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Time tracking is an essential activity for many businesses, especially those with remote employees or employees out in the field. Accurately tracking time allows you to bill clients accurately, helps with scheduling and capacity planning, and provides insights into productivity. But with so many time tracking tools on the market, how do you choose the right one?

In this comprehensive review, we’ll take an in-depth look at ExakTime, a time tracking solution designed specifically for service, project-based, and construction companies. We’ll explore ExakTime’s features, hardware options, pricing, and user experience to help you determine if it’s the right fit for your business.

Key Features of ExakTime

ExakTime comes packed with features aimed at simplifying time tracking for field service businesses. Some of the key capabilities include:

- Easy time capture options: Employees can track time via mobile apps, the web portal, or optional hardware time clocks. This flexibility enables seamless time tracking from any location.

- GPS tracking: The mobile apps leverage GPS to automatically track drive time between jobs. This saves employees time and provides insight into actual transit durations.

- Job costing: Employees can track time against specific jobs, projects, tasks, or service codes, allowing for detailed job costing and billing.

- Mileage tracking: Mileage can be tracked along with time entries, enabling complete reimbursement and job costing.

- Scheduling: The system provides schedule management with drag-and-drop scheduling boards. This helps optimize technician schedules and routes.

- Dispatching: Work orders can be dispatched to field employees via the mobile apps. This simplifies assigning and managing daily work.

- Notifications and alerts: Users get notifications when new jobs are assigned or schedules change. Managers can set up alerts for overtime, missed clock-ins, and more.

- Reports and analytics: Robust reporting provides insights into employee productivity, job profitability, capacity utilization, and more. Managers have visibility into employee time tracking compliance.

- API and integrations: ExakTime integrates with accounting systems like QuickBooks as well as CRM and payroll platforms. The open API enables custom integrations.

- Multiple languages: The system supports English, Spanish, and French, enabling use across global organizations.

This extensive feature set enables streamlined time tracking tailored to field service and construction workflows. The platform is designed to replace messy paper timesheets while bringing new transparency into job costing and employee productivity.

Hardware Options

In addition to software time tracking through web and mobile apps, ExakTime offers optional hardware time clocks. This provides an extra layer of accountability for employee time tracking compliance.

The available time clock options include:

- Geo Tracker: Rugged biometric time clock with integrated GPS tracking. Enables touch-free clock in/out from the field.

- Geo Tracker Flex: Similar to Geo Tracker but with a flexible mounting arm. Can be mounted in vehicles.

- Classic Time Clock: Basic time clock for clocking in from a central office location. Requires PINs or badges.

- Virtual Time Clock: Allows employees to clock in/out from a company computer or their own device. Provides time clock functionality without hardware.

The Geo Tracker clocks offer the unique ability to track exact employee locations along with time punches, providing verification that employees are onsite as reported. For companies with concerns around buddy punching or time tracking compliance, the biometric clocks enforce accountability.

Hardware pricing starts at $399 per device, with discounted pricing available for bulk orders. The hardware integrates seamlessly with the ExakTime software.

Pricing and Plans

ExakTime uses a per-user pricing model along with a base monthly fee. Available plans include:

- Basic: $9/user/month billed annually + $50/month base fee
- Pro: $12/user/month billed annually + $100/month base fee
- Premium: $15/user/month billed annually + $150/month base fee


The Pro and Premium plans add features like scheduling, dispatching, custom reporting, and API access.

The pricing is competitive compared to other time tracking tools aimed at the service industry. For example, Hubstaff charges a minimum of $140/month for up to 10 users, working out to $14/user/month. TSheets starts at $20/user/month billed annually for their Premium plan.

For companies that only need basic time and mileage tracking, the ExakTime Basic plan provides good value. The Pro and Premium tiers offer more robust field service management capabilities for just a small premium per user.

In addition to the per-user fee, ExakTime charges a one-time setup fee of $99. Training is included for up to 2 hours. Ongoing live support starts at $260/month.

Compared to software-only solutions, the addition of time clock hardware increases costs. But for many field service companies, the accountability and compliance benefits justify the expense.

Implementation and Onboarding

Getting started with ExakTime involves the following steps:

1. Sign up for the desired plan based on number of users.
2. Complete company setup and configuration within the software.
3. Install time clock hardware if purchased.
4. Download mobile apps and/or access web portal.
5. Train employees on time tracking processes and tools.
6. Integrate with accounting or other back-end systems.
7. Continually optimize schedules, dispatching, and time tracking.


ExakTime includes standard training to get administrators and employees up and running. The company also provides additional training services and support packages for an added fee.

The ExakTime platform is designed to be quick and easy to deploy. Most customers are able to fully implement the software within 1-2 weeks. Complex integrations may extend the deployment timeline slightly. The optional hardware clocks also require physical installation and configuration.

Between the standard training, additional support options, and structured implementation process, ExakTime ensures customers are able to maximize adoption and utilization.

User Experience

Ease of use is critical for any time tracking solution, especially when targeting field employees who may be less tech-savvy. ExakTime aims to deliver an intuitive user experience across platforms.

Some highlights of the user experience include:

- Simple mobile app interface: The mobile app provides straightforward buttons to clock in and out and switch between jobs. Icons and colors make it easy to understand status at a glance.

- Minimal data entry: Apps automatically track location and drive time between jobs, minimizing manual inputs. Employees simply select the job to track time against.

- Punch reminders: Apps remind workers if they forget to clock in or out. This helps reinforce compliance.

- Notifications: Users get notifications when new jobs are assigned or schedules change, so they are kept in sync.

- Web portal: The web dashboard allows easy report viewing, schedule management, and data exports. Managers have visibility into team time tracking.

- Time clock simplicity: The hardware clocks provide easy tap-to-track experiences leveraging biometrics, badges, or PINs.

Overall, even employees with limited tech skills are able to quickly learn the ExakTime software and processes. The time tracking experience is straightforward while still providing management visibility and control.

Customer Support

ExakTime provides the following support resources for customers:

- Live phone and chat support: Available during business hours (8am - 5pm Central). Support packages are available for 24/7 or after-hours support.

- Online knowledgebase: Searchable articles and documentation covering setup, configuration, troubleshooting, and more.

- Onboarding assistance: Dedicated training and implementation support to ensure successful rollout.

- Technical support: For issues with software, mobile apps, hardware connectivity, or integrations.

- Community forum: Allows customers to interact with each other and exchange best practices.

- Email support: Available for non-urgent inquiries and requests.

- Remote support: Support staff can access your account remotely to provide hands-on troubleshooting.

While ExakTime does not offer 24/7 support by default, they provide a solid range of resources from onboarding through ongoing usage. The company gets positive feedback from customers on the responsiveness and expertise of the support team.

Who is ExakTime Best Suited For?

ExakTime is optimized for a few key industries and use cases:

- Field service businesses: ExakTime shines for HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and other field service companies where technicians work at multiple job sites each day. Features like mobile tracking, GPS drive time, and dispatching streamline daily operations.

- Construction companies: The tool is ideal for builders, contractors, and construction crews who need to track time across multiple projects and job codes. Robust reporting provides job cost insights.

- Project-based businesses: Consulting firms, design agencies, law firms, and other project-based companies benefit from the detailed project tracking and billing capabilities.

- Companies with remote employees: For companies with remote workers, ExakTime provides oversight into employee productivity with more transparency than a simple honor system.

- Companies with compliance requirements: For businesses that need strict accountability due to labor laws or customer requirements, ExakTime’s verification features help validate hours worked.

- Companies with hourly employees: Any business that needs to track billable hours for hourly workers can benefit. This includes IT services, staffing agencies, healthcare, and more.

ExakTime may be overkill for traditional office-based companies that don't have complex time allocation needs. Similarly, the premium price makes it harder to justify for very small businesses compared to some cheaper time tracking apps. But for field service companies with up to hundreds of employees, ExakTime presents a complete solution tailored specifically to their needs.

Comparing ExakTime to Alternatives

ExakTime competes against a variety of other players in the time tracking space. Here's a brief comparison to key alternatives:

- TSheets - The closest competitor focused on field services. Offers similar GPS tracking and scheduling features. Slightly more expensive but with more robust reporting.

- Hubstaff - Provides useful field service functionality like location tracking at a lower price point. Lacks some of ExakTime's service-specific capabilities.

- TimeCamp - A budget option good for small/medium businesses but lacks the depth for large field service teams. No hardware clock option.

- Replicon - Targets larger enterprises. Much more expensive but with enterprise-level capabilities. Overkill for most SMB field service businesses.

- Toggle - A simpler general-purpose time tracking tool. Lacks field service specialization but could work for office-based teams.

- Paper timesheets - Surprisingly still used by many service businesses! ExakTime finally provides the 21st century replacement for this clumsy analog process.

For field service companies specifically, ExakTime strikes a nice balance between sophisticated functionality and approachable pricing. Companies can start small with Basic plans and scale up to the Pro and Premium offerings as needs grow.

Conclusion and Recommendation

After reviewing ExakTime’s extensive capabilities, competitive pricing, solid support, and target customer base, we give it a strong recommendation for field service and construction businesses.

The platform requires some investment to get started but ultimately saves companies significant time and provides robust insights through its reporting and analytics. Optional hardware clocks deliver accountability that paper timesheets lack.

We suggest ExakTime primarily for service companies with at least 5-10 field employees. The tool can scale to support large teams as well. It likely offers more advanced functionality than very small businesses need but becomes more cost-effective at scale.

Companies that are still relying on paper timesheets will find ExakTime to be a true game-changer. The platform transforms time tracking from a manual chore into a value-adding process. Management gains unprecedented visibility into employee productivity and job profitability. Integrations streamline payroll and invoicing.

For any field service company looking to modernize operations, ExakTime should be on the shortlist of options to consider. The tool pays for itself through time savings and reduced payroll errors. Take advantage of the free trial to experience the benefits firsthand. ExakTime delivers the specialized features, seamless user experience, and responsive support needed to take your service business to the next level.