Accurately tracking time is critical for construction companies to maintain payroll compliance, optimize job costing and ensure profitability.
With increased reliance on hourly and contract workers, having an automated time-tracking solution has become a must-have for construction firms. ExakTime and Workpuls are two leading options for tracking time and employee productivity, but how do you know which is the best fit?
What is Time Tracking Software?
Time-tracking software has revolutionized the way businesses manage and monitor employee working hours. This innovative technology offers automated solutions for the collection, processing and analysis of work hours, eliminating the need for cumbersome manual timesheets. Employees can easily clock in and out using a variety of convenient methods, including mobile apps, web portals or onsite company computers.
For construction businesses, time-tracking software presents numerous advantages. It provides real-time visibility into working hours, ensuring that supervisors and project managers can engage in effective employee monitoring and resource allocation. The accuracy of time records is greatly improved, reducing errors and potential disputes.
Payroll integration streamlines the compensation process, making it more efficient and error-free. Job costing becomes more precise, aiding in budget and project management. Reporting capabilities offer insights into individual and group productivity and project timelines. Compliance with labor laws and industry regulations is enhanced, reducing the risk of legal issues. Moreover, accountability is improved as employees are more aware of their work time spent and responsibilities.
Making the switch to automated time tracking not only enhances operational efficiency but also yields substantial time savings for construction firms. This technology is an intelligent investment in an industry that is constantly evolving and demands greater competitiveness. Embracing time-tracking software is a key step toward staying ahead in the construction business.
The Importance of Time Tracking Software for Construction
Managing time within the construction industry presents distinct challenges. Construction sites are often distributed across numerous and frequently changing locations, with remote workers organized into field crews reporting to multiple supervisors.
In the absence of automated software, many construction companies resort to conventional methods such as paper timesheets, Excel spreadsheets or disjointed systems. These approaches lead to a range of issues including time theft, with problems like “buddy punching,” exaggerated hours and extended breaks; payroll errors due to manual calculations and data entry; non-compliance challenges in tracking breaks, overtime and certified wages; job costing errors in pinpointing hours to specific projects and tasks; and reporting difficulties when generating real-time productivity reports for analysis.
These challenges not only incur hidden costs but also expose construction firms to liability risks. Purpose-built time-tracking and employee monitoring software systems customized for the construction industry offer comprehensive solutions. They include accurate GPS tracking of field remote workers clocking in from job sites, photo verification to deter “buddy punching,” real-time visibility into working hours, automated synchronization of hours worked with payroll calculators and the ability to generate custom productivity reports on any project or job metric.
Implementing robust employee monitoring systems tailored to construction workflows not only saves money but also delivers valuable data insights on employee performance, empowering businesses to make more informed decisions.
ExakTime Review
ExakTime is the leading end-to-end construction employee monitoring management platform engineered over the past two decades exclusively to meet contractors’ specialized needs.
The solution transforms cumbersome manual time-tracking and employee monitoring processes into fully automated and optimized workflows for field teams and back-office administrators alike. Robust mobile functionality with advanced GPS stamping provides air-tight validation of worker location upon clock in/out. Photo verification confirms identities and prevents buddy-punching fraud. Custom productivity delivers real-time insights needed for payroll, job costing, certification compliance and more.
Pre-built integrations eliminate manual data transfer to payroll providers. Prevailing wage management tools cooperate with certified payroll calculators and reports in a contractor-friendly way. Equipment and asset tracking tie usage directly to projects and workers. Automated notifications and alerts provide real-time communications for overtime, expirations, employee productivity and more.
By combining deep construction-specific DNA with an intuitive design optimized for ease of use, ExakTime drives rapid user adoption at all levels. The employee monitoring software is tailored to each organization’s structures, workflows and requirements through flexible configuration — no forcing constraints of generic systems. Thoughtful features specific to construction pain points make time tracking straightforward while providing data-driven insights for competitive advantages.
ExakTime’s exclusive industry focus translates to out-of-the-box capabilities mapping to construction realities. Companies avoid the challenges of customizing generic platforms to try to match their needs. ExakTime bakes in prevailing wage, union rules, contractor compliance demands, equipment tying, job costing, dynamic locations, scheduling software and more without add-ons.
With over two decades dedicated solely to perfecting construction workforce management, ExakTime is the proven choice for heavy civil, commercial, industrial and specialty contractors seeking all-in-one time tracking software purpose-built for their unique needs. Top-rated customer support and implementation advisory services ensure successful deployment and lasting value.
Workpuls Review
Workpuls offers a general time-tracking and employee monitoring platform with some capabilities tailored for construction and field service.
Key features of Workpuls include web and mobile apps for clock in/out, basic GPS and geofencing options, scheduling software modules, the ability to review and approve timesheets, pre-built connectors to some major payroll systems and standard employee productivity reports.
However, Workpuls lacks many advanced features optimized specifically for the construction industry’s unique needs. As a generic software, Workpuls requires significant configuration to adapt it to construction workflows. Much of the purpose-built functionality contractors rely on would need to be built on top of the base system.
Differences in Key Features
When it comes to optimizing time tracking for the construction industry, ExakTime and Workpuls take divergent approaches. ExakTime is purpose-built to solve the unique challenges contractors face, while Workpuls offers more generic software requiring heavy configuration. Their differences span across industry specialization, features, ease of use and support.
Industry Focus
ExakTime is exclusively designed from the ground up for construction, field services and related industries. Unlike Workpuls’s generic approach requiring customization, every facet of ExakTime is tailored natively to address contractors’ realities. ExakTime bakes in specialized considerations for construction workflows, organizational structures, job site environments, compliance demands, equipment needs, cost tracking, data insights and more.
With in-depth industry expertise woven throughout the platform, ExakTime delivers targeted employee monitoring capabilities purpose-built for construction. Companies avoid the challenges of retrofitting software to try to match their needs. ExakTime’s construction DNA means out-of-the-box mapping to specialized requirements right away.
Features
ExakTime offers complete functionality to power construction time-tracking. Robust mobile apps with advanced features like geo-tracking, equipment tying, certified payroll, customizable alerts and job costing yield unparalleled insights into individual and group productivity. Workpuls lacks many of these purpose-built advantages that ExakTime delivers standard. For Workpuls, core construction capabilities would need to be configured or bolted on separately.
Ease of Use
For user experience, ExakTime shines with intuitive interfaces tailored to field and office personnel. Simplified data entry and navigation help crews clock in/out from job sites with no learning curve. Workpuls offers more generic scheduling software tools that can be cumbersome for construction teams. ExakTime’s exclusive construction focus and usability principles translate to adoption and utilization advantages.
Customer Support
For customer success, ExakTime offersspecialized onboarding experts who excel at construction deployments. Their hands-on approach with ongoing training ensures organizations become power users. Workpuls has more passive self-service resources that leave knowledge gaps. ExakTime’s unrivaled customer support capabilities enable customers to maximize their return on investment long-term.
Choosing the Right Time Tracking Solution
Choosing the right software to track time is a highly strategic decision for construction firms, impacting compliance, costs, employee productivity and competitiveness. The solution must map intricately to the organization’s unique structures, workflows, objectives and pain points. Careful evaluation across crucial dimensions is imperative:
Industry Specialization
Construction has profound complexities; only purpose-built solutions can address them out of the box. Generic employee monitoring platforms and project management software require heavy customization and lack specialized functionality. Domain expertise embeds tailored capabilities for certified payroll, dynamic multi-site tracking, equipment/asset tying, job costing, scheduling and more.
Configurability
The system must model the organization’s specific hierarchies, payroll rules, union considerations, workflows, compliance requirements, reporting needs and downstream integrations through flexible configuration. One-size-fits-all platforms force contractors into suboptimal constraints.
User Experience
Intuitive, simplified interfaces are essential for rapid adoption across all stakeholders. Field teams require optimized mobile apps facilitating easy clock in/out from changing sites. Manager portals should surface key data quickly without hunting.
Data Integrations
Tight integrations with payroll, accounting, HRIS, scheduling, compliance and other production systems are mandatory. APIs enable connecting future systems. Disjointed platforms with loose couplings miss critical data exchanges.
Reporting and Analytics
Robust, real-time reporting and dashboard visualizations are essential to unlock actionable insights that empower optimized decision-making. Prioritize solutions that move beyond basic templates to offer flexible reporting customization and construction-specific metrics like job costing, schedule adherence, overtime, equipment utilization,, and more.
Generic pre-built reports often leave blindspots in the data. Purpose-built reporting gives construction executives and managers the timely insights they need to monitor business health, productivity, risks and opportunities. Lacking tailored analytics and visibility creates challenges in blindly optimizing crews, assets, schedules, budgets and other drivers of profitability and growth.
Implementation and Customer Support
Look for advisory onboarding, user training, go-live assistance and responsive ongoing customer support services. DIY and passive resources lead to capability gaps across roles compromising compliance and ROI. Expert guidance ensures proficiency.
Compliance
Robust compliance functionality must be embedded within the time-tracking system to help construction firms effortlessly meet labor regulations. This includes capabilities to track prevailing wages, automate certified payroll, monitor overtime, manage meal breaks, scheduling and more. Manual compliance is prone to errors that carry massive financial and legal liability risks. Choosing project management software that integrates compliance management avoids these hazards while saving administrative efforts and costs.
Budget
When evaluating affordability, it is critical to weigh costs against the tangible value delivered across stakeholders over the full solution lifespan. Simply seeking the cheapest employee time tracking software cost can be short-sighted. Quantify the operational improvements, administrative cost reductions and compliance risk mitigations enabled by the technology capabilities. This full analysis ensures the budget aligns to generate maximum ROI immediately and over the long term.
Scalability
As construction firms and projects scale over time, the time tracking solution must be able to expand flexibly as well. Rigid limitations on data volumes, number of users, job site locations or other dimensions will create future constraints.
The system needs to offer growth capabilities to match the organization’s evolving needs and trajectories. This enables consolidating real-time workforce information across the enterprise for unified visibility as the business grows. Choosing technology that scales avoids major upgrades or changes down the road.
Security
Rigorously vet solutions to ensure they meet the most stringent security standards to fully protect sensitive payroll information, PII and other private data. Ask detailed questions about encryption methods, granular access controls, data redundancy, compliance certifications, vulnerability testing and other security measures taken. Never compromise when it comes to your critical data protection.
Following a structured selection process focusing on these critical dimensions enables construction firms to identify the ideal time tracking software for current and future needs.
Why ExakTime Is the Best Time-Tracking Solution
When it comes to navigating the complexities of time tracking for the construction industry, ExakTime proves to be the superior choice.
By combining exclusive construction industry focus with advanced yet intuitive capabilities, seamless integrations and stellar customer support, ExakTime delivers unmatched value. We provide field and office teams with an optimized user experience that drives adoption and utilization.
There is a reason thousands of construction organizations trust ExakTime as their all-in-one time tracking solution. Get started with our solution today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of integrations does ExakTime support?
ExakTime offers seamless real-time integrations with many leading payroll providers including ADP, Sage, Acumatica, Foundation and more. This enables the automatic transfer of hourly data and other workforce information to simplify your workflows. Can you use ExakTime for time tracking on multiple job sites?
Absolutely. One of ExakTime’s strongest advantages is its ability to handle time tracking across an unlimited number of job sites and crews in a centralized dashboard. You maintain complete real-time visibility into workforce hours across your entire organization. ExakTime’s robust functionality was designed for construction’s dynamic multi-location needs.
Does ExakTime track employee location?
Yes, ExakTime leverages GPS location tracking in multiple ways to validate clock-in and clock-out at the appropriate job sites and geo-fenced areas. All clock transactions are stamped with the GPS coordinates, providing site-level data. Location tracking gives managers confirmation that field teams are at the right project location. Location data feeds into payroll rules, custom alerts based on geo-fencing and reporting on a site-specific basis.
