per user per month range across major time tracking platforms — a difference of $1,800/year at 15 users
average daily time lost to manual timekeeping per employee — equivalent to 10% of a working day for hourly workers
small businesses using manual timesheets report payroll errors at least once per quarter — software reduces errors to near zero
Time tracking software records employee hours, generates timesheets for payroll, and provides visibility into where labor cost is going. For service businesses billing by the hour, the software also generates client invoices from time records. For project-based businesses, it ties hours to budgets and shows margin by project. For any business with hourly employees, it replaces the manual timesheet — the single largest source of payroll errors for companies that still use it.
The right product depends on the primary use case. Clockify and Toggl Track solve a simple problem cheaply: record hours and report them. QuickBooks Time and Deputy add scheduling, payroll integration, and GPS verification for field teams. Harvest and Everhour emphasize client billing and project profitability. The comparison below isolates which features each platform includes at its base tier.
Time tracking software pricing: monthly cost per user at entry tier
Clockify’s free tier is legitimate for teams that need basic hour logging and report exports. It lacks scheduled reporting, approval workflows, and payroll integration — features that paid tiers add at $5.49 to $7.99 per user per month. The failure mode is adopting the free tier for a team that actually needs payroll export or project budget alerts, discovering the limitation at payroll time, and then migrating mid-cycle. Evaluate the free tier against the specific payroll and billing workflows before committing a team to it.
Total cost calculator
Feature comparison by platform
| Feature | Clockify | Toggl | Harvest | QuickBooks Time | Deputy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPS location tracking | Paid tier | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Client invoicing | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | Via QB | ✗ |
| Payroll integration | CSV export | CSV export | Gusto, QBO | ✓ (native QB) | Gusto, Xero, QBO |
| Schedule / shift management | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Basic | ✓ (core feature) |
| Project budget tracking | Paid tier | ✓ | ✓ | Limited | ✗ |
| Free tier available | ✓ (unlimited users) | Up to 5 users | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must maintain records of hours worked for all non-exempt employees for a minimum of two years. Manual timesheets satisfy the requirement technically but create disputes when they are altered or incomplete. Time tracking software with locked timesheet submissions and audit logs provides a defensible record in Department of Labor investigations or employee wage claims. For any business employing hourly workers, audit-log capability is not a premium feature — it is the primary legal protection the software provides.
Payroll software with native time tracking integration (Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll, Paychex Flex) eliminates the manual data transfer from timesheet to payroll — the step where most payroll errors occur. The full pricing and feature comparison is below.
