Construction time tracking software for crews on every job site

The contractor’s guide to construction time tracking software

A construction company pays by the hour for work that moves every few weeks, starts before the office opens and stops when the weather says so. This guide covers what construction time tracking software has to handle, the federal rules on travel and waiting time, rain days, prevailing wage jobs, OSHA cards and forklift records, and how to choose.

What construction time tracking software needs to do

Five jobs, in order. Record each punch with the time and the job site it happened at, from a phone at the gate or a shared tablet in the trailer. Show the foreman who is on site and which punches need a second look. Total hours per person per workweek across every site, with overtime worked out. Group the hours by site. Then pay exactly the hours that were approved. In Workzenly, GPS time tracking with a geofence per site, the time clock kiosk for the trailer, timesheets grouped by site and payroll are those five jobs on one record.

The geofence does the quiet work. Our guide to what a geofence is has the numbers: phone GPS is typically accurate to about 16 feet under open sky, worse near buildings and trees, and Android recommends a minimum radius of 100 to 150 meters. A townhome site on a city block might take 150 to 200 meters; a graded lot takes more. Two things a job site time clock should not do: record location between punches, or round. Exact punched minutes are simpler to defend and to explain to a carpenter reading his pay stub. Apps built around the clock alone, such as the ones compared in our list of the best GPS time clock apps, usually stop at the punch, and the hours get retyped into payroll.

Travel time: the drive to the first site versus between sites

The Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 (29 U.S.C. 254) says employers need not pay for ordinary travel to and from the place where the principal work is done. The Department of Labor’s regulations at 29 CFR 785.35 to 785.38 draw the lines for crews that work at changing locations.

The handbook version: the day starts at the first place you tell people to be, and it does not stop while they move between places you sent them. Workzenly records where each punch happened, so the record shows the crew clocked in at the shop at 6:30, not at the site at 7:15. Read how to calculate overtime for the regular-rate math when travel pay enters the week.

Rain days, early releases and reporting-time pay

Federal law pays for hours worked, nothing more. A crew that shows up at 7:00 and is sent home at 9:00 earned two hours, and the punches say so. A crew told to wait in the trucks until the lightning passes is engaged to wait and is paid for the wait.

Some states add a minimum. California has its own reporting-time pay rule: an employee who reports for a scheduled day and gets less than half of it must generally be paid for half the scheduled day, no less than 2 hours and no more than 4, at the regular rate. The rule does not apply when work cannot begin because of threats to employees or property, when civil authorities recommend that work not start, when utilities fail, or when the interruption is an act of God or another cause outside the employer’s control. Weather often fits that last exception, but the facts matter, so ask a California employment lawyer before relying on it. New York and a few other states have call-in pay rules for some industries. In Workzenly, a rain day is what the punches show: 2.0 hours for each person on site that morning. Republish the schedule for the make-up Saturday and every phone has it. Our overtime calculator shows what a 44-hour week costs before you post it.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Wage and hour rules change every year, so check the U.S. Department of Labor, your state labor department or a construction employment lawyer for your situation.

Prevailing wage and certified payroll

The Davis-Bacon Act covers federal contracts over $2,000 for the construction, alteration or repair of public buildings or public works, and the Related Acts extend it to projects federal agencies fund through grants, loans and guarantees. Covered contractors and subcontractors must pay laborers and mechanics at least the locally prevailing wage and fringe benefits, and must submit a certified payroll every week with a signed Statement of Compliance; form WH-347 is the Department of Labor’s optional form for it. Many states have their own prevailing wage laws for state-funded work.

Where Workzenly fits: it records the hours each person worked each day, by site, with overtime separated, and sends the approved totals into payroll. The certified payroll form, the classifications and the fringe math are yours to prepare from those records; Workzenly does not fill out WH-347. Our timesheet templates are a backup for a sub who is not yet on the system.

OSHA 10/30 cards and forklift records, stored with each person

OSHA’s Outreach Training Program is voluntary under federal rules: the 10-hour class is for workers, the 30-hour class for supervisors. OSHA says the cards are not certifications and do not satisfy any OSHA standard’s training requirement, but some states and cities require the 10-hour card on certain projects, and general contractors often ask to see them. Forklift and telehandler operators are different: OSHA’s powered industrial truck standard at 29 CFR 1910.178(l) requires training and an evaluation before an operator runs the machine, an evaluation at least once every three years, and a record with the operator’s name, the training date, the evaluation date and who did the training.

In Workzenly, the card or evaluation is stored in the person’s file with the dates typed in as data, and every record appears in one searchable list, so “who on the Elkhorn crew can run the telehandler?” has an answer in a minute. See HR documents for how the list works. Checking what comes due for renewal is yours to do.

W-2 crew or 1099 subs: the misclassification question

Construction runs on subcontractors, and the line matters. If your company controls how, when and where the work happens, supplies the tools and the schedule, and the work is part of your regular operations, the worker is likely an employee, whatever the contract says. Our 1099 vs W-2 guide walks through the IRS and Department of Labor tests, state ABC rules and what reclassification costs. A time clock is not a classification test, but it is evidence: a laborer who clocks in at your gate every morning and follows your foreman’s schedule looks like an employee because he is one. Workzenly is built for W-2 crews, from the W-4 and I-9 in onboarding to hours, overtime and pay stubs.

How to choose

1. Run last week through it. Take your three busiest sites, the rain morning, one missed clock-out and the operator who worked two sites, and see which tool turns them into a correct pay run with the fewest manual steps.
2. Stand at the gate. Clock in from the actual site with a real phone. If the fence flags you at the gate, the radius is wrong or the tool is.
3. Check overtime across sites. Hours at two sites in one workweek must total as one week. Ask to see a split week on screen, and ask what is recorded between punches. The answer should be nothing.
4. Count the hand-offs. Every retyped hour is a pay stub someone fixes later. Read our payroll process guide for the steps a pay run involves, and ask us on the demo call who handles tax deposits and filings.

To see your own sites in Workzenly, book a demo and we will set up a workspace with your company’s name and a geofence around each active site before the call. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.