Top 10 Best Employee Time Clocks for Small Business 2019

Employee time clocks help you track when workers are working or on break. Time card machines are fine if you have only one location. Otherwise, newer cloud-based employee time clock systems provide more flexibility. We looked at both types of employee time clocks with a focus on ease of use and time-saving compliance features.

Top 10 Best Employee Time Clocks

How We Evaluated Employee Time Clocks

We evaluated two different types of employee time clocks: wall-mounted electronic time card machines and digital time clocks that let people clock in using a website or app. We made sure the time clocks we reviewed were relatively low cost, provided a good value for a small business, and were easy to use.

We included time clocks and time card machines with the following features:

• Pricing: Affordable for small business either as a one-time charge or monthly fee.
• Ease of Use: Easy to set up and use as well as easy to obtain data reports.
• Cloud-based: Accessible from website or app for administrators and remote users.
• Summary functions: Able to calculate total hours, gross pay, and leave balances.
• Breaks: Lets employees clock in and out of shifts, breaks, and lunch (including both paid and unpaid breaks) as well as set up standard break times (e.g., 15 or 30 minutes).
• Punch rounding: Rounds up or down (e.g., five hours and 57 minutes rounds up to six hours).
• Flexible pay periods: Tracks time daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or via other payroll cycles.
• Overtime calculation: Includes state rules for compliant overtime calculations.
• Security features: Ensures that only the authorized person is clocking in or out (using a PIN, RFID badge, photo, or fingerprint).
• Administrative functions: View and add employees, modify rules, and run reports.
• Data integrations: Uploads time card data into other systems like payroll or point-of-sale (POS).
• Reports: View reports on absences, time scheduled versus time worked, and more.

Some of the time clocks we reviewed can automate data uploads into your payroll system, apply shift differentials, and track leave balances. Web-based time clocks typically offer more advanced features, such as allowing workers to allocate time to a specific job or project, mobile apps for employees, geolocation, job costing, and customizable reports.

Overall, we recommend Homebase as the best time clock for its flexibility and low cost. It’s free for one location with unlimited employees if using one tablet, computer, or mobile device for all employees to sign in on. It’s also free to use if instead of a physical time clock, you have all employees sign in on a mobile app. Best of all, it has native integration to some of the best payroll software options, like Gusto.

Homebase: Best Overall Time Clock for Small Businesses

Homebase provides the best overall time clock software in spite of being free. Its electronic time clock works on any kiosk, tablet, or smartphone used at one location. It provides top-notch timekeeping but adds so much more, such as electronic time sheets, payroll integration, shift scheduling, communicating, hiring, reporting, and a mobile app. It’s best for any business that has one physical location, like a restaurant or retail store.

Homebase Pricing

Homebase is free for all time clock and scheduling tools for one physical location, such as your business office or retail store. All plans include team communication tools and a free mobile app, as well as reporting.

If you have more than one location, it’s priced per location starting at $19.95 per location per month for unlimited employees. If you wish to add GPS to prevent employees from clocking in before they arrive at the job site, you can choose a paid plan priced between $19.95 and $49.95 per location per month.

Here are the pricing options for Homebase and what they include:

Homebase Pricing Chart

Homebase also offers an enterprise plan with advanced features like schedule forecasting and dedicated account management. The enterprise plan costs $99.95 per location per month for an unlimited number of employees. In addition, you can get price breaks by signing up for an annual agreement.

Homebase Features

The free time clock provided by Homebase is so feature rich, there’s often no need for most small businesses to upgrade to a paid plan. It includes a time clock, employee scheduling, and a means to let your team members know about changes affecting their shift. You can even allow workers to shift-swap.

Homebase is our top recommended virtual time clock.

Time Reporting

There are two ways to use the free time clock from Homebase. One is to set up a tablet, laptop, or computer kiosk that employees can clock in and out of at the work site. The other is to have your employees download and use the free mobile time clock app. That way, they simply clock in and out on their cell phone.

Payroll Integration

What we like about Homebase is that it has free payroll integration with the payroll software we find best for small business, Gusto. That means you can push your electronic time card data into your payroll software with one click. That’s a huge time saver that reduces data entry errors.

Mobile App

Managers and administrators can use the free mobile app to schedule employees, approve time, and send updates, for example. Employees can use it to clock in and out, request time off, manage their leave balances, and even shift-swap (if you allow that).

Customer Support

Unless you upgrade to the Enterprise plan at $99.95, your support options will be limited to email and live online chat. However, that support is available 24/7, which is perfect for those in the hospitality and service industries who often work evenings and weekends.

What Homebase Is Missing

There’s not much missing from Homebase. Your managers may need a bit of training, and non-digital natives may find that using an app to clock in and out takes some getting used to. Some report that the iPhone app is a bit glitchy, but that the web app works great.

What Users Think About Homebase

Homebase receives solid ratings on third-party review sites, including ours. What’s not to like about free software that meets all your time tracking needs? Some have reported that once employees were loaded into the system, their employees got spammed, but that’s likely a setting you can adjust. Read for yourself what real small business owners say on our Homebase review.

How to Sign Up for Homebase

You can sign up for Homebase and get their easy-to-use virtual time clock for free. It automatically calculates overtime, manages employee leave, such as paid time off (PTO), and provides a tool to communicate with employees via a mobile app. No credit card is needed. Get your free account.

Visit Homebase

When I Work: Best for Complex Scheduling

When I Work now offers a time clock feature for free—for up to 75 users—forever. It’s very comparable to Homebase with a few limitations, such as the scheduling features in the free version won’t let you schedule far in advance, and it has more limited support hours. Nonetheless, it’s great for businesses with complex scheduling and time-tracking needs in industries like health care, or businesses like construction where employees work offsite.

When I Work Pricing

When I work pricing starts at free for up to 75 employees regardless of the work location. Once you pass the employee count of 75, its pricing is very reasonable. It costs between $1.50 and $2.25 per employee per month based on whether you need customization or not. They also offer an Enterprise package for larger firms that includes features like single sign-on and API access.

When I Work Features

When I Work provides a time clock app that has reports to let you track tardiness as well as security to eliminate buddy punching. In addition, it manages your employee attendance and provides accurate files that can be shared with your payroll software. And, like Homebase, the scheduling features are a huge value add over traditional time card machines.

When I Work time sheets let you see work locations along with time clock punches.

Time Reporting

Like Homebase, employees can clock in and out on their phone or you can set up a tablet, laptop, or PC as a fixed terminal at your work location. You’ll not only see when employees clock in and out, but where they did so, which helps you ensure they’re on the job site, not at the coffee shop, when they clock in.

Payroll Integration

When I Work integrates with most of the leading cloud-based payroll providers, including Gusto.

Mobile App

The mobile app lets employees clock in and out, and allows managers and administrators to approve time, prepare files to upload to payroll, and check in to see if employees have clocked in or out. When I Work can even remind your employees to clock out if they forget.

Customer Support

When I Work provides support seven days a week via online chat or email. They’re available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central Time weekdays, with weekend support from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, that may be an issue for restaurant and bars that have employees working nights and weekends.

What When I Work Is Missing

When I Work lacks phone support, and its support hours aren’t 24/7 like Homebase. In addition, if you need to schedule and track field workers against customer appointment schedules, it doesn’t have that option. Further, the reporting tools are fairly basic.

What Users Think About When I Work

When I Work earns top-notch ratings on third-party software review sites, on par with Homebase. For more insights about When I Work, read our complete When I Work review.

How to Sign Up for When I Work

If you have fewer than 75 employees, you can sign up for When I Work for free. Employers with more than 75 workers may want to sign up for a free demo instead. Either way, you can’t go wrong with a time clock app that provides so many extra features. Get When I Work free.

Visit When I Work

Time-Logix Easy Clocking (TL) 200: Best Wall-Mounted Time Clock

We recommend the Time-Logix TL 200 Biometric time clock as the best employee time clock for small businesses that prefer a wall-mounted clock in lieu of a time card machine or software app. It has all the time clock features needed by a typical small business owner. Time-Logix provides flexible clock-in and clock-out options, is affordable, does not charge extra for ongoing tech support, and is compatible with both Windows and OS X systems.

Time-Logix TL 200 is their best time clock for small business owners. First, it is one of the most affordable biometric (fingerprint recognition) time clocks on the market, with built-in Wi-Fi and a real-time feed. In other words, whenever an employee clocks in or out, it’s automatically updated wirelessly in Time-Logix’ cloud-based software.

Time-Logix TL 200 Pricing

Time-Logix charges $299 to purchase the time clock hardware. This covers a biometric fingerprint time clock, time, and attendance software for up to 25 employees, and ongoing tech support.

There are a few additional charges, however:

• RFID proximity badges: $2 per badge
• Proximity key fob: $3 per fob
• System use fee (after the first year): $149 per year

If you want to upgrade, Time-Logix will import all your information over to the Easy Clocking system, which is basically the same with added modules for things like tracking accruals and managing PTO. For Easy Clocking, the base system starts at $1.25 per employee per month and then adds $.25 for each additional software module.

Time-Logix TL 200 Features

Time-Logix TL 200 is the clear winner for ease of use. However, the Icon TotalPass, which we’ll look at next, is not far behind.

Time-Logix time clocks are available in white or black.

In addition to the standard time clock features, Time-Logix TL 200 also includes:

• Scheduling: ability to create different shifts
• Job costing: monitor jobs and project labor costs by using job codes
• Online time sheets: let your employees go online and allocate time spent by job code

Time Reporting

All three physical time clocks support employees clocking in and out by using a PIN or compatible RFID badge. The Time-Logix TL 200 is the only time clock we reviewed that supports fingerprint scanning as well. That’s the most effective clock-in and clock-out method for preventing employees from buddy punching.

Further, Time-Logix TL 200 has a solid reporting system with over 30 report options, such as sorting by employee or department. If you want to get accrual tracking to manage paid time off or other more advanced features, just upgrade to the Easy Clocking system.

Payroll Integration

For payroll, all three wall-mounted time clocks integrate with the big names in the payroll industry: QuickBooks, ADP, and Paychex. Time-Logic also integrates with Sage, Heartland, Wells Fargo, PayChoice, and several others.

Mobile App

Time-Logix has a mobile app that includes a geolocation feature, so employees can clock in and out from the job site.

Customer Support

When it comes to customer support, Time-Logix is the clear winner among the wall-mounted time clock options we reviewed. Tech support is included with the service, whereas both Icon and Compumatic charge extra for ongoing support and maintenance. In addition, Time-Logix offers multiple support channels, providing both phone and live chat support Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time.

What Time-Logix TL 200 Is Missing

If you want tech support after the first year, you have to pay $149 per year, which is similar to what Icon and Compumatic charge for their annual add-on service packages. However, with Time-Logix, you must pay that fee to keep using the software; with the other two, it’s optional. Time-Logix also lacks tools to track employee PTO unless you upgrade.

What Users Think About Time-Logix TL 200

As a company, Time-Logix gets great reviews. You’ll also find positive feedback on third-party review sites like eBay and Amazon, where Time-Logix time clocks are sold. We don’t currently have our own review of Time-Logix, but it’s on our list.

How to Sign Up for Time-Logix TL 200

You can purchase a Time-Logix time clock on their website, where it features several time clock options based on the size of your company and the features you need. In addition, Time-Logix time clocks, time cards, and supplies can also be found on eBay and Amazon. View its features online.

Visit Time-Logix TL 200

Icon TotalPass P400: Best for Businesses with Multiple Departments

Icon TotalPass P400 is best for businesses with up to 50 employees or with many departments because the base price includes support for up to 50 people. That’s twice as many employees as the other physical time clocks provide in their base price. It also supports up to 32 departments, which is far more than most small businesses need. If you plan to grow your staff or segment your operation into many departments, it’s a good option.

Icon TotalPass P400 Pricing

The Icon TotalPass P400 costs $295 to $399 depending on where you buy it. This typically includes the time clock, 15-foot USB and Ethernet cables, 15 RFID badges, 30 days of technical support, and a one-year warranty.

Additional costs may include:

• Technical support beyond the initial 30-day period: $149 per year
• An insurance plan for your time clock: $190 per year
• Upgrade to 100 employees: $125 extra
• Extra RFID badges: $25 for a 10-pack and $55 for a 25-pack

Extra badges can also be found on sites like Amazon.

Icon TotalPass P400 Features

Icon’s TotalPass P400 has many of the same standard features as both the Time-Logix TL 200 and Compumatic’s XLS 21. The main feature it offers as standard that the others do not is the ability to handle up to 50 employees without any up-charges. The other two clocks only allow up to 25 before you have to upgrade.

The other main advantage the Icon TotalPass has over Compumatic is that you can have as many administrators as you want accessing your back-end (the same is true of Time-Logix). This is not the case with Compumatic, which charges an additional fee for each user license. The main downside to Icon’s system is that its reporting is pretty basic, with only four standard reports available, and it’s not the most intuitive system to set up.

Icon TotalPass P400

Time Reporting

The Icon TotalPass P400 allows your employees to sign in with a four-digit code or use an RFID badge that the time clock will recognize when they’re in close proximity to the time clock. Additionally, you can also access the time clock software via web browser like Time-Logix.

Payroll Integration

Icon integrates with the big payroll providers, specifically QuickBooks and ADP. It also exports data via CSV, which most accounting and payroll software can import.

Mobile App

There’s no mobile app, but there is a web-based interface that you can access remotely as an administrator. Otherwise, there’s no option for employees to access the time clock remotely. For example, employees can’t clock in and out from a website or smartphone like they can with Homebase or When I Work.

Customer Support

For those in the free trial or ongoing support plan, phone support is offered Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time, and they also have an online ticket-based support system. You get your first 30 days help for free, but then it’s an additional $149 per year for ongoing support.

What Icon TotalPass P400 Is Missing

Icon TotalPass doesn’t have a mobile app, so if your employees work off-site, you’ll have to do the data entry for them. They also have a limited reporting package, but since you can download the data to a CSV file, you can always create your own reports in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. You also only get 30 days of support for free. And of course, there is no biometric fingerprint option like there is with Time-Logix.

What Users Think About Icon TotalPass P400

Icon Time offers several time clock options that earn reviews in the 4 to 5 out of 5-star range on third-party websites. The company itself garners similar ratings. We don’t yet have a review of the company Icon Time or its products, but it’s on our radar.

How to Sign Up for Icon TotalPass P400

Normally, we’d suggest you head to the manufacturer’s website, which in this case is Icon Time. However, you can purchase this time clock on multiple reseller websites. We therefore suggest you check out the best pricing before you purchase this time clock for your business. View its features online.

Visit Icon Time

Compumatic XLS 21: Best Low-Cost Time Clock

Compumatic XLS 21 is best for those looking to get a time clock with all the basic functions at a low price. It’s about $50 to $100 less than the two other wall-mounted electronic time card machines above, and contains the same basic features. The Compumatic XLS 21 offers the most features for the base price. However, once you actually get into the system, the learning curve can be a little steep, and it’s more complicated to set up than the other two physical time clock providers above.

Compumatic XLS 21 Pricing

Compumatic XLS 21 costs about $249. This includes a PIN or RFID badge time clock, Compumatic software for your computer, and support for up to 25 employees, typically. Also included are 25 RFID proximity badges (Icon only provides 15).

But, Compumatic has other upcharges:

• Additional employees: $50 per year 25 or $150 per year for 100
• Professional version of the software: $99 per year (if you want a with features like shift management, rounding rules, and overtime overrides)
• Technical support after the first 90 days: $150 per year
• Additional user licenses: $150 per year for each additional administrator

Nonetheless, for base pricing, the Compumatic XLS 21 is the most-affordable, physical wall-mounted virtual time card machine of those we reviewed.

Compumatic XLS 21 Features

Compumatic XLS 21 does have several handy features. For one, it can accommodate unlimited departments compared to Icon’s 32, which may be handy for larger small businesses that have lots of segmentation. Also, it has 90 days of free software support, which is 60 days more than Icon Time offers. Finally, it has a good reporting system that’s similar to Time-Logix’s reporting.

Compumatic XLS 21 time clock

However, your costs can add up quickly if you want ongoing support, upgraded software, or multiple licenses so you can set it up on more than one computer. And we found Compumatic’s software, Computime 101, a bit more complicated to use than all of the other systems’ back-ends.

Time Reporting

Similar to Icon, Compumatic offers RFID badges or users can clock in and out with a PIN code.

Payroll Integration

The Compumatic XLS 21 integrates with payroll providers like QuickBooks, ADP, and Paychex, as well as Millennium Payroll.

Mobile App

There is no mobile app.

Customer Support

Compumatic is based out of a single retail location in North Bellmore, New York. You can call during store hours for help, which are Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. They also have a 24/7 answering service that can help with basic issues after hours. After the initial 90 days of free support, ongoing support plans cost $150 per year.

What Compumatic XLS 21 Is Missing

Compumatic is not as easy to program as the other two physical time clocks, Time-Logix and Icon. In addition, there’s no mobile app, and for businesses that work multiple shifts, not being able to get after-hours help may be a problem.

What Users Think About Compumatic XLS 21

Depending on which review sites you look at, Compumatic is rated between 4 and 5 stars. That’s pretty good for a time clock this affordable. We don’t yet have a review of this particular time clock, but it’s on our to-do list.

How to Sign Up for Compumatic XLS 21

Compumatic is typically sold through third-party office system providers like Amazon. You can view the multiple options and buy additional badges on those sites as well. View details on Amazon.

Buy Compumatic on Amazon

Tick: Best for Tracking Billable Hours Against Projects

Tick is best for companies that do project-based work, such as law firms, agencies, and freelancers with multiple clients. Workers can clock in and out of projects and tasks related to those projects. Time can be tracked as billable or not billable depending on what work was done. Before users are able to use the time clock, however, the projects must be set up in advance.

Tick Pricing

Tick’s pricing isn’t based on the number of users but on the number of projects that users are logging their time against. Prices range from 10 projects for $19 a month to unlimited projects for $149 a month. If you have recurring projects, such as an attorney who tracks clients on retainer by month, you’ll need to sign up for the 30-project package at $49 per month.

Tick Pricing Chart

Tick Features

Like a physical time clock, Tick allows users to clock in and out. Its web pages are secure (SSL) and you can have an unlimited number of clients and employees. If you upgrade to the unlimited plan, you can set up an unlimited number of projects as well.

Tick time card showing time tracked by project and task.

In addition, Tick provides full reporting and has cool features, such as a desktop timer to keep track of how long an employee is working on a particular project. It also has a budget feature that lets you know if an employee is spending more time than budgeted on a particular task.

Time Reporting

Tick is a time clock of an entirely different sort. Not only can users clock in and out, but they can assign their time to different tasks. For example, employees at a law firm may assign their time to different clients or those at a marketing agency to different projects.

This would be great for businesses as diverse as a financial planner who wants to bill hours to a client or a manufacturing site that wants to have workers clock in and out based on the product line they’re working on. Of course, any business that has only one type of work or project, such as “restaurant operation,” could also use it.

Payroll Integration

Tick offers over 750 integrations with third-party applications, including QuickBooks payroll and Freshbooks. It’s likely going to integrate with your payroll software as well as project management software and Chrome extensions.

Mobile App

Tick offers a mobile app for iOS and Android. Workers can even use an app on their Apple Watch to see how much time they have left available on a project.

Customer Support

Tick boasts that they have rock star support. That means you send them an email and they’ll get back to you within just a few hours.

What Tick Is Missing

Various users complained that you have to close out the timers or the time will move to the next day, causing a bit of a mess. Also, there’s no easy way to copy data from past projects into future ones without upgrading.

What Users Think About Tick

Tick earns 4 to 5 out of 5 stars on third-party review sites, including our site, where it gets a rating of 4.5 stars. For insights from real users, check out our online review of Tick.

How to Sign Up for Tick

Tick offers a free 30-day trial that doesn’t require you to hand over your credit card. That’s a great way to see if it will work for your business before you commit. Get your 30-day free trial.

Visit Tick

Toggl: Best for Five or Fewer Employees

Toggl is best for really small businesses because it’s free to use for five or fewer employees. And similar to Tick, it allows you to track time by activity and assign it to different projects.

Toggl is a great tool that should work for all your business needs if you’re a really small employer and plan to stay that way. For example, Toggl would be an ideal fit for an accounting firm with three full-time and one or two part-time seasonal staff.

Toggl Pricing

Like Tick, Toggl’s basic plan is free for up to five employees. They also offer a free trial on all other plans so you can try them out before you commit. Prices range from $10 to $20 per month and up per user with discounts of 10% or more if you purchase an annual plan. Compared to Tick, Toggl can begin to get expensive if you want to add features like reminders from their Enterprise plan or upgrade after you grow to six or more employees.

Toggl Features

Toggl screenshot showing timekeeping features.

Even with the free plan, you’ll be able to offer employees the ability to clock in from anywhere with a single click. You’ll also get visual reports that let you see who’s working on what, and you’ll have access to budgeting tools, similar to Tick.

If you choose to upgrade, you’ll gain access to business decision-making tools like time sheet audits and advanced reporting such as profitability reports. But, basic hacks like reminders aren’t included in the free or Starter versions, as they are with Tick.

Time Reporting

Rather than punch in like a traditional time card machine, your workers start and stop a timer on their computer or mobile device when they begin and end an activity. Toggl then tracks those hours on a virtual time card.

Payroll Integration

Toggl interfaces with Freshbooks, or you can download time card data into a CSV file in order to upload it to your payroll provider.

Mobile App

Toggl has a mobile app that you can sync with over 100 web tools and browser extensions. For example, you can start your timer from Google Chrome or link it to projects using tools like Basecamp or Asana.

Customer Support

The Toggl customer support page has the best self-help options of all the time clocks reviewed. You can ask a question or help yourself with illustrated, step-by-step instructions for nearly everything you can think of to do with the software, from reports to CSV imports.

What Toggl Is Missing

Toggl has no phone support, even for billing issues. If you pay upfront to get an annual discount and then cancel, you won’t necessarily be refunded any money. You’ll just have unused “credits.”

What Users Think About Toggl

Toggl gets great reviews all around. What users like is how you can label projects and report on their progress. Check out what small business users are saying about Toggl in our online review.

How to Sign Up for Toggl

Like most of the virtual time clocks, Toggl offers a 30-day free trial. You simply provide an email address and password. The basic time clock software remains free if you have under five employees.

Visit Toggl

Emplotime: Best for Businesses With International Employees

Although Emplotime customers are primarily in North America, it’s based out of Israel and can be used in 30 countries worldwide. Since it’s a virtual time clock, it adjusts to the time zone of your workers, whether they’re in multiple U.S. time zones or overseas. So if you have employees who work outside the U.S., it may be the best time clock system to use.

Emplotime Pricing

Emplotime has the lowest per-employee cost of all the cloud-based options we reviewed. It’s $1 per employee per month. Their different plans are based on company size; for example, if you have 25 employees, it costs $25 a month. If you have $100 employees, it’s $100 a month. In addition, you don’t need a contract. You just pay monthly.

Emplotime Features

Emplotime has all of the time clock features a small business would need. The way it works is that you start with a basic setup and then activate any features you want to use. That way, if you don’t want to use a certain feature like PTO tracking, it doesn’t clutter up your interface.

Emplotime can be set up to manage workers across time zones.

Time Reporting

Employees can clock in on a PC with the software installed, or if you set it up for them in advance, they can clock in and out on their own device.

Payroll Integration

Emplotime doesn’t have any standard interfaces to existing payroll systems. Emplotime provides five standard reports and allows you to add fields to them. You can also export the data to a CSV file and modify it as needed. Most payroll software, like ADP and its competitors, accept CSV-formatted time card data via upload. Reports can be downloaded to Microsoft Word or PDF format as well.

Mobile App

Emplotime doesn’t have a mobile app, but it can be used on mobile web browsers to clock in and out. However, you have to authorize the time clock to be used on each device, tablet, computer, or smartphone in advance.

Customer Support

Customer support is included when you subscribe to Emplotime. It’s available 24/7 via email, and they try to respond in less than an hour. In addition, they’re dedicated to adding new features that their users request.

What Emplotime Is Missing

Emplotime doesn’t have biometric access. It uses a PIN to prevent unauthorized users from clocking in or out. It also doesn’t track time against projects, as Tick and Toggl do. And not having a direct payroll or accounting interface means you’ll have a few more steps to do each pay period to move the data from Emplotime to your payroll system.

What Users Think About Emplotime

Emplotime earns top-notch reviews from its small business customers who find it easy to administer and use. To learn more, check out our full Emplotime review.

How to Sign Up for Emplotime

Emplotime offers a free demo to help you get a feel for the software and options, or you can sign up for a free trial. Both are available on their website. View the free demo.

Visit Emplotime

Tanda: Best for Businesses Trying to Stop Time-Theft

Tanda’s employee time clock system is best for keeping employees from stealing time because it takes a picture whenever someone clocks in. In addition to timekeeping tools and a mobile app, it gives you, the administrator, the ability to see at a glance where all your employees are. It also has scheduling features which it refers to as a “roster.”

Tanda Pricing

Tanda’s pricing is straightforward at $4 per employee per month if you pay annually or $5 per employee per month if you pay monthly. So if you have ten employees, your cost will be $50 per month. Although it’s not free like Homebase, you get a wide range of features for that price. Even though Tanda is four times the cost of Emplotime, it may be your best option if your timekeeping goal is to eliminate time theft. The photo clock-in feature might pay for itself.

Tanda Features

With Tanda, you get more than timekeeping. You can print and email schedules, allow time swapping, and approve overtime. In fact, employees can request time off right from the time clock. It integrates with payroll and lets you export data with one click.

Employee clocking in using Tanda

Tanda is not project-focused like Tick and Toggl; it has features that are more typical of a traditional employee time card machine. In addition, Tanda adds features into its software at the base price, such as leave accruals and onboarding. Most of the other time clock systems we reviewed either don’t have those options at all, or charge extra for them.

Time Reporting

Employees clock in with a PIN code. However, you can set it up to take a photo instantaneously to ensure one employee isn’t clocking in or out for another. This can be very helpful in a fast-paced, shift-based environment like a restaurant.

Payroll Integration

Tanda exports time sheets to many standard payroll systems such as QuickBooks payroll, Xero, and ADP, to name a few.

Mobile App

Tanda has a mobile app that employees can use to clock in and out from their smartphone using a PIN passcode to verify their identity.

Customer Support

Tanda provides phone, email, online chat, and web-based customer support. However, their hours are based in Brisbane, Australia, so when you use their text chat in the U.S., you’ll likely receive a response that says “Tanda typically replies in a few hours.” That may not be ideal.

What Tanda Is Missing

There’s really nothing missing from Tanda as far as employee time clock functionality goes. However, being in a completely different time zone from most U.S. businesses, you might miss having customer support during your local work hours.

What Users Think About Tanda

We included Tanda in our time clock lineup due to their solid online reviews. Users like the interface, the support they get, and the low price. However, even though we have a Tanda review on our website, few have chimed in to let us know how it works for their small business.

How to Sign Up for Tanda

You can sign up either for a demo or for a free trial; neither require you to share your credit card information. It’s free for up to five employees, and if you go over that, they only charge you for the number of active employees who log hours each month. Try Tanda for free.

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Deputy: Best for Restaurants & Retail That Want POS Integration

Deputy is best for hospitality businesses that use a point-of-sale system (POS), as employees don’t need to close the POS system in order to clock in and out (e.g., for breaks). It also provides features to support up to nine different languages, because often retail and food service workers hail from multiple backgrounds. For example, your Asian fusion restaurant can provide workers with an employee time clock tool in Chinese.

Deputy Pricing

Deputy provides multiple pricing plans that start at $2 per employee per month for time and attendance, including exporting your time sheets to payroll. You can upgrade to add scheduling and reporting for an extra $1 per employee per month with a Premium plan. Monthly plans let you cancel anytime. However, if you choose an annual plan, you’ll get a 25% discount.

Deputy Features

The timekeeping features with Deputy include letting you plan your employees’ meal and rest breaks in advance, so that you can ensure labor law compliance. It also tracks your PTO and employee leave balances. Further, employees can track their time against tasks, and you can use the software to communicate with them, similar to Homebase.

Deputy time clock on a tablet used as a kiosk.

Time Reporting

Deputy provides electronic sign-in and electronic time sheets. Additional reporting tools are provided if you upgrade to the Premium plan, which includes scheduling and timekeeping.

Payroll Integration

Deputy provides payroll integration to Gusto, Xero, and ADP, to name a few. They also provide POS integration to Square and Lightspeed. And using Zapier, you can integrate to most any third-party software you’re using, including free business software tools.

Mobile App

Deputy provides a mobile app that’s downloadable from the App Store or Google Play.

Customer Support

Deputy gives you unlimited 24/7 customer support. Unlike a physical time clock that you buy and mount on the wall, or a time card machine, you don’t have to pay for a support or service plan. Support is included.

What Deputy Is Missing

The time and attendance software includes a time clock app but doesn’t include scheduling or reporting. You have to upgrade to get those additional features (for $1 per employee per month more). And, if you want custom roles, permissions, or a custom organizational structure, you’ll need to contact their sales team and upgrade to an enterprise plan.

What Users Think About Deputy

Deputy earns consistent 5 out of 5-star reviews on third-party review sites, including ours. What users like is how much time it saves them and the fact that no employee training is needed. It’s that easy to use. Read our complete Deputy review to learn more.

How to Sign Up for Deputy

Deputy lets you sign up for a free trial with nothing more than your Google or Facebook account. No credit card is needed. Get your free trial.

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If you’re looking for more than time card machines and virtual time clocks, consider:

Alternatives to Employee Time Clocks & Time Card Machines

Bottom Line

Any of the options we reviewed would work well for a small business. If your workers are in multiple locations, and you want to avoid the expense of a time card machine in each location, consider one of the cloud-based time clock tools like Homebase or When I Work. But, if it’s a wall-mounted clock you want, consider Time-Logix TL 200, as you’ll get a great Wi-Fi biometric time clock, free and helpful ongoing support, and solid back-end management that is easy to navigate and use.

We recommend Homebase as best if you have one physical location, because it’s free for an unlimited number of employees. You also get robust scheduling options for free. The best part is that it has built-in integration with many common small business payroll providers.

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