Searching For the Right Time Tracking Add-On for QuickBooks?

Are you totally overwhelmed & confused in your search for “just the right” time tracking add-on for QuickBooks?

If you are, it’s not surprising.

When you go to the Intuit Marketplace (https://marketplace.intuit.com/ ) and click on the option to Search by Business Need and then click on Time Tracking, you’ll find yourself with 51 different time tracking add-on programs to choose from!  Little wonder you are overwhelmed and confused.  I get that way too.

You’ll find terms and icons indicating:

And they all seem to be saying the exact same thing or slight variations:

• Track your time quickly and easily online!
• Track time fast and easy with the market leader in QuickBooks integration.
• Time tracking software your employees (and you{ will actually love
• The fastest way to track, manage and approve time

Pricing ranges from Free to an estimated yearly cost of $3,888.00 – so there is a huge price difference too.

Quite frequently our customers call me with that awful “I have just a quick question for you – can you recommend a good time tracking add-on for QuickBooks that will integrate with your Certified Payroll program too?”

Just about then I sigh (sometimes it’s a quiet internal sigh and other times it’s an out loud sigh) because

1. There is NO such thing as a “quick question”, and
2. The amount of questions that I have to ask in order to make that recommendation absolutely guarantees that this will not be a quick question.

Here are some of the questions:

• Do you want/need a “real” time clock that employees have to punch?
• Do you want something web based or desktop based?
• If web based, do all the key employees who will be responsible for entering time have access to a smart phone, tablet, or computer with internet connection all or some of the time?
• Are the smart phones Android or Apple?
• Does the time tracking app need to be DCAA compliant?
• How much access to QuickBooks do you want your employees to have?
• How computer savvy are your employees?
• Do you want or need GPS tracking ability?
• Do you have any special overtime reporting requirements – such as weighted-average overtime or different types of overtime calculation requirements?

Ok, to be fair; the question itself may be a quick one to ask – but the answer sure the heck isn’t quick to be delivered!  Maybe that’s where the term “quick question” came from – because the question itself is quick to ask!  But I digress…. And I do have my favorites:

• TSheets – clock-in from a computer or mobile phone/tablet with text, dial in, or GPS enabled apps (that actually found my road up here at the edge of the earth).  It’s also DOL & DCAA compliant.
• BigTime – it starts with a friendly time sheet format that’s easy to use.  Let’s your team get in, enter their time and get out – fast.  Online, from a desktop widget, or on the go with mobile apps.  BigTime lets employees and contractors track time from anywhere.  DCAA compliant.
• BillQuick – a time tracking, project management and billing solution
• myTimeForce – timeclocks and QB integration
• Crew/Overtime Entry Solution – our own desktop based time entry and overtime-weighted-average overtime calculation program.

Over the next 5 months, I’m hoping you’ll get an opportunity to meet the developers of these programs and see their solutions in action in our monthly QuickBooks for Contractors hangout on Google+.

• TSheets is confirmed for December 11th from 5-6 EST
• BigTime is invited (but not yet confirmed for January 8th)
• BillQuick is confirmed for February 12th from 5-6 EST
• myTimeForce is invited (but not yet confirmed for March 9th)
• And we’ll be demoing Crew/Overtime Entry Solution on April 9th from 5-6 EST

How to join or watch the QuickBooks for Contractors hangout – live participation is limited:

1. You need to have a gmail or Google account
2. Find and add our business page to your circles
3. Watch for the Hangout announcement
4. Indicate your interest early!

Can’t make the live hangout?  Don’t worry – you can watch a recording on our YouTube Channel.