Choose a time tracking app by first mapping your own hours process, from the moment someone clocks in to payroll and the invoice, and then testing every app against that chain. For technicians and technical teams, what counts most is recording without a signal, hours landing on the right job straight away, corrections that stay visible, client sign-off and an export the office can process without retyping. Have suppliers demonstrate your own scenarios and trial the app with one team for four weeks, so that you choose based on how your people work rather than on the longest feature list.
Start with the chain of an hour, not with the app
Every hour worked travels a route before it appears on a payslip or an invoice. An app that handles one link well but lets the next one stall just pushes the work on to the manager or the office. The diagram below shows the chain in five links (clock in or fill in, timesheet, sign-off, approval, and payroll and invoice), each with the requirement to test an app against.
First map how that chain runs for you:
- Who records hours, and where? Service technicians visiting different clients, a crew on a project site, the maintenance team of a factory running shifts.
- Which hour types? Normal hours, overtime, on-call and travel time, each with the premium set by your collective agreement or contract.
- Who signs off and who approves? Per client, per project, per week.
- What does the office need? Payable hours per hour type, mileage and, for each client, the hours to invoice.
- Where does it go wrong now? Slips that go missing, hours filled in from memory on a Friday, retyping.
Use this stage to settle any agreements that are still missing. An app applies hour types, break rules and travel arrangements, but it doesn't invent them: if nobody has decided when overtime is paid at 150%, software just gets you to the same argument faster. How to record overtime and premiums is covered in recording overtime, and when it pays to move on from a spreadsheet in our Excel timesheet template.
Time tracking app requirements on the shop floor
A technician with dirty hands and a full day only clocks in reliably if it takes a couple of taps, even in a basement with no signal. These requirements decide whether recording holds up in the field:
| Criterion | Why it matters | Question for the supplier |
|---|---|---|
| Ways of recording | Service technicians and site crews work differently | Which methods are there, and do they end up in one timesheet? |
| Working without a signal | Basements, boiler houses and substations often have no coverage | What works offline, and which time is recorded once it is sent? |
| Job, client and hour type | Hours should land in the right place straight away | Do you pick the job when clocking in, and how do you switch? |
| Break rules | Automatic deduction saves typing, but not when people work through | How do you adjust the break if it didn't happen? |
| Exceptions and corrections | Forgotten clock-outs happen every week | Who corrects, with what reason, and does the original stay visible? |
| Signing in | Agency staff and hired-in technicians often have no account | How does someone without an account or email address sign in? |
| Language | Crews are often multilingual | Which languages does the app support? |
Working without a signal is the key test for technical teams: a clock event made offline should come through later with the original time, not the time it was sent. Also ask what else works offline, such as entering hours, signing or submitting.
Corrections decide whether your records stand up to a client or an inspector. A good app records a reason and a name with every correction and keeps the original time; what Dutch law requires is covered in our article on whether time tracking is mandatory.
Signing in and access rights have to fit together. Someone who only records their own hours can manage with a code or a badge; anyone who sees or approves other people's hours signs in with two-step verification. That way, an agency worker can clock in on day one without an account of their own, and the crew's data stays protected.
Office requirements: from timesheet to payroll and invoice
What the technician records has to reach client, manager and office without retyping. A standard demo often leaves this part out:
| Criterion | Why it matters | Question for the supplier |
|---|---|---|
| Client sign-off | The signature underpins the invoice | Does the signature lapse if the hours change afterwards? |
| Approval | A second pair of eyes before payroll and invoicing | Do exceptions show before you approve, and can you send a timesheet back with a reason? |
| Export or integration | Retyping costs time and causes errors | What does an export look like in your payroll's format? |
| Privacy | Hours and locations are personal data | Is there a processing agreement, and what does the app record about location? |
| Security | One breach affects your entire workforce | Is there two-step verification, role-based access, and where is the data stored? |
| Your data when you leave | Retention periods can outlast your contract | How do you get every timesheet, with its history, when you cancel? |
| Cost | The licence is only part of the bill | What is the cost over three years, including your busiest month? |
| Support | On-call technicians clock in at night too | What does a technician do if clocking fails, and when is help available? |
Client sign-off only works if the signature is tied to exactly the hours that were signed; how to arrange that legally and in practice is covered in timesheet sign-off.
Export or integration. An export is a file (Excel, CSV or PDF) that the office imports; an integration transfers hours automatically to the payroll or invoicing system. An export is often enough, provided it gives the payable hours per hour type, the mileage and the travel costs for each employee and period. The more employees you have and the more often you run payroll, the sooner an integration pays off; in that case, ask who maintains it when either system changes. You can see an example of an overview like this in time tracking in TimeQeeper.
Privacy, the works council and security
A time tracking app processes personal data: times, sometimes a location, and, at sign-off, the name and signature of the person signing for the client. Sort out these points before you work with real hours, which means before the trial as well:
- Processing agreement. If the supplier stores the hours on your behalf, it is a processor and you are the controller. The GDPR then requires a processing agreement, covering among other things security, sub-processors, data breaches, audits and what happens to the data when the contract ends.
- Location and biometrics. If the app records a location, it should do so only at the moment of clocking in or out, for a clear purpose and with an off switch; measuring is not tracking. If you record locations systematically, you will normally have to carry out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) first. Clocking in with a fingerprint or face scan is generally not allowed in the Netherlands. The details are in time tracking for technicians.
- Works council. In the Netherlands, arrangements for processing employees' personal data and for facilities suited to monitoring attendance, behaviour or performance require the works council's consent (Article 27 of the Works Councils Act, in Dutch). A time tracking app will normally fall within that scope, so involve the works council as early as the requirements stage; if you don't have one, tell employees just as early what you record, why and who can see it.
Which security measures you need depends on the risks, and you must be able to show that the data is properly secured. Ask about two-step verification, role-based access (employees see their own hours and corrections, clients only their own projects), a trail of who changed what, where the data is stored and what happens when a phone is lost.
Finally, plan your exit. In the Netherlands, hours that support pay or invoices are part of your accounting records, which you must keep for seven years; working and rest time records must be kept for at least 52 weeks. Your contract may end sooner, so agree that on cancellation you will receive every timesheet, with corrections and signatures, in a readable format.
What a time tracking app costs
Suppliers charge per user per month, sometimes only for active users, per package or module, or a fixed price per organisation. Approval, sign-off or exports are not always in the basic package. So compare total costs, including these items:
- Implementation: configuration, importing employees, training.
- Internal time: a key user, managers and the office, especially in the first months.
- Hardware: a badge reader or clocking terminal, badges, and phones for anyone without a suitable one.
- Integrations: building them and maintaining them afterwards.
- Peaks: with per-user pricing, every temporary technician during a shutdown counts.
- Contract: minimum term, price increases, support outside office hours and the cost of a full export when you leave.
Choosing time tracking software in eight steps
The general selection process is covered in choosing maintenance software; for time tracking, this sequence works:
- Map the chain. Answer the five questions from the start of this article.
- Settle the missing agreements. On hour types, breaks, travel time and client-specific arrangements.
- Form a small working group. A technician, a manager, someone from payroll and, if you have one, a works council member.
- Write down your requirements. Mark each requirement from the tables as a must-have or a nice-to-have, and keep the list of must-haves short.
- Shortlist two or three suppliers. Ask each one for a three-year price and their processing agreement.
- Have your own scenarios demonstrated. Every supplier gets the same script; the working group watches and scores.
- Run a trial with one team. Four weeks, with real hours, a real payroll run and a client who signs off.
- Decide and roll out team by team. Put the processing agreement, the exit terms and the pricing in writing, and measure again after three months.
Demo scenarios to put every supplier through
Send the scenarios in advance and have them shown live, on a phone and in the web application:
- Clocking without a signal. A technician in a basement clocks in with the phone in flight mode and clocks out outside an hour later. Which times show once the data has been sent?
- Two clients in one day. A sorting line in a distribution centre in the morning, a breakdown at a second client in the afternoon. How does the technician switch jobs, and where does the travel time go?
- A night-time callout. A call at 23:10 to a waste-to-energy plant, finished at 01:40. Across which dates and hour types are the hours split?
- A forgotten clock-out. The technician only notices the next morning. Who spots the error, how is it corrected and what remains of the original?
- A change after sign-off. The client signed on Friday at 16:05; on Monday an hour turns out to be on the wrong project. What happens to the signature?
- Approval with an outlier. A manager approves 25 timesheets at once, and one contains a 13-hour shift. Does it stand out before the click?
- To the office. A month with overtime at 125% and 150% plus travel costs, exported in the format your payroll imports.
What a trial with one team looks like
Pick a team with variety, such as a service crew that works for several clients and covers on-call duty, with at least one colleague who isn't afraid to be critical. Discuss the trial with the works council beforehand, and set up hour types, break rules and projects the way they will work later.
- Duration and safety net: four weeks, including at least one payroll run and one client sign-off; run the old method alongside for the first week at most.
- Rhythm: a quarter of an hour with the team each week: what went wrong and what took time?
- What to measure: agree in advance what counts, such as the share of days recorded on the same day, the number of exceptions, the time the office spends each week and whether the export went through without manual work.
After four weeks, decide with the team, the manager and the office: continue, adjust or stop. The roll-out then follows the same phases as implementing maintenance software.
Common mistakes when choosing a time tracking app
- Relying on the sales demo. Without your own scenarios, you only see what the supplier wants to show.
- Choosing on price per user. Implementation, hardware, integrations and internal time determine the total.
- Letting only technicians judge. Managers and the office only see whether approving and exporting work once they use them.
- Telling the works council only at roll-out. In the Netherlands, a decision taken without consent is void if the works council invokes that in writing within a month.
- No exit plan. Without a full export, you depend on a supplier you have just left to meet your retention obligations.
Frequently asked questions
Which time tracking app is the best?
No single time tracking app is best for every business; the best one is the app that runs through your own scenarios without errors and that your team is still using after a four-week trial. Rankings rarely test a night-time callout, a client signing on site or an export to your payroll. Use such a list only to find suppliers, and base your decision on your demo scenarios, the trial and the total cost over three years.
What is the difference between a time tracking app and time tracking software?
The app is the part on the phone that employees use to clock in, enter hours and get them signed; time tracking software is the whole system, including the web application where managers approve, the office exports and you manage hour types, projects and access rights. So assess both when you choose: a pleasant app is of little use if approving and exporting cost the office hours every week. Ask to see the web side in the demo too, using your own scenarios.
Is a free time tracking app good enough for a business?
For a small team it can be, as long as the free version handles your whole chain and the supplier offers the same safeguards as on a paid plan. If a free service stores your employees' hours on your behalf, it is generally a processor, so you still need a processing agreement. Also check limits on the number of users, features such as approval or exports that only come with a paid plan, and what happens to your data if the free version is discontinued.
Does every employee need a smartphone for a time tracking app?
No. Anyone without a suitable phone, or who would rather not use their own, can badge in at a terminal, clock in on a shared device on site or enter hours on a computer. If employees use their own phones, set out what the app may do on them, for example only a location reading at clock-in if you use one, and what happens to the data when they leave. Discuss that arrangement with the works council.
How long does it take to introduce a time tracking app?
For a company with a few crews, allow a few months from the first demo to full use: a few weeks for requirements and demos, a four-week trial, then a week or two per team to roll out. The consent process with the works council and settling hour types and client agreements often take longer than configuring the software. So start with those agreements; the app itself is usually the quickest part to set up.