In today’s digital age, remote work has become more prevalent. As a result, businesses are increasingly turning to remote employees to get the job done. While remote work has benefits, it can also present some unique challenges.

Examples of such challenges would be measuring employee productivity, assessing employee performance, and tracking the working hours of remote team members.

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This is why remote employees need a time tracking solution. It should include at least basic features that allow accurate time management and real-time monitoring of project progress and time spent on tasks. This will not only help billing clients but also will improve employee’s productivity.

Best time tracking software for remote work helps to track billable time and gather data on how and where workers spend their working hours.

In this article, we will explore some of the best time tracking apps for remote employees available on the market. We will compare their features, benefits, and drawbacks to help businesses decide which solution is best for their needs.

The 12 best remote employee time tracking software

1. Timeular: Remote employee time tracking made simple

Timeular is an effortless and accurate time-tracking tool for remote teams aiming to track billable time, maximize productivity, and generate detailed reports for clients. It consolidates intelligent timekeeping methods into one platform, allowing time to be tracked in a few seconds per day.

Here are key features that make Timeular an excellent solution for remote employees:

• Employee buy-in right from the start: Simple, automated, and modern
• A physical Tracker that helps to build a strong tracking habit
• Overtime tracking and leave tracking
• Anti-micromanagement features (it’s not a monitoring software)
• Collaborative functionalities for team synergy
• Also works as a billable hours software
• Online and offline time tracking with desktop apps and mobile apps
• 3,000 integrations, that allow tracking time in Jira, Asana

Timeular makes time tracking simple and fun

At the core of Timeular is the principle that tracking time should be a seamless part of your routine. A user-centric design ensures an enjoyable experience, allowing you to track time in a few seconds per day accurately. No more complex processes or guesswork – Timeular streamlines the tracking process, ensuring you remain focused on your tasks.

“People complain a lot less about time tracking now because of the easy interface of Timeular.”

Kaitlin Snow Seamons, Executive Creative Director at Harmon Brothers

Anti-micromanagement: It’s not a remote employee monitoring software

Ensuring precise tracking of your team’s time hinges on creating an environment where they don’t sense excessive micromanagement or continuous real-time monitoring. To foster this atmosphere of trust and autonomy, Timeular has implemented a 24-hour delay before time entries become accessible to managers.

Moreover, within the Timeular platform, you won’t encounter intrusive surveillance features monitoring employee activity like keyboard tracking, screen recording, or screenshot capture. This choice aligns with our commitment to respecting user privacy and fostering a work environment built on trust and transparency.

Auto time tracking based on app usage

Bid farewell to manual data entry. With Timeular, your activities are intelligently recorded based on app usage, visited websites, and scheduled calendar events. Say goodbye to the hassle of filling in timesheets and welcome accurate time reports while maintaining 100% privacy and security with this incredible AI-powered time tracker.

Perfect for individuals and teams

Timeular is an employee time clock software that caters to the needs of both individuals and teams. Customize time entries with notes and automated tags to reflect the nuances of your work. Collaboration is effortless, with shared folders that enable you to track time spent on tasks collectively and create individual and team reports.

This flexibility ensures that both independent professionals and collaborative team members can harness the power of Timeular.

Read: Make HR team life easier with this payroll tracker.

Enforced tracking habit

Timeular is widely known for its physical time tracker that connects to the app via Bluetooth. As you can easily customize it through colorful stickers and pens, the 8-sided die serves as a physical reminder that sits on your desk.

Although the Tracker adds an engaging dimension, you can still leverage Timeular’s software without it.

“We have become 20% more profitable because everyone is in the habit of tracking time.”

Richard Wingfield, Head Geek at Envision Design

Track work time, overtime, and all types of leaves

Beyond work hours, Timeular allows you to track overtime and time off effortlessly, providing comprehensive control over your remote work schedule.

Improved time estimations

Instantly track your time to bridge the gap between project estimates and actual time expended to tame the Time Monkey Effect. By gaining insights into the true time requirements of your tasks, you can refine your estimations and enhance your planning for future projects.

Read: How a software house tracks time against estimations to improve accuracy

Effortless time reports and budget control

Timeular automates billable time tracking and generates transparent time reports for your clients. This ensures that every minute is accounted for, promoting accurate billing and client satisfaction. Keep a firm grip on project budgets, effortlessly identifying areas requiring attention and strategically reallocating resources.

Read: How an agency uses data to be accurate in the planning and budgeting of projects

Ratings:

• App Store: 4.6/5
• Capterra: 4.6/5 ​​

Pricing:

• 30-day free plan
• Paid plans start at EUR 6.30 per month

Turn time tracking into a task so easy that your team will even enjoy it

With or without the Tracker, manage remote teams with Timeular at hand

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2. Toggl Track

Toggl offers three tools: a tracking app, a planner, and a hiring section. Focusing on the core product, the time tracking solution, it provides a web, mobile, and desktop tool.

Toggle Track allows for idle time detection, personal reminders, automated triggers, and team access level management. The free option is complete in this regard, to be used ideally by a freelancer, for example, or a small team with a maximum of five people. 

A top-rated productivity tool, Toggl Track also allows the export of detailed reports (weekly, monthly) and data import via a CSV file. Paid Toggl plans include:

• More advanced team management tools.
• Team member audits.
• More advanced reporting features than the free version.

It also allows for more than one hundred integrations with browser extensions.

Pricing:

• All plans start with a free trial of 30 days
• Free (0€ – limit of 5 users)
• Starters (10€ /user/month)
• Premium (20€ /user/month)
• Enterprise (custom)

Rating: 

• 4.7/5 on Capterra 

Read: Timeular vs Toggl: Which is Better for You?

Read about how other remote teams track their time with Timeular

Read more

3. Monday.com

Monday.com is one of the best cross-functional tools. The highlight of this software is its customization capabilities, including drag and drop, to make the process easier for everyone. Monday.com provides project data visualizations, project automation, and integrations.

The software is an efficient resource planning tool for keeping track of group projects. It provides templates and workflows from different areas, such as marketing, project management, design, software development, sales, and human resources.

Pricing:

• Individual (0€ – up to 2 users)
• Basic (8€/user/month)
• Standard (10€/user/month)
• Pro (16€/user/month)
• Enterprise (custom)

Rating: 

• 4.6/5 on Capterra

Read also: How to track time on Monday.com

Looking for the best remote time tracking solution for your employees?

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4. Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch is a great tool that simplifies remote workforce scheduling and time monitoring, no matter where the team members work. The notifications feature allows managers to keep track of workers. For instance, the manager is notified if someone clocks in or out or requests a time change.

The worker also has access to notifications to handle these administrative issues without taking time off billable hours. Buddy Punch allows remote workers to use a single login, for example, via Google, keeping everything in the same place.

The reports issued are highly customizable and can be applied to each worker. This software also allows the scheduling of automatic breaks, subtracting that time from the billable hours, among others.

Pricing:

• Standard (2.99$ /user/month billed annually)
• Pro (3.99$ /user/month billed annually)
• Enterprise (custom)
• An extra 19$ dollars adds to every plan as a monthly base fee. There is a free trial for 14 days.

Rating: 

• 4.8/5 on Capterra

5. Paymo

Paymo is a helpful tool for managing complex projects, especially in its highest-tier plan. It presents a complete set of project-tracking features for a remote workforce.

For example, Paymo includes features focused on financial health indicators for projects, collaboration tools, Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and a customizable interface.

It can be pretty helpful when monitoring the projects’ workflows. One of its most prominent and strongest points is that it is available in 23 languages. 

Pricing:

• Free (0$/user/month – maximum 1 user)
• Starter (4.95$/user/month – maximum 1 user)
• Small User (9.95$/user/month)
• Business (20.79$/user/month)
• Paymo offers a trial of 15 days.

Rating: 

• 4.7/5 on Capterra

6. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a tool that combines accurate time tracking and visibility over how time is spent. It’s a great alternative to Hubstaff users because it includes time capturing, remote employee monitoring, project management and project budgeting, online timesheets, and payroll organization.

Depending on the chosen plan, it allows for consulting the history of tracking activities; video screen captures, and more than sixty possible integrations with other software. 

Time Doctor claims to be employee-friendly while offering managers the possibility of being more engaged in the projects at hand, all in complete transparency. It features solutions developed specifically with remote teams in mind. 

Pricing: 

• Basic (70$ user/year)
• Standard (100$ user/year)
• Premium (200$ user/year)
• It offers a free trial for 15 days, after which a planned purchase is mandatory.

Rating: 

• 4.5/5 on Capterra

Read: Best Alternatives to Time Doctor

Make time tracking simple and fun for your remote team

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7. Wrike

Wrike is a remote employee time-tracking software exceptionally devoted to software development. It’s a visual tool with available dashboards, Kanban boards, and Gantt charts.

The platform’s workload charts help spot overloads, reallocate resources, and reduce the risk of burnout. It also allows tracking of marketing budgets and campaign performance.

TIP: Get to know the best Wrike time tracking integration.

Pricing

• Free (0$ /user/month)
• Team (9.80$ /user/month)
• Business (24.80$ /user/month)
• Enterprise (custom)
• Pinnacle (custom)
• It offers a free trial.

Rating: 

• 4.3/5 on Capterra

8. Timely

Timely allows remote workers to categorize time spent based on tasks, websites accessed, and tools used. It can track billable and non-billable activities, issue detailed reports on them, and offer an advanced dashboard that can help teams collaborate through activity feeds.

The advanced report is one of its most highlighted features. It’s one of the most automated time-tracking tools on the market and can be integrated with other apps, but mostly only with their paid plans.

Pricing:

• Starter (11$ /user/month)
• Premium (20$ /user/month)
• Unlimited (28$ /user/month)
• There are discounts if the plans are billed annually instead of monthly.

Rating: 

• 4.7/5 on Capterra

9. Clockify

Clockify is a popular remote employee monitoring software known for its simple and easy-to-use dashboard. It’s a cloud-based employee time tracking app that has a stellar that can track employee time, attendance, and billable hours.

The more advanced paid plans allow you to register paid time off and vacation requests, including GPS tracking, expense tracking, progress alerts, invoicing, and the possibility of customizing several fields.

It features the Clockify Time Clock Kiosk that lets users turn any internet-connected device into an employee punch clock. Clockify is considered a friendly platform, allowing for more than 80 integrations.

TIP: Read our post and discover the best employee attendance tracker apps.

Pricing

• Basic (4.99$ /user/month)
• Standard (6.99$ /user/month)
• Pro (9.99$ /user/month)
• Enterprise (14.99$ /user/month)
• When billed annually, a discount is applied. Clockify offers a free 7-day trial.

Rating: 

• 4.7/5 on Capterra

Compare Timeular vs Clockify

10. TimeCamp

TimeCamp provides several tracking possibilities for remote workers: manual time entries, automatic time tracking, idle time detection, and daily and weekly timesheets.

The paid plan versions include productivity and time-budget reports, unlimited third-party integrations, and user role assignments.

TimeCamp has the advantage of providing a free plan with no user limit, which is rare. However, this level does not offer features such as team productivity tracking, invoicing, timesheet approvals, and integrations.

This software is mainly used for the team-oriented side of things, which makes a remote team manager’s job easier.

Pricing

• Free / Basic (7.99$ /user/month)
• Pro (10.99$ /user/month)
• Enterprise (custom pricing)
• You can start using the tool with a 14-day free trial

Rating: 

• 4.7/5 on Capterra

Never chase timesheets again

When your team likes the time tracking tool, you get your data on-time and without chasing. Say goodbye to chasing timesheets!

Try Timeular for free

11. ClockShark

ClockShark is a remote employee monitoring software that was created to serve construction and field service businesses that need to track employee time and client projects.

Its features include GPS tracking, job and task tracking, timesheet attachments, overtime monitoring, and job budgeting alerts.

It comes with the KioskClock Time Clock with facial recognition and CrewClock Team Time Tracking, which allows crew leaders to track employee work hours for their entire team, wherever they may be.

Pricing:

• Standard (16$ /user/month)
• Pro (30$ / user/month
• There are discounts when plans are billed annually, and there are often campaigns for lower fees if the software is purchased without a trial. ClockShark provides a 14-day free trial.

Rating: 

• 4.7/5 on Capterra

12. Deputy

Deputy differentiates itself from most tools for remote workers because it helps to remain compliant with wage and hour laws, helping minimize legal risks associated with employee management.

For example, it includes employee break compliance tools and can record schedule compliance, including late clock-ins, work conducted in unscheduled time blocks, and early clock-outs. It calculates over time, split-shift, and holiday/customized rates.

This software can be a great option if a business is starting and can’t yet spend money on a tool of this kind. 

Pricing:

• Deputy offers a free trial of up to 31 days
• Scheduling (3.50$ /user/month)
• Time & Attendance (3.50$ /user/month)
• Premium (joins both past plans – 4.90$ /user/month)
• Enterprise (custom pricing)
• If annual billing is chosen, there is a discount.

Rating: 

• 4.6/5 on Capterra

How to choose the best remote employee time tracking tool

When choosing a time-tracking software focused on the needs of remote workers, there are some core factors to consider.

The manager’s primary goals in implementing a time monitoring software, especially for remote teams, are to increase employee accountability, more easily verify employee hours, and deal with payroll, if necessary.

Project management features

Aside from time tracking, project management features are an essential but often forgotten issue to consider when making this decision. These often help a manager assign tasks, prioritize them and check them off when completed. Another one is overseeing where employees are using their time if they are making progress on them, and if that is traceable.

As a manager, “measure” the needs of your team/project. Assess your needs and determine how the time-tracking software will better help your remote team: do you need to improve effectiveness? Do you need to track billable hours and ensure payroll is streamlined? Also, what kind of projects do you work on? Is it easy to use? 

Compatibility

After this, it’s also crucial that when looking for time-tracking software, the chosen one is compatible with the existing tools currently used by the team. Otherwise, an investment in a tool may be wasted if it doesn’t work with the rest of what the remote workers already use.

It’s also essential to look for features that allow remote employee monitoring if the manager or company is looking for that. However, there are better practices to build employees’ trust. 

Data security

Regarding remote workers’ tracking time, data security must be a priority. Look for encryption software and other security features to protect confidential employee and work data.

Automation

Finally, automation is another factor that can make or break an effective time-tracking software that’ll contribute to the worker’s productivity.

It’s essential that the software can automatically capture accurate data from multiple sources and provide reports. If those reports are customizable, even better. With this kind of feature, it’s possible to keep team budgets on target, visualize team capacity, understand costs, analyze time spent, etc. 

Read also: What is automation in the workplace?

Conclusion

In the era of remote work, you need tools to manage tasks, plan employees’ work, monitor working hours, and track employee productivity effectively. Fortunately, the time tracking tools available on the market cover all the features.

While selecting the right tool, make sure they provide the key features essential for efficient work:

1. Prioritize employee buy-in: Look for tools that encourage employee buy-in from the start. Make sure it appeals not only to you but to other team members as well. For example, Timeular offers an intuitive interface that makes time tracking seamless and enjoyable, leading to more accurate productivity metrics.

2. Foster trust and autonomy: Avoid intrusive employee monitoring software by choosing a tool like Timeular, which implements a 24-hour delay before managers can access time entries. This approach fosters trust and respects employee privacy. Let’s highlight it again: Monitoring remote workers will harm your team or your company – avoid it by all means.

3. Embrace integrations: Select tools that integrate seamlessly with your tools i.e., project management software or Google Calendar. This streamlines workflow enhances productivity tracking, and ensures a smooth experience for managing remote workers.

In summary, when managing remote teams and monitoring employee activity on the job site, prioritize employee buy-in, trust, and automation through integrated project management and employee monitoring tools. This approach will improve productivity metrics and a more efficient remote work environment.

FAQ

You might be interested in the following:

• Leading remote teams
• What are manual timesheets?
• How to get your remote employees to track time?
• The best tools to manage remote employees
• How to calculate payroll hours
• The challenges of managing remote employees
• How to motivate a remote team

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