One App, One Process, Six Wins: Simplify Construction Time Tracking
Too Many Tools, Too Much Work
It's Monday morning, and Lisa is already stressed. As the office manager for a growing con struction company, she's staring at her computer screen with three different applications open, a pile of paper timecards on her desk, and a growing list of text messages from foremen about missing hours.
"Let's see," she mutters to herself. "First, I need to enter everyone's hours from these timecards into our payroll system. Then I have to export the same data and put it into our job costing spreadsheet. After that, I need to create a separate report for our project manager."
By 10 AM, she's already re-entered the same time data three different times and found two errors that don't match up between systems.
Sound familiar? If your team is clocking in with one app, managing job costs in a spreadsheet, and emailing payroll data at the end of the week—you're doing way too much work. Manual entry isn't just inefficient—it’s expensive.
These disconnected systems don't just waste time. They create more errors, lead to frustrated employees, and cause bottlenecks that slow your whole business down. This is exactly what Mistakes #2, #3, and #7 in our guide 7 Timekeeping Mistakes Contractors Can't Afford to Make are all about: too many manual steps and not enough automation.
What if one simple time entry could automatically feed job costing, payroll, compliance, reporting, and more—without any extra admin work?
That's the power of TotalTime. One app. One process. Six wins.
The Hidden Cost of System Chaos
Consider Mike, who runs an electrical contracting company in Arizona. For years, he dealt with what he called "the daily data shuffle." His workflow looked like this:
Morning: Collect paper timecards from job sites
Mid-morning: Enter hours into QuickBooks for job costing
Afternoon: Re-enter the same hours into ADP for payroll
Evening: Create a separate spreadsheet for project managers
"I was touching every hour of work three or four times," Mike explained. "And every time I moved data from one system to another, mistakes crept in."
The breaking point came when Mike discovered his most "profitable" project had actually lost money because hours kept getting assigned to the wrong job phases during all the manual transfers.
The fix? Automate the process from field to payroll
Win #1: Construction Job Costing That's Always Up to Date
Accurate job costing is the foundation of profitable contracting. But when time is entered at the end of the week—or worse, guessed from memory—it destroys your ability to track labor costs in real time.
Sarah, who manages operations for a commercial roofing company, learned this the hard way. "We'd find out jobs were over budget three weeks after they were done," she told me. "By then, we'd already bid five more jobs using the same bad estimates."
With TotalTime, workers pick the job they're working on right from the clock-in screen. That entry is instantly tied to the correct project and cost code. The result?
Real-time labor costs by job or phase so you can see problems developing
No more rework or manual coding that introduces errors
Better budget tracking throughout the project so you can make adjustments while there's still time
Rodriguez Construction implemented TotalTime six months ago. Last week, project manager Carlos noticed that the Henderson office renovation was trending 15% over budget on electrical work—on Wednesday, not three weeks later.
"I was able to call the foreman, figure out what was happening, and adjust the schedule that same day," Carlos explained.
Win #2: Construction Payroll That Practically Runs Itself
Payroll shouldn't require detective work. But when time data is scattered across emails, text messages, and spreadsheets, your admin team wastes hours every week just trying to make sense of it all.
Jennifer, the office manager at a plumbing company, used to spend half her Thursday doing what she called "the great timecard hunt."
TotalTime eliminates this chaos by letting you export time entries directly to your payroll system—including QuickBooks and Acumatica. It also gives you a simple payroll export for any payroll provider like ADP, Paychex, and Gusto.
No more retyping hours from one system to another
No more chasing missing timecards from crews who forgot to turn them in
No more Friday panic when payroll is due and half the data is missing
After implementing TotalTime, Jennifer's Thursday "timecard hunt" became a 15-minute payroll review. "I went from spending 4 hours chasing down data to spending 15 minutes verifying everything looked right," she said.
Win #3: Built-In Compliance Without the Headache
Construction teams operate in a complex world of labor laws, union rules, and safety policies. Dave, who owns a landscaping company in California, found this out when the Department of Labor audited his business.
"They wanted detailed records of break times and daily hours for the past three years," Dave explained. "All I had were weekly totals on spreadsheets. That audit cost me $23,000 in penalties."
TotalTime makes compliance automatic by tracking:
Required breaks with prompts and automatic logging
Verified jobsite hours through GPS location stamps
Daily time records that meet audit requirements
Win #4: Reporting That's Actually Useful
You shouldn't need to be a spreadsheet expert to understand your labor data. With TotalTime, useful reports are built right into the system:
Total hours by crew or job to see where your labor is really going
Overtime trends to spot patterns before they become expensive
Break compliance to ensure you're meeting labor law requirements
Historical project costs to improve future estimates
Want to spot a productivity pattern, prep for payroll, or validate a bid? Just pull up a report. All the data is there—no spreadsheet work required.
Win #5: Field and Office on the Same Page
One of the biggest sources of friction in construction companies is the disconnect between field and office. Carlos, a foreman for a concrete company, used to get 3-4 calls every day from the office asking about crew locations and project status.
TotalTime fixes this communication breakdown with a live dashboard that shows who's working where in real time
No more daily check-in calls. No more confusion about where crews are or what jobs they're on.
"The best part isn't just the time savings," Carlos explained. "It's that everyone can see the same information at the same time. No more 'he said, she said' about who worked when."
Win #6: Fewer Errors, Happier Teams
When time is captured in the moment—not reconstructed from memory days later—mistakes become rare. TotalTime uses proven features to ensure accuracy:
GPS-stamped clock-ins that verify workers are actually at the job site
Automated break tracking that eliminates guesswork
Supervisor approvals that catch problems before they reach payroll
This means fewer corrections, fewer disputes, and happier employees who know they're getting paid fairly.
Lisa, the office manager from our opening story, noticed an unexpected benefit: "Workers stopped being defensive about their hours because they could see their own data. The whole atmosphere became more trusting."
Real Customer Story: "We Went From Chaos to Clarity"
Prime Electric was a commercial contractor drowning in system chaos. Before TotalTime, workers filled out paper timecards (when they remembered), office staff spent 10+ hours weekly fixing data across three different systems, and project managers never knew if their job costs were right.
After switching to TotalTime:
Payroll prep dropped from 10 hours to under 2 because data flowed automatically
Labor costs matched job estimates for the first time in years
Worker questions about hours disappeared because everyone could see their own accurate data
Project managers could focus on projects instead of chasing timecard problems
"I used to spend my whole Friday in timecard mode," said their project manager. "Now, I just open the dashboard and everything is right there."
Six months later, Precision Electric had improved their project margins by 11% and won 25% more competitive bids.
The Bottom Line: One Action, Six Outcomes
With TotalTime, every single clock-in automatically feeds six critical business outcomes:
Real-time job costing that helps you catch budget problems early
Automated payroll exports that eliminate manual data entry
Labor compliance that protects you from costly penalties
Useful reporting that gives you insights without spreadsheet work
Better field-office communication that builds trust
Fewer errors and happier teams because accurate data creates fair processes
That's not just time saved—it's profit protected and stress reduced for everyone.
You can start with your crew today. No IT team needed.
Ready to Streamline? Here's Your Next Step
You don't need more tools creating more work. You need one system that handles everything efficiently.
✅ Download the guide: 7 Timekeeping Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
✅ Book a quick demo of TotalTime to see exactly how it works
✅ Start with your crew's next shift and see the difference immediately
5 Signs You're Ready for a Unified System
If any of these sound familiar, it's time to make the switch:
You're re-entering hours more than once
Payroll takes more than half a day
Timecards are sent via text, paper, or email
Job costs don't match your labor estimates
Your Friday feels like a fire drill
Don't Let Time Tracking Hold You Back
In fast-moving industries like construction and field service, every hour matters. TotalTime helps you make the most of every hour by turning one simple action—clocking in—into six powerful business outcomes.
From the field to the office to the bottom line—one app really can do it all.
