Effective time tracking is essential for businesses, particularly in the construction and field service sectors. Given the challenges of tight project budgets, intricate pay rules, and dispersed crews working on multiple sites, employing an automated attendance tracking solution is crucial.
In this article, we will evaluate and compare two prominent solutions: ExakTime and Jibble. We aim to determine which one is better suited for managing employee time in heavy industry job sites, considering the unique demands of these sectors.
Introduction to Time Tracking Software
Time tracking software offers a suite of digital tools that revolutionize the way we record, organize, manage, and report on employee work hours, eliminating the need for manual paper time sheets, spreadsheets, and tedious calculations.
These systems come with a range of key features designed to streamline the attendance tracking process, such as easy clock-in and clock-out functionality accessible from any mobile device, geolocation and geo-fencing to validate team members’ attendance, and facial recognition features.
Moreover, these systems offer real-time tracking of hours worked, scheduling capabilities for managing team members and projects efficiently, and seamless integration with payroll solutions and billing systems, among other benefits.
For the construction and field service industries, the advantages are immense. Digital time clocks significantly reduce payroll errors and save administrative time. GPS tracking ensures that team members are at the right job site, enhancing project management and productivity. Integrations further expedite payment processing and invoicing.
Most importantly, accurate hours tracking contributes to better budgeting and cost control. Ultimately, digital time sheets and automation provide a new level of transparency and accountability for an organization’s labor costs and overall productivity.
The Importance of Time-Tracking for Construction
The construction industry is characterized by complex pay rules, a multitude of job sites, and stringent compliance requirements, making it an ideal candidate for the implementation of employee time-tracking software.
However, not all solutions are tailored to meet the unique demands of builders and contractors. Construction companies, whether they are small businesses or large firms, require specialized time-tracking software that offers a range of essential features, including remote access for on-site team members, real-time visibility into employee clock-ins, photo capture for identity validation, geofencing to ensure proper location during shifts, the management of prevailing wage and overtime rules, certified payroll reporting for regulatory compliance, language support for multilingual teams, and construction-specific metrics such as man-hours tracking.
A well-suited employee time-tracking system minimizes manual processes while providing comprehensive oversight for field teams. This ultimately results in accurate pay, enhanced cost controls, and improved compliance across various projects. But how do two of the top options in the field, ExakTime and Jibble, compare when it comes to offering specialized construction software solutions?
ExakTime Review
ExakTime is a purpose-built time-tracking software designed exclusively for the construction and service industries. The advanced features and functionality account for the unique needs of contractors, dispersed crews, and complex job sites.
Key capabilities include an easy and intuitive mobile time clock allowing workers to clock in/out from any device, even offline when internet connectivity is intermittent at remote sites. FaceFront photo verification is a facial recognition feature that confirms employee identity and prevents “buddy punching” vulnerabilities. Robust geofencing and GPS location tracking validate attendance by tracing worker movement and sending real-time field maps to managers for actionable visibility.
Project coding ties hours directly to cost codes for accurate job costing, client invoicing, and preventing mischarged employee time. Custom reporting provides real-time insight into overtime, prevailing wage, unsubmitted hours, and productivity. Seamless integrations with multiple leading AEC payroll solutions allow fast, accurate payroll syncing. Shift scheduling optimizes crews across multiple locations. English, Spanish, and French app options caters to diverse, multilingual workforces.
This powerful functionality purpose-built for heavy industry reflects ExakTime’s strategic and longstanding focus exclusively on construction and field service businesses. The platform’s depth caters perfectly to complex needs unique to the sectors.
Jibble Review
Jibble provides general time-tracking across industries, including basic construction needs. Features include mobile apps for clocking in/out, geolocation to validate attendance and optional facial recognition for identity verification. Managers can assign schedules and monitor employee time off accruals.
While Jibble supports multilingual crews, its broader focus means lacking deep construction-specific capabilities like advanced payroll integrations, robust geofencing, and customized reporting required by contractors and field service firms. It covers time-tracking fundamentals but falls short on specialized construction demands.
Key Differences
Now that we’ve compared both systems let’s delve into the key distinctions between ExakTime and Jibble when it comes to addressing the specific needs of construction small businesses and large firms alike.
First and foremost, when it comes to industry focus, ExakTime stands out by exclusively serving construction companies and being purpose-built to cater to the industry’s unique requirements. In contrast, Jibble caters to a wider range of verticals, including construction.
In terms of real-time visibility, ExakTime’s mobile app takes the lead with its live field maps and reporting capabilities, offering superior real-time insights into dispersed crews and projects, which outperform Jibble in this aspect.
When it comes to photo verification, ExakTime’s FaceFront ensures consistent photo capture with each time clock event, enhancing fraud prevention. While Jibble does offer facial recognition, it remains an optional feature.
Moreover, ExakTime boasts more advanced features to track time, such as geofencing, to verify whether workers are punching in and out at authorized job sites as required. Jibble, on the other hand, lacks this level of geofencing sophistication.
Considering payroll integrations, ExakTime supports multiple AEC-specific payroll solutions, ensuring fast and accurate payroll processing. In contrast, Jibble offers only basic accounting links.
Furthermore, ExakTime provides construction firms with crucial reports, including certified payroll and prevailing wage, which are essential for compliance, whereas Jibble does not cover these specific requirements.
Lastly, ExakTime goes the extra mile by offering dedicated customer support managers and tailored training for construction clients, while Jibble provides more general onboarding support.
Choosing the Right Time-Tracking Solution
When selecting time-tracking software for field and construction teams, key considerations include whether the system has construction-specific advanced features like geofencing, field notes, and scheduling. Also important is photo verification of employee identity to prevent “buddy punching” and real-time GPS maps/reporting for visibility into dispersed crews.
Other vital factors are managing complex pay rules like prevailing wage and certified payroll, integration with leading AEC accounting and payroll solutions, producing compliance reports for laws and regulations, implementation support tailored to construction needs, and ease of use for both managers and field employees. Look for depth in these construction-critical capabilities when choosing a solution.
Why ExakTime?
For construction firms and field service organizations aiming to modernize time-tracking, ExakTime delivers a solution purposely engineered around their unique needs for efficiency, accuracy, and real-time visibility.
The advanced feature set simplifies otherwise painful manual processes: easy and intuitive mobile time clocks reduce payroll errors; the photo validation feature prevents fraud; robust geofencing confirms attendance at authorized sites; seamless payroll integrations eliminate manual number crunching; custom reporting provides insight into labor productivity; location and job costing prevent payment disputes over hours.
ExakTime also removes major compliance risks by supporting certified payroll, prevailing wage, overtime calculations, and other reporting requirements prone to human error.
For managers, ExakTime centralizes oversight: GPS tracking maps dispersed crews in real-time; manager dashboards surface issues instantly for quick intervention; scheduler tools optimize resources across sites; customizable notifications and alerts enable proactive communication.
Users benefit from ExakTime’s construction-only focus and domain expertise via dedicated customer support guidance tailored to your needs, not general onboarding. Implementation is designed around your goals and constraints.
With ExakTime, construction firms finally have a time-tracking technology meeting their unique demands, not a general software requiring heavy customization. Learn more and view a demo at ExakTime.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes ExakTime better than paper time sheets?
ExakTime automates data collection from the field, provides real-time insight into labor hours, integrates directly with payroll for faster processing, and gives robust reporting to improve job costing accuracy. It eliminates the errors and delays inherent in paper time sheets.
Can employees clock in without internet access at job sites?
Yes, ExakTime provides robust offline capabilities, allowing workers to clock in and out with their mobile device even when there is no internet connectivity at the remote job site. The native mobile app stores the time entries locally on the device until it regains connection. Once it syncs back online, all of the offline time data is automatically uploaded to the cloud.
What happens if an employee forgets to clock out?
Administrators can enter any missing punches in ExakTime, and the system will flag the missing data. This prevents payroll errors.
Does ExakTime integrate with Procore?
Yes, ExakTime offers seamless integration with Procore, allowing you to connect labor hours to specific projects and pull information between the platforms.
