Clockshark is a time tracking, scheduling, invoicing, and project management software targeting field service and construction companies that promises to chomp off your admin task woes so you can save time and money, and have the freedom to go after the big fish and focus on what’s best for your business.
However, my personal experience of ClockShark left me less than thrilled. The mobile app is glitchy, the GPS tracking is inaccurate, the geofencing feature has loopholes, its integration has pretty severe limitations, and its scheduling feature might land you in hot water over break compliance. All of these made me think that this software doesn’t quite deliver the full power of its promised bite.
In this review, let’s take a look at why despite its seemingly successful concept and impressive features list, ClockShark ultimately sucks.
Glitchy Mobile App
One of the foremost complaints put forward by users in negative ClockShark reviews is the glitchy mobile app. Not wanting to rely on others’ experiences alone, I decided to try it for myself and see what the fuss is all about. Lo and behold, the issues experienced by many users popped right up. In multiple trials, I got a white screen or black screen not showing anything upon opening the app and then crashing, the app did not load properly, I had difficulties in signing in, locations of clocked-in employees did not appear correctly, and hours were not being captured correctly, among others.
These things happened the most on phones that were more than a few years old, and when there was low or no Internet connection. ClockShark doesn’t work properly in those environments, which is concerning for businesses with sites where these conditions are constant or unavoidable. The glitches also happened mostly to Android devices, on which the app didn’t perform very well.
If ClockShark won’t work properly on a significant percentage of employee devices and issues such as those I experienced keep on plaguing the system, it doesn’t really live up to its promise of lightening the load of both admin and on-the-ground employees and achieves the exact opposite of its purpose. No wonder it has such measly below-four-star ratings on Google Play and the App Store!
Inaccurate GPS Tracking
One of ClockShark’s best selling points is its ability to show you where your employees are in real time, ensuring that they are where they are supposed to be when on the clock. This feature is supposed to relieve admin of the tedious task and massive cost of having folks stay on-site just to keep an eye on your crew. Having said that, my experience with ClockShark’s GPS tracking was marred by its inaccuracy and the attendant inconveniences down the line.
ClockShark captures location information by trilateration, which pinpoints your location through signals sent from three separate satellites in outer space to your device’s GPS receiver, which is then received and recorded by ClockShark, and then reported to you. All of these sound well and good on paper, but in practice, I’ve encountered some difficulties especially on older, refurbished, and lower-end devices that I think jeopardize the effectiveness of the feature as a reliable insurance of physical presence on the job site.
For one, the GPS Tracking FAQ on the Clock Shark Website says that its high accuracy ping is within 35 meters, and the medium is at 36-85 meters, while low accuracy is 85 meters and beyond, and the user can be anywhere within the radius. A lot can happen in 35 meters, and that’s ample meterage for someone to run out of the site and do non-work stuff while on the clock, so imagine what can be done with a leeway of 85 meters or more.
Another concern is that when I am around steel or concrete buildings, the tracker doesn’t work quite as well, which is ironic given their target market. Construction revolves around these things, you know.
Lastly, I’ve discovered that it doesn’t work well around large bodies of water as well. So if your site is along the coast or near the ocean, good luck to you, as it may record your employees’ locations as far as three miles off into the deep… hopefully not swimming with the sharks!
Geofencing Loopholes
Since we’ve reviewed ClockShark’s GPS tracking deficiencies, we should also pay some attention to some alarming loopholes in its geofencing feature. Hand-in-hand with the GPS tracking feature, the geofencing feature is supposed to ensure that your crew stays where they are supposed to be when they’re on the clock. Geofencing puts up a virtual perimeter on the job site and notifies the crew when they step out of the perimeter to clock in, clock out, or switch tasks. It also notifies admins when that happens.
However, it does have one serious flaw: it doesn’t allow geofencing restrictions, which means that even if your employees are outside of the geofenced area, they can still clock in. This crucial flaw takes away an important aspect of attendance control and kind of defeats the whole purpose of a geofence, doesn’t it?
In addition to that, when employees step in or out of the geofenced area, they are not automatically clocked in or out, and there are no other actions done by ClockShark except to send notifications to the employee and the admin. Practically, an employee could still be on company time while outside the job site, and that can get costly for your business.
These, combined with the unwieldy GPS tracking and glitchy mobile app, spell a lot of trouble and admin headache come payroll time.
Integration Limitations
Integrations are essential for any time tracking software, especially with payroll and accounting solutions. While ClockShark does connect with Zapier, QuickBooks, ADP Workforce Now, MYOB AccountRight, Paychex, Xero, and others, the list is quite limited.
In addition, you can only use one integration at a time, and this can be a point of frustration when you need to multitask and use multiple integrations at any given time to save hours and effort. ClockShark will force you to do stuff one at a time, and that doesn’t quite help, especially when you’re on crunch time.
You also can’t rely on using open API to easily connect with your favorite software that’s not on their list, as ClockShark doesn’t support it. The best you can do is suggest an integration, but that takes time and critical mass to be acted upon.
Break Compliance Difficulties
Breaks are employee rights that have different iterations across states and territories. Not being compliant with these legal requirements can land your business in hot water and give your legal team an upstream battle that can cost you a lot, and even close your company down.
That being said, timeclock and employee scheduling software needs to have granular control on scheduling breaks so you can be compliant with the regulations enforced in your area. However, ClockShark doesn’t have that much fine-tuned control. It only allows you to create a single break with a specific duration, and that’s it.
For states or territories with less stringent requirements, that might work. But for other states such as California, this is bound to put your company in the middle of a legal feeding frenzy, and you won’t be the one eating. Yikes.
Conclusion
For a time clock and employee management software that promises a powerful bite, ClockShark can be quite toothless in some critical areas and deliver the opposite of its intended results. It could certainly use a little bit more development in the areas of deficiency, but it does have its fair share of redeeming qualities such as an amazing facial recognition feature that takes into consideration the difficulty of other biometric verifications for construction and fieldwork jobs, and a robust reporting feature.
If you’re still deciding which software would suit your company best, swim over to our list of top time tracking software for 2023 to help you out.
And since you’re out here fishin’ for a time tracker software, why not read our Honest Review: ClockShark where we give our final verdict on ClockShark?
