Want help reliably tracking employee times? This article lists the top five best employee time tracking software for small businesses in 2022.
Time tracking apps help business owners to monitor when employees start and stop working. There are multiple categories of time tracking software in the market. But, the best employee time tracking software offers a balance of assigning tasks, tracking project times, and payroll.
A section of time trackers monitor work hours covered by hourly-contracted employees (includes overtime and paid time off times). There are also those that sport digital time trackers to record billable hours for remote workers. Our favorite time trackers are the bunch that allow both employers and freelancers to track hours worked.
Stay with us as we explore the five best employee time tracking software for small businesses below.
Our criteria: How we select the best time tracking software
We spend weeks researching and testing hundreds of software. This is to ensure we only list the best solutions to our readers. Every app we list offers tailored solutions that meet your requirements.
Here are the criteria we use to select various software services:
- Product background: Understanding the background of any product is crucial. We check the number of years it's been in service. A live demo is also handy to experience what the product offers.
- Customer feedback: We check multiple rating sites like Trustpilot to see what verified users say about the product. The technique presents a different perspective from various strangers for effective comparison.
- Financial activity: We cross-check the product's revenue streams, retention, scalability, and profitability to determine whether they're the best overall. A product that does well in the market also implies that it has active subscribers who are happy with its service – another effective way of judging the service and customer support.
- The best solution for a use case: In most cases, the best tool is also the cheapest solution for small businesses and large enterprises alike. Our listings always include multiple software services that specialize in various aspects. The diversity allows our readers to get numerous options to find the solution that best meets their needs.
Best employee time tracking software for small businesses
- Gusto – The Best employee time tracking software overall
- Paychex Flex – Easy-to-use, all-in-one employee time tracking solution
- ADP Workforce Now – Easy-to-use, all-in-one employee time tracking solution
- Deluxe – Best for time tracking with mobile management
- Onpay – Best for small businesses looking to expand
Gusto – Best employee time tracking software overall
Gusto is our top choice as the best employee time tracking software for small businesses. Gusto is an all-in-one software that provides automated time tools that you can use to manage your employee's working hours, time off, and workforce costs. Furthermore, the time tools integrate well with various payroll systems to make payments quick and easy. The best part is that you can confirm that staff members can only log hours from their designated workstations.
Gusto also lets you track the productivity of ongoing projects and cross-check it with the workforce costs. Employers can assign project hours and easily generate workforce costs reports. You can also tailor unique paid-time-off policies, pick-paid holidays, and manage time-off requests; automatically sync the data with payroll. We also noticed a cool feature that lets you view reports sorted in date, department, or employee with a few clicks. And if Gusto notices any PTO liabilities, you'll get an instant notification.
Finally, we really liked the calendar sync feature. It lets you keep up with all important dates and ongoing project times. What's more, you can sync on Google, Outlook, and iCal for easier access.
Gusto time tracking features:
- Time and attendance
- Time tracking
- Project tracking
- Paid-time-off (PTO) policies and reporting
- Time off requests
- Calendar sync
What we like:
- Verifying hours with geolocation
- Automatically syncing hours with payroll
- Employees can clock in and out with a click
- Employers can assign hours to projects
- Employers can easily generate workforce cost reports
- Employers can curate paid-time-off policies to automatically sync with payroll
- Employers can manage and track staff's time off
What's missing?
- Time tracking tools are not included in the Core paid plan.
Gusto's pricing
- Core: $39 per month plus $6 a month per person
- Complete: $39 per month plus $12 a month per person
- Concierge: $149 per month plus $12 a month per person
- Select: For growing businesses (strictly minimum of 25 employees); contact Gusto sales agents for pricing
- Contract-only: $6 a month per contractor
Or read our complete review of Gusto
Paychex Flex – Best time collection options for small businesses
Paychex Flex offers a powerful time tracking system that is fully integrated with its all-in-one platform – called Paychex Flex Time. We were excited to learn that Paychex Flex also has a feature-packed time tracking solution. For instance, it offers a range of time collection options that you can use to accurately and efficiently track employee hours. Paychex Flex Time also offers a centrally integrated solution that collects and stores all of your business and stuff data in a single platform.
Paychex also makes it easy for small business owners by automatically and securely integrating stuff hours with payroll and other HR functions. This fix ensures reduced issues from manually handling employee hours and letting employers focus on other HR duties. Paychex Flex Time's automated integration with the all-in-one Paychex system allows you to better manage employee time-off requests. Furthermore, this technique helps you reduce miscalculations and manual adjustments of the times employees go on paid or unpaid leaves.
Paychex Flex Time features:
- Paychex Flex integration
- Time collection options
- Employee self-service
- Administrative time tracking
- Scheduling
- Overtime time management
- Calendar integration
- Reporting and tracking include geofencing, geolocation, Ad hoc reporting, time accrues, etc.
What we like:
- Complete Integration With Payroll and HR
- Time off management
- You can access time and attendance from anywhere
- Mobile access
- Geofencing technology
- Geolocation protection
- Calendar integration
What's missing?
- Lacks transparent pricing
Paychex Flex Time cost:
- Paychex Flex Time: contact sales team for pricing
- Paychex Flex Time Essentials: contact sales team for pricing
Or read our complete review of Paychex
ADP – Easy-to-use, all-in-one employee time tracking solution
ADP makes the list as one of the best employee time tracking software for small businesses. It's also an excellent choice if you're looking for an easy-to-use, all-in-one employee time tracking solution for a scheduler, timekeeper, and attendance management tool.
While your employees are both your biggest asset and expense, ADP's time tracking tools can help save money and transform how they work to improve productivity. Significantly, the time tracking software replaces all paperwork, annoying manual data entry, and calculations with seamless digital integrations that are automated. Thanks to this, your workforce can become more productive and reduce timekeeping mistakes.
Like its competitors in our list, ADP also integrates time tracking tools into its all-in-one HR, payroll, and benefits solutions. As such, data entered at one segment will be added to every component of ADP, and your stuff only requires login details to start. And if your business has employees working from different work locations, including off-site addresses, you can rely on the time reporting system from multiple devices. The solution offers a convenient way for staff members to log work hours both in the office and remotely if you allow it.
According to ADP, its employee time tracking software is compatible with:
- Tablet-based time kiosks
- Point of sale devices and tablets
- Web-based timesheets
- Smart time clocks
- Personal mobile devices
ADP Time Tracking features:
- Time tracking dashboards
- Online schedules
- Manager to-do list
- Paid time-off tracking
- Mobile time tracking app
- Automated time tracking
What we like:
- Seamless payroll integration
- Improve time tracking accuracy
- Easily submit time-off requests
- You can eliminate buddy clocking
- Can curb employee lateness
What's missing?
- Lacks transparent pricing
ADP's pricing
- Essential plan: Custom pricing based on your needs
- Enhanced plan: Custom pricing based on your needs
- Complete plan: Custom pricing based on your needs
- HR Pro plan: Custom pricing based on your needs
Or read our complete review of ADP
Deluxe – Best for time tracking with mobile management
Deluxe is also one of the best employee time tracking software for small businesses. Deluxe's time tracking solutions are designed to help small businesses stay competitive with large enterprises in the industry. Its special feature, TimeWorks allows you to collect employee work hours using the web, tablet, or mobile phones.
Deluxe also integrates employee hours with its payroll system. As such, staff members can clock in and out for every work shift to ensure accurate payroll. It gets better – small business owners can easily manage employee schedules in minutes thanks to the Deluxe Time and Attendance software. Deluxe's AI-based auto-scheduler improves cost and coverage. Deluxe automatically updates every team with real-time alerts when you enter a new shift.
Take advantage of the easy-to-use Deluxe's time clock with facial recognition solution. This means that you can convert your tablet into an intuitive time clock optimized for speed using either facial recognition or a secret PIN. Deluxe also offers extra verification security with its real-time image capture as well as a photo audit trail. And if your device is in offline mode, it can still store employee information and automatically upload the information when the internet is back.
Finally, Deluxe allows small business owners to track employee work hours from any location using any format. This, in turn, cuts down on labor costs and makes management such a breeze. You also get advanced time tracking features to curate how you record work hours for projects and various tasks. Geolocation is automatically linked to employee timesheets, and if there are any exceptions, Deluxe's AI-based platform will notify you.
Deluxe Time Tracking features:
- Geolocation tracking
- Time off management
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Time clock with facial recognitions
- Time tracking and scheduling
What we like:
- Help stay compliant with current labor laws
- Easily build and manage employee schedules
- TimeWorks with Mobile Management and Scheduling
- Easy-to-use Time Clock with Facial Recognition
- Track time from any location in any time format
What's missing?
- Somewhat confusing pricing plans
Deluxe package costs:
- Lite package: $39/ month; $7 a month per employee
- Blended package: $49/ month; $7 a month per employee
- The works package: $39/ month; $12 a month per employee
Or read our complete review of Deluxe
Bottom Line
Tracking employee time by hand is daunting, and it consumes precious time. Using professional employee time tracking software helps alleviate the stress of manually calculating work hours, adjusting timesheets, and updating the payroll system. The best employee time tracking apps help you assign your hours to projects, create staff schedules efficiently, geographically verify billable hours, and manage paid-time-offs.
We consider Gusto to be the best time tracking software for small businesses based on our review criteria. The software can monitor the time and attendance of employees to various work shifts, assign hours to projects, and sync all events to your favorite calendar. Gusto supports all major calendar platforms, including Google, Microsoft, and iCal. On top of that, its geolocation and geofencing technologies enable small business owners to verify billable hours hassle-free.
Best HR software
- 1 month free trial
- Trusted by over 200,000 businesses
- All-in-one payroll and HR solution
- Best for small businesses
- “Autopilot” runs payroll itself
- 3 months FREE with signup
- Trusted by 700,000 companies
- Over 45 years of experience
- All-in-one platform
- 6 months free with signup
- Trusted by 850,000+ businesses
- Dedicated customer service
- Also offer HR and benefits management
- 14 day free trial
- Entirely paperless platform
- Supports multiple schedules and pay rates
