Is Your Time Tracking Lying to You? Fix Costly Errors with TotalTime

The $42,000 Mistake You Don't Know You're Making

Mike had been running his electrical contracting business for 15 years. His crew stayed busy and clients seemed happy, but his profit margins kept shrinking year after year.

"We should be making 18-20% on these commercial projects," he told me, frustrated. "But we're barely hitting 8%. I've checked everything—the numbers just don't make sense."

The culprit? A timesheet system that was lying to him every single day.

When we analyzed his actual labor data using TotalTime's tracking, we found the truth: what his team recorded as 6-hour tasks were actually taking 7.5 hours. That 25% difference—hidden by inaccurate time data—had been bleeding his company dry to the tune of $42,000 in lost profit last year alone.

Mike's not alone. And if you're a contractor or construction business owner, there's a good chance your time data is lying to you too.

The Foundation of Your Business Is Built on Quicksand

Think about it: Everything in your business flows from labor data.

• Your estimates? Based on how long tasks took previously.

• Your invoices? Calculated from recorded worker hours.

• Your profit margins? Dependent on labor costs staying on budget.

When that data is wrong—even by 10-15%—everything else crumbles.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Construction Time Tracking

Sin #1: The Friday Afternoon Memory Game

It's 4:30 PM on Friday. Your foreman is sitting in his truck with a stack of paper timesheets, trying to remember:

• "Did Jason show up at 7:00 or 7:30 on Tuesday?"

• "Which phase was Carlos working on Wednesday?"

• "How long was that lunch break on the day it rained?"

This isn't record-keeping—it's creative writing.

The hidden cost: When memory replaces reality, your labor costs are distorted by 15-30%. That means every estimate based on historical data is wrong and every future bid is compromised before you submit it.

Tom, a residential builder in Colorado, discovered this the hard way: "We kept losing money on bathroom remodels. Turns out, our data showed tile work taking 12 hours when it was actually taking 16. Four years of underbidding because our time data was fiction."

How TotalTime fixes this: One-tap mobile clock-ins happen when work starts—not days later from memory. When a worker arrives on site, they tap once, select the job, and they're done.

Sin #2: The "Close Enough" Job Code Problem

Sarah runs a commercial plumbing company with 28 field workers. Her team was diligent about tracking hours, but they were sloppy with job codes.

"My guys would just pick whatever job was at the top of the list," she told me. "We had no idea which tasks were profitable and which were killing us."

When workers are in a hurry or freezing cold, they take shortcuts with job coding:

• Assign all hours to one general job code

• Forget to switch codes when moving between tasks

• Skip detailed coding because it takes too many steps

The hidden cost: Without accurate job coding, you're flying blind on project performance. You think Bathroom Rough-In is profitable, but Fixture Install is actually carrying the job.

How TotalTime fixes this: Job coding is built right into the clock-in process—not a separate, skippable step. Recent and favorite jobs appear first, making selection fast and accurate.

Sin #3: The Paper-Digital Disconnect

"I have a system," Kevin, a framing contractor, insisted. "My guys text me their hours, I write them on this notepad, then Friday I type them into our software."

Three separate transfers of information. Three opportunities for error.

The hidden cost: This multi-step process corrupts your data. Hours get rounded, job codes get simplified, and break times get standardized rather than accurately recorded.

How TotalTime fixes this: Direct digital capture eliminates the paper-to-digital translation. Hours flow from worker to supervisor to payroll in one clean stream—no retyping, no guessing.

Sin #4: The Payroll Nightmare That Destroys Trust

Lisa, an office manager for a roofing company, dreaded every other Thursday. "Payday was always a disaster. I'd have at least five guys in my office arguing about missing hours. Everyone was angry—the workers, the supervisors, the owner."

When time data is wrong, payroll is wrong. And when paychecks are wrong, you don't just have an accounting problem—you have a trust problem.

The hidden cost: It's not just about the time spent fixing errors:

• Productivity drops when trust erodes

• Good workers start looking elsewhere

• Everyone starts padding their hours "just to be safe"

How TotalTime fixes this: Automated alerts flag missing clock-ins and potential errors before they reach payroll. Workers can view their own accumulated time, creating transparency.

Sin #5: The Compliance Time Bomb

"The audit nearly shut us down," admitted Frank, a drywall contractor. "The Department of Labor wanted records of breaks and daily hours for the past three years. All we had were weekly totals on spreadsheets."

Most construction time tracking fails to capture the details that matter:

• Daily work hours (not just weekly totals)

• Required break periods

• Location verification

• Overtime thresholds

The hidden cost: Non-compliance penalties can reach $1,000 per violation per employee. For a 10-person crew with inconsistent break records, that's potentially $10,000 per day.

How TotalTime fixes this: Automated break tracking, overtime alerts, and detailed daily records provide the documentation you need for compliance.

Sin #6: The "Too Complicated" Surrender

I watched a landscaping crew try to use their company's new time tracking app. It took nearly five minutes to complete a single clock-in:

• Download and open the app

• Log in with a complex password

• Navigate through four menus

• Select from a dropdown with 200+ job codes

• Wait for server response

By day three, they'd abandoned it entirely.

How TotalTime fixes this: The interface is designed for work gloves and construction conditions. Large buttons, minimal steps, and offline capability mean workers actually use it.

Sin #7: The "We'll Fix It Later" Fallacy

"We know our time tracking isn't perfect," admitted James, a plumbing contractor. "But we figure it all evens out in the end."

The truth? Time errors don't "even out." They compound:

• When you underbid because your historical data is wrong, that job loses money from day one

• When job coding is inaccurate, you keep making the same estimating mistakes

• When compliance is spotty, you're accumulating risk every day

How TotalTime fixes this: Real-time dashboards show supervisors exactly how the day is progressing, making accurate tracking a priority, not an afterthought.

From Data Disaster to Decision Power: A True Transformation

Dan, a remodeling contractor with 15 field employees, struggled with thin margins and unpredictable job profitability.

"Some kitchen remodels made great money. Others—which seemed identical on paper—would barely break even. We couldn't figure out why."

After implementing TotalTime for real-time tracking with accurate job coding, the truth emerged:

• Their cabinet installation was taking 30% longer than their estimates assumed

• Their demolition phase was actually more efficient than they were billing for

• Two of their subcontractors were consistently starting late, creating costly schedule gaps

Within three months of getting accurate labor data:

• Their estimating accuracy improved by 23%

• Project profitability became consistent rather than random

• They identified $93,000 in annually recurring labor waste

"We weren't bad builders," Dan reflected. "We were good builders with bad data. Fixing the data fixed our business."

What Truly Accurate Time Data Delivers

When your time tracking system actually works, you get:

• Truth at the Moment of Work: Hours captured when work happens—not days later.

• Job Detail Without Friction: Workers assign time to the right job without complex steps.

• Verification Without Hassle: GPS confirms location without privacy concerns.

• Visibility for Everyone: Supervisors see real-time labor distribution while workers confirm their hours.

• Connected Systems: Time data flows to payroll and job costing without manual reentry.

The TotalTime Difference: Built for Boots on the Ground

TotalTime wasn't designed by people who've never set foot on a job site. It was developed from thousands of hours observing how real construction crews actually work.

That's why it includes:

• ✅ One-tap clock-ins

• ✅ Job favorites that remember the last three jobs you looked at

• ✅ Simple interfaces that don't require training

• ✅ Supervisor tools that work from the field, not just the office

From Data Disaster to Profit Protection

Your labor is your biggest expense and your greatest asset. But if you can't track it accurately, you're building your business on guesswork.

Imagine:

• Bidding with confidence because you know exactly what tasks cost

• Running payroll without the Thursday panic

• Spotting problems while there's still time to fix them

• Making decisions based on facts, not fiction

That's what accurate time data delivers. Not just better paperwork—better profits.

Take the First Step: Know What You're Missing

Before you can fix your time tracking, you need to understand exactly what's broken and what it's costing you.

That's why we created 7 Timekeeping Mistakes Contractors Can't Afford to Make.

This free guide helps you:

• Identify which of the seven deadly sins are affecting your business

• Calculate the real financial impact of inaccurate time data

• Create a simple action plan for improvement

Download the guide now or schedule a quick demo to see how TotalTime provides the accurate data your business decisions depend on.

Remember: Your profits depend on your labor data. And your labor data is only as good as your time tracking.