Construction companies need an accurate record of their employees’ working hours. Punch cards were historically used to track time, but they are now being replaced by time card apps that digitize the process for logging clock-ins and clock-outs.
Apps are designed to manage employees’ work times through mobile data collection and the information is stored in the cloud for more efficient operations and reporting.
Key features of a construction time-card app
Construction time card apps make data collection simple for your employees and give your business more accurate information.
Mobility is the top feature of a time card app. Everything is completed from a phone or other mobile device to simplify the process for clocking in and out. This means that time card apps eliminate the need to punch clocks or to have a centralized station where employees clock in.
Moving to the cloud is another key selling point for construction time card apps. Information is stored securely in the cloud and the data can be shared with other people or systems for improved workflows and automation.
The features are a win-win for contractors and their employees. Employees appreciate when tasks can easily be completed on their mobile devices from anywhere. Operations teams benefit from digitized information that can be used for payroll and other administrative tasks.
Information on a time card app
At the most basic level, construction time card apps keep a record of worked hours. But company owners can customize these apps to include much more than that.
Some apps will also include more detailed information like job site location, cost codes, shift schedules, worker information, and even digital signatures.
The best feature of construction time card apps is the ability to customize. Companies can easily customize what information needs to be collected, based on their unique needs.
There are many different types of time card apps available to companies today. All are designed for the construction industry to collect large volumes of employee time data to keep it organized and accessible for the business to report on.
5 benefits of time card apps for construction
1. Improves data collection
Spreadsheets or paper forms can introduce the risk of data entry errors. Some of the common pitfalls of paper and spreadsheets include:
- Illegible handwriting on paper can create confusion and cause rework to fix discrepancies
- Lost data is common with paperwork or spreadsheets that are stored locally on someone’s computer and not backed up
- Lack of standardization results in inconsistent data
Time card apps are designed to eliminate these risks. Data collection is improved by eliminating paper, standardizing the information that is collected, and securely recording everything in the cloud. This allows businesses to acquire all of the information needed, streamline payroll, track job progress, and avoid the risk of losing critical data.
2. Mobility and accessibility
The modern worker needs the ability to complete work from anywhere. Apps give contractors the ability to submit data from any location and at their convenience.
Many apps allow workers to collect data, even without access to the internet. Simply record data on your mobile device through the app and have it sync the information again when you are back online again. This is particularly useful when working in remote field locations.
It also becomes seamless to share data when all of the information is recorded into a centralized cloud location. Seamlessly send reports and data instantly, so payroll departments can log worked hours to issue checks or automate other tasks.
3. Compliance
It becomes challenging when using paper forms to keep an accurate record of everyone on a job site and arrival times. Apps provide a better way of recording this information digitally, and some can even provide advanced features like GPS monitoring to ensure an accurate record is kept on employees’ physical locations.
Construction time-card apps help businesses remain compliant and protected in case of any legal issues concerning workers’ hours. All forms, hours, and timesheets are housed in the cloud, which means you have all the data you need to comply with labor regulations. All data is housed in a digital format, which can be useful should anyone raise questions about hours worked or payroll discrepancies.
4. Efficiency
Research shows that 13 percent of employers who use non-electronic time trackers say their employees regularly forget to log their hours.
With more than one in ten employees failing to complete their time cards, HR departments are forced to spend valuable time fixing these issues. This results in wasted time that could have been used on other projects instead of correcting the time card mistakes.
Time card apps bring efficiency for workers and ensure accurate records are kept. They help to promote accurate logging of work hours and reduce the amount of time your office staff must spend correcting time-card issues. This saves time for businesses and also helps to promote a better working environment for teams when their productivity is improved.
5. Real-time reporting
Construction time-card apps provide businesses with a complete picture of how employees and team members spend time. With information stored in the cloud, businesses gain access to their data in real-time.
Having a modern solution for tracking employees’ time will help to bring greater visibility into operations. This can help to improve project management and understand trends that are happening across different job sites.
To create a competitive advantage and maximize profits, research suggests that companies should embrace digitization and innovation. Punch cards, paper forms, and spreadsheets all come with different risks and inefficiencies for a business. More contractors are switching to mobile apps for timesheet tracking, as well as any other paper-based processes that need to be digitized.
Construction Time Card and Timesheet Templates
Looking for templates you can use for digital time cards and timesheets? Here are some examples of time-tracking mobile apps that are being used in the construction industry. You can follow the links below to try out our timesheet templates or request a full demo to see how construction companies are using GoCanvas to streamline their operations.
Timesheet Detail – Mobile App
The timesheet mobile application helps contractors, subcontractors, trade specialists, and others fill out construction timesheets to track when they start work each day, which project they are working on, their lunch break, and the ending time. This timesheet helps companies keep tabs on people on your payroll, as well as the time spent on each project. It also provides clear tracking in case of a disagreement over hours worked.
This timesheet is designed for companies that focus on a certain type of work and don’t need to break it down by job phase or category. Additionally, this app calculates the employee’s time automatically (i.e. an in-app time clock), and has the ability to enter and track multiple employees as well. This can all be completed quickly on a smartphone or tablet without the hassle of a Microsoft Excel timesheet.
Completed timesheets are sent back to the office in real-time and GoCanvas offers an integration with QuickBooks and other accounting software programs to automate many operational tasks.
Digitizing this information in GoCanvas will allow you to add all the hours from timesheets at the end of a project to get the total labor expended on the project and compare that with your estimate. This can help you improve your labor estimates for future jobs.
Time Sheet Category List – Mobile App
It’s important to have a coding system for timesheets that correlates with your estimating in order to keep track of estimated costs and actual job costs. In order to keep track of time spent on each job and by each worker, you need a simple system for categorizing each phase of construction and each task within that phase.
The timesheet category list mobile app makes it easy for each employee to enter his labor hours into the right category of work performed each day. Each phase of construction on the estimate corresponds to each timesheet category header. The list should be given to employees with the timesheet so employees can code their labor into the appropriate job phase and task.
- As a business owner, use this timesheet app in the construction industry to best facilitate invoicing and payment of services.
- As a construction manager, use this app to track each employee’s work activities and hours worked to best assess actual job costs.
This category list will enable your workers to correctly fill out a timesheet. Adopt the numbering on the list, adapt the app to fit your needs, or simply create your own list using ours as a guide.
Hourly Labor with Burden Rates – Mobile App
The Hourly Labor with Burden Rates mobile app allows you to find out exactly how much you are paying each employee. Use this app to calculate and record the total hourly labor costs for each employee in any given wage classification.
Simply enter the base hourly rate, fringe benefits, taxes, and insurance to get an accurate hourly labor cost for each classification. This is a great way to calculate your labor burden quickly right on your smartphone or tablet.
Employers may want to use this app to determine if they meet fair labor standards, if they have competitive hourly wage rates, or if they need to consider overtime pay. Upon submission, the app saves the information to the secure GoCanvas Cloud for easy sharing and retrieval.
