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Employee time tracking software improves the present and future of project management. Let me elaborate. Currently, you are working with your team on a project. As part of your monitoring phase, you are keeping track of activities, your plan, and hopefully the hours being invested in each activity.

Knowing where your team is investing their time is informing your client conversations over budget spending, your talks with the team over time allocation, and even resource scheduling conversations with other DPMs wanting your resources.

Once this project is done, you will surely embark on another adventure and the cycle restarts. The time you and your team tracked will now inform future estimates for project activities and overall more accurate price and time-related conversations with the client.

Therefore, using time tracking tools is an essential part of a DPMs toolbox. Whether that is a best-of-breed or an all-in-one solution is up to you.

How We Picked The Best Time Tracking Software

I evaluated and compared the most popular time tracking software on the market, both for its reviews and user interface. Then I weighed factors that make software a good option for project management, such as the ones that follow.

  1. User Interface: The software needs to have a nice UI and be easy to use. A good interface will make it easier for your employees to clock in their work time. In contrast, a bad UI will deter them from it.
  1. Online time tracking variety: I look at all the ways in which a team can track accurate time. This could mean importing Excel timesheets, using a time clock or creating templates.
  1. Integrations: I looked at how you can expand the software's functionality. On the one hand, maybe some of these time tracking tools can be embedded into your existing tools. On the other hand, maybe the software can integrate other tools that enable invoicing like Quickbooks and Xero.
  2. Pricing: Your time tracking app should be a cheap addition to your current tech stack, especially if you are part of a small business. Therefore, I’ll point out the price and if there are available free versions or free trials.

Best Time Tracking Software Overviews

Here’s a brief overview of each tool.

Best for keeping payroll in sync

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.8/5

Deel is an HR and payroll platform designed for businesses with distributed teams. It’s especially useful if you’re hiring across different countries, handling compliance, and managing international contracts. Deel covers everything from hiring and onboarding to payroll, benefits, and even expense management, giving you the tools to manage a global team in one place. 

Why I picked Deel: Deel’s time-tracking feature simplifies hour tracking for you and your team. With its clock-in and clock-out widget, available on both desktop and mobile, your team can quickly log hours and breaks, which are automatically recorded in their timesheets. Manual adjustments can be made as needed, while permissions can be set to control who edits or adds hours. This approach reduces errors and keeps payroll in sync with actual hours worked, helping you avoid surprises on payday and making your time management more accurate.

Deel Standout Features & Integrations

Features include an integrated time approval workflow that allows managers to review and approve team members' logged hours before they are synced to payroll. Its geo-tagging feature adds an extra layer of accountability, verifying the location of clock-ins and clock-outs for distributed teams. Furthermore, Deel supports automated overtime calculations and compliance with local labor laws, which helps streamline the time-tracking process for international teams.

Integrations include Google Workspace, Hubstaff, Brex, Personio, Sage, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workable, UKG Ready, QuickBooks, Xero, and BambooHR.

Best for distributed teams

  • 10-day free trial
  • From $5.99/user/month
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Rating: 4.6/5

Monitask is an employee monitoring solution designed to help to boost productivity, efficiency, and accountability across your team. It's an easy-to-use time-tracking software designed for remote teams, and it includes automatic timesheets and screenshots of employees’ workstations as proof of work done. Screenshot monitoring is completely transparent to the employees and they control when the monitoring starts and when it stops.

Monitask was designed for companies of all sizes that have remote team members working on Windows and Mac computers, such as freelancers, contractors, remote employees, and employees that work from home occasionally. Monitask is also useful for freelancers that would like to show proof of work being done to their clients. Overall, it's a lightweight tool that offers simple, quick, and accurate time tracking for freelancers and contractors without having to manually create and itemize timesheets.

This time tracking software includes some simple and useful reporting features. For instance, managers can also access a dashboard to keep track of their team. For detailed information, businesses can log in and view employee’s timeline to see how much time was spent on different projects, the employee’s activity level, and applications that were running and the websites visited. All projects have individual reports that can be generated by employers, employees, freelancers, or contractors.

In terms of customer support, the company prides itself on providing high-quality customer service, with a team responding to every query.

There aren't any out-of-the-box integrations, but you can use Zapier to connect Monitask with different task tracking and project management tools.

Monitask's Pro account costs from $5.99/user/month. They also offer a free plan for personal use.

Best for global time management

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $6/user/month
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Rating: 4.3/5

Replicon is a time tracking and timesheet software with a project time tracking product suite. This suite can help you manage project hours and costs, paid time off, and track billable hours and project expenses.

Why I picked Replicon: I chose this tool for the list because of its intelligent time tracking feature, which leverages AI and machine learning to help populate timesheets for employees based on the apps they use. The app will track employee activity across different platforms and pre-fill timesheets for them. Additionally, it will reconstruct the work week across multiple projects. Based on my research, it seems like all your people will have to do is review and submit, which will save you both hours of administrative tasks and money.

Replicon also has a mobile app that you can use to track time from any device. This makes it easy to track time while you are away from your computer, but also makes use of mobile device capabilities to expand its functionality. For example, you can take a pic and add it to your expense report using the phone's camera. I think that this feature makes Replicon perfect for employees on-the-go, since it can help them track their time quickly, easily, and without needing access to a computer.

Replicon Standout Features & Integrations

Features include advanced multi-level approval workflows that allow organizations to customize approval hierarchies for timesheets and project hours based on complex requirements. Its time intelligence system also offers predictive analytics that enable managers to identify patterns in time usage and proactively address inefficiencies or bottlenecks.

Integrations include SAP, ADP, Salesforce, Slack, Quickbooks, Jira, ServiceNow, Xero, Workday, Myob, Adobe XD, and Bamboo HR.

Best for visual project planning

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $8/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.6/5

monday.com is a project management software with time tracking features that has done away with a lot of the trimmings of typical management tools and focused on simple, visually intuitive layouts that help clarify the sequence of work.

Why I picked monday.com: I think monday.com is great tool. You can use it to track project billable hours, employee productivity, and invoicing. More than being a time-tracking solution, you can also use it for your employee productivity needs. You can easily assign owners to new tasks, prioritize each item, set due dates and know exactly how every working hour is spent on each project and task. You can also keep track of time on their mobile app.

Overall, monday.com is a highly customizable software that I would definitely recommend using to help handle your projects, collaborate in real time, and track time so you can provide more accurate information to the client.

According to my research, time tracking is available on monday.com's Pro and Enterprise plans and has to be added to each board as a column.

monday.com Standout Features & Integrations

Features include an intuitive time-tracking column that integrates seamlessly into project boards, which allows teams to monitor hours directly within their workflows. Furthermore, monday.com's automation capabilities extend to time tracking, where triggers can be set to automatically start or stop timers based on task status changes.

Integrations include business apps like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Harvest, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform, and many more, accessible via Zapier.

Best for resource management features

  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.1/5

Kantata time tracking software is designed to help individuals and businesses efficiently manage and monitor their time and workload. The software can help users understand how their team's time is being utilized. These insights can be invaluable for optimizing workflows, identifying time-wasting activities, and improving overall efficiency.

Why I picked Kantata: I chose Kantata for this list because it goes beyond simple time tracking by offering time budgeting and forecasting capabilities. Users can set time budgets for specific tasks or projects, allowing them to allocate time and resources effectively. I also love how the software provides real-time updates on time spent, remaining time, and progress towards budgeted goals. In my experience, these types of features enable users to proactively manage their time, prioritize tasks, and more accurately meet deadlines.

Kantata Standout Features & Integrations

Features include AI-powered suggestions that analyze historical data to recommend adjustments to time budgets or schedules, helping teams stay on track. Additionally, the platform offers built-in reminders and nudges that can prompt team members to log hours consistently, reducing the risk of incomplete or forgotten time entries.

Integrations include Slack, Trello, Salesforce, Sage, Jira, Quickbooks, Xero, NetSuite, Genpact, and Google Calendar.

Best for remote team monitoring

  • 7-day free trial
  • From $8/user/month
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Rating: 4.8/5

Insightful is a workforce analytics suite focused on time tracking. It's both easy to navigate and pretty advanced, with remote team monitoring features like auto-grab screenshots and web usage tracking. For this reason, I think it's a useful tool for remote businesses that are scaling quickly—you can start with something relatively basic and adopt more advanced plans as you scale.

Why I picked Insightful: I chose Insightful as one of the best time-tracking tools because of its user-friendly interface and integration with various project management tools. The platform is well-designed and easy to navigate, making it a great choice for anyone who is new to time-tracking software in my opinion.

Insightful Standout Features & Integrations

Features include an automated time mapping feature that categorizes time entries based on the apps, websites, or documents used. The platform also provides stealth mode tracking, which allows time and productivity to be monitored discreetly. This feature is especially useful for roles requiring minimal interference.

Integrations include various project management tools like Asana, Jira, Slack, Trello, and others.

Best for timesheet logging

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $4.16/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.7/5

Resource Guru is a resource management tool that helps you and your team schedule work, manage workloads, and keep projects on track.

Why I picked Resource Guru: Although it doesn't have a real-time time tracker, Resource Guru's timesheet feature makes logging work hours straightforward. It pre-fills timesheets with entries from your schedule, so you can quickly confirm or adjust the time spent on tasks. This approach reduces the time you spend on administrative tasks and improves accuracy in time tracking. 

Additionally, Resource Guru provides a bulk log option, allowing you to review and log a week's worth of work with a single click. This feature speeds up the time-tracking process, letting you focus more on your projects. 

Resource Guru Standout Features & Integrations

Features include logged hours that are automatically aligned with scheduled activities to minimize discrepancies and manual edits. The platform also includes utilization heatmaps that provide a visual overview of how team members' tracked hours align with their capacity. Additionally, Resource Guru's integration with capacity planning allows you to compare planned versus actual time spent.

Integrations include Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Calendar, Calendly, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Sheets, Gmail, Asana, Salesforce, Jira Software, and Smartsheet.

Best GPS time tracking for mobile teams

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $29/month (for up to 30 users, billed annually) + $0.5/user/month for each additional user
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Rating: 4.3/5

Connecteam is a workplace software company that offers products for operational, communication, and skills management. The operational platform facilitates time tracking and employee scheduling.

Why I picked Connecteam: I am particularly impressed by Connecteam's operations management software, which offers a unique approach to time tracking, scheduling, and task management features. Employees can log their time in the system and it even provides GPS tracking to keep managers updated on the whereabouts of staff. You can also assign shifts and tasks to employees, and oversee their work with forms and checklists.

I also admire how the Connecteam's software can be connected with a payroll platform so you can easily use schedules and timesheets for pay administration. Additionally, I'm always on the lookout for customizable features, and Connecteam offers several customization tools for your team's unique tasks and timesheet needs.

Connecteam Standout Features & Integrations

Features include a geo-fencing feature that ensures employees can only clock in and out within a designated physical location, providing an added layer of accountability for remote or field teams. The platform's kiosk mode also allows multiple employees to log time from a single shared device, which is ideal for industries like retail or hospitality. 

Integrations include Paychex, Xero, Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll (online + desktop), Google Calendar and others.

Best for small teams and businesses

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $6/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

actiTIME is a time tracking software designed to keep track of hours spent on projects, and it also allows project managers to analyze hours and timesheets to make informed decisions about estimates, invoices, and more.

actiTIME allows you to create projects and allocate tasks to team members so you can keep track of time per project and per task. Project managers can collect data on employee performance, as well as project costs and revenues, and review it in reports and charts.

This tool also offers the ability to compare estimated vs. actual time, as well as the ability to use that information to create invoices and adjust estimates as needed. These features foster a comprehensive and objective analysis of individual and team performance.

actiTIME is highly flexible and configurable to a diverse set of needs and preferences. It can also be integrated with other project management apps through Zapier or their API.

actiTIME offers free plans for teams of up to three members. Paid plans start at $5/user/month, and a free trial is offered.

Best for customizable dashboards

  • 30-day free trial
  • From $6.99/user/month
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Rating: 4.5/5

BeeBole Timesheet is an employee time tracking software for organizations of all sizes. With it, you can efficiently measure the time spent on clients, projects, and tasks, as well as control budgets, costs, and leaves of absence. 

Why I picked BeeBole: According to my research, BeeBole offers a one-click timer to track time, as well as a drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easy to build dashboards and reports you need. For example, you can quickly generate, share, and print reports on employee time, budget, margin and profit, in addition to more than 30 customizable KPI reports.

In general, I've noticed that this tool is really flexible with a lot of useful features for larger organizations—you can choose how users can clock in, with daily, weekly or monthly timekeeping options. Managers can use the approval workflow to approve time entries, vacation (etc), and you can do it in bulk as well to save time.

This isn't on my list of criteria, but it's worth pointing out that BeeBole’s timesheets are DCAA and GDPR compliant. Another useful feature for international companies is that you can use BeeBole in multiple currencies, as well as multiple languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and Dutch.

BeeBole Standout Features & Integrations

Features include a multi-project tracking capability that allows users to log time across multiple projects or tasks simultaneously. Additionally, BeeBole’s built-in leave and absence tracking integrates seamlessly with its time tracking, making it easy to manage paid time off, sick leave, and vacation within a single system. The platform also includes flexible data visualization tools, such as charts and graphs, to help managers analyze time data and identify trends at a glance.

Integrations include a fully documented API for you to integrate your application or service. You can also simply export your reports to CSV, PDF or Google Drive, which makes creating a professional-looking report (complete with your logo and graphics) pretty simple. The tool also integrates with Google Suite so everyone in your org can log in using their Google credential. In fact, this tool was the first timesheet app to integrate with Google Apps and its one of the top-rated for Google users. It’s compatible with Office 365 and SSO, too.

Best Time Tracking Software Summary

Here is a convenient list with all the highlights you need from what we covered above.

Other time tracking software:

Check out the list below for additional time tracking software tools we selected but couldn’t make the best 10.

  1. TimeCamp

    For automatic time tracking

  2. Buddy Punch

    Time clock for GPS and image tracking

  3. Toggl Track

    For its workload balancing

  4. TMetric

    For 7-day activity tracking storage

  5. My Hours

    For small teams and freelancers

  6. Traqq

    For a feature-rich free version

  7. BigTime

    For invoicing and billing

  8. ProjectManager

    For real-time time monitoring

  9. Hubstaff

    For distributed teams

  10. Factorial

    For integrating timesheets with payroll

  11. Harvest

    For actionable insights

  12. FunctionFox

    For creative teams and agencies

  13. Apploye

    For hybrid teams

  14. GoodDay

    For its flexible folder structure with unlimited levels

  15. Actually

    Simple time tracking for companies working with projects

  16. Bill4time

    For reporting features

  17. ClickUp

    For its billable time tag

  18. Smartsheet

    For mobile time tracking

  19. ClickTime

    For customizable timesheets

  20. Zoho Projects

    For timesheet reports

Time Tracking Software FAQs

Find the answers to common questions about this topic.

What's Next?

Since we are on the subject of time tracking, here's a useful article on project budgeting that explains what analogous estimation is and other estimation techniques used in project management.

 
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