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Best Time Tracking Software for Your Small Business

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Noah Edis
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Noah Edis is a seasoned technology writer and project management specialist with a robust background in modern software and systems engineering. He excels in managing complex projects, ensuring seamless execution from start to finish. With a keen ability to translate technical jargon into clear, engaging content, Noah empowers teams and readers alike to navigate the evolving tech landscape. His unique expertise in both project management and technical content creation makes him an invaluable asset in driving project success. In his free time, Noah channels his strategic thinking into competitive dodgeball and programming.
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Anthony Carter is a veteran technology writer and editor with deep roots in the construction and project management industries. With decades of hands-on experience managing large-scale construction projects, Anthony has a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and construction. His career has been marked by his ability to integrate advanced project management tools into the construction process, improving efficiency and outcomes. Now, as the editor at ProjectManagementTools.com, Anthony leverages his extensive experience to create content that is both practical and insightful, catering to professionals who seek to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry. Outside of work, Anthony enjoys woodworking and mentoring aspiring construction managers.
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Latest Update: Aug 28, 2024, 3:05 pm
Time tracking for small bussiness
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Good planning is the secret of most successful endeavors. But any solid strategy is based on real-life data. And when it comes to organizing work in your small business, it’s best to trust a comprehensive time-tracking app that will allow you to track your employees’ progress, review timesheets, and process payrolls, all from one platform.

No more Excel sheets that need to be updated manually. No more gaps in employees’ timesheets. You can eliminate all that and implement tools that will help you manage your team and your workload efficiently and with great precision.

And the best part is that you don’t have to pay a fortune to benefit from what a solid time-tracking app can offer. In this review, I will talk about the best time-tracking apps for small businesses that are comprehensive, functional, and cheap.

You’ll learn about the most impressive and straightforward time-tracking software on the market, their strengths and drawbacks, as well as my own experiences with each app, so you can make an informed decision about which product will make the most sense for your small business.

Before we jump to the main portion of this review, let’s talk a little more about what a quality time-tracking app for small businesses should have.

What to Look For in an Employee Time Tracking App

The market is overflowing with time-tracking apps, each bringing something different to the table. Picking the right software for your company’s needs is imperative; to do that, you need to know what characterizes a quality time-tracking app.

Here are some important qualities to look for in your time-tracking tool.

Automation

Any good work time-tracking app will have a solid set of automation features for tracking time on tasks and projects, as well as generating reports and payrolls.

Customization

Customizing various time-tracking and other business processes allows you to design the tool around your work and your priorities, not the other way around.

Integrations

Integrating different tools within your time-tracking and accounting software is important, as it allows you to export the timesheets if needed and connect other tools you’re working on with the software.

GPS Tracking

Many complex time-tracking tools offer geolocation, providing you with information about where your employees are working from.

Price

Last but not least, it’s imperative to choose a time-tracking app that will be suitable for the budget you’re operating with. Some tools are robust and come with a higher price, while others offer less complex solutions for cheaper. Many apps will have a free plan, so you can benefit from their offer and minimize your costs.

The Best Time-Tracking App for Small Businesses

What are my top choices for the best time-tracking app for small business?

  • Timely (best time-tracking app for project management)
  • Time Doctor (best time-tracking software for both larger and small organizations)
  • ClickUp (best time-tracking app for solo entrepreneurs)
  • Toggl Track (best time-tracking software for project planning)
  • Harvest (best app for time-tracking and online billing)
  • TimeCamp (best automatic time tracking app with simple features)
  • Everhour (best project management app with flexible project billing)
  • Beebole (best time tracking app with customizable reporting)

Small Business Time Tracking Apps – Comparison

Time-tracking AppPricingFree Plan?Trial Period
TimelyCheck Price HereNo14 days 
Time DoctorCheck Price HereNo14 days
ClickUpCheck Price HereYes15 days
Toggl TrackCheck Price HereYes30 days
HarvestCheck Price HereYes15 days
TimeCampCheck Price HereYes14 days
EverhourCheck Price HereYes14 days
BeeboleCheck Price HereNo30 days

My Top Picks

Timely logo
5
5
Starts at $9 per user per month
Timely Homepage

Timely is my top choice for best tracking-time apps for small businesses, and I have a whole list of reasons why I love this software. Starting from the beginning, Timely is a really comprehensive app, but it doesn’t mean you have to spend lots of your time and effort learning it to be able to use it to its full potential. The best thing about the Timely app is that it takes a lot off your plate, offering you time and flexibility to plan your work how you like it.

Why I Like It

Sometimes tracking time is as simple as pressing “start” on the recorder and “stop” once the job is done. You don’t have to do that with Timely. The app automatically records the time you and your employees are spending in various work apps and creates timesheets based on this information, so you have easy access to the overview of your workload.

This is a considerable advantage to me, as I wasn’t forced to remember to log in and track my time – instead, the app took over, allowing me to focus on the work.

With Timely, you also get a very visual-based layout of your projects and tasks with respective time entries, so you can see right away how much time you spend on particular projects and how you can plan your work better.

The critical thing to mention is the fact that Timely puts an emphasis on privacy. Team members don’t have access to other users’ recorded time unless they share it themselves. I think it’s a terrific solution if you don’t like to micromanage and want to support your employees’ independent work.

Timely offers integrations with many apps, which is very practical. You can also set automatic reminders and set recurring budgets.

The only downside to this time-tracking app I can think of is the fact that they don’t offer a free plan. Still, their cheapest plan costs less than $10 per month, allowing you to work on 50 projects with 3 different teams, which is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Who’s It For

Timely will work very well in small businesses where easy to run, yet a comprehensive time-tracking app is needed. This is the best time-tracking app for small business if you’re looking for a tool that will give you lots of freedom, flexibility, and great features for project management – all for an affordable price.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • solid visual layout of all your projects
  • integrations with a lot of apps
  • easy to implement and use
  • great for managing projects and teams

Cons

  • no free plan
2

Time Doctor

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Timedoctor logo
4.8
4.8
Starts at $5,90 per user per month
Timedoctor

Time Doctor is the best choice if you’re looking for software with a broad set of features that make time tracking easy and reliable. The app can be utilized in large organizations and small businesses, so it doesn’t matter how many people you have on board. You can still benefit from what Time Doctor has in store.

Why I Like It

Just like every qualitative time-tracking software, Time Doctor enables you to track work hours and bill your clients accordingly. You can use the app on various devices, tablets and phones included.

What I really liked about this product is the fact that they offer customizable payroll options, so you can easily include and change optional pay periods. This solution will make a lot of sense for companies that work on versatile projects with independent contractors.

Some employers and business owners might be interested in Time Doctor’s Distraction Alerts feature, which detects when an employee spends time on various popular sites, for example, YouTube, and sends a distraction notification to said user.

To be honest, I find this sort of solution a little bit too pushy, but it might be a good idea to implement for people who have issues with staying focused during their work time.

Some other key features this app offers are detailed reports of your employees’ productivity in regard to your projects, customization options of your account’s settings and team settings, as well as integrations with a large number of tools, and the option to create and edit employees’ schedules.

Overall, Time Doctor gives you a good idea of how your team’s time is being spent and which area can be improved or changed to better fit your objectives, capacity, and budgetary goals.

Who’s It For

I think this tracking software will work well both in bigger organizations and small businesses. The number of great features they have is enough to meet the highest expectations.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • a broad range of tools for time tracking and team management
  • great customization features
  • many detailed reports
  • available on desktop and mobile app

Cons

  • many advanced features available in more costly plans
  • no free plan
3

ClickUp

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Clickup logo
4.8
4.8
Starts at $7 per user per month
Clickup

A small business time-tracking app should offer its users the flexibility to conduct their business the way they want to. Having an insight into how employees spend their time at work and building your schedule around real-life data is the first step to performance improvement. Highly customizable ClickUp makes that process as easy as it can be.

Why I Like It

If your goal is to increase productivity in your team or your small business, ClickUp offers you lots of tools to achieve that. First, you get a clear overview of your tasks, and you can organize them in folders and lists. Their extensive customization features allow you to organize your tasks in more than 15 different views.

I had no issues integrating the app with other apps I use, and I was more than happy with the quality of their mobile app. The only limitation I encountered when using it was that not all of the views were available on my mobile device. But their mobile app makes it possible to track time from wherever you are, which is a plus if your priority is that flexibility.

ClickUp has some practical features for organizing teamwork as well – you can create and share docs and comments, and communicate via chat. Their visual reports are another big asset, offering a clear view of the time spent on your tasks, workload, and project status.

I consider ClickUp a well-rounded time-tracking app with solid, customizable features. The fact that they do have a free plan with unlimited projects, unlimited users, and a reliable mobile app wins them a place in the top 3 of my time-tracking small business apps ranking.

Who’s It For

ClickUp will be a suitable choice for those who need an easy-to-operate app with a lot of great tools. It’s the best time-tracking app for a small business or a freelancer.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • free plan with unlimited projects
  • a lot of customizable features
  • solid mobile app
  • user-friendly interface
  • 24/7 customer support

Cons

  • some views are limited in the mobile app
  • it takes some time to learn the ins and outs of the app
4

Toggl Track

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Toggl Track logo
4.7
4.7
Starts at $9 per user per month
Toggl Track

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use app to track the time you and your employees spend on different tasks with some solid project management tools on board, you’ll be happy with what Toggl Track has to offer.

Why I Like It

Toggl Track is a very approachable app, with options to track time in real-time or log it manually. Like most products I reviewed, they offer a large number of integrations, including apps like Google Calendar, Notion, or Salesforce.

They do offer both desktop and mobile apps, which can help you track employee productivity from any place in the world.

But this product can do more than simple time tracking. You can create detailed reports for your clients, assign billable rates, track your progress on clean timelines, track expenses, set project alerts, and swiftly calculate payrolls of your employees based on their performance.

I found Toggl Track fairly easy to use, as the number of tools and the level of their complexity is not very hard to manage. I think that it’s a great first-time tracking app, so if you don’t have much experience with similar platforms, you’ll be able to quickly pick everything up with Toggl Track.

Who’s It For

Toggl Track might be a solid solution for first-timers, as well as small business owners who want to benefit from a well-equipped platform for tracking time and project management.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • free plan
  • easy to implement and use
  • automatically round time entries
  • CSV imports
  • integrations with 100+ popular tools

Cons

  • more expensive than many other solutions
  • scheduling reports via email available only in the paid plan
5

Harvest

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Harvest logo
4.5
4.5
Starts at $10,80 per user per month
Harvest Homepage

Another quality app that can help you track time spent on your various tasks and projects is Harvest. It’s a solid app for increasing productivity in your team and integrating billing processes, so you can both track time and generate invoices, all in one product.

Why I Like It

Harvest enables users to log time manually, as well as record time entries, and offers managers a good insight into how many hours were spent on particular tasks and projects via detailed reports. You can benefit from tools for budget and expense tracking as well.

You have the option to generate invoices and bill your clients, which is very convenient. You get time tracking and accounting software all in one.

I also appreciate the fact that the app gives you access to advanced tools for capacity reporting, so you see instantly which employees have potentially too much on their plates and where to delegate tasks to improve the workload and use the full potential of your team.

Harvest offers a mobile app and integrations with the most popular apps used in many industries and companies. It’s generally easy to use, offering a solid interface with interesting visual reports. It’s not the most advanced time tracker available on the market, though, and its free plan is rather limited, which is a drawback for me.

Who’s It For

If you’re looking for a time-tracking tool with the option to create invoices, then I would recommend giving Harvest a try.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • free plan
  • tools for monitoring expenses and tracking budget
  • option to generate invoices and bill your clients
  • option to send clients payment reminders

Cons

  • free plan limited to 1 user and 2 projects per account
  • might take some time to learn more advanced tools
6

TimeCamp

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Timecamp logo
4.4
4.4
Starts at $2,99 per user per month
Timecamp homepage

TimeCamp is a simple time-tracking tool with some straightforward features so if you don’t want to waste your time learning a complex app with all the additional tools you’re not particularly interested in utilizing, this product will meet your expectations.

Why I Like It

I like how effortless it is to integrate TimeCamp into your work routine. The app automatically starts to track your team’s workload and time the moment you turn it on. In consequence, there’s no need for you to remember to log your time manually.

The app stays on top of your employers’ attendance via Clock in-and-out tool and overtime tracking, generating attendance reports. I was also happy to see TimeCamp allows you to set billing rates, set up budgets, and benefit from expense management features to perform revenue, cost, and margin reporting on all your projects. These valuable sets of data can offer you a precise outlook on how to plan your budgets better.

You can set the app for automatic timesheet approvals, which helps your team save time and focus on what’s really important. This software can manage your invoicing too. And you can integrate with other tools, like Trello, Jira, or Monday.com.

I had mostly good experiences using this app. It’s not overly complex, which is something worth keeping in mind.

Who’s It For

In my opinion, TimeCamp is a reliable and simple-to-implement app, and with the automatization features, it will make sense in small businesses that wish to save time on mundane tasks.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • free plan
  • easy to implement time management app
  • option to generate reports on employee attendance
  • billing and budgeting tools

Cons

  • most more advanced features available only in the paid plans
  • can be quite expensive, depending on the size of your team
  • some features require outside integrations
7

Everhour

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Everhour logo
4.4
4.4
Starts at $8,50 per user per month
Everhour

Everhour is a very friendly-user and uncomplicated time-tracking software with some solid task management tools that will save you tons of time when planning your work. Although the app is not the most complex I’ve encountered when preparing for this review, it still offers a quite comprehensive selection of features, which is why I decided to include Evehour in my recommendations.

Why I Like It

Like many time-tracking apps, Everhour brings to the table everything that one can look for in more basic software. But that doesn’t mean it’s completely devoid of complexity. The app has some crucial billing and budgeting solutions, for example, flexible billing, which allows you to set fixed fees or another billing method, suitable for the specifics of your business.

You have the option to exclude some tasks from your bill, as well as assign a specific rate to each of your tasks. The app will notify you once you reach a certain rate, so you know exactly what changes are occurring and how to adjust your budget accordingly.

Everhour handles billing and generating invoices and offers some useful tools for task management. You can set priorities for specific tasks and projects and export your reports. With unlimited reports, projects, and time-tracking options all included in the free plan, you can track time with just a few clicks and access all the important information free of charge.

But invoicing and budget settings are mostly reserved for paid plans, so I would say that the free version of the app is rather limiting.

Who’s It For

Everhour is a simple time-tracking software with useful tools for project management and project costs management, so if you’re looking for those features in your time-tracking solution, you’ll be content with their product. Everhour is a solid choice for small businesses with limited requirements.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • free plan
  • straightforward to operate
  • available for the desktop app and mobile app
  • accurate time tracking with some valuable budgeting solutions

Cons

  • budget management tools and scheduling available only in paid plans
8

Beebole

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Beebole logo
4.2
4.2
Starts at $6,99 per user per month
Beebole Homepage

If you’d ask me what I think about Beebole, I’d say it’s a powerful time-tracking app that offers something for both large companies and small enterprises. My first impression of this software is that it’s easy to navigate and does not pose many challenges for the user. It’s quite simple yet sufficient, which is why I decided to close my ranking with this product.

Why I Like It

Tracking employee hours doesn’t have to be very complicated. Not when you’re working with an app like Beebole. It’s another proposition from me for businesses looking for a small business time-tracking app with all the essential features that will help cut the time needed for time and task management.

Beebole enables you to track employee time with tools for tracking time off, creating timesheets, and employee time reports.

Beebole gives users some customizable options for placing various privacy settings on different projects and tasks, so you can decide which employees can access them. Project managers can approve time entries as well as lock and unlock employee hours, and set different reminders for employees. Automated approval is also possible.

Time reports are very visual, so it’s easier to grasp how all your team members spend their time and where it is necessary to implement some changes. But sometimes, there’s a lot going on on the screen with various menus and tools, so it might be a tad confusing.

I appreciate this employee time-tracking app for its customization features for staying on top of employee work hours and its mobile app that works offline and online. From how I see it, it’s not the most robust and complex time-tracking solution, and it doesn’t offer any free plans, but what it does offer it’s reliable and simple tools for managing employee productivity.

Who’s It For

I think Beebole will fit nicely with a smaller organization that cares about flexible reporting solutions and a simple yet reliable app for measuring employees’ time at work.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • fairly easy to use
  • available in 11 languages
  • solid mobile app
  • GDPR compliant
  • great customization options

Cons

  • no free plan
  • can be costly depending on the size of your team
  • lack of many advanced features
  • at times confusing layout with many navigation menus

How I Tested and Reviewed Small Business Time Tracking Apps

In preparation for this review, I’ve tested around twenty different time-tracking software to select the best time-tracking apps for small businesses. The eight I selected performed the best in my tests and are the most reliable and comprehensive tools for tracking time in small companies.

When testing, I considered such important factors as automation tools, ease of use, customization options, additional features like payroll software or project management tools, mobile app, security features, reporting features, as well as price. I also took cues from other users’ experiences and ratings, and that’s how I came up with my list of the best tools for time-tracking for small business.

My Choice – Timely

As you can imagine, choosing the best time-tracking app for small business owners is somewhat of a challenge. The good news is that there are many different tools that can let your employees clock in and help you organize their tracked time into clear timesheets. Thanks to that you can bill your clients, pay your employees and manage various projects more efficiently and without needless headaches.

My choice for the best small business time-tracking app is Timely, which offers many comprehensive features, making time tracking an effortless task in your organization. Try it for yourself and change the way you operate your business with just a click.

Check our other reviews for apps that will improve productivity in your small company!