Time Tracking Software
Time tracking software is a tool used for tracking the time employees spend on specific tasks during a project. The reports derived from time tracking solutions help project managers plan accurate project schedules.
Time tracking tools are a part of the larger software categories of project management solutions and professional service automation software. However, they are also available as stand-alone tools with specific functionalities required for tracking the time employees spend working on projects.
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2021 Time Tracking Software Pricing Guide
Learn about the key aspects of accurate software pricing before you make your purchase decision.
Pricing models & ranges
Unexpected costs
Pricing of popular systems
Compare All Time Tracking Software

NetSuite OpenAir offers buyers a collection of applications designed to support every stage of the professional services delivery lifecycle. Offered as Software-as-a-Service, the platform includes applications to manage project...Read more

Using Clarizen’s leading collaborative work management solution for the enterprise, businesses can solve challenges far beyond traditional work, project or resource management. With Clarizen’s enterprise-grade solut...Read more

Quick Base is the smoothest way to manage complex and strategic projects involving many stakeholders in different departments and roles. Quick Base is a cloud-based low-code application development platform that is highly custo...Read more

NetSuite Professional Services Automation
NetSuite Professional Services Automation is used by professional services organizations to optimize their project-based operations. The software offers integrated project management, resource management, project-based accounti...Read more

Workzone is a project management solution that offers document management, project collaboration, customizable reporting, resource and task management and time tracking. The software is cloud-based and offers automated emailed ...Read more

Project Insight (PI) is the work management hub helping companies manage projects, allocate personnel and track what work is being done throughout the entire organization. The intuitive software aggregates data from hig...Read more

monday.com, an award-winning collaboration and project management platform, helps teams plan together efficiently and execute complex projects to deliver results on time. monday.com team management and...Read more

BQE Core - Integrated Project Management and Accounting
BQE Core is a cloud-based solution that offers integrated business accounting, project management, and business intelligence. It can support the operations of a variety of industries, including legal services, architecture firm...Read more

KeyedIn is a cloud-based project management solution for enterprise-level companies offering a suite with features, such as program management, professional services automation and project portfolio management application....Read more

Easy Projects is a cloud-based project management platform suitable for midsize organizations and enterprises. Easy Projects provides every contributing team member, project manager, executive, stakeholder or customer w...Read more
Software pricing tips
Read our Time Tracking Software Buyers GuideSubscription models
- Per employee/per month: This model allows you to pay a monthly fee for each of your employees.
- Per user/per month: Users pay a monthly fee for users—normally administrative users—rather than all employees.
Perpetual license
- This involves paying an upfront sum for the license to own the software and use it indefinitely.
- This is the more traditional model and is most common with on-premise applications and with larger businesses.
Rated best value for money

Smartsheet is a work execution platform and collaboration tool with a familiar spreadsheet-like interface that helps teams plan, track, and manage projects in real-time. Smartsheet features include a r...Read more

BigTime is an online time and billing solution designed to serve professional service firms like accounting, engineering, government contracting, legal and IT services. The integrated solution offers features like time and expe...Read more

Sciforma is a cloud-based project and portfolio management solution for enterprises that allows to strategically track and analyze project data and make relevant decisions. It can be sold as a stand-alone portfolio management, ...Read more

Cora Systems provide enterprise project and portfolio management solutions to global organizations and government agencies, such as Honeywell, Elanco, PwC, City of London and the UK’s National Health Service. Their soluti...Read more

Aysling is a cloud-based enterprise resource solution that can run an entire business, from leads to sales, through delivery to payments. Aysling is easy to deploy, configure, use, and manage while offering ...Read more

Workamajig is a cloud-based HTML5 project management solution designed for creative ad agencies and in-house advertising teams of all sizes. Key features include opportunity tracking, project management, time tracking, resource...Read more

Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload vie...Read more

Small businesses require big data to scale and improve. Dovico Timesheet helps growing companies with project time and cost data reports that provide insights into labour availability and billable or non-billable project health...Read more

Mavenlink offers services and solutions for project management, resource planning, collaboration, and project accounting. Mavenlink combines the robust functionality of a Professional Services Automation solution with intuitive...Read more

Deltek Vision is a cloud-based project-based solution for professional services firms that is available for cloud or on-premise deployment. It combines project accounting, resource management, project management, time...Read more
Popular Time Tracking Software Comparisons
Buyers Guide
Last Updated: February 28, 2021Tracking the time employees spend on a certain task or project is important for many reasons. An obvious one is that it helps project managers create more accurate project deadline estimates.
And while project managers might be able to track time by manually logging hours on Excel sheets, a better way to do this is to use software specifically designed for time tracking.
Time tracking solutions help project managers dodge error-prone, manual methods of tracking time. Additionally, they can analyze generated reports to understand factors that influence employee performance.
That said, there are many time tracking solutions available on the market that differ in functionality, pricing, and deployment. Businesses should carefully evaluate all these factors to ensure that they don't invest in the wrong software.
In this buyer's guide, we'll look at factors that can help businesses in selecting the right time tracking tool.
Here's what we'll cover:
What Is Time Tracking Software?
Common Features of Time Tracking Software
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Key Considerations
What is time tracking software?
Time tracking software is a tool used for tracking the time employees spend on specific tasks during a project. The reports derived from time tracking solutions help project managers plan accurate project schedules.
Time tracking tools are a part of the larger software categories of project management solutions and professional service automation software. However, they are also available as stand-alone tools with specific functionalities required for tracking the time employees spend working on projects. These functionalities are discussed in greater detail in the section below.

Time tracking in Toggl
Common features of time tracking software
Time tracking solutions come with a range of functionalities that help businesses not only track employees' performance but also create billable hours reports to be sent to clients.
Below we look more closely at some of these functionalities:
Time entries |
Record the time employees spend on tasks with details such as the type of task and total hours/days spent—categorized by client, project, or other parameters. |
Timesheet management |
View employee time records as a list (traditional timesheet) or on calendars (graphical timesheet). Create workflows allowing employees to send time sheets to managers and other stakeholders for approval. |
Reporting and analytics |
Generate reports showing time spent on tasks and revenue earned by projects Filter these reports by employee, project type, client, team, or timeline. |
Invoicing |
Generate invoices based on billable hours to charge clients for services. Automatically calculate amounts based on hours, using multiple billing rates, any discounts, taxes, and other information in the invoice. |
While these are the common functionalities of time tracking solutions, businesses should remember that every solution differs in the depth and breadth of functionality.
For instance, some solutions offer mobile time tracking, which would be a useful feature for businesses that need to track the time of their field staff.
What type of buyer are you?
Listed below are the two time tracking software buyer groups, categorized according to their business size. Understanding their key concerns will help you identify and purchase the right time tracking software.
- Small and midsize businesses (up to 1000 employees): A tool's price plays a major role in these buyers' purchasing decisions, as they typically have a smaller software budget than large organizations. As a result, small and midsize business buyers need a solution that comes with low upfront costs and/or an affordable monthly subscription fee.
- Large businesses (more that 1000 employees): These buyers look for a time tracking tool that comes with a broad-range of functionalities, including automatic time capture, multiple billing rates, and overtime calculation. The tool should also be able to integrate with their existing solutions. For example, integration with accounting tools can provide seamless exporting of bills and invoices to keep financial data consolidated in a single solution.
Key considerations
To correctly identify the time tracking tool that suits your business requirements, you should analyze more than just the features and consider additional factors such as deployment options and advanced functionalities.
Here are key considerations every business should keep in mind when purchasing time tracking tools:
- Deployment options: Time tracking solutions come with two types of deployment options: on-premise or cloud-based. The latter option could be particularly favorable for small businesses, as its monthly/annual subscription models mean low or no upfront fees. An additional benefit is that small businesses don't have to worry about data backup and product updates, as the vendor takes care of those. However, for businesses that want absolute control over their data and have an IT team to take care of software upkeep and feature customization, an on-premise tool could be the better option.
- Stand-alone vs. full-suite solutions: Stand-alone time tracking tools are an affordable option for small businesses that want a solution singularly for tracking time spent on tasks and projects. However, time tracking solutions are often offered as a software module within project management and professional services automation (PSA) solutions. The need for such a full-suite solution arises when businesses want a tool that does more than track time and helps with scheduling tasks, tracking expenses, planning project resources, etc.
- Time tracking versus time and attendance tracking tools: A key thing to remember about time tracking tools is that they are not the same as time and attendance tracking solutions, which are used by HR departments to manage employee leave and track their working hours. These solutions come with functionalities that go beyond the scope of basic time tracking solutions, such as vacation/leave management, employee database, and employee scheduling.
- Advanced functionalities: In the last decade, time tracking tools have evolved to incorporate newer digital technologies. For instance, some tools allow you to track the time an employee spends in a particular location by tracking GPS data. This can be a useful feature if you have a field staff, such as on-site technicians and sales agents. Similarly, certain tools allow you to view and automatically track the time employees spend on different activities while working on a project, such as the different websites they visit and applications they use. This may be a required feature if you're managing a team of freelancers.
Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.