also flag improbable time entries.
  • Demand powerful reporting that offers both pre-built reports and advanced analytics for powerful workforce and jobsite insights.
  • Ensure comprehensive compliance capabilities like prevailing wage rates, certified payroll, union deductions, labor law postings, tax settings, rounding policies and mandated break tracking.
  • Evaluate ecosystem integration with leading accounting software, construction solutions, HRIS, payroll systems, CRM and scheduling tools via APIs.
  • Finally, choose a provider that offers US-based support, training programs, customer success guidance and service level agreements.

Thoroughly considering these elements will help you select time tracking software that best matches your workforce management needs and fuels field service productivity.

Why Choose ExakTime?

If you’re looking for time-tracking software for your field service business, look to ExakTime. Our innovative but easy-to-use system is designed specifically for construction and field service teams. Because our system was built by experts who understand the unique needs of these businesses, we deliver features that directly benefit your company. Our centralized solution ensures hours are accurate and allows managers to keep track of their team while generating reports for incredible insights.

With ExakTime, you’ll benefit from our system that goes beyond just tracking time. From implementation with payroll systems to rugged time clocks, we’ve got the tools you need to efficiently manage and grow your business. With our technology, you’ll free up valuable time you can use to better your company. Get started with ExakTime today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What industries typically use time tracking software?

Time tracking is used across many industries including construction, field services, healthcare, legal, consulting, retail, food services, manufacturing and more. Any business with an hourly workforce benefits.

What are some key features to look for in time tracking software?

Key features include mobile apps, GPS tracking, schedule management, reporting, payroll integrations, offline accessibility, custom fields, notifications and robust compliance handling.

How does time tracking software calculate overtime?

Premium solutions allow configuring overtime rules and rates according to labor regulations. Software automatically applies overtime rates once an employee exceeds defined thresholds based on hours worked in a day, week or pay period.