QuickBooks Time Review: Is It the Right Time Tracker for You?

QuickBooks Time (formerly known as TSheets) is a time tracking software that enables clocking in and out, geofencing, scheduling, and project billing. It works on the web, on mobile, or with a timeclock kiosk that includes biometrics. While perfect for QuickBooks and QuickBooks Payroll users, it also integrates with other accounting, project management, and payroll programs, from ADP to Asana. Its plans range from $20–$40 per month and offers a free 30-day trial.

What We Like

• Accessible on web, mobile, kiosk
• GPS tracking, geofencing
• Integrates directly with QuickBooks accounting and payroll software

What's Missing

• Expensive
• Facial recognition requires a kiosk
• Customer service not as good since the rebrand, users say

Deciding Factors

• Multiple clock-in options, including the QuickBooks Time Kiosk, web browser, and mobile app
• Managers can access live GPS tracking or set geofence boundaries
• Also tracks expenses and mileage

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What We Recommend QuickBooks Time For

We’ve worked with, demoed, and reviewed dozens of time tracking software and have found QuickBooks Time to be an extremely versatile and easy-to-use time tracking system. Because it has so many features, it’s best for businesses with time tracking needs that go beyond simple clocking-in and clocking-out, as well as those with multiple employees. Because of its robust time tracking features, QuickBooks Time made our list of best time tracking software.

In short, QuickBooks Time is best for:

• Businesses using or planning to use QuickBooks or QuickBooks Payroll: If you use QuickBooks Accounting or Payroll, then QuickBooks Time seamlessly integrates, making budgeting, payroll, or invoicing a breeze. You don’t have to enter time data twice or upload csv files to make it work.
• Businesses with client accounts: QuickBooks makes it easy to assign hours to clients, projects, or even sub-projects for invoicing and job costing.
• Small businesses with employees in multiple or remote locations: QuickBooks lets employees clock in on the computer, laptop, or kiosk in any combination, making it a good choice for small businesses with employees who aren’t always in the office.

When QuickBooks Time Would Not Be a Good Fit

• Freelancers: Freelancers or single users will find QuickBooks has too many features they won’t use—and at a price that is just not worth it when there are time tracking solutions for freelancers and self-employed workers.
• Businesses on a budget: QuickBooks is one of the most expensive time tracking software. If you are on a limited budget and need to cut corners, there are other strong choices. Check out our top recommended free time tracking software for more affordable options.

QuickBooks Time Top Alternatives At a Glance

	Homebase	TimeTrex	When I Work
Best for	One-location businesses (with up to 20 employees) that want time tracking and scheduling tools	Businesses that require rule-based and touch-free time tracking	Startups and companies that need low-cost time and scheduling solutions
Monthly fees from	$0 per location	Custom pricing	$2 per employee
	Homebase Review	TimeTrex Review	When I Work Review

QuickBooks Time Pricing

QuickBooks Time has two plans: Premium and Elite. Each plan comes with a 30-day free trial and one administrator account. A credit card is not required for the trial.

*QuickBooks Time offers 50% off on the base fee for the first three months of service.

Want to know how much you’ll spend using QuickBooks Time? Use our online calculator to compute the estimated monthly and annual fees for your chosen plan.

QuickBooks Time Features

When you sign up for QuickBooks Time, you can take a self-guided tour, attend a hosted webinar, or both. There’s also an online help section with instructions for the setup processes. You should plan at least half an hour for initial setup, plus five to 10 minutes per employee, depending on how much you program for them (schedules, geofencing, assigning to projects, and the like).

When signing up, QuickBooks Time provides a quick tour to familiarize users with its features.

If you are getting QuickBooks Payroll Elite, the tour may be included in the setup process, as QuickBooks Time is included with that plan.

Clock In & Out

The time clock works on the web, mobile, or kiosk. Employees can see the current hours they’ve worked, the total hours for the day, and the total hours for the week. They can clock in and out with the tap of a button.

The time clock lets you switch between projects as well.

Depending on your plan and the access an employee has, they can:

• Assign hours to a project or client and switch between them with the click of a button
• Log in from a location and get directions to a work location
• Add notes
• Log breaks and lunches
• Get reminders to clock in or out when entering or leaving a location (with geofencing)
• Track mileage

If you have a kiosk set up, then you can use biometrics, such as facial recognition, to log in. This helps prevent employee fraud through buddy punching and improves security for your workplace. The kiosk software works on any iPad with iOS 8.0+ or Android tablet with OS 6.0+.

Scheduling

You can create schedules by shift, job, or task, set up recurring schedules, or create templates to use later. Schedules are sent to employees and can sync with Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook, and Google Calendar.

You can make schedules and save them as templates.

You can edit schedules with drag-and-drop shifts, color coding, locations, and notes. You can also set start and end times, assign one or multiple team members, and attach a shift to a job. Once published, you can go back and edit. You can even set up an unassigned shift and park it until you have the right employee to fill it.

Time Sheet Management

QuickBooks makes it easy to review, modify, and approve time sheets. Not only can you do it from the web or mobile, but you can access it from several parts of the program, including Who’s Working and Reports. You can manage multiple time sheets or drill down to one employee. Overtime is marked in red so you can see it quickly.

There are several ways to manage and approve time sheets.

Time sheets can be seen by day, week, month, or pay period. You have a choice of 11 fields to see, from employee time in and out to billable hours or notes. If there’s an error, you can go in and edit it right from the sheet. You can also add time sheets to a set.

Supervisor Tools

QuickBooks Time makes it convenient to manage employee time and schedules. Supervisors can clock in entire teams, manage time sheets (as noted above), and change schedules as needed (if granted permission). It’s easy to track time off, and once the overtime rules are set, they are calculated automatically, so managers can make sure they don’t overschedule someone.

However, QuickBooks Time lets them do more than that. With GPS tracking, they can see where an employee is at any time of the workday and check who is closest to a job site so the supervisor can redirect a worker if needed.

The GPS employee tracker helps supervisors manage their workforce.

Mobile App

The mobile app, QuickBooks Time Tracker, offers nearly all the same functions as the web-based application. (You’ll want to use a computer for setup and changes.) Employees have easy clock-in/out and can see their hours and location. Supervisors can clock entire teams in, track employees, schedule employees, send alerts, manage time sheets, and view reports.

As of the writing of this article, the mobile app has 4.5 out of 5 stars in the Apple App Store and 4 stars in  Google’s Play store.

Learn more about the different options for tracking employee hours for your small business.

Project Management

The project tracking functions of QuickBooks Time do more than let you assign work hours to a project. You can also set up hour estimates by project, sub-project, or task. Use these to compare against actual hours spent, help employees schedule their time, see actual progress on a project, and adjust deadlines or workloads accordingly. You can share this information with all team members, who can also add notes, such as an explanation for a delay. Finally, the data can be compiled into reports by job, tasks, or employees.

QuickBooks Time makes it easy to plan and track progress on a project.

Projects, combined with GPS tracking, helps you keep precise details on how employees spend their time. This is great not only for billing clients but for keeping compliant with commercial and government contracts that require exacting detail and audit trails.

Reports

QuickBooks Time has 11 standard reports, which you can modify by changing fields like time periods, employees, teams, projects, and more. Standard reports include:

• Approvals
• Payroll
• Project
• Team member job costing
• Wage
• Payroll hours summary by team member
• Logging and auditing
• Exports
• Tracking
• Exceptions
• Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA)—with add-on

Payroll is one of many reports QuickBooks Time offers.

You can download your reports as an Excel, CSV, or PDF file.

Integrations

Naturally, QuickBooks Time feeds seamlessly into other QuickBooks software, making it easy to run payroll, apply timeclock information to budgets, set invoices, and more. While it integrates with QuickBooks Accounting and Payroll, you do not need either to use this software.

QuickBooks Time also integrates with many third-party applications. You’ll find 27 in the app marketplace, which you can set up through the Getting Started process or add later by clicking on Features and Add-ons. However, if there are other applications you want to integrate with QuickBooks Time, you can do this through an API or QuickBooks Accounting if you have that specific accounting software.

Integrate QuickBooks Time with 27 apps.

QuickBooks Time Ease of Use

• Clear interface
• Online directions and videos
• Geofencing with reminders to clock in and out
• Elite plan includes driving directions to the worksite
• Community or live chat help

Our experts worked through QuickBooks Time when writing an article on how to use its basic functions and overall found the software easy to implement and set up. The menu is clear, the functions well laid out, and the steps clear cut for administrators as well as employees. There are help articles, demos, and live customer support.

The big issue is that the online support website is for all Intuit products, and the search doesn’t always give you the correct articles for the software. Contacting live support can be equally challenging for the same reason, and most of the recent negative user reviews are about the decline in customer service due to the switch from TSheets to QuickBooks Time.

What Users Think About QuickBooks Time

Overall, those that left QuickBooks Time reviews praise it highly, although most of the reviews are from when it was still TSheets. Unfortunately, there were more complaints about bad customer service and login issues after the rebrand. In fact, one employer said that after the rebrand, employees could not log in.

Nonetheless, most said it was easy to manage time tracking, hours worked, and time off, and the seamless integration to QuickBooks was a major plus.

• Capterra: 4.7 out of 5 based on 5,550+ reviews
• G2: 4.5 out of 5 based on about 1,400+ reviews
• TrustRadius: 6.7 out of 10 based on 260+ reviews

Bottom Line

If you need to keep track of employee hours across multiple projects or locations, QuickBooks Time can get the job done. It works for web, mobile, or kiosk; offers job assignments and GPS tracking; and makes it easy to schedule employees and approve time sheets. Reports give excellent insight into project progress and budgeting, and it integrates not only with QuickBooks but a multitude of other software. Sign up for a QuickBooks Time and try it free for 30 days.

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