7 Best Time Tracking Apps For Contractors In 2026

Most contractors juggle multiple clients, job sites, and crews. When hours are tracked on paper, WhatsApp or spreadsheets, it becomes almost impossible to know which project is profitable and which one is leaking money.

Surveys show that around 33% of employees admit to committing some form of time theft (WorkStatus).
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Another study found that manual time tracking can cause businesses to lose about 20% of their billable hours (CloudCoach, citing Tribes.AI).

For independent contractors, subcontractors, and small contracting businesses, that is the difference between a healthy margin and working at a loss.

This guide explains what contractors should look for in a time tracking app, compares five leading contractor timesheet apps, and shows how a tool like Truein can help you plug leaks across multiple sites and crews.
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Key Takeaways

• Contractor time tracking apps help you track hours by project, client and task, then convert them into accurate payroll and invoices.
• Look for GPS time clocks, mobile apps, offline mode, approvals and integrations with payroll and accounting tools.
• Apps like Truein focus on field crews, subcontractors and job-site compliance, while others are better for professional services or back-office teams.
• Time tracking for contractors is different from full construction time tracking software, which usually covers project management, budgets and equipment.
• Choosing the right contractor timesheet app can reduce payroll errors, stop time theft, and give you real-time visibility into labour costs.

What Contractors Need From Time Tracking Apps

Contractors, subcontractors, and field service businesses need more than a simple stopwatch. They need a contractor time tracking app that works on remote job sites, supports multiple clients and crews, and keeps labour costs connected to every project.

Ata  minimum, a workforce time tracking tool for contractors should offer:

• Mobile and GPS Tracking: Accurate clock-ins from phones with GPS pins at job sites.
• Job And Task Codes: Hours linked to specific jobs, tasks or cost codes for better job costing.
• Billable Hours and Invoicing: Easy conversion of approved timesheets into invoices.
• Approvals and Audit Trails: Supervisor approvals, edit history and audit logs.
• Offline Mode: Time tracking even when connectivity is poor, with automatic sync later.
• Payroll and Accounting Integrations: Clean exports to systems like QuickBooks, Tally, Sage or your payroll software.

Researchers estimate that time theft affects around 75% of businesses and can consume roughly 1.5% to 5% of gross payroll (American Payroll Association via TimeDock and Benpor).

For contractors operating on tight margins, even a small error in labour tracking can wipe out profit on a job. A good contractor time tracking app makes it easy for crews to clock in correctly while giving you clear control from the office.

7 Best Time Tracking Apps For Contractors

There are dozens of apps in the market. For this list, we focused on tools that:

• Support contractors, subcontractors or independent professionals.
• Offer mobile time tracking and clear reporting.
• Provide features relevant to job-based work, not just desk-based teams.

1. Truein

Truein is a contractor time tracking app designed for organisations that manage contract workers and field crews across multiple locations. It uses selfie-based face recognition and GPS geofencing, so workers can only clock in when they are physically present at the job site.

Contractors can create projects or sites, assign workers, and get real-time visibility into who is on-site, for how long, and on which job. Automated timesheets reduce manual work for supervisors and HR.

Best For
Contractors, subcontractors and project-based businesses that rely on distributed field crews, shift work and contract labour.

Key Features For Contractors

• Face recognition and selfie-based clock-ins to remove buddy punching and proxy attendance.
• GPS geofencing around job sites so workers can only clock in at approved locations.
• Mobile, kiosk, and web-based clock-in options for different types of sites.
• Automated timesheets with overtime, breaks, and shift differentials.
• Multi-site visibility with real-time dashboards and crew status.
• Policy engine with 70+ configurable attendance and overtime rules.
• Payroll-ready exports and integrations for faster, more accurate pay runs.

If you want to see how Truein can handle your crews, sites, and policies in one place, you can schedule a demo and explore it with your own workflows.

2. Time Analytics Software

Time Analytics is a contractor timesheet app built mainly for consulting firms, engineers, architects, and professional services businesses. It focuses on detailed time and cost logging across projects, clients, and tasks.

Best For
Contractors that work on long-running consulting, design, or engineering projects and need granular utilisation and profitability analysis.

Key Features For Contractors

• Timesheetsare  organised by project, client, and task.
• Billable and non-billable hour tracking with notes.
• Cost allocation for each entry to track project profitability.
• Visual dashboards for time utilisation and revenue by client or service line.
• Export of timesheet data for invoicing and financial analysis.

3. BQE Core

BQE Core is a comprehensive practice management platform that includes time tracking, expense management, project accounting and billing. It is widely used by professional services, engineering and architecture firms.

Best For
Contractors and professional service firms want time tracking tightly connected with billing and project accounting.

Key Features For Contractors

• Smart timecards and pre-populated timesheets with flexible date ranges.
• Mobile and web time entry with built-in expense tracking.
• Job and phase-based time tracking for accurate job costing.
• Configurable timesheet rules and approval workflows.
• Deep reporting on utilisation, margins, and write-offs.

BQE Core can be powerful if you want one platform for time tracking, expense,s and billing. It may feel heavier for small contractor teams who only need quick timesheets and GPS time clocks.

4. eSub

eSUB is a construction-focused project management and field management platform. Time tracking is tightly connected with field reports, RFIs, daily logs, and other project documents.

Best For
Commercial trade contractors managing multiple field teams on complex projects where documentation and workforce tracking must live together.

Key Features For Contractors

• Mobile time entry from the field, tied to projects and cost codes.
• Daily reports that include labour, materials and site events.
• Cloud-based document control for plans, RFIs and change orders.
• Real-time project dashboards for labour productivity.

eSUB suits contractors who want their timesheets to sit inside a broader construction project management system. Smaller crews may find the learning curve higher than a simple contractor timesheet app.

5. Everhour

Everhour is a flexible time tracking and project management tool that integrates with tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira. Many digital agencies and IT teams use it to track time against tasks and boards.

Best For
IT contractors, digital agencies, and remote teams who track time mainly against online tasks and boards, not physical job sites.

Key Features For Contractors

• Browser and in-tool timers for Asana, Trello, GitHub, and other tools.
• Project budgets, alerts, and reporting on time vs. budget.
• Automatic reminders and auto-stop timers to prevent forgotten timers.
• Simple reporting for client billing and profitability analysis.

6. Clockify

Clockify is a popular free time tracking app used by freelancers and small contractor teams. It focuses on simple, accurate time capture and basic reporting across projects and clients.

Best For
Independent contractors and small teams who want a low-friction way to track billable and non-billable hours.

Key Features For Contractors

• One-click timers and manual entries via web, mobile and browser extensions.
• Projects, clients, and tags so hours can be grouped for billing.
• Basic reports on hours by client, project and team member.
• Exportable timesheets for invoicing and simple payroll.
  
  

7. ClockShark

ClockShark is a contractor time tracking app built mainly for construction, trades and field service businesses. It combines GPS time tracking with simple scheduling so you always know which crew is on which job.

Best For
Contractors with field crews who move between residential or commercial job sites and need GPS-verified time tracking.

Key Features For Contractors

• Mobile clock-ins with GPS location and job selection.
• Job and task codes that tie labour hours to each project.
• Simple drag-and-drop scheduling for crews and jobs.
• Timesheet approvals and exports to popular payroll systems.

Everhour is strong for digital work. Contractors who manage crews on physical job sites will still need GPS time clocks, geofencing, and on-site attendance control, which is where a tool like Truein is stronger.

How To Choose The Right Contractor Time Tracking App?

Choosing a contractor time tracking app is not only about ticking feature boxes. It is about finding a tool that fits the way your crews work in the field and the way your office handles payroll and billing.

Use these criteria to shortlist your options:

1. Field-Ready Mobile App
   The app should be simple enough for workers to clock in and out in seconds, even with gloves on or in low-connectivity areas.
2. GPS And Geofencing
   Location-aware time tracking prevents off-site clock-ins and helps you prove who was on which job site and when.
3. Job Costing And Codes
   Hours should be captured against projects, tasks or cost codes so you always see the true labour cost of each job.
4. Approvals And Edit Controls
   Supervisors should approve timesheets and any edits should be tracked with a clear audit trail. This reduces disputes and accidental overpayments.
5. Payroll And Accounting Integrations
   Clean exports to payroll and accounting tools save hours of manual data entry and reduce mistakes.
6. Compliance And Policy Support
   The app should help you enforce overtime rules, break policies and local labour regulations, not leave everything to manual checks.

Studies show that manual timecards can introduce payroll errors of around 1% to 8% of total payroll (American Payroll Association via TimeWellScheduled).

Why Contractors Use Truein For Crew Time Tracking?

Contractors working with field crews face unique challenges: workers moving between sites, mixed full-time and contract staff, and constant pressure to keep projects profitable. Truein is built to solve these everyday problems.

• Face Recognition And Selfie Clock-Ins
  Workers clock in with a quick selfie, which is matched against their stored face template. It becomes extremely difficult for anyone to clock in on behalf of someone else.
• GPS Geofencing At Job Sites
  You can draw virtual fences around each job site so clock-ins are only allowed inside that area. This reduces time theft and strengthens your documentation for clients.
• Multi-Site, Multi-Crew Visibility
  A single dashboard shows who has clocked in at each site, who is late, and which crews are approaching overtime.
• Automated Timesheets And Policies
  Truein automatically calculates working hours, overtime, night shifts and breaks based on rules you set. This reduces manual corrections and back-and-forth with workers.
• Payroll-Ready And Analytics-Friendly
  Exports and integrations create clean files for payroll and accounting, along with reports that highlight which jobs or crews are most profitable.

Research suggests that companies relying on outdated time tracking methods can see time theft and errors consume up to 1.5% to 5% of payroll and affect nearly 75% of businesses (American Payroll Association via TimeDock and Benpo).

A system like Truein helps contractors get that money back by making every clock-in verifiable and every timesheet audit-ready.

If you manage crews across sites and want to see how this would work for your business, you can schedule a demo and walk through a live configuration with the Truein team.

Note: If you are a construction company looking for a broader solution that covers full project labour tracking, shift scheduling and site workflows, you can also read Truein’s dedicated guide on time tracking software for construction on the Truein blog. That article focuses on organisation-level construction workflows, while this one is focused specifically on contractor time tracking apps.

Conclusion

Choosing the right time tracking app for contractors is not about finding the biggest feature list. It is about picking a tool that fits how your crews work, how you bill clients and how you run payroll. For some teams, a simple contractor timesheet app with projects and basic reports is enough. Others need GPS tracking, geofencing and strong policies to control large field crews.

Use this guide as a shortlist. Truein, Clockify, ClockShark, BQE Core, Time Analytics, eSUB and Everhour cover different types of contractor work, from freelance projects to commercial construction. 

When you need accurate, site verified attendance for contract and field workers, Truein gives you face recognition, GPS time clocks and payroll ready reports in a single system.

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FAQs

What Is A Contractor Time Tracking App?

A contractor time tracking app is software that lets contractors and subcontractors record work hours by project, client and task using mobile devices or web apps. It automates timesheets, approvals and exports for payroll and invoicing.

How Is Contractor Time Tracking Different From Construction Time Tracking Software?

Contractor time tracking apps focus on capturing accurate hours for contractors, subcontractors and small crews, usually through mobile timesheets and GPS clock-ins. Construction time tracking software is broader and often includes project management, budgeting and equipment tracking for entire construction companies.

How Does GPS Time Tracking Help Contractors?

GPS time tracking confirms where workers are when they clock in and out, tying their hours to specific job sites. This helps contractors reduce false clock-ins, prove site attendance to clients and keep labour costs linked to each project.

Can Contractor Time Tracking Apps Help With Billing And Invoicing?

Yes. Most contractor time tracking apps let you mark hours as billable, assign them to clients and export them into invoices or accounting systems. This reduces missed billable hours and makes it easier to justify invoices to clients.

Are These Apps Useful For Independent Contractors And Freelancers?

Yes. Independent contractors and freelancers can use time tracking apps to log hours across multiple clients, projects and tasks. This creates clean records for invoices, improves transparency and helps them analyse which clients or services are most profitable.

Which Features Should Small Contractor Businesses Prioritise?

Small contractor businesses should prioritise easy mobile clock-ins, GPS or geofencing, simple job and task codes, fast approvals and clean payroll exports. These features give the biggest impact on accuracy and admin time without overcomplicating daily work.