QuickBooks Time is a cloud-based time tracking solution designed to streamline workforce management for businesses of varying sizes, automating payroll, invoicing, and job costing. It integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks Online and is compatible with QuickBooks Desktop for Windows via the Web Connector tool, although it lacks direct integration with QuickBooks Desktop for Mac. The system is available in Premium and Elite tiers, with the Elite plan adding crucial features for field teams, such as project estimates versus actuals comparison and geofencing. Employees use the QuickBooks Workforce app to track time, utilizing GPS and the photo-capturing Time Kiosk for accountability, which helps minimize errors and boost billable time. While the service is highly rated and offers bundled savings with QuickBooks Payroll, companies should note the separate pricing structure (a base fee plus a per-user fee) and the need for specific integration workarounds for Desktop versions.
Highlights (Key Facts & Solutions)
- Core Function and Integration: QuickBooks Time is a time tracking tool that integrates with both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop for Windows. Integration with Desktop requires the QuickBooks Web Connector utility. It does not support direct integration with QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.
- Pricing Structure (QuickBooks Time Only): The service follows a tiered structure:
- Premium: Base fee ($20/month) + $8 per user per month.
- Elite: Base fee ($40/month) + $10 per user per month.
Note: Introductory promotional discounts (e.g., 50% off for 3 months) are frequently offered.
- Elite Features: The Elite tier provides advanced functionality crucial for project management and mobile workforces, including:
- Project estimates vs. actuals comparison.
- Mileage tracking.
- Timesheet signatures.
- Geofencing reminders to clock in/out.
- Mobile App Functionality (QuickBooks Workforce): This is the employee-facing app used for clocking in/out, submitting PTO, and viewing schedules. If the company uses QuickBooks Payroll, W-2 employees can also access pay stubs and W-2s via this app.
- Contractor Limitation: The QuickBooks Workforce app allows 1099 contractors to track their time, but does not provide them access to view their pay information within the app.
- Accountability Tool: The Time Kiosk feature is designed for central, on-site clocking (typically on a tablet or desktop). It prevents “buddy punching” by requiring a photo capture during clock-in and clock-out if the setting is enabled.
- Savings and Efficiency: Integrating time tracking with payroll has been reported by users to save up to 2 hours on every payroll run and reduce overall payroll costs by up to $4\%$.
Understanding QuickBooks Time Tracking
For small businesses, managing teams, scheduling tasks, tracking employees’ hours, handling payroll, invoicing, and ensuring efficient project management can be tough tasks. QuickBooks Time reduces manual data entry and streamlines payroll processing, which saves both time and money.
QuickBooks Time is cloud-based time-tracking software that automates regular time, overtime, double overtime, and workers’ time off. It seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks Online, which ensures smooth accounting processes.
QuickBooks Time can be accessed via a web dashboard or the QuickBooks Workforce app on Android and iOS mobile devices. It features time tracking, payroll integrations, and customizable reports that help with workforce management.
How Does QuickBooks Time Work?
QuickBooks Time simplifies time tracking, enhances workforce management, and integrates seamlessly with other QuickBooks products. Once the QuickBooks Time app is linked to your QuickBooks Online subscription, you can initiate the customization process. This entails:
Time Tracking: Employees use the QuickBooks Time mobile app or web interface to clock in and out. They can also track time spent on specific tasks, projects, or clients. The app captures GPS location for accurate time tracking.
Scheduling and Shift Management: Managers create schedules, assign shifts, and notify employees in QuickBooks Time. Employees receive shift alerts and can accept or decline shifts. Real-time visibility helps avoid overstaffing or gaps.
Job Costing: With QuickBooks Time, you can assign labor costs to specific jobs or projects, track hours worked, and allocate costs accurately. You can also generate reports for better project management.
Payroll Integration: QuickBooks Time syncs seamlessly with QuickBooks Payroll. Employee hours, overtime, and paid time off (PTO) data flow directly into payroll. Eliminates manual data entry and reduces errors.
Invoicing and Billing: Billable hours are automatically calculated based on tracked time. You can generate invoices directly from the app, improving accuracy and streamlining client billing.
Reporting and Insights: Access real-time reports on employee hours, project progress, and costs. Make informed decisions for resource allocation. Gain insights into workforce productivity.
QuickBooks Time Subscription and Pricing
QuickBooks Time offers flexible plans designed to streamline time management for small businesses. It offers two pricing tiers: Premium and Elite, both of which include a generous 30-day free trial.
| Plan | Base Fee | User Fee | Features |
| Premium | $20/month | $8/user/month | Workforce mobile appStreamlined payroll and invoicingJob and shift schedulingCustomized reportsSee who’s workingTime off managementAlerts and notificationsPhoto attachmentTime kioskUnlimited customer support |
| Elite | $40/month | $10/user/month | Workforce mobile appAll Premium BenefitsMileage trackingTrack project progress to planProject estimates vs actualsProject activity feedTimesheet signaturesGeofencing |
QuickBooks Time provides simple solutions to meet your time tracking needs, whether you’re managing a small business, a mid-size company, or a freelancer.
QuickBooks Time offers special pricing for companies with over 50 users. However, it does not offer any discount for annual payments. Here’s what you need to know about their plans:
Administrator Role: All plans come with one administrator role. This person manages everything related to time tracking.
Additional Admins: If you need more administrators, QuickBooks Time will charge you extra fees.
Manager Permissions: Managers can track, edit, and approve time, but they don’t have scheduling permissions.
Note: QuickBooks Time offers a 30-day free trial and requires no credit card to use QuickBooks Time Software
Benefits of Using QuickBooks Time Software
QuickBooks Time helps businesses with efficient tools, making workforce management smoother and more effective. It is a time-tracking software designed to streamline employee time management.
Here are some of its key benefits:
- Efficient Payroll: You can upload timesheets directly to your accounting software, which makes payroll processing quick and hassle-free.
- Real-Time Tracking: Employees can clock in and out in real-time, manually enter their hours, and utilize advanced features to customize time entries for different fields, projects, and tasks.
- Mobile Accessibility: QuickBooks Time mobile app allows remote workforces to track time and locations using their smartphones.
- Payroll Approvals Made Easy: Employees can review and submit timesheets, which simplifies the payroll approval process.
- Smart Reminders: Each employee can set up reminders for clocking in or out, even during lunch breaks.
- Scheduling Board: Dispatch employees to different jobs efficiently using the scheduling board.
- Who’s on the Clock: On the clock allows owners to see the employee’s status. Whether they are on the clock, on a break, off the clock but worked earlier today, or off the clock and didn’t work today.
Why QuickBooks Time is Best For Mobile WorkForces
QuickBooks Workforce app is specifically designed for QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets). It serves as a centralized platform where teams can conveniently view pay information and track time.
Employees can access pay stubs, clock in and out, submit paid time off requests and manage job schedules. Employers can approve timesheets, monitor work status, and track vacation accruals. The app streamlines payroll processes, integrates with other software, and provides detailed time logs for labor disputes and audits.
The QuickBooks Workforce mobile app lets businesses manage employee hours, schedules, and paychecks all in one place. Companies using QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks Online Payroll can now seamlessly manage W-2 forms and paychecks using this app.
If you’re a QuickBooks Time admin, you’ll need to adjust some settings and permissions to ensure your team can use the QuickBooks Workforce app. While contractors can’t view their pay information on the app, they can still track their time.
Features in QuickBooks Time Desktop
QuickBooks Time is a time-tracking software that brings changes in how businesses manage their work hours.
Whether you’re a small business owner or part of a large enterprise, QuickBooks Time offers essential features to streamline your operations:
- Job Scheduling: QuickBooks Time allows one to plan and set multiple schedules, which reduces the manual work. Business owners can create and assign jobs and set alerts to notify workers of new jobs. It makes the work easier for owners to view employee locations, communicate start times, and update job information in real time.
- Time Kiosk: It is a tablet-based digital punch clock that has enabled a photo capture feature. It can help in tracking working hours on the same device. Regardless of location, owners can manage on-site attendance with a digital punch clock.
- GPS & Geofencing: With GPS mileage tracking, you can see and calculate travel expenses and easily file taxes and reimburse them. Business owners can easily track with GPS tracking which employee is nearest to the next job site and notify them of the next task. It can help manage a remote or mobile workforce on the go.
- Project Time tracking: Time tracking in a project lets you know how much time employees are spending on the same project. It also gives an easy-to-view chart through which you can compare budgeted hours to actual hours during and after you complete a project.
- Alerts and Approvals: QuickBooks Time helps you to create and manage schedules for employees and send them notifications about shift changes. You can customize notifications to notify employees with alerts and push notifications.
- Timesheet Calculator: This feature allows you to track and analyze employee work hours, overtime, vacation days, and even lunch breaks to get an overview of employees’ performance. Reducing the manual work and automating the work hour calculation process.
- Timesheet Templates: Timesheet Templates enable you to choose between your daily, weekly, monthly, and even industry-specific templates to keep track of everything. You can also add tables and charts for reporting and keep track of employees’ hours to ensure they get paid correctly.
- Shift Scheduling: Managers can copy and paste employee shifts with the QuickBooks Time scheduling app. It helps to keep the workforce running smoothly whether you have rotational or fixed shifts. You can even set shift reminders to send alerts through push notifications.
- PTO Tracking: PTO is a time-off tracker available in QuickBooks Time, which lets you customize paid and unpaid time-off policies. This feature enables management of employees’ leave and vacations with ease and avoids manual or paperwork.
- Who’s Working: QuickBooks Time lets you track your employees’ work lives. Unlike old-fashioned paper timesheets, it shows you who’s working and what they’re up to, all in real time. Plus, it even has GPS tracking to keep everyone accountable.
QuickBooks Online Payroll and Time Tracking
QuickBooks Time Online Payroll is a comprehensive solution that combines time tracking, payroll management, and human resources (HR) functionalities. This integration streamlines payroll processing by eliminating manual time entry and reducing errors.
QuickBooks Time provides accurate tax calculations for payroll. It handles payroll taxes, ensuring compliance and accuracy. You can pay your team via direct deposit, and the system supports same-day deposits. The pricing plan includes a 30-day 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
The QuickBooks Online Payroll Premium bundle charges $8 for every user on per month basis, along with a base fee of $75 per employee per month.
The QuickBooks Online Payroll Premium + Simple Start bundle costs $8 per user per month, along with a base fee of $105 per employee per month.
QuickBooks Time Integration
QuickBooks Time integrates with multiple payroll and accounting software, allowing you to export hours worked for payroll, invoicing, and job costing quickly and easily.
With QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, Advanced, Accountant, or QuickBooks Online Payroll Premium or Elite, your team members can track time with QuickBooks Time. This integration allows you to import timesheets from QuickBooks Time to other third-party software for invoicing and labor costing.
The integration allows the QuickBooks Workforce mobile app to access employee time data. It’s the only time tracker that works inside QuickBooks.
QuickBooks Time integrates with any QuickBooks Desktop account except for QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.
QuickBooks Time’s Ratings from Different Sites
This table is according to October 2024โฆ
| Top Rated Sites | Ratings |
| G2 | 4.5/5โญ |
| SoftwareAdvice | 4.7/5โญ |
| TrustRadius: | 6.8/10โญ |
| Capterra | 4.7/5โญ |
| GetApp: | 4.7/5โญ |
| Play Store | 4.5/5โญ |
| App Store | 4.6/5โญ |
What is the Best Feature of QuickBooks Time?
QuickBooks Time excels at tracking employees’ physical locations, especially if you’re also using QuickBooks.
It is evident that the product was developed with that core in mind. After that, there is a layer of scheduling, time tracking, and payroll interfaces. If you require this set of features, the solution is robust and reliable.
What’s the Worst Part About QuickBooks Time?
It’s not as good as it once was, or rather, the competition has quickly caught up. Numerous reports of the mobile app’s instability, poor user experience, poor customer service, and comparatively high cost make it much more difficult to defend using QuickBooks Time.
Final Words
QuickBooks Time, also known as QuickBooks Timesheets, is a time-tracking tool for managing work progress. It simplifies business processes by allowing businesses to monitor employee working hours, schedule shifts, and track project progress.
QuickBooks Time streamlines time management with features like employee scheduling, job costing, and integrated payroll and invoicing. Whether accessed via smartphone, tablet, desktop, or laptop, it saves stakeholders time and money.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does QuickBooks Time integrate with the desktop version of QuickBooks, or only QuickBooks Online?
QuickBooks Time is designed to integrate with both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. The integration process for QuickBooks Desktop requires using the QuickBooks Web Connector tool to sync data between the two applications.
Crucially, while QuickBooks Time integrates with QuickBooks Desktop for Windows, it does not officially support direct integration with QuickBooks Desktop for Mac. This is a key distinction for Mac users considering the software.
Can QuickBooks Time track project costs and compare estimated time versus actual time spent?
Yes, the Elite subscription tier of QuickBooks Time includes advanced project management and job costing features. This allows users to:
- Track time against specific projects and jobs.
- View a project activity feed.
- Generate reports that specifically compare project estimates versus actuals (hours and costs), which is vital for managing project profitability and adjusting resources.
What is the QuickBooks Workforce app, and how is it different from the main QuickBooks Time dashboard?
The QuickBooks Workforce app is the centralized mobile platform for employees and contractors to manage their time and pay details, while the web dashboard is primarily for administrators and managers.
Employee Functions (Workforce App):
- Clocking in and out, even without Wi-Fi.
- Submitting and tracking paid time off (PTO).
- Accessing pay stubs, W-2s, and other pay information (for W-2 employees).
- Editing timesheets and managing job schedules.
- Using GPS location-based time tracking.
Administrator/Manager Functions (Web Dashboard & Admin View):
- Approving, editing, or deleting timesheets.
- Seeing who is working and their real-time location.
- Scheduling by job or shift.
- Setting up geofences (Elite plan).
- Overseeing team productivity and project status.
Are there any known issues or drawbacks a user should be aware of before purchasing QuickBooks Time?
While QuickBooks Time is a robust platform, some users report ongoing issues related to app performance and the complexity of support. The most frequently cited user pain points include:
- Mobile app synchronization issues (e.g., if battery-saver mode is on or the app is closed in the background).
- Errors when attempting to clock in or out (e.g., if time is already submitted or approved).
- General concerns regarding the product’s comparatively high cost versus newer competitors.
If my company has over 50 users, how does the pricing structure change, and are there annual payment discounts?
For companies requiring services for over 50 users, QuickBooks generally requires direct contact with their sales team to negotiate custom, enterprise-level pricing.
Regarding standard pricing and discounts:
- Subscription Model: QuickBooks Time uses a combined model of a Base Fee plus a per-User Fee (e.g., Premium: $20/month base + $8/user/month).
- Annual Discount: While the main QuickBooks Online subscriptions often offer substantial promotional discounts for initial annual sign-ups (e.g., 50% off for 3 months), the core QuickBooks Time service often does not offer a public discount for choosing an annual payment option over monthly payments. Pricing is subject to change by Intuit.
What is the Time Kiosk feature, and how does it prevent “buddy punching?”
The Time Kiosk is a digital punch clock software designed to run on a single, stationary device (like a tablet or desktop) in a central location. It helps prevent “buddy punching” (where one coworker clocks in for another) by utilizing a mandatory photo capture feature.
How it works:
- An administrator enables the “Require Photo on Clock In/Out” setting.
- The employee enters a unique PIN to clock in or out.
- The device’s camera captures a photo of the employee at that moment, creating a verifiable, time-stamped visual record attached to the timesheet.
Does the QuickBooks Workforce app allow 1099 contractors to view their pay information?
No. The primary function of the QuickBooks Workforce app is to serve as a hub for W-2 employees to view pay stubs, W-2s, and detailed payroll information when the company uses QuickBooks Payroll.
- Contractors can use the app for time tracking.
- Contractors cannot view their pay information within the Workforce app. The system handles 1099 tracking and filing separately to comply with IRS regulations for independent contractors.
Disclaimer: The information outlined above for โQuickBooks Time Review 2025 – Details, Pricing, & Featuresโ is applicable to all supported versions, including QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, Accountant, and Enterprise. It is designed to work with operating systems such as Windows 7, 10, and 11, as well as macOS.