As your construction company adds crews, job sites, and workers, keeping track of everyone’s hours gets more complicated. A reliable time tracking process depends on clear rules, consistent ways to record hours, and a straightforward process for getting approved timecards to payroll.
Growth can make these steps harder to manage. In 2025, 92% of construction firms reported difficulty filling open craft positions. For companies managing multiple crews and job sites, maintaining accurate attendance and labor records becomes especially important. A paper timesheet process that works for one crew may become difficult to manage across five.
This article walks through eight steps for setting up a construction time tracking process, signs that it’s time to automate, and how Fareclock can help.
Why Does a Growing Construction Company Need a Time Tracking Process?
Labor typically accounts for 40% to 60% of total construction project costs. However, this percentage can vary depending on the type and scope of the project. When workers miss punches, record incorrect hours, or submit time late, small errors can add up across a crew.
Manual timesheets also leave room for payroll mistakes. An ADP white paper discusses how human errors in manual timecard preparation can increase payroll processing and correction work. As construction companies grow, collecting and correcting records across multiple crews can become increasingly time-consuming.
Inaccurate hours can also distort job costing and make projects appear more or less expensive than they really are. As a company adds workers and job sites, it becomes harder to collect, review, and assign every hour correctly. A consistent time tracking process helps keep payroll records and project cost data accurate as the business grows.
How Do You Set Up a Time Tracking Process for Construction Workers?
Setting up a time tracking process involves eight steps, from deciding how workers record their hours to reviewing the process as your company grows. Establish the rules and responsibilities first, then choose the tools that support them. This helps avoid introducing software before the team agrees on how time should be recorded and approved.
1. Define How Employee Hours Will Be Recorded
Choose a consistent way for workers to record their hours. This could be a mobile app, a shared kiosk at the job site, or a combination of both. Make sure the method works for workers who do not have smartphones or reliable internet access.
For construction companies managing different crews and locations, consider offering multiple clock-in methods, such as:
- Mobile clock-ins: Allow workers to record hours using their smartphones.
- Shared-device time clocks: Provide a central clock-in point at the job site.
- AI-powered facial recognition: Verify employee identity using liveness detection to help prevent buddy punching.
- PIN, NFC, and QR code options: Offer alternative ways for employees to clock in.
- GPS and geofencing: Help verify employee location when recording attendance.
Every time entry should include the essential details needed for payroll and job costing.
| Required field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Worker | Links hours to the right person and pay rate |
| Date | Builds daily and weekly totals |
| Job or site | Shows where labor costs belong |
| Cost code | Identifies the task or type of work |
| Clock-in and clock-out times | Calculates total hours and overtime |
Missing information often means extra work for foremen and payroll staff later. Encourage workers to record time as it happens rather than relying on memory at the end of the week.
2. Set Clear Clock-In and Clock-Out Rules
Document when and where workers should clock in, how to report missed punches, who can edit time records, and who approves overtime. Make sure employees and supervisors understand the same rules before the process goes live.
As your company grows, consider establishing consistent timekeeping settings across different crews and job sites. These may include:
- Clock-in rounding: Configure intervals, such as 5 or 15 minutes, where legally permitted.
- Grace periods: Define how minor lateness is handled under company attendance policies.
- Early-arrival tolerances: Establish rules for employees who clock in before their scheduled shifts.
- Shift settings: Configure shift classes, schedules, and minimum or maximum tolerance rules.
- Break settings: Define how paid and unpaid breaks should be recorded.
- Attendance policies: Set rules for attendance infractions, point thresholds, and reminder durations.
Geofencing can help verify that a worker is within the assigned job-site area when clocking in or out. Explain how location checks work so workers know what to expect.
3. Assign Workers to Jobs and Cost Codes
Create a consistent list of jobs, job phases, and cost codes that matches your project accounting structure. Use the same codes across sites where possible, and give workers and foremen clear instructions on when to use each one.
If employees move between projects or tasks during a shift, establish a clear job transfer process. This helps ensure their recorded hours are assigned to the correct jobs, phases, and cost codes.
Keep the list manageable. Too many similar codes make mistakes more likely, especially when workers have to choose from them quickly. Foremen should review job assignments because they know which tasks their crews completed.
4. Set Up Time Tracking for Each Job Site
Create a record for each job site and assign the workers and supervisors responsible for it. Time clock software can help distinguish nearby sites through location boundaries and keep each worker’s hours linked to the correct job.
Also consider the conditions in which crews work. Remote sites, basements, and areas with poor reception may require offline time tracking so workers can record hours without a connection and sync them later.
Set rules for workers who move between sites during the week. Their hours should remain linked to the correct jobs, while overtime calculations should account for their total eligible hours across the workweek, not just the hours at one location.
5. Establish Timesheet Review and Approval
Give each role clear responsibility for checking time records before payroll.
- Workers: Record their own hours and select the correct job and cost code.
- Foremen: Review crew time, check job assignments, and resolve missed punches promptly.
- Project managers or office staff: Complete the final review and approve timesheets where required.
- Payroll: Process approved records and flag any outstanding issues.
Set a daily review routine where practical. Fixing an error while the work is still fresh is easier than tracking down the details at the end of the pay period. Keep a record of edits, including who made each change and why.
6. Connect Time Records to Payroll
Decide how approved hours will move from time tracking into payroll. Depending on your setup, this may involve a direct integration or a report that can be imported into your payroll system.
Set a weekly submission deadline and a cut-off for approvals. After the cut-off, require any changes to follow a documented correction process. This helps prevent unapproved edits from creating discrepancies between timecards and payroll records.
Track how long payroll preparation takes before and after introducing the process. This will help you see whether the new workflow is reducing manual entry and correction work.
7. Train Employees and Supervisors
Keep training specific to each role. Workers need to know how to clock in, record breaks, and switch jobs. Foremen need to understand how to review timecards, correct errors, and approve hours. Payroll staff need to know how to check and export approved records.
Explain why the process is changing, including how accurate records help ensure workers receive the correct pay. If the system uses GPS or geofencing, explain what location information is collected and when it is used.
Consider starting with one crew before expanding to the whole company. Run the new process alongside your existing method for a short period, compare the records, and address any problems before rolling it out to other sites.
8. Review the Process as the Company Grows
Review the process monthly during the initial rollout, then move to quarterly checks once it is working reliably. Look at missed punches, timesheet corrections, overtime, approval delays, and cost code accuracy.
Update job lists, location boundaries, and approval responsibilities whenever you add sites or crews. If the same errors keep recurring or supervisors spend too much time correcting records, revisit the process. Your time tracking setup should keep pace with the size and complexity of your workforce.
When Should a Construction Company Move to Automated Time Tracking?
Automation is worth considering when manual timekeeping takes too much time to manage or leads to recurring errors. Common signs include:
- Paper timesheets take too long to review: Supervisors spend hours chasing missing entries, checking totals, and correcting mistakes.
- Payroll needs frequent corrections: Missing punches, incorrect hours, and unapproved changes delay payroll processing.
- Workers move between multiple job sites: Hours can end up assigned to the wrong site when workers change locations during the day.
- Supervisors struggle to verify attendance: Without reliable attendance records, it can be harder to confirm who worked and when. Buddy punching, when one worker clocks in for another, adds another layer of risk.
- Labor hours are difficult to assign to projects: Incorrect or inconsistent cost codes make it harder to track labor costs and compare actual spending with estimates.
- The company is growing faster than its processes can support: More workers and job sites create more time records to collect, check, and approve.
If several of these problems sound familiar, test an automated system with one crew before rolling it out across the company. Compare the time spent processing records, the number of corrections, and how easily supervisors can review hours before deciding whether to expand.
How Fareclock Helps Construction Companies Manage Time Tracking
As an employee time clock software, Fareclock helps construction companies record worker hours, verify attendance, and organize labor data across job sites. Its features support several of the steps above, from clocking in to reviewing time records before payroll.
- Multiple clock-in methods: Workers can clock in using mobile devices, shared-device time clocks, AI-powered facial recognition, PIN, NFC, or QR code options.
- GPS, geofencing, and live location tracking: Help companies verify employee attendance and manage workers across different construction sites.
- Advanced facial recognition: AI-powered identity verification with liveness detection helps prevent buddy punching and attempts to clock in using photos or videos.
- Customizable time and attendance settings: Configure worker profiles, device behavior, clock-in rounding, grace periods, early-arrival tolerances, shift classes, and break settings.
- Attendance policies: Define attendance infraction rules, point thresholds, and reminder durations.
- Job costing and transfers: Organize labor hours by job, phase, and cost code, including time spent on different tasks or projects.
- Offline time tracking: Workers can record punches without an internet connection and synchronize them when connectivity returns.
- Timecard reporting: Supervisors can review recorded hours, missed punches, shift information, and job assignments to prepare time records for payroll.
If you’re ready to test automated time tracking with one crew, start your free trial with us to explore Fareclock’s construction time tracking features.
FAQ
How do construction companies track employee hours?
Most use paper timesheets, spreadsheets, mobile apps, or kiosks. A good record shows the worker, date, job, cost code, and hours. Digital capture removes the payroll lag that comes with collecting paper at the end of the week.
What is the best way to track construction workers across multiple job sites?
Set up each site as its own job with a geofence, and write a clear travel-time policy. Where buddy punching is a concern, add facial recognition at clock-in.
How should construction companies track overtime?
Record hours by site for costing, but calculate overtime on each worker’s combined weekly total according to applicable wage and hour laws, accounting for all eligible hours across job sites. Set alerts for workers nearing overtime if supported by the system and require approval before extra hours are worked. Overtime must still be paid when legally required, even if it was not approved in advance.
How do you track labor hours by construction job?
Use a structure of jobs, phases, and cost codes. Workers log time to a job as they work, and foremen review the codes daily.
When should a construction company automate time tracking?
Consider automation when manual timekeeping creates recurring errors, payroll corrections become time-consuming, or tracking employees across multiple sites becomes difficult. Start with one crew to test the process before expanding.
Can construction workers track time without an internet connection?
Yes, if your tool works offline. The device stores each clock-in and syncs it when the signal returns. Fareclock supports offline time tracking with automatic sync.
How can construction companies reduce timesheet errors?
Capture time in real time, use geofencing, and have foremen approve hours daily. Regularly review missed punches, incorrect job assignments, and timecard corrections to identify recurring problems.
