Best Employee Time Clocks for Employers in 2021

Employee time clocks help track when employees are working or on break. There are time card machines that work for just one location and newer online employee time clock systems that provide flexibility. Online systems are just a few dollars a month per employee. We considered both types of employee time clocks for ease of use and time-saving compliance features.

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 newer digital time clocks that allow staff to clock in through a website or app. We prioritized time clocks that are relatively low cost, top-rated by users, and easy to set up and use.

Some of the time clocks we evaluate automatically push data to 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 online time clock for its flexibility and low cost. It’s free for one location with unlimited employees when using an internet-connected or mobile device for employees to sign in for their shift. Sign up so that your employees can start using the mobile app for free today.

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Homebase: Best Overall Time Clock for Small Businesses

Homebase provides the best overall time clock software in spite of being free. Its online employee time clock works on any kiosk, tablet, or smartphone used at one location. It provides top-notch timekeeping (and employee scheduling) but adds so much more.

It is ideal for companies looking for a feature-rich online time clock that will reduce scheduling errors and allow smooth payroll processing. It’s best for businesses that have one physical location, like a restaurant or retail store.

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Homebase Pricing*

• Basic: It is free and its features include a timeclock, mobile application, time sheets, staff scheduling, team communication, reports, dedicated support, and integrations.
• Essentials: At $19.95 per month, it has all the basic features plus geofencing and health and safety screening.
• Plus: This costs $49.95 per month with all Essentials features, plus time-off policies, and labor cost controls.
• All-in-One: At $99.95 per month, aside from Plus features it also has API access, Job Posting Boost, Onboarding and Document Storage, and HR Pro Advisers and Resources. Excluding API access, the last three features can also be purchased separately for a fee ($49–$99).

*Annual pricing is also offered for all plans.

Homebase Features

• Time Reporting: Employees can either use a tablet, laptop, computer kiosk, or download and use the free mobile time clock app using their smartphone to clock-in/out at worksites.
• Payroll Integration: It has free payroll integration with a lot of payroll software like Gusto. It also saves time and reduces data entry errors.
• Mobile App: This is used by managers and administrators to schedule employee shifts, approve time, and send text messages to staff. 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: It has a 24/7 email, phone, and live online chat support.

Homebase is our top recommended virtual time clock.

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 the web app works great.

What Users Think About Homebase

On third-party review sites, Homebase receives solid ratings. Managers like the flexibility of being able to view manager notes and adjust time card entries from their smartphones. Employees like being able to access and request schedule changes. Some don’t appreciate that while in-app messaging is free, it costs to send text messages.

Timelogix TL200: Best Wall-Mounted Time Clock

Timelogix TL200 fingerprint (biometric) time clock is the best employee time clock for small businesses that prefer a wall-mounted time card machine in lieu of a software app. It 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 iOS systems.

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Timelogix TL200 Pricing

Timelogix charges $299 for the time clock hardware. After purchasing it, users can select a monthly cloud subscription plan depending on the number of employees.

Timelogix TL200 Pricing Chart

Timelogix TL200 Features

• Time Keeping: Timelogix’s cloud-based time clocks enable employees to clock-in/out using a PIN code, compatible RFID badge, or fingerprint scanning that prevents employees from buddy punching.
• Scheduling: Gives you the ability to create different shifts.
• Job costing: Monitors jobs and project labor costs by using job codes.
• Online timesheets: Lets your employees allocate time spent by job code.
• Payroll Integration: It integrates well with payroll providers like QuickBooks, ADP, and Paychex, including other providers like Sage, Heartland, Wells Fargo, and Paychoice.
• Mobile App: With Timelogix’s mobile app, you can use geolocation and geofencing to manage your employee data and decide where and when employees can clock-in or out.
• Reports: Timelogix TL200 has a solid reporting system with over 30 report options. Administrators can also access employee data anywhere, anytime making payroll processing easier.
• Customer Support: Phone and live chat support is available Mondays to Fridays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time. One-year initial tech support is also available for free.

Timelogix fingerprint time clocks are available in white and black.

What Timelogix TL200 Is Missing

Each year following the first 12 months, you’ll have to pay $149 per year, similar to what Icon Time and Compumatic (to be discussed later) charge for their annual add-on service packages. However, with Timelogix, you must pay that fee to keep using the software; with the other two (Icon Time and Compumatic), it’s optional. Timelogix also lacks tools to track employee PTO unless you upgrade.

What Users Think About Timelogix TL200

As a company, Timelogix receives great reviews. You’ll also find positive feedback on third-party review sites like eBay and Amazon, where Timelogix time clocks are sold.

When I Work: Best App for Complex Scheduling

When I Work provides a cloud-based time clock app with reports to let you track tardiness as well as security to eliminate buddy punching. It also manages your employee attendance. Its scheduling features are a huge value-add over traditional time card machines and are great for companies with complex scheduling and time-tracking needs in industries like healthcare or in businesses like construction where employees work off-site.

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When I Work Pricing

• Free: This is for simple scheduling and communication for a single team or location with up to 75 users. It has team scheduling, messaging, and availability along with shift trading, time-off requests, schedule templates, and open shift management.
• Basic: It costs $1.50 per user, per month with all the Free features plus 10+ day scheduling, multiple locations and schedules, remote job sites, and overtime visibility.
• Pro: This costs $2.25 per user, per month with all Basic features and auto scheduling, shift and team task lists, shift bidding, document storage, labor reports, and flexible self-scheduling.
• Enterprise: It has all Pro features plus access to API, single sign-on (SSO), global privacy, custom integrations, labor insights, dedicated account manager, and personalized implementation. Its pricing is customized.

Aside from the regular plans, you can also avail of its other products:

• Time Clock and Attendance: At $2 per user, per month you can also use its payroll integration (ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks, Paychex, and others), early clock in prevention, kiosk clock, mobile clock with GPS, scheduling versus actual labor cost reporting, overtime alerts, auto-deduct unpaid breaks, clock-in/out reminders, custom time sheet export, and photo clock-in.
• Applicant Tracking and Sourcing: At $50 per month, you can post an unlimited number of jobs at Indeed, Facebook Jobs, and Google Jobs, track applicants, and create custom screener questions.

When I Work Features

• Time reporting: Employees can clock-in/out using their phones, tablet, laptop, or PC. You’ll also be able to track their location using your mobile GPS.
• Payroll integration: Export employee time sheets and process payroll quickly with integrations to your payroll provider like Gusto, Paychex, ADP, and QuickBooks.
• Mobile app: It lets employees clock in and out and notify them in case they forget to do it. Managers and administrators can use it to approve time, prepare files to upload to payroll, and check in to see if employees clocked in or out as scheduled.
• Digital time sheets: You can save time sheet data and even record changes.
• Labor distribution reports: You can manage your labor costs and audit your time records in real time.
• Early clock in prevention: You can enforce the work schedule with the time clock to keep labor costs down.
• Customer support: When I Work offers support seven days a week via online chat and email. It’s available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time weekdays, with weekend support from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

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

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

We found that When I Work’s top-notch ratings on third-party software review sites are partially due to users liking the interface and self-service options for employees. The reviews are on par with Homebase, although some would like more role-based permissions.

Icon Time TotalPass P400: Best for Multiple Departments’ Time-Tracking

Icon Time TotalPass P400 is best for businesses with up to 25 employees or with many departments because the base price includes support for up to 25 people which can eventually be expanded to 250 users. It also supports up to 32 departments—far more than most small businesses need. If you plan to segment your operation into many departments, it’s a solid option.

The other main advantage the Icon Time TotalPass has over others is that you can have as many administrators as you want to access your back-end system.

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Icon Time TotalPass P400 Pricing

The Icon Time TotalPass P400 costs $299 to $399 depending on where you buy it. This typically includes the time clock, 15-foot USB and Ethernet cables, 10-25 RFID badges, 30 days of technical support to help you set up, and a one-year manufacturer warranty.

Additional costs may include:

• Technical support: $149 per year (beyond the initial 30-day period)
• Insurance plan: $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 Time TotalPass P400 Features

• Time Reporting: It 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 card machine. Additionally, you can also access the time clock software via web browser.
• Payroll Integration: Icon integrates with the big payroll providers, specifically QuickBooks, ADP, SurePayroll, and Paychex. It also exports data via CSV, which most accounting and payroll software can import.
• Web-based interface: You can access this remotely as an administrator. GPS verification using a smartphone or tablet makes it easy to track remote and mobile employees.
• Reports: Timecard and attendance only.
• Employee capacity: Up to 25 employees but expandable to 250 users.
• Customer Support: Phone support is offered Monday to Friday from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time. Icon also has an online ticket-based support system. The first 30 days’ help is for free, but an additional $149 per year for ongoing support is required.

Icon Time TotalPass P400

What Icon Time TotalPass P400 Is Missing

The main downside to Icon’s system is that its reporting is pretty basic with only four standard reports available. It’s also not the most intuitive system to set up. Also, there is no biometric fingerprint option like there is with Timelogix. Plus, you only get 30 days of support for free.

What Users Think About Icon Time 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.

Deputy: Best for Restaurants & Retail With POS Integration

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

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.

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Deputy Pricing

Deputy provides multiple pricing plans that start at $2.50 per employee, per month for time and attendance. It includes employee scheduling, meal and rest planning, payroll and POS integrations, leave management, open API, custom time sheet fields, tasking, performance and journaling, and a newsfeed. Monthly plans let you cancel anytime. However, if you choose an annual plan, you’ll get an 11% discount.

Deputy Features

• Time clock: Track time and attendance online with geolocation capture and biometric facial recognition.
• Performance and journaling: You can keep your employees motivated with regular performance feedback.
• Payroll and POS integration: Deputy provides payroll integration to Gusto, Xero, and ADP, to name a few. It also offers 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: It is downloadable from the App Store and Google Play and makes it easy for you to communicate with your staff as well as allow them to clock in via cellphone.
• Custom time sheet fields: You can customize time sheets to suit your business or simply manage mileage, tips, custom attestation, and more.
• Open API: Build your connected business with our Open API and extensive integration partner network.
• Leave management: Tracking and managing your employees’ leave entitlements is easy with Deputy.
• Customer support: Deputy gives you unlimited 24/7 customer support.

Deputy time clock on a tablet used as a kiosk

What Deputy Is Missing

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

What Users Think About Deputy

Users consistently give Deputy 5 star reviews (5 out of 5-stars) on third-party review sites. 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.

Compumatic XLS 21: Best Low-Cost Time Clock

The Compumatic XLS 21 is a physical wall-mounted virtual time clock that can accommodate unlimited departments. It also comes with 90 days of free software support and has a good reporting system.

Compumatic XLS 21 is best for growing companies needing a time clock with all the basic functions at a low price. It can accommodate unlimited departments. It’s also perfect for a small startup that doesn’t want to pay a monthly fee and needs to track who is on-site throughout the day.

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Compumatic XLS 21 Pricing

Compumatic XLS 21 costs about $240. 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 Time only provides 10).

The downside is that Compumatic has other upcharges:

• Additional employees: $50 per year for 25 or $450 per year for unlimited employees
• Professional software version: $99 per year (if you want features like shift management, rounding rules, and overtime overrides)
• Technical support: $149 per year (after the first 90 days)
• Additional user licenses: $150 per year for each additional administrator

Compumatic XLS 21 Features

• Time reporting: Compumatic offers RFID badges. Users can also clock in and out with a PIN code.
• Payroll integration: It integrates with payroll service providers like QuickBooks, ADP, and Paychex, as well as Millennium Payroll. That prevents you from having to manually re-key your timecards.
• Employee capacity: It has a 25 employee capacity standard, but it can be upgraded any time to 50, 100, 250, or unlimited.
• Pay periods: It supports weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly pay periods.
• Unlimited punches per day: Employees can clock in and out as many times as needed.
• Unlimited departments: You can grow from a few departments to 100, without having to pay extra.
• Overtime calculation: Employers can calculate overtime daily or weekly.
• Gross wage calculations: Figures employee hourly pay before taxes are deducted.
• Shift rule available with the following settings: In and out revision zones to control, unauthorized overtime, punch rounding, and automatic lunch deduction.
• Customer support: This is available from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time; there’s also a 24/7 answering service that can assist with basic issues after hours.

What Compumatic XLS 21 Is Missing

Compumatic is not as easy to program as the other two physical time clocks, Timelogix and Icon Time. In addition, there’s no mobile app and no after-hours support. Further, your costs can add up quickly if you want ongoing support, upgraded software, or multiple licenses (to set it up on more than one computer).

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. Some users report it’s a bit more complicated to set up than other systems. We don’t yet have our own review of this particular time clock.

Tick: Best for Firms Tracking Billable Hours Against Projects

Tick is an online time clock that allows users to clock in and out. It works on web browsers, desktops, and mobile devices. Its webpages are secure (SSL), and you can have an unlimited number of clients and employees.

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 the work that was done.

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Tick Pricing

Tick’s pricing isn’t based on the number of workers you have but on the number of projects that users are logging their time against. Tick offers one free project and unlimited projects for $149 per 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 Options for Small Business

Tick Features

• Timecard: It lets users log entries like the project, task, and time in. You can even type notes for any additional instructions or notices.
• Mobile app: It 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.
• Budget tracking: Every submission of a time entry, Tick updates your project and task budgets in real time and reports it back to you. This feature helps you manage productivity and operating costs.
• Payroll integration: Aside from Basecamp, Tick also offers over 750 integrations with third-party applications, including QuickBooks Payroll and FreshBooks.
• Customer support: Tick provides email support.

Tick timecard showing time tracked by project and task.

What Tick Is Missing

Various users complained that you have to close out the timers each day 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

Our research shows that Tick user reviews are 4 to 5 out of 5 stars on third-party review sites. Users love the intuitive app and how easy it is to track their time. Some don’t like having to enter time in decimal units but otherwise, there’s little negative feedback.

Toggl Track: Best Employee Time Clock for Five or Fewer Employees

Toggl Track is a cloud-based time tracking solution that lets business owners manage and record their employees’ time spent on specific tasks. You can track time in just one click whether you are using the web, desktop, mobile app, or even a browser extension and all data will be updated across all devices in real time. It also integrates with your calendar applications to convert events or meetings into time entries.

Toggl Track is best for really small businesses because it’s free to use with five or fewer employees. It lets you track time by activity and assign it to different projects boosting productivity. Toggl Track should work for all your business needs if you’re a small employer or a freelancer.

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Toggl Track Pricing*

• Free: It has basic online time tracking and reporting features that are best for freelancers and small companies with less than five employees. It also includes auto-tracker, idle detection, import and export of data, 100+ integrations, and a Pomodoro Timer.
• Starter: At $10 per employee, per month, apart from everything in Free, this plan includes billable rates, time rounding, saved reports, time estimates, tasks, project templates, and calendar integration.
• Premium: It has all of Starter’s features plus time tracking reminders, scheduled reports, insights, time audit, project and admin dashboards, add and lock time entries, as well as required fields for just $20 per employee, per month.
• Enterprise: It includes everything in Premium plus priority support, expert training and assistance, and customizable solutions for an unlimited number of users. Its pricing is customized.

*Annual pricing is also offered for all plans.

Toggl Track Features

• Time reporting: You can track work hours with its one-click timer for multiple gadgets, background tracking, calendar integration, or auto tracker.
• Payroll integration: Toggl interfaces with FreshBooks and QuickBooks for accounting, along with over 100 other business tools. And, you can download timecard data into a CSV file in order to upload it to your payroll provider.
• Toggl Track Reports: With Toggl, you’ll also get visual reports that let you see who’s working on what. Plus, you’ll have access to budgeting tools, similar to Tick.
• Mobile app: Toggl Track has a mobile app that you can sync with over 100 web tools and browser extensions. For example, you can start and end your timer from Google Chrome and link it to projects using tools like Basecamp or Asana.
• Customer support: The Toggl Track customer support page has the best self-help options of all the time clocks we 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.

Toggl Track screenshot showing dashboard features

Emplotime: Best for Businesses With International or Remote Staff

Emplotime is a virtual time clock that adjusts to the time zone of your workers—whether they’re in multiple US time zones or overseas. If you have employees who work outside the US, it may be the best time clock system to use. The company is based out of Israel and can be used in 26 countries.

Emplotime has all of the time clock features a small or mid-sized business would need. The way it works is that you start with a basic setup and then activate any features you want to use.

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Emplotime Pricing

Emplotime has the lowest per-employee cost of all the cloud-based options we reviewed. It’s about $1 per employee per month. Its different plans are based on company size; for example, if you have 20 employees, it costs $20 a month. If you have $100 employees, it’s $100 a month. In addition, you don’t need a contract, so you just pay monthly.

Emplotime Features

• Time reporting: Employees can clock in on a PC with the software installed. However, if you take the time to set it up for them in advance, they can clock in and out on their own mobile device.
• Payroll integration: Emplotime doesn’t have any standard interfaces to payroll systems. Nonetheless, you can export your 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.
• Emplotime reports: Emplotime provides five standard reports that you can customize by adding fields. Reports can be downloaded to Microsoft Word or PDF format as well.
• Leave management: It has vacation and leave tracking.
• 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: Free 24/7 via email; reps try to respond in less than an hour. In addition, they’re dedicated to adding new features that their users request.

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

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 Track do. And not having a direct payroll or accounting interface means you’ll have a few more steps to perform each pay period to move the data from Emplotime to your other systems.

What Users Think About Emplotime

We found that Emplotime earns top-notch reviews from third-party review sites from business customers who find it easy to administer and use. However, our own small business users haven’t chimed in to share their thoughts yet.

Tanda: Best Time Clock App for Businesses Trying To Stop Time Theft

Tanda’s employee time clock system is best for preventing employees from stealing time because it takes a picture when an employee 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 that it refers to as a “roster.”

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 directly from the time clock. It integrates with payroll and lets you export data with one click.

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Tanda Pricing

• Basic: This plan has only custom employee onboarding.
• Business: Aside from what is included in Basic, this plan has online rostering, fair work compliance, employee time clock app, live wage tracking, manager/ employee mobile app, payroll and POS integrations, and multiple custom EBAs.
• Enterprise: This plan has all the Business features plus custom permissions and on-site training.

*Pricing is only available upon request.

Tanda Features

Tanda is not project-focused like Tick and Toggl; it has features more in line with a traditional employee time card machine. However, Tanda adds nice 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 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. It provides a one-click data transfer, with a two-way interface. Best of all, it integrates with international payroll software too.
• Auto-approval of time sheets: Time sheet data are verified by matching it with the roster and will then be automatically approved.
• 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. That prevents your workers from queuing up at the time clock during shift changes.
• Customer support: Phone, email, online chat, and web-based customer support. It has an office in the US, however, its support team is based in Brisbane, Australia. When you use the text chat in the US, you’ll likely receive a response that says, “Tanda typically replies in a few hours.”

Employee clocking in using Tanda

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 US 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 its solid online reviews. Users like the interface, the support they get, and the low price. However, even though we have a Tanda review, few have chimed in to let us know how it works for their small business.

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 timecard 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 Timelogix TL200, as you’ll get a great Wi-Fi biometric time clock, free and helpful ongoing support, and solid back-end tools easy to navigate and use.