8 Best Time & Attendance Systems for Small Businesses in 2023

Time and attendance systems for small businesses help you stay organized by keeping track of employee hours. The best time and attendance systems are simple to use, cost-effective, and provide features that small businesses need, including the ability to track overtime, absences, and paid time off (PTO), schedule employee workweeks online, communicate with your team, and track and verify employees via GPS or biometrics.

The best time and attendance software for small businesses in 2023 are:

• Homebase: Best for Employee Management
• Deputy: Best for Seasonal Businesses
• QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets): Best for QuickBooks Users
• Buddy Punch: Best for Businesses With Multiple Locations 
• ZoomShift: Best Affordable Time and Attendance Software
• TimeTrex: Best for Job Costing
• ClockShark: Best for Spanish-Speaking Businesses
• Workly: Best for Biometric Time and Attendance Systems

8 Best Time and Attendance Systems Comparison Table

8 Time and Attendance Systems for Small Businesses

We chose time and attendance systems that provide the features that small businesses need, including overtime, PTO, and sick leave tracking, scheduling, mobile apps, accessible customer support, payroll integration, team messaging, and GPS and biometric tools. Read on to learn why we chose these eight time and attendance systems as the best employee time-tracking software for small businesses in 2023. 

Homebase: Best for Employee Management

Benefits

Homebase’s time and attendance system is the best for employee management, as it allows you to create work schedules and manage payroll, and includes an easy-to-use time clock for employees to register their hours. You can post jobs with Homebase that integrate with popular job boards, automatically onboard new employees, review reports showing employee attendance data, use HR and compliance tools, and set up health and safety screening questions that employees must answer before clocking in. 

Pros

• The free Basic plan includes timesheets, time clock, scheduling, messaging, and hiring tools
• Available internationally
• Time off service allows you to track employees’ unpaid time off, PTO, and sick leave

Cons

• The Basic plan can only support one location and up to 20 employees

Pricing

14-day free trial, and the Basic plan is free. Paid plans are priced per location per month, and support unlimited employees. Payroll service of Homebase costs an additional $39/month, plus $6 per employee.

Basic: Basic scheduling and time tracking plan is free for one location and up to 20 employees

Essentials: Advanced scheduling, time tracking, and team communication plan starts at $20/month

Plus: Everything in the Essentials plan, plus hiring and PTO controls, starts at $48/month

All-in-one: Everything in the Plus plan, and employee onboarding and HR and compliance tools, starts at $80/month

Deputy: Best for Seasonal Businesses

Benefits

Deputy’s time and attendance software provides employee scheduling, timesheets, payroll integration, hiring, and onboarding services. Deputy offers several different plans, including its Flexi Weekly plan, which is designed specifically for seasonal businesses such as outdoor, holiday, or sports-related work. The Flexi Weekly plan enables you to pay for employees on a weekly rate (billed monthly), with a lower flat rate for inactive employees. Employees are considered inactive until a shift is published, a timesheet is submitted or approved, or they perform a management function within the platform. 

Pros

• Affordable plans for businesses of all sizes 
• Ability to transfer your existing schedule into Deputy for free
• The first five onboardings are free

Cons

• Premium, Scheduling, and Time and Attendance plans have a $25 monthly minimum

Pricing

Deputy offers a free trial for up to 31 days, and a free plan for up to 100 shifts scheduled and 100 timesheets approved per month. 

Scheduling: $3.50/month per user 

Time and Attendance: $3.50/month per user

New Hire Onboarding: $4.50/onboarded employee (not available with free plan)

Flexi Weekly: $2.50/week per active user and .50/week per inactive user

Premium: Scheduling, time and attendance, and reporting package starts at $4.20/month (when billed annually) or $4.90/month per user

Enterprise: Custom pricing for businesses with more than 250 employees

QuickBooks Time: Best for QuickBooks Users

Benefits

QuickBooks Time is the best time and attendance system for small businesses that use other QuickBooks products, such as QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop. It offers scheduling, timesheets, customizable reports, payroll and accounting integrations, and GPS time tracking that allows you to see who is working and where and to create a geofence (a virtual boundary) that automatically reminds employees to clock in or out when they are near their work location. 

Pros

• Unlimited live phone and chat support available with your QuickBooks Time subscription
• Full-service payroll included in higher-tier plans
• QuickBooks Time scheduling syncs with Google Calendar and iCal

Cons

• You may need to require employees to set their location settings to “always on” to use GPS tracking, and they will need to have cell service in their work area 

Pricing

You can get a 30-day free trial of QuickBooks Time then plans are 50% off for your first three months. 

Time Premium: Time tracking, scheduling, and payroll integration plan starts at $20/month plus $8/month per user

Time Elite: Time tracking, scheduling, payroll integration, mileage tracking, and geofencing plan starts at $40/month plus $10/month per user

Payroll Premium: Time tracking, HR, benefits, and payroll package starts at $75/month plus $8/month per user

Payroll Premium + Simple Start: Time tracking, payroll, and accounting package starts at $105/month plus $8/month per user

Buddy Punch: Best for Businesses With Multiple Locations

Benefits

Buddy Punch is one of the best time and attendance systems for businesses with multiple locations. Buddy Punch enables you to create unlimited locations and assign them to your employees. You can view how long your employees spend at each location through their timecards or via Buddy Punch’s reports. Buddy Punch also offers the attendance essentials that small businesses need, including time tracking, scheduling, and payroll. 

Pros

• An optional webcam feature takes employees’ pictures whenever they clock in or out
• Self-service PTO feature, where employees can enter vacation time or make time-off requests
• Punch rounding tool can round punch times up, down, or to the nearest predetermined interval between 2-30 minutes

Cons

• Scheduling is only available in higher-level plans

Pricing

Buddy Punch offers 14-day free trial, then you can choose from one of the following plans:

Standard: The Standard plan includes time tracking, reporting, and payroll integrations and starts at $19/month plus $2.99/month per user (when billed annually) or $3.49/month per user

Pro: Includes everything in the Standard plan, plus scheduling, and starts at $19/month plus $3.99/month per user (when billed annually) or $4.49/month per user

Enterprise: Everything in the Pro plan plus API and advanced SSO (authentication service) access; contact Buddy Punch for customized pricing

Payroll is available as an add-on for $39/month plus $6/month per user. 

ZoomShift: Best Affordable Time and Attendance Software

Benefits

ZoomShift’s time and attendance software starts at just $2/month per active team member, making it an affordable option for small businesses on a budget. Its software includes time tracking, scheduling, reports, and team communication tools.

Pros

• All plans include unlimited team members and locations
• Employees can swap shifts quickly and easily in ZoomShift’s app
• Options to block early clock-ins or overtime as needed

Cons

• No phone support for customer service

Pricing

ZoomShift offers three different plans:

Starter: The Starter plan includes scheduling, time tracking, and payroll reports, and starts at $2/month per active team member (when billed annually) or $2.50/month per active team member. 

Premium: The Premium plan includes everything in the Starter package, plus other features, including overtime warnings and a geofence time clock, and starts at $4/month per active team member (when billed annually) or $5/month per active team member.

Enterprise: The Enterprise plan includes everything in the Premium plan plus priority support, supervisor and employee training, and personalized onboarding. Contact ZoomShift for a free demo and customized pricing.

TimeTrex: Best for Job Costing

Benefits

If you have been looking for a time and attendance software company that provides job costing tools, TimeTrex can help. TimeTrex’s job costing feature enables you to track expenses and profitability based on job types and identify productivity and labor cost trends on the go. TimeTrex provides a full range of time, attendance, and HR services, including time clocks, scheduling, payroll, expense tracking, and recruitment tools. 

Pros

• Employees can track their time via TimeTrex’s app or biometric facial recognition time clocks
• TimeTrex can process payroll for you, or it integrates with popular payroll providers, including QuickBooks, ADP, and Paychex
• Facial recognition software works with hats, glasses, and facial hair

Cons

• Live chat may be unavailable 

Pricing

TimeTrex offers 30-day free trial, then you can fill out a quote form and wait to hear back from a representative for a custom quote. TimeTrex has a $100 activation fee, and its plans start at $30/month for a minimum of ten employees.

ClockShark: Best for Spanish-Speaking Businesses

Benefits

ClockShark is the best time and attendance software for small businesses that need Spanish language support, as it provides time, attendance, and GPS tracking, scheduling, and third-party integrations available in both English and Spanish. 

Pros

• Plans include geofencing so you know employees are where they are supposed to be when they clock in and out
• Schedules are shareable and can include assignments and job-related documents
• ClockShark only charges for active users and can prorate your invoice to reflect deactivated users

Cons

• Time off management features are only available with the Pro plan

Pricing

You can get a free 14-day trial of ClockShark and 50% off your first three months, then choose from one of its two plans, which include a free admin. 

Standard: Includes time, attendance, job, and GPS tracking, drag-and-drop scheduling, and third-party integrations, and starts at $20/month plus $8/month per active user.

Pro: Includes everything in the Standard plan, plus time off management and advanced job costing tools, and starts at $40/month plus $10/month per active user.

Workly: Best for Biometric Time and Attendance Systems

Benefits

TimePad app by Workly is biometric time and attendance software for small businesses that enables employees to clock their time through a tablet at their work location. It allows you to manage data and access reports about individual employees and uses facial biometry to verify that employees (or visitors to your work sites) are authorized to enter the location. The system can link to turnstiles or electronic locks, and if someone tries to trick the system, you will receive an automatic notification.

Pros

• Automatic timesheet prep and transmission to payroll
• Payroll service comes with Workly’s Special plan
• Can create group or individual schedules for any time period from one day to one month

Cons

• Must have a tablet available at the physical work location for employees to clock in and out 

Pricing

Workly offers a 14-day free trial and a 20% discount when you purchase an annual subscription.

Starter: Provides reports, scheduling, and biometric devices for up to 20 employees, and is $490/year.

Business: Everything in the Starter plan for up to 50 employees, costs $890/year.

Enterprise: Everything in the Business plan for up to 100 employees, costs $1,990/year. 

Special: Everything in the Enterprise plan and payroll for up to 500 employees, costs $2,019.90/year.

Methodology

We evaluated small business time and attendance software and chose systems that make it easy for you to build employee schedules and track attendance and time off. We looked for software with accessible customer support, biometric and GPS features, mobile apps, and affordable plans for businesses of all sizes. 

Frequently Asked Questions