Honest Review:

BusyBusy

• Industry-specific to construction and field service
• Straightforward scheduling
• Geofencing and GPS clock-in feature

BusyBusy offers one free plan and two paid plans plus add-ons to improve the feature arsenal of the paid plans.

They also offer a free 14-day trial so prospective account holders can experience the product and see if it fits their workflows and how it will impact their business. 

Free

The BusyBusy Free Plan is free forever for unlimited users. This is suitable for businesses with small operations that don’t need the full arsenal of BusyBusy features for their operations. 

Users get time tracking features for employees, projects, and equipment such as clocking in and out on various devices, clock in/out reminders, clock in/out through GPS tracking, employee breaks, digital timecard signatures, overtime calculations, equipment GPS locations, and offline mode. 

This BusyBusy plan also allows users to use job costing and limited activity reports. Equipment owners can also gain visibility into equipment usage per employee, equipment location, machine hours, equipment list, equipment on active projects, and mobile reports.

While quite limited in its selections, this BusyBusy plan covers most areas of concern for most small construction businesses and allows them to upgrade to paid plans if more power is required. 

Pro

One step up from the Free Plan is BusyBusy Pro. It is their most popular plan, and it costs $9.99/mo/user billed annually, or $11.99/mo/user billed monthly plus a $40 admin license. It has all of the features of the Free Plan, plus additional features across all suites.

For time tracking, users can enjoy additional features such as custom permissions, enhanced GPS with breadcrumbing and on-site verification, supervisor tools, clock-in with photo verification, kiosk/punch clock, scheduling, safety and time sign-off, photos and notes, universal maps, on-site restrictions, time off approvals, and payroll automation. Users also have the option to get team messaging, checklists and punch lists, and BusyPayroll service as add-ons. 

More features include supervisor tools, budgets, and scheduling, along with the option to get daily project reports, progress tracking, and performance tracking as add-ons. Liability and compliance is enhanced with safety sign-off, time accuracy sign-off, and the option to add-on document sharing. Equipment owners get full activity reports and the option to get the progress tracking add-on.

Premium

The BusyBusy Pro Plan is the tier they claim has the best value, and also the most expensive. At $14.99/mo/user billed annually or $17.99mo/user billed monthly plus a $40 admin license, users get all of the features of the previous plans plus a few more upgrades across all suites.

Time tracking is made even more powerful with team messaging, checklists  and punch lists, photo annotation, and videos which are only add-ons for the Pro Plan. Similarly, from being add-ons in the previous plan, the daily project reports, progress tracking, and performance tracking for job costing and profitability, document sharing for liability and compliance, and progress tracking for equipment owners are added as integral features to this plan.

1. Time Tracking 

BusyBusy offers users three ways to track time. Employees can use the mobile app to clock in and out of job sites with ease, and more. To do so, they only need to open the app on their device, tap on the clock-in button, select the appropriate project and cost codes, choose the equipment they’re operating if applicable, and go about their day. The app will run a timer as they work until they clock out or go on breaks. 

If they are unable to do so themselves, the second method allows supervisors to clock them in or out. They can also schedule breaks, switch cost codes, assign equipment to individual crew members, and gain visibility into who has signed their time cards at the end of a pay period and who needs reminders to comply. 

The GPS tracker also allows supervisors to account for the locations of each and every worker on the clock. BusyBusy shows them who is working on what, and who’s using which equipment. This is very important for safety and accountability and helps a lot in establishing their presence in particular job sites should anything untoward happen.

BusyBusy also has a robust system of reporting adverse events and compliance at the end of each workday. As soon as workers tap the clock-out button, the timer stops and the system asks them questions to document any injuries incurred during the workday, and to ascertain if they took required breaks or waived them voluntarily. This end-of-day clock-out questionnaire helps protect businesses against fraudulent worker’s comp claims and ensures that they are in the clear for break compliance to avoid any messy legalities down the road. 

For job sites where a centralized punching system is most advisable, BusyBusy allows businesses to turn any device into a kiosk, which allows teams to clock in with PINs or facial recognition.

2. Employee Scheduling

BusyBusy offers a scheduling feature that allows management to schedule entire workweeks and organize daily workflows with ease. The schedules and any changes made to them are then relayed to employees via notifications sent straight to their phones.

With BusyBusy, employees can see important details about their shifts right on the schedules such as timeframes, locations, cost codes, and the equipment assigned to them. Supervisors can even add instructions to the schedules to ensure that employees know exactly what to do for the day.

To create work schedules on the desktop version, admins can navigate to the scheduling page by selecting the scheduling option from the left side menu. Once on the page, they can click on the schedule work button at the top left and select if they are scheduling for a single day or multiple days. 

If they’re creating schedules for multiple days, they should indicate the range by selecting the starting and ending dates. After that, they can indicate the start and end times of the shifts and choose the employees that they want to schedule by selecting them individually from the dropdown menu, or by clicking the cross inside a circle icon to assign the schedule to specific groups or to all employees. 

Aside from work schedules, BusyBusy can also be used to schedule breaks to conform with federal and state legislation. 

Now, what I love about BusyBusy is that they don’t just restrict scheduling to their desktop program, but also allow managers to accomplish the same actions via mobile. This means that schedules can be made or modified in a pinch, even when they’re outside of the office setting. In a dynamically shifting environment such as construction, having the ability to create and edit schedules whenever and wherever is a definite advantage.

3. BusyPayroll and Integrations

BusyBusy offers a smart solution to payroll processes through BusyPayroll. It checks for time entry conflicts, open time entries, unprocessed time off requests, and missing time card signatures. Once issues are found, admins can easily rectify them right there and then and then run the payroll — a preview, if we will — before submitting it.

Now, running the payroll means calculating taxes, benefits, deductions, and all the numbers that make life hard for the office staff (yay!) normally takes hours to accomplish. But BusyPayroll does all of that once the run payroll button is hit, getting everything ready for submission in just a few minutes. Best of all, users don’t need to leave the BusyBusy app to process payroll as it automatically syncs with Gusto, which provides a summary that can be reviewed and modified according to unique business needs.

For further processing, BusyBusy also integrates with various accounting and payroll software such as Sage 300, ADP, Paychex, and QuickBooks Online. Aside from that, Zapier also expands integration possibilities and allows BusyBusy to connect with a host of other productivity tools. 

However, sometimes these integrations don’t work as smoothly as they should. While a bit annoying, it’s just a minor inconvenience that doesn’t happen very often.

(As of October 2024)

• Software Advice: 4.5/5
• G2: 4.8/5
• Capterra: 4.6/5
• GetApp: 4.5/5
• App Store: 4.1/5 
• Google Play: 3.8/5

Despite its cheesy name, BusyBusy proves to be a robust time tracking and workforce management tool, particularly for the construction and field service industries. Its industry-specific features, such as GPS tracking for employees and equipment, efficient scheduling capabilities, and comprehensive time tracking, make it valuable for streamlining operations. Mobile-friendly scheduling and automated payroll processes through BusyPayroll simplify complex administrative tasks.

BusyBusy’s scheduling on both desktop and mobile platforms allows for quick adjustments that cater to the unpredictable nature of construction work. Creating, modifying, and sharing detailed schedules with a few clicks ensures employees are informed and equipped with necessary details like location pins and shift instructions. 

The GPS tracking feature provides real-time location data for employees and equipment. Supervisors can see who is on-site, which equipment is in use, and where. The robust end-of-day reporting system safeguards compliance and protects against potential liabilities by documenting breaks, injuries, and other relevant data.

BusyBusy’s own payroll service and integration with payroll and accounting software such as Gusto, Sage 300, ADP, Paychex, and QuickBooks Online, supported by Zapier, streamlines payroll processing. 

However, BusyBusy has flaws. Its unintuitive UI can be challenging for new users, making onboarding time-consuming and potentially frustrating. The learning curve can impact productivity until employees become familiar with its functions. Occasional bugs and slow loading times can also hinder the user experience during crucial tasks.

Despite these issues, BusyBusy’s strengths—industry focus, flexible scheduling, and enhanced GPS and reporting oversight—outweigh its drawbacks. Its dedication to meeting the unique needs of non-desk workers in construction and field services positions it as a specialized tool. BusyBusy’s comprehensive time tracking, project management, and payroll integration offer businesses improved efficiency and clarity.

For construction and similar sectors needing detailed, location-aware time management and project oversight, BusyBusy is worth considering. While the initial learning curve and occasional technical challenges require patience, the potential boost in productivity and management efficiency makes the investment worthwhile.