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Timeero vs QuickBooks Time: Side-by-Side Comparison

Samson Kiarie
Last update on:
September 19, 2024 3:44 AM
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Timeero and QuickBooks Time are two of the market's best GPS, time, and mileage tracking solutions. While both pack a punch in terms of features, their performances vary across different fronts, as you’ll find out in our comprehensive Timeero vs QuickBooks Time comparison. 

We took bothTimeero and QuickBooks Workforce (FKA QuickBooks TIme) mobile apps for a ‘test drive’ to see how their features work. We’ll divulge how each app performed in categories such as time tracking, employee GPS tracking, mileage tracking, scheduling, and more. Please stick with us to learn which of the two apps is cut out for your business. 

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Timeero vs QuickBooks Time (now QuickBooks Workforce): Compared and Tested

Without further ado, let's dive deep and find out which of the two top-tier software you should pick for your business.

1. Time Tracking

According to the FLSA, it’s your responsibility as the employer to track employee time accurately. You have to keep accurate records of employee clock-in and clock out times, overtime, time-offs, breaks, and other time-related data.

Timeero and QuickBooks Time, help you track time efficiently, so you don't have to invest in additional devices or a software stack. You only need to add employees, send them an email invite, and ask them to download the QuickBooks Workforce apps on their Android or iOS mobile devices. 

Employees have to select an assigned job to clock in. Plus, both time trackers enable employees to switch between jobs to ensure they’re paid the correct rates for each task. You can also assign supervisor permissions to managers to allow them to edit time and mileage, create schedules and generate reports. 

Timeero vs QuickBooks Time: Geofencing

timeero gps time tracking software
Timeero enables business owners to restrict employees from clocking in outside the job site

Geofencing is indispensable for accurate time tracking, and both Timeero and QuickBooks Time support this vital feature. These apps let you set a 100 to 1000 meters geofence, and that’s where their similarities end.  

While Timeero prevents employees from clocking in or outside the geofence, the QuickBooks Workforce “clock in now” feature does the opposite. It enables employees to clock in outside the geofence but requires them to leave a note explaining why they clocked in outside the designated area. 

This feature defeats the geofence's purpose, which is to thwart off-site punching. Unscrupulous employees can always find a reason to justify clocking in outside the geofence, and that could be a leeway to always fudge their time cards. 

If your employees use Timeero app to enter or exit geofenced area, you will be notified, and their timesheet entry will be marked. Your employee will also receive an alert if they step outside the designated boundaries.

Facial Recognition

Facial recognition ends buddy punching, a vice that 16% of U.S. and 34% of Canadian employees admit to using. Timeero and QuickBooks Time use facial recognition to monitor on-site attendance accurately. 

Their time clock kiosks are identical in that they work on any internet-enabled tablet or computer. You can use an employee's or manager’s device or invest in company-owned tablets or computers. Whether you use Timeero or QuickBooks Time, configuring the time clock kiosk is a cinch. 

2. GPS Location Tracking

quickbooks time location tracking
Besides tracking employee mobile time, QuickBooks Time helps you monitor employees’ GPS location

GPS location tracking is handy for companies with a mobile workforce, such as sales reps, delivery drivers, dispatch teams, and other teams that aren’t bound by a central physical location. It helps track employees' activities and maintains a real-time overview of their whereabouts. 

Timeero utilizes real-time employee GPS tracking. It picks up the GPS trail of every employee so that, at any given time, you can hit the “who’s working” button to see where your employees are in real time. You can click on each employee’s location pin to view granular details such as when they clocked in and the time they have been working. 

QuickBooks Workforce sports similar traits. When you click the “who’s working,” you get location intelligence of clocked-in employees. You can zoom in to see where the employee is and how long they have worked.

Route Replay

Timeero route replay
The route replay lets you recreate employee trails during the day

As far as route replay goes, Timeero takes the crown. It combines route replay with breadcrumbing technology, enabling you to retrace where an employee has been throughout the day. The good thing is that it shows an employee's exact route, including all the turns.

The breadcrumbs provide helpful details such as time and vehicle speed. If you manage sales reps, you can use the breadcrumb data to analyze how long an employee spends with each client. 

QuickBooks Workforce mobile app has a route replay feature but is starved of vital information. First, it doesn’t show the exact route a driver took. Instead, it connects points with straight lines. Second, you don’t get timely breadcrumbs, meaning you can tell the vehicle’s speed or pinpoint the driver's exact location during the journey. 

3. Mileage Tracking

It’s important to track employee mileage, primarily if they use their personal vehicle for business purposes. According to the latest IRS mileage rates, every business mile you track lowers your taxable income by 67 cents. For example, if you drive 20,000 miles per year, you’ll deduct $13,400 from your taxable income.

irs mileage rates
Freelancers, hourly employees, and their salaried counterparts are entitled to tax deductions for business miles driven

However, tracking mileage isn’t all about lowering taxable income. It also helps determine vehicle speeds, see who’s driving below the required speeds, and advise them accordingly.

Timeero achieves a high level of accuracy when it comes to tracking mileage. Its built-in motion detection technology ensures that it starts tracking mileage when the vehicle exceeds a speed threshold (typically 4.5 mph). The app doesn’t track mileage when the car isn’t moving or is stuck in traffic.

QuickBooks Workforce mobile app tracks mileage but doesn’t rival Timeero’s effectiveness. While Timeero started tracking mileage almost immediately, QuickBooks Time (now QuickBooks Workforce) took a while to fire up. As you can see in the map above, there’s a gap during which QuickBooks Workforce didn’t track miles — between the green and red dots.  

quickbooks time mileage tracking
QuickBooks Time is an effective mileage tracking app, though it presented some hiccups during our testing

Route Optimization

Regarding route optimization, Timeero has a feature called suggested mileage. This tool comes in handy for drivers that have to visit a customer or location multiple times. It reviews the route a driver often takes and suggests a shorter route to save fuel costs. QuickBooks Workforce doesn’t offer a similar tool. 

Offline Mode

The offline mode will save the day if your field employees have to traverse areas without an internet connection. With the offline mode, the app will capture relevant data and sync it to your database once there’s an internet connection. 

During our testing, we switched off the internet mid-trip to see whether the apps would continue tracking and collecting data. Fortunately, neither application had any hiccups — they continued to track mileage as if nothing had happened. 

4. Scheduling and Time-Off Management 

Scheduling ensures that employees are where they need to be at the right time. Besides lowering employee absenteeism and improving productivity, it enables you to comply with FLSA regulations. Timeero and QuickBooks Time come with employee scheduling tools, but their capability differs slightly. 

Employee Scheduling

Timeero scheduling
Forget spreadsheets schedules; Timeero enables you to create a schedule online that can be updated in real-time

Creating schedules and shifts is a child’s play with Timeero. You only have to click on a specific day, add a shift title, select responsible employees or groups, set the date, and click publish. You can use color coding to streamline project management and choose the frequency of each shift: daily, weekly, or monthly. 

Moreover, Timeero schedules automatically sync pay rates, overtime rates, and payroll data to ensure that employees are paid correctly. You can set the overtime rule manually or enforce a state rules, such as the general California Overtime Rule with a click of a button. 

Factors such as absenteeism can leave your company understaffed. Thankfully, Timeero uses various notifications to reduces employee’s no-show and schedule conflicts. It instantly notifies employees when a schedule is published or updated.   

If an employee doesn’t clock in within 10 minutes of their shift, the app will send an email notification to their manager. The manager can get to the bottom of the situation, reschedule the shift or assign the job to the next available employee. The employee will be notified instantly and can accept or decline the shift. 

Creating and editing schedules with QuickBooks Time, is equally easy. It also lets you create project estimates to stay on top of job costing and monitor progress from the project tab. For example, if you set a task to take 20 hours, QuickBooks TIme will track actual vs estimated time. If a project takes longer than expected, you can take remedial measures to put it back on track.

Time-Off Management

timeero time off
Timeero enables you to manage employees' time-offs from a centralized dashboard

The two apps exchange equal blows on the time-off management front. They allow yo to create and enforce policy-based paid time-offs (PTO) requests. Employees can request time off from the mobile app: iPhone or Android. The manager can approve or decline the request after reviewing the reasons for time off.

5. Reporting and Integrations 

Reports are only as accurate as the data you’ve gathered. As you have already seen, Timeero and QuickBooks Time are built to accurately track employee work hours, mileage, and other essential details. In other words, they help gather quality data. 

With the data, you can run reports to get an overview of your company's performance on different fronts. You can generate payroll reports and import them to your payroll software to pay employees in minutes. 

Timeero provides different filters to run reports, including:

  • Report by job
  • Report by date range
  • Reports by total only
  • Report by mileage
  • Scheduled vs hours worked
  • Week totals
  • Daily flat rate by user
  • Daily flat rate by total

Similarly, QuickBooks Time lets you create different reports, including:

  • Tracking (GPS points, mileage tracking, hours by)
  • Exceptions (less than x hours worked on a weekday, geofence Timesheet exceptions)
  • Scheduled reports
  • Payroll report
  • Exports
  • Itemized Total Time
  • Logging and auditing

Timeero vs QuickBooks Time: Integrations

Integrations improve efficiency and accuracy in other business areas besides time and mileage tracking. For example, businesses spend up to 10 hours per month processing their payrolls. Integrating time management software with a payroll app streamlines invoicing and payroll processing, shaving all these hours off your schedule. 

Besides supporting API integrations, Timeero Integrates with various cloud-based software, including:

  • QuickBooks Online
  • QuickBooks Desktop
  • ADP
  • Viventium
  • Gusto
  • Zapier
  • Xero Australia
  • Rippling
  • Paychex

On the other hand, QuickBooks Time offers a better pool of integrations, including:

  • QuickBooks Online
  • Aero
  • Gusto
  • PayChex
  • Square
  • ADP
  • OnPay
  • Breezeworks
  • Justworks
  • Makeshift
  • PaymentEvolution
  • Karbon and more

6. Ease of use

Software is easy to use if the non-tech-savvy employees can learn and use it with minimum support. Do Timeero and QuickBooks Time meet that criterion?

Device Compatibility

Timeero and QuickBooks Time are intuitively designed and user-friendly for managers and employees. Features are intuitively placed, and you won’t struggle to find your way around. Setting schedules, mileage rates, pay rates, and other company settings is a cinch. 

On the other hand, their Android and iOS apps offer a flat learning curve for all, including non-technical employees. The only thing is that Timeero offers far more automation options around time tracking, which goes a long way toward simplifying usability. 

Timeero vs TSheets: Terminal Kiosk

In case of a face mismatch, Timeero blocks the employee from clocking in

As mentioned earlier, Timeero and QuickBooks Time offer terminal kiosks. The good thing is that you don’t necessarily have to invest in computers and tablets. You can configure employee devices to be your time clock kiosk if there's no urgency to use company-owned devices. 

7. Timeero vs QuickBooks Time: Pricing 

Pricing sways the buying decision. As you have seen, Timeero and QuickBooks Time pack have great features. However, these features aren’t available on all pricing plans. In this category, we’ll reveal the pricing plan for each software to help you make an informed buying decision.

Free Trials

Timeero comes with a 14-day, which gives you enough time to tinker with all the features, including time tracking, mileage tracking, facial recognition, and more. If you hit a snag during the free trial, you can contact customer support for help. 

On the contrary, QuickBooks Time comes with a 30-day free trial. Like Timeeero, it gives you ample time to get a firsthand feel for all the premium features. 

TSheets vs Timeero: Paid Plans

Timeero has three premium plans: Basic, Pro, and Premium. The basic plan costs $4 per user per month and requires no base fee. This plan is excellent for small businesses that need to track GPS location, time, and mileage for less than ten users. 

The Pro plan has no user limits and comes with additional features. This plan is for you if you need to set geofenced jobs, schedule team members, manage time-offs, and use Timeero integrations. The Pro plan costs $8 per user per month. 

Lastly, the Timeero Premium plan, which goes for $11 per user per month, offers all the features. This plan's unique features include facial recognition, suggested mileage, commuter mileage, and overtime management. 

QuickBooks Time has two plans: Premium and Elite. The former costs a $10 base fee plus an $8 per user per month fee. The base fee includes one admin and essential time-tracking features. If you need to track mileage, geofence jobs, and create project estimates, you’ll have to subscribe to the Elite plan, which costs a $20 base fee plus $10 per user per month. 

Timeero vs QuickBooks Time: Which App Should You Pick?

It may sound like we’re blowing our own trumpet, but if the results of our testing offer anything to go by, Timeero is the winner by a hairsbreadth. Geofencing automation, breadcrumbs in route replay, suggested mileage, and affordability are some factors that tipped the odds in Timeero’s favor.  

However, our TSheets vs. Timeero comparison proves QuickBooks Time is reliable in its rights. It stands on the shoulder of an accounting giant, giving it an edge in streamlining payroll processing.

For more information, read our in-depth QuickBooks Time Review and 10 Best QuickBooks Time Alternatives.

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AUTHOR
Samson Kiarie

Samson is a mathematician turned content marketer specializing in SaaS and Tech content. He focuses on the practical aspects of software systems while keeping abreast of the industry’s cutting-edge principles to create informative and engaging content. When he’s not writing, Samson spends time playing or watching soccer.

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