Timesheet management software makes it easy to track employees’ hours, run payroll, and invoice customers. We review the 6 best timesheet management software for 2024.
Managing employees’ timesheets can be a hassle. It takes a lot of time to ensure timesheets are perfectly accurate—but a mistaken entry or late approval can upend your entire payroll process. In addition, it’s often difficult to manually migrate timesheet data into your payroll software.
That’s where timesheet software can help. It automates time entry and approval workflows to keep your payroll process running smoothly. Most platforms also offer ways to directly track employees’ time and integrate with popular payroll software so it’s even easier to pay your employees correctly.
In this guide, we’ll review the 6 best timesheet management software for 2024 and explain how to choose the right one for your business.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one timesheet management software
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Good for automatic time tracking
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Good for employee scheduling
Why trust us?
Our team of unbiased software reviewers follows strict editorial guidelines, and our methodology is clear and open to everyone.
See our complete methodology
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Tools considered
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Tools reviewed
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Best tools
chosen
What to Look For in a Timesheet Management Software
These platforms offer a variety of features for tracking employees’ time and streamlining payroll. Here are some key things to look for:
- Payroll integrations: Export time data to your preferred payroll software for seamless processing. Connecteam, for example, integrates with Gusto, QuickBooks Online, Paychex and Xero.
- Automatic time tracking tools: With tools like a built-in time clock, employees can punch in and out for each task or project they work on. This ensures timesheets are as accurate as possible.
- Invoice management: If you bill customers based on time, your system should integrate with your preferred billing platform or enable you to easily generate invoices.
- Reminders and alerts: Remind workers to submit timesheets before the pay period deadline, and receive alerts when timesheets are ready for approval.
- Multiple pay rates: Assigning different wage rates to each employee or for different projects and tasks ensures your team is paid fairly and helps you manage labor costs more effectively.
- Break and overtime tracking: Easily separate time spent on breaks and overtime so workers are paid correctly. This also ensures your business remains in compliance with labor laws.
- Leave accrual: Keep track of how much paid time off (PTO) or sick leave your employees accrue during each pay period.
- Detailed reports: Get a clear overview of how much time employees are spending on projects. You can also use this time data to see how your employees can be more productive overall.
- Mobile apps: Make it easy for employees to clock in and out on the go with an app for iOS or Android devices.
- Project management: Assign employees to tasks, projects, or shifts to ensure that they’re spending time on the work they’ve been assigned.
The 6 Best Timesheet Management Softwares of 2024
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Connecteam — Best all-in-one timesheet management software
Connecteam is the best timesheet management software as it offers everything businesses need to manage employees’ time, build timesheets, run payroll, and more. It includes a ton of user-friendly features to streamline time tracking and time approval.
Accurate time tracking with one-tap clock-in
With Connecteam’s employee time clock, employees can clock in and out of work right from their mobile device or computer—with just one tap. Staff working in the field can get reminders to clock in when they approach a job site.
You can also use Connecteam as a time clock kiosk, where your employees who work hourly can clock in and out at a central location on a shared device, such as a tablet. Connecteam’s time clock is accurate to the second to ensure that employees are paid for exactly the amount of time they work.
Automatic timesheet generation and simplified attendance tracking
Employees can review and edit their time entries to make sure everything is right and all time is tracked to a specific project. Then, Connecteam automatically populates time entries into timesheets that are sent to managers for approval. Connecteam organizes hours by project, breaks, and overtime, making it easy to see how an employee spent their time.
Connecteam also handles attendance and leave accruals automatically during the approval process. Every employee can receive the right amount of PTO, sick leave, and other benefits based on the number of hours they work each pay period.
Automated payroll for seamless payments
Connecteam makes running payroll simple. You can export timesheets to Gusto, QuickBooks Online, Paychex and Xero with a single click and run payroll in seconds. If your business uses different payroll software, you can easily export timesheet data from Connecteam for stress-free processing later.
Customizable settings to stay in compliance
Connecteam enables managers to set custom rules for breaks and overtime. This helps ensure that your business complies with local and state laws in the locations where your employees work.
In addition, Connecteam stores all time cards securely in the cloud, so your business automatically complies with Fair Labor Standard Act timesheet storage rules.
Powerful operations tools to boost productivity
Connecteam does much more than simply help you track time and build timesheets. It’s also a full-featured project management and team scheduling software.
With Connecteam, managers can build employee schedules in minutes using a drag-and-drop timeline. The software automatically notifies managers if an employee is scheduled for overtime. This can help significantly reduce your business’s labor costs and distribute overtime more fairly among employees.
Managers can keep track of employees throughout the day thanks to Connecteam’s GPS employee tracking feature. It’s easy to see where every employee is working and redeploy workers quickly when last-minute work arrives. Plus, managers can be alerted in real time if an employee doesn’t show up for a shift.
Employees and managers can also stay in touch at all times using Connecteam’s built-in team chat app. This is a great way for employees to provide updates about what they’re working on and for managers to reassign employees in real time.
Completely free for small businesses
One of the best things about Connecteam is that it’s completely free for small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. For larger businesses, pricing starts at just $29 per month for up to 30 employees, plus only $0.50 for each additional user. You can try out Connecteam free for 14 days to see how it can streamline your business’s operations.
Key Features
Pros
Helpful tools for tracking employees’ time
Automated approval workflows with alerts and reminders
Simple to run payroll and create invoices
Free for businesses with 10 or fewer users
Cons
Doesn’t include project budgeting tools yet
Pricing
Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users
14-day free trial, no credit card required
Start your free trial -
Timecamp — Good for automatic time tracking
TimeCamp is an employee time tracking software that recognizes when an employee opens a work-related app and automatically starts tracking time. The platform can identify which project an employee is working on based on the keywords they type. However, this may not be particularly useful for in-field workers who don’t typically work from screens.
TimeCamp uses time data to automatically build daily or weekly timesheets. Employees can edit timesheets, and managers can leave comments on time entries. The platform also enables managers to add custom hourly rates for each employee.
Additionally, TimeCamp can generate invoices and offers an analytics dashboard to monitor project progress.
Key Features
- Automatic time tracking based on specific apps
- Categorize time to specific projects using keywords
- Comment on timesheet entries
- Add custom billing rates to create invoices
Pros
- Analytics dashboard
- Free plan available
Cons
- Time tracker doesn’t work well for employees in the field
- Limited payroll integrations
Pricing
Starts at $2.99/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes
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Scoro — Good for employee scheduling
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Scoro is an operations management software that performs well for shift planning. Managers can drag and drop shifts onto a Kanban board or timeline to see how employees are using their time and which workers are being over- or underutilized.
Scoro also offers timesheet management tools. It enables employees to track their time, although there aren’t a lot of options for automated time tracking or clock-in reminders. The timesheet display is also relatively minimal compared to what other timesheet management platforms offer.
So, Scoro is best suited for businesses that want scheduling features first and timesheet tools second.
Key Features
- Employee scheduling software
- Task lists, Kanban boards, and shared calendars
- Manage invoices and expenses
- Productivity reports
Pros
- Supports custom workflows
- Create reusable project templates
Cons
- Limited ways to track employees’ time
- Expensive
Pricing
Starts at $37/user/month Trial: Yes — 14-day Free Plan: Yes
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Harvest — Good for time analytics
Harvest is an employee time tracking software that enables employees to clock in and out online or on mobile devices. You can send reminders to employees so they don’t forget to clock in, and Harvest can generate timesheets automatically for each employee and route them to managers for approval.
Harvest offers a time analytics dashboard with customizable time reports. Managers can see how much time is billable vs. non-billable, whether a project is staying on budget, what projects employees are spending their time on, and more.
The platform integrates with Xero and QuickBooks Online for payroll. You can also create customer invoices with PayPal and Stripe.
Key Features
- Time tracking and reminders
- Integrations for payroll and invoicing
- Time tracking analytics
- Employee utilization reports
Pros
- User-friendly
- Range of integrations
Cons
- No time kiosk available
- Doesn’t track leave accruals
Pricing
$10.8/user/month Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: Yes — Up to 1 seat & 2 projects
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Replicon — Good for enterprise-scale businesses
Replicon is an enterprise-scale time management software that offers AI and machine learning features along with customizable automated workflows. Replicon has a steep learning curve, but it offers some unique capabilities for large and complex businesses.
For example, you can use AI to automatically spot suspicious time entries on an employee’s timesheet. These will be highlighted for managers so they can ask the employee for more details. Replicon also flags compliance-related issues, such as employees not taking enough break time.
Additionally, Replicon offers integrations with services including BambooHR, Paychex, and Namely.
Key Features
- AI and machine learning technologies
- Payroll and accounting integrations
- Time reporting tools
- Can change management system for compliance updates
Pros
- Customizable
- Supports PTO accrual tracking
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Expensive
Pricing
Starts at $6/month, for Time & Attendance only Trial: Yes — 14-day Free Plan: No
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Toggl Track — Good for user-friendly time tracking
Toggl Track is a time tracking platform that offers automatic time tracking for more than 100 popular business apps.
The software creates timesheets automatically and alerts managers when they’re ready for approval. Managers can export timesheets to any payroll software. In addition, Toggl Track enables managers to add billable rates and create invoices based on timesheets.
It works well at tracking time for office employees, but it’s less airtight for employees in the field. There are no clock-in reminders, so it’s easy for deskless employees to forget to track their time when they arrive at a job. Toggl Track also doesn’t include any employee surveillance features such as location tracking.
Key Features
- Automatic time tracking for 100+ apps
- View time entries in a calendar
- Export data to payroll software
- Time and billing reports
Pros
- Can create invoices
- Simple interface
Cons
- Few payroll integrations
- No location-based clock-in reminders
Pricing
Starts at $9/user/month Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: Yes — For up to 5 users
Compare the Best Timesheet Management Softwares
| Topic |
Start for free
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews |
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| Pricing |
Starts at just $29/month for the first 30 users
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Starts at $2.99/user/month
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Starts at $37/user/month
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$10.8/user/month
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Starts at $6/month, for Time & Attendance only
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Starts at $9/user/month
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| Free Trial |
yes
14-day
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yes
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yes
14-day
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yes
30-day
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yes
14-day
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yes
30-day
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| Free Plan |
yes
Free Up to 10 users
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yes
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yes
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yes
Up to 1 seat & 2 projects
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no
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yes
For up to 5 users
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| Use cases |
Best all-in-one timesheet management software
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Good for automatic time tracking
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Good for employee scheduling
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Good for time analytics
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Good for enterprise-scale businesses
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Good for user-friendly time tracking
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| Available on |
Web, iOS, Android
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What Is Timesheet Management Software?
These systems help create accurate timesheets for payroll. The software aggregates employees’ time entries and organizes them into a timesheet for the current pay period. The platforms often integrate with payroll software, making it easy to pay employees in just a few clicks.
In most cases, these systems double as employee time clock apps. The software automatically populates employees’ tracked hours into a timesheet. Employees can use the software to edit their hours, then pass the timesheet on to their manager for approval.
How Does Timesheet Management Software Work?
These solutions typically begin by tracking employees’ hours. Employees can usually clock in and clock out of work on the web or through a mobile app. Workers can track time on specific tasks, and managers can see what they were working on during each time entry. This is also important for billing time to specific customers.
Once employees have tracked time, the software aggregates those entries into timesheets. Employees can review their timesheets and make any necessary changes, then send them to their manager for approval. The software may flag suspicious entries or compliance issues for managers during the approval process.
Once a timesheet is approved, the software typically locks it so it can’t be edited without approval. Managers can then export timesheets to payroll software so employees can be paid accurately for the hours they worked.
The Benefits of Timesheet Management Software
This software makes it easy to pay employees accurately, track what projects workers spend time on, invoice customers, and more.
First, they significantly streamline the payroll process. Employees can track their hours with a few clicks or even automatically. Entries are automatically collated into timesheets, saving time and eliminating the possibility of manual errors. You can then export online timesheets to payroll software, ensuring that employees are paid accurately and on time.
These systems also make it simple to keep track of breaks and overtime. Ensuring that employees take breaks and that you pay them for all overtime hours is essential to remain compliant with labor laws. Cloud-based software can also securely store time cards in accordance with FLSA requirements.
Some systems also track attendance, PTO, and other benefits that accrue as employees work. This saves time, reduces errors, and ensures accurate compensation. Plus, it’s easier and more accurate than keeping track of these things by hand.
Some timesheet software can even help your business invoice clients. Most platforms enable managers to designate pay rates for each employee or project. You can then use timesheet data to generate invoices based on the hours that each employee worked and their specific rates.
How Much Does Timesheet Management Software Cost?
Timesheet management systems can range widely in price. That’s partly because different platforms offer different features.
Platforms that are focused on time tracking and timesheet management and don’t offer many extra features are relatively affordable. For example, Toggl Track starts at $9 per user per month.
On the other hand, platforms that include timesheet management as part of a broader operations platform can be more expensive. Scoro starts at $26 per user per month, for example.
Small businesses may be able to take advantage of free timesheet management software. Connecteam, TimeCamp, Harvest, and Toggl Track all offer free plans for a small number of users.Connecteam gives you the most value for your money. It’s an all-in-one solution that starts at just $29 per month for up to 30 users. You can add additional users for just $0.50 per month each. Plus, Connecteam’s Small Business Plan is free for life for teams of up to 10 people.
FAQs
Can I use Excel as timesheet software?
You can, but you’re likely to make mistakes when entering time data manually in Excel. This can result in costly and frustrating payroll errors. It’s better to use a dedicated solution like Connecteam.
Is there free timesheet management software?
Yes, many small businesses can get free employee timesheet software. Connecteam is completely free for businesses with up to 10 users.
How do small businesses track employee hours?
The best way to track employees’ hours is by using timesheet software Connecteam. These platforms enable employees to clock in and out of work quickly and easily, and then the software aggregates hours into a timesheet so employees can be paid accurately.
The Bottom Line on Timesheet Management Software
This software makes it easy to accurately track employees’ hours and pay them correctly. With the best timesheet management system, employees can be sure they never miscount time and managers can receive approval-ready timesheets in seconds. These platforms also provide a detailed view of employee productivity and make it easier to generate invoices for customers.
Connecteam is the best timesheet management platform and the perfect do-it-all work management solution. It offers powerful time tracking tools, reminders and alerts, customizable approval flows, payroll software integrations, and much more.
Try out Connecteam free for 14 days to see how it can help your business succeed.