Let’s get right to it: time is money.
To save time is to save money, but as every field service business knows, getting the most out of you and your team’s available time is essential for a healthy business, satisfied customers and quality work.
This isn’t about taking shortcuts or rushing through jobs; it’s important to remember that different work processes necessary for your business can be improved. Digital tools and software have elevated and streamlined manual paperwork, and the tools we’re talking about today are apps.
Time-tracking apps will save you time, money and headaches and provide a range of tools anyone in your team can access.
Top Time-Tracking Apps for Electrical Pros in 2024
There are many options, so what is the best time-tracking app electrical businesses can use? We’ve compiled the best time-tracking apps for electrical experts and why we like them.
Each business will have its own needs and considerations, but every app on this list has something to offer. Later, we’ll discuss the key features any business will benefit from, but first, the apps!
ClockShark
Available on Web, iOS and Android
That’s us! ClockShark offers robust options and a streamlined user interface to provide the best time-tracking app electrical businesses can utilize.
Check your team with a real-time attendance list alongside their clock-in times so you can get the necessary information instantaneously. Send clock-in and clock-out reminders to team members when needed and reduce mistakes and inaccurate timesheets.
Want to know what employees are doing and where? With ClockShark’s novel ‘Who’s Working Now’ features, you can access the location of every team member on a dynamically generated map.
Received a new job or need a different crew member? Reschedule and pick the nearest employees for the job to streamline routes and travel times directly from the app.
Automatic time-tracking and GPS-verified timesheets combine to provide accurate hours and costs based on the schedule and locations of your crew.
Synchroteam
Available on iOS and Android
The next on our list of best time-tracking apps electrical teams can use, Synchroteam knows time is money and that electrical managers need the right tools to keep track of their technicians.
Managers can monitor the activities of technicians, from work time to breaks and traveling between jobs, with the app’s time-tracking module. The module includes a review mode for each technician for a set time/pay period, tracking of regular and overtime hours and total summaries to see the total costs.
On the technician’s side, team members can use the app to track their activity, clock in and out, update breaks and travel times and even include training hours. Different choices of configurations mean you can choose what your electrical field service business needs.
Procore
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
Procore’s app helps protect your margins by providing real-time labor costs and project progress, from one detailed dashboard. The app also offers several options for time-tracking, depending on the needs of your field service business. These include:
MyTime: personal clock-in and clock-out
Company Timecard: office staff time across projects
Project Timesheets: time for a worker or entire crew
These flexible options make it a solid pick for the best time-tracking app electrical field service businesses can try. It can be challenging to adapt to the options, but Procore also includes handy guides on its website.
Autodesk Construction Cloud
Available on desktop, iOS and Android
Autodesk’s electrical time-tracking app is designed for large projects and crews, with the intention of keeping everyone in the loop for every step of complex projects. This is the best time-tracking app electrical contractors and businesses can use to manage schedules, update/track their teams and connect to key stakeholders.
Autodesk uses simplified Gantt and list views to get information at a glance and allows separate workers to update progress with documents and photos.
Jobber
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
Want the best time-tracking app electrical teams can have for GPS-based location features? Jobber offers automatic time-tracking based on location, so your team members don’t need to clock in and out. Set a schedule and work locations, and let the app do the rest! Jobber’s time-tracking app updates the job and employee timesheet to reflect accurate working hours.
Jobber also syncs payroll with time-tracking data to create detailed timesheets for your business to review and approve so you can see the detailed costs of different jobs.
Houzz Pro
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android.
The best time-tracking app electrical businesses can try needs to have standout features. Houzz Pro offers a novel way to track time with its customizable stopwatch feature. Get start and finish times down to the second. Several stopwatches can be run simultaneously, so any team member can track multiple projects at once, taking the guesswork out of invoicing.
The app also offers an all-in-one dashboard to track who is at what project, with the ability to add billable hours and expenses directly from a phone.
Service Trade
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
Service Trade offers one of the best time-tracking apps electrical technicians can use for timecards. With one handy app, technicians can enter their hours, track travel, break, and work hours accurately and add additional reimbursements.
These timecards can be reviewed, updated and approved before being sent off, which means less room for mistakes and higher accuracy in true costs for each job. Service Trade allows the field service crew to do this on the go and check for issues before timesheets are sent to payroll. This can save time and headaches for the entire team.
Commusoft
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
The next on our list of best time-tracking apps for electrical field service businesses, Commusoft focuses on robust customization options and tools. Create unique schedules for each technician with real-time details and updates so you can schedule new jobs or make last-minute changes.
With technician tracking, see the status of your team in one dashboard. Simple icons and text show job acceptance, travel and when a technician is present. Get timely insights on how your schedules really work out, where team members have been, and time spent on each job. This information is saved in a complete work history for easy access and review.
ServiceM8
Available on iOS
ServiceM8 differs from some of the apps on this list as they offer basic options as part of their app and premium time-tracking add-ons in addition to their software suite. Their standard time-tracking option is location-based automatic timesheets based on location, time and jobs. These two add-ons provide more features similar to what other time-tracking apps offer.
Deputy: cloud-based add-on that simplifies scheduling, improves communication with customized posts, tracks team members’ performance and integrates payroll software to streamline the process.
Automated Timesheet Sync: automates staff timesheets to export to integrated accounting tools such as MYOB and Xero.
Having dedicated add-ons means your team knows where to find the tools, but it can become challenging if many different plugins are used.
Tradify
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
Tradify makes time-tracking simple with start and stop timers for each job. Workers can start and stop their activity straight from the app and have the information sent automatically to their timesheet. Manage invoices from any mobile device to send straight to customers, with color codes to show complete and incomplete invoices.
Track your crew’s time straight from the app, from work hours to breaks, and integrate with popular accounting tools to avoid double entries.
Workiz
Available on: web browsers, iOS and Android
Get time-tracking and real-time updates on when technicians start their job and the time taken on each job. With mobile apps, GPS enables location tracking for details on when and where a team member has clocked in or out.
What about dispatchers or managers? Each team member can manually clock in from the web app or mobile app and log hours from there. The web app also allows users to manually change times if a technician forgets to clock in or out, and approved users can add additional time.
BigChange
Available on: web browsers, iOS and Android
BigChange is a robust app with many time-tracking options for electrical businesses. Technicians and engineers can log start, stop and break times straight from the app, reflected in their personalized timesheet. Timesheets for each employee show job history, hours tracked and changes in work patterns.
BigChange makes generating timesheets easy with simple Excel exporting, and timesheet summaries and even integrates vehicle tracking to ensure accurate hours.
Fergus
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
Fergus offers a streamlined experience in their app, designed to be helpful at a glance for project insights. The app includes the ‘status board’: a color-coded dashboard to see the progress of key steps for each project, such as pricing, schedules and in-progress jobs. Prevent bottlenecks with this simple way to identify high-priority tasks and projects.
Fergus is the best time-tracking app electrical teams can try for a novel, simplified user interface. With job cards, track team progress in sections and easily add any variations to a job right from the app.
Knowify
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
Knowify makes the most of GPS with geo and time-tracking options in their electrical app.
Knowify’s geofencing feature allows your business to set job locations and send notifications if workers clock time outside of job areas.
For more insights, check the live map to see where each member of your field service team is. Get accurate time based on the project stage, alongside breaks and overtime.
Service Titan
Available on web browsers, iOS and Android
ServiceTitan’s time-tracking app for electricians combines flexibility and an easy user interface. From the app dashboard, see who is assigned to which job and track progress, hours and pay. Each job can be assigned a tag, such as ‘installation,’ to easily filter different types of jobs for review.
Technicians clock in and out on the go, straight from their phones, and have access to their timesheets for review and editing. Employees can sign off and approve their hours for each pay period, which is great for worker accountability and timesheet accuracy.
What makes the best time-tracking software for electrical teams?
This list is extensive, and each app on offer has its own strengths and features. It can be hard to decide the best time-tracking app electrical teams can use, especially with plenty of great options.
It’s important to remember the needs of your field service business, the size of your team and the complexity of projects. However, some features stand out and can transform the efficiency and productivity of your entire crew.
Instantaneous Tracking in Real-Time
GPS-tracking and location-based time-tracking have been around longer than you might think. With the GPS capabilities of modern cell phones, many of the best time-tracking apps for electrical teams now offer automatic/instantaneous tracking.
These insights into your team’s travel and work time can be invaluable in finding the true costs of each job and identifying areas that require streamlining or improved schedules.
Flexibility in Editing and Adding Time Entries
Times aren’t set in stone, especially for field service teams. Job averages are one thing, but all it takes is a simple change along the way, and a perfectly crafted schedule can be thrown into a loop. Clock-in and clock-out times will differ depending on customer needs and how projects progress.
When finding the best time-tracking app electrical teams adopt, flexibility is a vital feature so that any changes will be accurately reflected in the daily timesheet and job reports.
Advanced Reporting Capabilities
Every field service business relies upon transparent communication and documentation to ensure efficiency and quality, and electrical is no exception. Many time-tracking apps offer job-specific updates and notifications so your business can get insights into how a project is progressing.
Want more out of reports? Look for apps that offer additional features, such as photo and document uploads to any job at any time. Apps that include automatic tagging to uploaded photos can save your business time and headaches keeping track of vital update documentation.
Invoice Generation and Data Export Functionality
There are many options for the best time-tracking app, but integration is one of the key standout features. Accurate timekeeping can still fall into the data-entry trap: the more information needs to be manually input, the more chances for small errors that can have a significant impact.
Electrical time-tracking apps with the ability to generate invoices directly from approved timesheets and integrate with your accounting software remove the chance of manual entry errors. Automate the process so that invoices can be produced immediately once hours are reviewed and improved.
Being able to export timesheets and reporting data is essential to keep track of all necessary documentation and keep copies to protect your records.
Accessibility Across Various Devices
Love the sound of an app, but turns out it’s only on iOS? Choosing the best time-tracking app your electrical business can utilize to the fullest is important! Apps with location-based features require the GPS of cell phones, so having accessibility to these devices is vital.
Assess what devices your business uses and what apps will mesh well with them. Browser features can be accessed from any device, and some apps offer offline features. It depends on your business needs.
Additional Features
Customer communication, dynamic maps, and employee notifications are some neat features that time-tracking apps can offer. Sometimes, it comes down to how an app is designed. Everyone has different tastes and organizational styles; apps that work well for one might not mesh with another.
Utilizing free demos to see how a particular app works for you and your business can help you decide what works best for you!
Ready to Test ClockShark’s Time Tracking App?
Want to demystify your timesheets and get accurate hours for every employee on every job? ClockShark offers an all-in-one time-tracking electrical app for any business!
With a variety of tools, you can schedule, track and record jobs in real-time, keep your team members honest and accurate with time clock notifications and see insights for all your projects.
Try a ClockShark demo today!
