# Keeping track of employees hours



## welovepainting (May 13, 2007)

We have been looking into purchasing the exact time job clock. I like the idea that it intergrades with quickbooks and tracks prep, setup, and hours by category. Is there a more cost effective way to do this? The exact time job clock seems a little pricy.


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## Kennedy (Apr 18, 2007)

I looked into it too, and it seems it would be great on extended jobs, but a pain on those 2-3 day ones. Especially if you have a number of the smaller jobs going at the same time.


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## Humble Abode (Apr 11, 2007)

Why?


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## premierpainter (Apr 17, 2007)

We have it and I will sell you mine if you want them. They are more of a pain in the a$$ than they are good. If you don't mind moving them every night that you are finished a job, then they are great. If you lock them in a truck or a van then they are useless. I don't think that they go into QB's. 
[email protected] if you are interested in buying mine for about half the cost. I have the tags, cables, instructions, two locks, two clocks, ten key fobs, Palm Pilot. Let me know because I would hate to see anyone else pay full price- about $1400


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## Mandrake (Jul 4, 2007)

One company I work with uses Navtrak - satellite tracking. Not sure of the cost, but I guess its pricey. However they have about 10 vans and it is a fantastic tool. You can see where any vehicle is as anytime, print reports, monitor MPH, even shut the vehicle off from your computer. Great when a commercial client calls and says "your crew never showed up last night". Check the report and find out they were there and the night manager was probably asleep. 

There have been countless times when the crew complained about their checks only to find that they had left the site 1-2 hours earlier than they reported. Probably pays for itself when you have 10 vans.

Mndrk


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## welovepainting (May 13, 2007)

Mandrake said:


> One company I work with uses Navtrak - satellite tracking. Not sure of the cost, but I guess its pricey. However they have about 10 vans and it is a fantastic tool. You can see where any vehicle is as anytime, print reports, monitor MPH, even shut the vehicle off from your computer. Great when a commercial client calls and says "your crew never showed up last night". Check the report and find out they were there and the night manager was probably asleep.
> 
> There have been countless times when the crew complained about their checks only to find that they had left the site 1-2 hours earlier than they reported. Probably pays for itself when you have 10 vans.
> 
> Mndrk



Wounder if you can track job hours? I have heard of a similar plan with nextel never looked into pricing. I wonderer how much it would be for like 4 vans/phones.


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## Mandrake (Jul 4, 2007)

I'll see if i can get a ballpark figure.

Interesting story last spring. A customer called and expressed concern that the powerwashing wasn't very thorough. The crew had reported a full 8 hour day (2 men). She gave me some details about them leaving the job twice and then sitting in the van for 30 minutes and then leaving early.

I pulled up the report and found it just as she said. Since the tracking unit monitors ignition as well as travel it appeared that the van sat at her home at one time and ran for about 30 minutes. I calculated that they had put in about 3.5 hours of actual on-site work. 

I called the forman in and went over the report. His only excuse was that it was cold so they sat in the van a while to get warm.


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

premierpainter said:


> We have it and I will sell you mine if you want them. They are more of a pain in the a$$ than they are good. If you don't mind moving them every night that you are finished a job, then they are great. If you lock them in a truck or a van then they are useless. I don't think that they go into QB's.
> [email protected] if you are interested in buying mine for about half the cost. I have the tags, cables, instructions, two locks, two clocks, ten key fobs, Palm Pilot. Let me know because I would hate to see anyone else pay full price- about $1400


I think you could of sold it better than that. LOL


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## customcraftptg (Oct 16, 2007)

I have used the job clock system since 11/06. I found that it paid for itself in a little over a month. They run a special in Dec. You get the palm, two clocks, tabs for 10 employees, and the software for $1300.00. You set up policies for your staff to follow. Never had a problem moving the clocks. I like to talk with my customers to get feedback and get paid when the job is complete so you grab the clock at that time. When it's time to set up at the next job I always go over the job with my forman at the site. They work for me with no hassle.


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## porkchop (Nov 10, 2007)

I used the nextel program for phones. Costs about $100 a phone per month. It is pretty pricey and not user friendly. The benefit if you have several crews and want to see what time they arrive at the jobsite it is a plus. It was for a large contracting company, the company only paid for time on site and they would clock in on the phone when they got there. It would also track them via GPS on the phone.


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## premierpainter (Apr 17, 2007)

Workaholic said:


> I think you could of sold it better than that. LOL


:thumbup: I am using them again. Now I have two other clocks so its not as bad as it was. It is a good system if you can afford the cost of all of the clocks.


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## pgigstad (Feb 28, 2008)

I have been using Xora Timetrack for the past 2 years. Xora is a GPS enabled application which runs on Nextel phones. It costs around $15/month plus the cost of the nextel phone service. My employees "punch in and out" with their phone. I am then able to download weekly timesheets for processing payroll. It really simplifies payroll and allows me to track job costs with ease.


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