In the US, time clock apps are exceptionally useful for small businesses with salaried and hourly employees who are not exempt from overtime laws and minimum wage laws. The time clock apps I’ve chosen for this list are designed to make clocking in and out of work easier for employees. They also have features like kiosks, payroll, timesheets, GPS tracking, overtime calculation, attendance management, and more.
With these features, you’ll be able to keep reliable records of the time your employees have spent at work, and you’ll also be able to make sure that they are compensated fairly. You can thus ensure that you’re following the letter of the law and ensuring the accuracy of your records, as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Time clock apps can thus protect both the employer and employees.
What Qualifies as a Small Business in the US?
In the US, any independent business that has fewer than 500 employees counts as a small business. While big enterprises get a lot of press and attention, it’s the small ones that drive the American economy. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, there are 33.2 million small businesses today, which make up a whopping 99.9% of all businesses in the country.
Furthermore, small business employees make up about 46% of the US workforce. Though lots of businesses closed down or were negatively impacted by the pandemic, small businesses have created 5.5 million jobs for Americans despite the recession.
The Definitive List
1. Jibble
Jibble is a feature-rich time tracking and time clock app that makes it easier for small businesses to record and track attendance. Employees can use Jibble to clock in and out from their cell phones or PCs, and the software automatically determines their working hours and creates data for payroll. Jibble’s main features include geolocation monitoring, real-time tracking, biometric device interaction, and leave management. Its mobile app enables users to record attendance from any location and has an offline mode for when they do not have internet access. The offline mode can subsequently sync to the database. Jibble works particularly well for companies with mobile workforces, especially in places with spotty internet access.
Along with an efficient attendance kiosk, Jibble’s real-time reporting generates intelligent insights and summaries of work progress. The software offers first-rate customer service and a variety of pricing options, including a fully-stacked free edition.
Sure, Jibble is our product, but independently it is actually the highest-rated app according to the aggregate of reviews on sites such as Capterra, GetApp, G2, App Store, and Play Store.
Key Features for Small Businesses
- Kiosk with PIN code
- Face recognition for secure logins
- Auto clock outs
- Reminders and notifications
- GPS-based geofencing
- Device restriction for clocking in and out
Is Your Data Safe with Jibble?
Yes, your data is in safe hands with Jibble.
Jibble 1 user data is stored in North Virginia AWS and Jibble 2 user data is stored in Ireland AWS. The data is encrypted and backed up regularly. Jibble 1 archives are stored for 3 months, Jibble 2 archives are stored for 30 days. Jibble will not share personal information with third parties without permission, except for certain circumstances.
Only authorized employees have access to user data, which is encrypted and stored for internal analysis. Jibble stores user data as long as the account is active, but will delete the data once the account is deleted. User data is typically retained only for a short amount of time.
You can also request to have your personal data permanently deleted from Jibble’s servers. Just email customer support at support@jibble.io.
Learn more about Jibble’s privacy policy.
Jibble Integrations
Jibble integrates with the most popular and commonly used apps for project management, HR management, scheduling, communication, payroll, and more. These include:
- Asana
- Google Calendar
- Jira
- Trello
- Zapier
- Hubspot
- Microsoft Office 365
- Microsoft Teams
- QuickBooks
- Slack
- Salesforce
…and many more Jibble integrations.
What Users Like
- Free
- Easy to use
- Affordable with a stacked free version
- Accurate time-tracking due to facial recognition and GPS tracking
- Excellent customer support
- Feature-rich software
What Users Don’t Like
- The CEO wears crazy white glasses
2. Buddy Punch
When it comes to managing employee hours and payroll, Buddy Punch’s cloud-based time clock app provides a seamless, easy-to-use solution that simplifies time tracking and streamlines payroll processes. And let’s not forget about the push notifications that keep employees informed and ensure a simple and user-friendly experience.
The time-tracking system is where Buddy Punch truly shines. With real-time attendance tracking and automatic calculation of accrued time off and overtime, managing employee time has been made quite easy. Plus, the platform offers customizable reports that allow you to see how many hours your team works and monitor remote workers by tracking their location and assigning specific IP addresses. And if you’re worried about accountability, Buddy Punch integrates with payroll software and offers GPS and image tracking.
While Buddy Punch is undoubtedly a fantastic tool for keeping track of employee hours, it’s essential to be aware of its limitations. One issue is the time-consuming process of time-card management, which can be cumbersome for busy small businesses. The mobile app also has some rules that may impact its functionality, requiring users to adapt to its requirements. Lastly, some users have reported difficulties when punching out, leading to inaccuracies in timekeeping. These are important considerations to keep in mind when evaluating Buddy Punch’s suitability for your business needs.
Key Features for Small Businesses
- Kiosk feature
- Schedule notifications
- Basic GPS and geofencing
- Alerts and reminders
Is Your Data Safe with Buddy Punch?
Buddy Punch encrypts payment information and has measures in place to deal with possible data breaches. However, Buddy Punch cannot guarantee the complete security of personal information transmitted through the app and is not responsible for any privacy settings or security measures that are circumvented.
Buddy Punch Integrations
Buddy Punch integrates with the most popular and commonly used apps for accounting. These include:
- QuickBooks
- ADP Workforce Now
- Gusto
- Workday
…and many more.
What Users Like
- Great customer service
- Easy-to-use software
- Facial recognition
- Smooth functioning web version
- Helpful features for on-the-move teams
What Users Don’t Like
- Mobile app is limited
- Punching out difficulties
- Time-card step is time-consuming
Why not check out our full, and of course completely honest, Buddy Punch review?
3. Clockify
Introducing COING’s third product aimed at more efficient team management, Clockify is a time clock app that helps teams easily track, bill, and schedule their work hours.
While it can be used by freelancers, the software shines when used for teams, helping small businesses track their projects and overview their productivity. Clockify’s free version lets users have access to all the core time tracking features, proving its use without upgrading to any additional payment plans. Its easy-to-use interface enables users to start their work quickly and easily, and with good ratings on most review websites, it puts Clockify in very high regard.
Despite Clockify’s acclaim, users report frequent bugs in its Android app. While the UI is easy-to-use, the mobile app faces slow processing times and frequent crashes. Furthermore, the app does not work as efficiently without an internet connection, making it inconvenient for users in the service industry.
Key Features for Small Businesses
- Customizable kiosk with PIN code
- API and Webhooks
- Add and lock time
- Time auditing
- Customizable time entry format
Is Your Data Safe with Clockify?
COING, Clockify’s parent company, uses access authorization control, firewalls, data encryption, and other measures to protect user data. Additionally, COING does not sell personal user information and does not share this information with third parties except for Google, MailChimp, Stripe, Zendesk, Amazon, Microsoft, and Coing DOO.
COING is also compliant with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which applies to users who live in California.
Clockify Integrations
Clockify integrates with the most popular and commonly used apps for project management, communication, payroll, and more. These include:
- Asana
- Jira
- Trello
- Google Calendar
- Gmail
- Zapier
- Microsoft Teams
- QuickBooks
…and many more.
What Users Like
- Auto tracker
- Rich free version
- Easy-to-use interface
- Good customer service
- 80+ integrations
What Users Don’t Like
- Reporting issues
- Buggy mobile app
- App synchronization issues
- Slow processing
- Glitchy with low internet
Why not check out our full, and of course completely honest, Clockify review?
4. Zoho
So, Zoho is a comprehensive suite of cloud-based software applications that cater to the needs of small businesses of all sizes and industries. I am amazed that Zoho offers over 50 different applications that cover various business functions such as accounting, marketing, customer relationship management, project management, HR management, and more.
What I’ll dissect here are Zoho’s time tracking features that include online timesheets, automated time tracking, and real-time attendance monitoring. With Zoho’s time tracking, businesses can easily manage employee schedules, and track project time and expenses. Along with generating accurate timesheets for payroll processing, it provides advanced reporting capabilities, allowing businesses to analyze employee time data, identify trends, and make informed decisions about resource allocation and productivity.
I particularly love Zoho’s user-friendliness and exceptional customer support that are complemented by an array of features that effectively facilitate productivity enhancement and collaborative endeavours for businesses. Its mobile apps and third-party integrations are pretty cool and the software also offers a marketplace of extensions and add-ons – neat!
However, I do have some concerns when it comes to Zoho. One major issue is the software’s iOS time clock app – it freezes when clocking time and often crashes. And the software’s calendar functionality isn’t as smooth as I’d like either. It doesn’t update in real time, which is quite a bummer for a feature that’s meant to keep everyone informed about any changes immediately.
Key Features for Small Businesses
- Attendance management
- Overtime calculation
- IP and georestrictions
- Time off management
Is Your Data Safe with Zoho?
Zoho has strict encryption policies in place to protect all customer data transmitted to their servers. It uses Transport Layer Security and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard to ensure the protection of user data.
Zoho Integrations
Zoho integrates with the most popular and commonly used apps for project management, communication, payroll, as well as CMS and social media apps. These include:
- Asana
- Trello
- Google Drive
- Zapier
- Slack
- WordPress
- Gmail
…and many more.
What Users Like
- Easy to use
- Customer support
- Seamless integrations
- Easy to set up
What Users Don’t Like
- Doesn’t fully integrate with Zoho Recruit
- iOS app crashes and freezes
- Calendar doesn’t update in real-time
- Cannot customize financial report
Why not check out our full, and of course completely honest, Zoho review?
5. TimeCamp
TimeCamp is a project management and time clock app that helps efficiently manage employee work hours and projects for small businesses.
First things first, TimeCamp has a lot of promising features. It has an automatic system that detects what project your employees are working on and offers a simple but extensive reports option. It also has a lot of API and integration options, making it a flexible software to work with. Plus, with its easy-to-use UI and excellent customer support, it’s worth considering.
But, TimeCamp has downsides such as the software being a bit complex to start initially, and the UI being clunky and slow. The mobile apps also have some faults, with a 3.1/5 star rating on the App Store and a 3.8/5 star rating on the Google Play Store. Plus, the start and stop button doesn’t always work well, and the automatic tracking is also inconsistent.
Key Features for Small Businesses
- Unlimited users, projects, and tasks
- Productivity tracking
- Automatic time tracking
- Insightful reports
Is Your Data Safe with TimeCamp?
TimeCamp runs on Amazon Web Services and it does not host or run its own network infrastructure or physical servers. All data transmitted to or from TimeCamp is encrypted via Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Additionally, TimeCamp regularly backs up its data to ensure that it can be quickly restored in case the entire AWS region becomes unavailable.
TimeCamp Integrations
TimeCamp integrates with the most popular and commonly used apps for project management, HR management, scheduling, communication, payroll, and more. These include:
- Asana
- Trello
- Google Calendar
- Jira
- Notion
- QuickBooks Online
- Xero
- Zendesk
- GitHub
…and many more.
What Users Like
- Rich integration options
- Great customer support
- Automated e-mail reports
- Attendance tracking
What Users Don’t Like
- Slow and clumsy UI
- Substandard mobile apps
- Buggy start/stop button
- Inconsistent automatic tracking
- Complex to start with initially
Why not check out our full, and of course completely honest, TimeCamp review?
6. Connecteam
Let’s talk about Connecteam. It’s a time clock app that allows small businesses to stay on track of their office and remote teams. Features include a time clock, timesheets, task management, team communication, and scheduling.
Connecteam’s time tracking feature is pretty smooth. Staff can clock in and out instantly and employers can get real-time alerts about employee activity. The software offers automated timesheets and live reports with greater insight into team progress. What’s cool is that managers can monitor employee attendance and manage absences, overtime, and break hours. I also really like the task management feature that allows for in-team and real-time communication and collaboration. Furthermore, shift and calendar templates offered by the software make shift scheduling much more convenient.
However, Connecteam’s shortcomings have a material impact on the rating score I’m going to give it, especially regarding its weak mobile app, which has a 3.8 star rating on the Google Play Store (in the US). The mobile app’s low rating comes as a result of frequent crashes. And the scheduling feature has bugs and errors — which is a bit of shame as well as annoying.
Key Features for Small Businesses
- Time clock and timesheets
- Attendance, overtime, and breaks
- Automated reports
- Task management and scheduling
Is Your Data Safe with Connecteam?
Connecteam protects user data through safeguards, access control, internal policies, non-disclosure agreements for new employees, data encryption, and database backups.
Connecteam Integrations
- QuickBooks
- Google Drive
- Google Calendar
- Gusto
- NextBee
What Users Like
- Easy-to-use software
- Responsive customer service
- Team collaboration features
- Informative quiz feature
- Detailed documentation for projects
What Users Don’t Like
- Android app crashes frequently
- Buggy scheduling software
- A jack of all trades and but certainly a master of none
Why not check out our full, and of course completely honest, Connecteam review?
How Do Time Clock Apps Help Small Businesses Stay Compliant with US Laws?
FLSA
The FLSA requires employers to keep accurate records of the hours worked by their employees, including overtime hours, and to pay non-exempt employees at least the minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime at a rate of one and a half times their regular rate of pay.
Time clock apps can help ensure compliance with these requirements by tracking employee clock-in and clock-out times, calculating hours worked, and generating reports that can be used to verify compliance with the FLSA.
FMLA
Time clock apps can help companies stay compliant with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by allowing them to easily track employee attendance and absences. Employers will be able to determine whether or not an employee has taken leave under the FMLA and ensure that employees are eligible for such leave.
By providing accurate and reliable time tracking data, time clock apps can help companies avoid FMLA violations and potential legal disputes.
DCAA
If your business does work for the Department of Defense, you’ll have the DCAA to contend with. DCAA compliance guidelines for accounting employee hours are quite strict, and it requires government contractors to maintain accurate records of employee hours worked. Time clock apps automate this process, making it easier for companies to comply with DCAA regulations.
How to Choose Time Clock Apps for US Small Businesses
Look for the following features to find the right time clock app for your business:
- Time tracking: The software should have comprehensive time tracking features to accurately track employee hours, including clocking in and out, breaks, and overtime. Accurate time tracking and calculations are essential to avoid errors, discrepancies, and compliance issues.
- Payroll, reporting, and analytics: The software should integrate with the company’s payroll software to streamline the payment process. It should have robust reporting features, allowing managers and administrators to access real-time attendance data, generate custom reports, and analyze trends.
- Integration: To streamline business operations, the software should be able to integrate with existing workflows, payroll systems, and other HR management tools.
- Security: The software should have strict security protocols to protect sensitive employee data and prevent unauthorized access to company resources.
- Support: The software should offer comprehensive technical support, including training resources, user guides, and ongoing customer service, to ensure seamless implementation and long-term success.
- Compliance: Time and attendance software should be able to help companies adhere to federal, state, and local labor laws and regulations.
