Time Clock Overview
Buildertrend’s Time Clock simplifies tracking your team's shifts on every job with ease and accessibility.
Labor Codes connect time entries to your Budget for accurate job costing and reporting. With Geofencing, clock-ins and clock-outs are tied to real-time locations to improve accountability.
If you bill clients for labor, Time Clock also supports Billable Rates, allowing you to track both what labor costs your business and what you charge your clients. Set a Default Billable Rate once for an employee or override it at the job level, and Buildertrend automatically carries the Billable Rate through Time Clock, invoicing, the Job Costing Budget, and QuickBooks. For QuickBooks users, shifts can also be Marked as billable before they're synced, either individually or by using a company setting to have the option selected by default.
‼️Important:
Time Clock Overview Help Video
Tracking Labor Using Cost Codes
Using cost codes to track labor in Buildertrend ensures accurate time tracking on specific tasks.
When internal users clock in through the Time Clock and select a cost code, their hours are automatically linked to the job’s budget.
This helps improve job costing, highlights where time is being spent, and keeps your financial reporting accurate and efficient.
If you're tracking labor using time Clock, you can assign default labor settings to an internal user so they automatically populate when clocking in.
Default Labor Costs help ensure labor expenses are tracked accurately for payroll and job costing, while Default Billable Rates streamline invoicing by automatically applying the amount you charge clients for labor.
💡Pro Tip:
If you don't assign a default cost code to an employee, their time entry will automatically populate with Buildertrend Flat Rate when they clock in.
This generic code lacks specificity and can lead to issues if the employee forgets to update it manually. It may also result in inaccurate totals in your Budget.
To maintain accurate job costing, it’s best to avoid relying on this default code.
Assigning a Default Labor Cost Code:
From the individual user's contact, navigate to the Other tab. Select the Default labor cost code from the dropdown and set the Default labor cost.
Assigning a Default Billable Rate:
If you invoice clients for labor, you can assign a Default Billable Rate to an internal user. This allows Buildertrend to track both your labor costs and the amount billed to your client without requiring manual calculations during invoicing.
Default Billable Rates automatically populate on new Time Clock shifts and can be overridden on specific jobs when different labor pricing is needed.
You may also manage Default Billable Rates centrally from Company Settings → Time Clock → Rates tab, allowing you to update billable rates for multiple users in one place. 
✏️Note: Changes to Default Billable Rates apply only to future Time Clock shifts.
Default Labor Cost: Represents your internal labor expense.
Default Billable Rate: Represents what you charge your client for that labor.
💡Pro Tip:
To help keep labor pricing consistent, set your Default Billable Rate to align with the labor pricing reflected in your estimate. If you later update your labor pricing strategy or estimate markup, review your Billable Rates to ensure future Time Clock shifts and invoices remain consistent.
Clocking In and Out
Clock In is used in real-time to start a shift. It can be done by a user for themselves or by a Site Supervisor to clock in one or multiple employees at once.
This ensures accurate time tracking from the moment work begins, providing a clear and reliable record of hours worked on the jobsite.
Begin by navigating to the Time Clock from the Project Management dropdown.
From the Time Clock dashboard, click Clock In on the right-hand side of the screen and complete the required fields in the Clock In modal. Once all information is entered, click Clock In to begin tracking your shift.
When your shift is complete, return to the Time Clock dashboard and click Clock Out using either of the available Clock Out buttons.
Logging a break, such as lunch, instead of clocking out allows you to pause your shift without ending it.
This ensures total work hours are tracked accurately while keeping break time clearly recorded. It helps maintain accurate time records for payroll, compliance, and job costing.
✏️Note: The break functionality is only available if you are currently clocked in.
Navigate to the Time Clock dashboard and click Start Break.
When your break is over and you're ready to resume work, simply click End Break from the Time Clock dashboard. This action restarts your shift and ensures your time is logged correctly for the rest of the day.
Users with the appropriate permissions can clock in multiple team members at once, making it easy to get crews started quickly.
This is especially useful when teams arrive on-site together, helping ensure time is captured accurately and efficiently without the need for each user to clock in individually.
✏️Note: Only users with the permission to Adjust other user time sheets can clock in multiple employees at once.
Begin by navigating to the Time Clock from the Project Management dropdown.
From the Time Clock dashboard, select Clock In Users from the More Actions menu.
From the Clock In Multiple modal, fill out the required fields and use the User dropdown to select all employees you want to clock in. After entering all necessary information, click Clock In User.
Recording Shifts
Record Shift is used to log a shift that is already in progress or has been completed. It can be done by a user for themselves or by a Site Supervisor to record a shift for one or multiple employees.
This ensures all shifts are accurately documented, even if the clock-in was missed or delayed.
Begin by navigating to the Time Clock from the Project Management dropdown.
From the Time Clock dashboard, select Record Shift.
After selecting the Job, record the shift details by choosing the Start Time and End Time from the time pickers or by filling out the total Hours and Minutes worked.
OR
Users with the permission to Adjust other user time sheets can record shifts for multiple employees by selecting employees from the Users dropdown.
Additional details such as Tags, Notes, Shift Type, Breaks, Cost Code, Cost Rate, Billable Rate (when enabled), and Mark as billable (for QuickBooks integrations) can also be reviewed or updated before saving the shift.
If your company syncs Time Clock shifts with QuickBooks, selecting Mark as billable sends the shift to QuickBooks as billable along with its associated Billable Rate, helping reduce manual billing decisions after the shift syncs.
✏️Note: The Mark as billable checkbox appears only on jobs where Billable Rates are enabled.
💡Pro Tip:
If you typically bill clients for labor, you can have Mark as billable selected by default for Time Clock shifts sent to QuickBooks. From Company Settings → Accounting → QuickBooks → Accounting setup, enable Mark Time Clock shifts as billable by default when sending to QuickBooks under Time Clock options.
Under Detailed Hours, you can choose a Shift Type. Here is where you can choose to record a regular shift, or add PTO (paid time off). This can be done on a specific job, but we recommend adding PTO shifts on the General "job" as to not skew job costs or projected costs of specific jobs.
Buildertrend calculates both daily and weekly overtime and applies only the greater result for the week. This “greater-of” approach ensures employees are paid correctly for overtime worked so there is no underpayment, no double counting, and aligns with standard payroll and states like California's overtime rules.
When both daily and weekly overtime apply in the same week, Buildertrend knows to:
- calculate each separately
- pay whichever results in more overtime hours
In doing so, this prevents double counting while ensuring employees always receive the maximum overtime they're entitled to.
You have the ability (as an Admin) to set up your Time Clock with Quarter-Hour Rounding. To enable this feature, head to your Company Settings under your User Profile Icon.
Then, select Time Clock from the Project Management section.
Scroll down to enable the Enable Quarter-Hour Rounding section and click the checkbox that enable this feature.
You will then see within your Time Clock feature (and when clocking in or out), that Rounded Time is displayed, letting you know that these shifts have been or will be rounded to the nearest quarter-hour.
Whether you're preparing payroll in your accounting software, reviewing labor costs, or invoicing clients, reviewing and approving shifts helps ensure employee hours, Cost Rates, and Billable Rates are accurate before they move into downstream financial workflows.
Internal users with the permissions Review and Approve User Shifts can review submitted shifts, make edits if needed, and update multiple shifts at once.
This process helps prevent time tracking errors, supports accountability, and keeps your job costing and reporting reliable.
Approving individual time entries gives you the opportunity to review and make any necessary edits before finalizing the approval, ensuring accuracy in your records.
From the Time Clock dashboard, select a time entry.
A panel will open on the right side of the screen, allowing you to review the time entry and make any necessary changes while still viewing all other shifts. If your company uses Billable Rates, review the Cost Rate, Billable Rate, and Billable Amount before approving the shift to ensure both labor costs and client billing are accurate. Once you're finished reviewing the entry, click Save and Approve. 
Viewing Shift Activity
When reviewing an individual shift, select the Activity icon in the header to view its change history.
The Activity Log shows what changed, who made the change, and when. Expand an entry to compare the previous value with the new value for individual fields.
✏️Note: Detailed change history is available for edits made on or after August 19, 2026. Changes made before this date are not recorded in the Activity Log.
Mass Approving Shifts
To expedite the approval process, you can select multiple time entries and approve them all at once.
From the Time Clock dashboard, use the multi-select boxes to the left of the time entries, once time entries have been selected, click Approve Shifts. 
Mass Editing Shifts
Managing a high volume of shifts is easier with Mass Edit. Instead of opening each shift individually, you can select multiple shifts and apply updates to all selected entries at once.
This is especially useful when assigning the same Tags, Notes, Cost Rate, or Cost Code across multiple shifts.
Begin by selecting the checkboxes next to the shifts you want to update.
Once selected, click the Edit icon from the bulk action toolbar.
- Tags
- Notes
- Cost Code
- Cost Rate
- Billable Rate (when enabled)
Enter or select the desired value, then click Save to apply the update to all selected shifts.
Filtering and Viewing Shifts
The Time Clock dashboard includes filtering tools that help you quickly find and review specific time entries. 
Filters can be used to narrow down shifts by key criteria such as users, dates, and shift details, making it easier to review time for payroll, approvals, or job costing.
You can also filter shifts based on overtime to quickly identify time entries that include overtime hours.
- View only shifts with overtime to review additional labor costs
- View only non-overtime shifts for standard time tracking
- Combine filters to refine results for specific users, jobs, or timeframes
💡Pro Tip:
Create and save a custom Grid View and Filter to quickly access necessary fields, date ranges, important columns, and more, eliminating the need to set them up each time.
If you're using Billable Rates, customize your grid view to include the Billable Rate and Billable Amount columns. This makes it easy to review billable labor before creating invoices without opening each individual shift.
This is great for payroll needs! 💸
Using Time Clock Shifts in Invoices
After reviewing and approving shifts, approved labor can be added directly to invoices. Buildertrend automatically carries labor information from Time Clock into the invoicing workflow, helping reduce manual entry and ensure consistent billing. 
Billable Rates on Invoices
If your company uses Billable Rates, Buildertrend automatically maps labor pricing from approved shifts into the invoice.
| Time Clock Shift | Invoice |
| Cost Rate |
Unit Cost |
| Billable Rate | Unit Price |
Markup is automatically calculated based on the difference between the Cost Rate and Billable Rate and is displayed as a dollar amount, making it easier to review labor pricing alongside the Cost Rate and Unit Price.
💡Pro Tip:
Want to control what your client sees? Enable Hide labor cost and markup in the invoice preview to display only the final labor price. 
✏️Note: Billable Rates are available only on jobs created on or after August 5, 2026. In addition, Billable Rates currently affect invoicing and the Job Costing Budget only on Open Book jobs. On Fixed Price jobs, Billable Rates do not affect invoices or the Job Costing Budget. Instead, use Actual Cost against your contract price to evaluate labor margin.
Labor Revenue in the Job Costing Budget
Billable Rates also flow into the Job Costing Budget, where Total Revised Price reflects labor revenue based on the Billable Rate and hours worked. Actual and Committed Costs continue using the Cost Rate, providing a clearer picture of both labor costs and projected profitability.
Geofence Tracking
You can enable location tracking for employees using the mobile app to capture their location at the moment they clock in and out. This helps confirm whether those actions happen within the designated radius of the job site.
If a clock-in or clock-out occurs outside that area, the event is still recorded but flagged as outside the radius and a notification is sent to the assigned Full Admins or Project Managers.
The job must have a complete address to ensure geofencing functions correctly. In the Job Details section, you can review the pinned location of the job site.
💡Pro Tip:
For new construction projects, the address may not be recognized accurately. If this happens, you can remove the auto-populated blue pin and manually drop a new one to mark the exact location of the job site.
To remove the auto-populated pin, click Clear Pin.
Then click the location of the job to add a new pin.
Enabling Geofence Tracking
To begin, ensure that you have this feature enabled for jobs by navigating to Time Clock from your Company Settings.
Navigate to the Geofencing settings to enable geofencing for all jobs and establish the radius of the geofence.
✏️Note: If you do not want to enable geofencing for all jobs by default, you can enable a geofence on a job-by-job basis from the Advanced settings tab of the Job Details.
Next, enable geofence tracking for each internal user whose location you want to track for time clock entries by going to the Other tab of their internal user contact. Then check Require location on mobile under the Time Clock section.
Reviewing Shifts with Geofencing
✏️Note: Geofencing only captures the location at the exact moment of clocking in and clocking out. Continuous location tracking throughout the user’s shift is not available.
Shifts where the user clocked in or out within the radius of the geofence will appear with a blue pin.
Shifts where the user clocking in or out beyond the radius of the geofence will be marked with a yellow pin, with the distance from the job site address also provided.
In cases where it's necessary to clock in or out beyond the designated radius, users with the Time Clock permission Review & Approve User Shifts can override the Out of Bounds flag on the user's time entry. Please note that overriding an out of bounds flag is irreversible.
To override an out of bounds shift, navigate to the shift and select the Map tab. Click Override Out of Bounds Flag from the pin details.
Using the Time Clock from the Mobile App
With Buildertrend’s mobile app, you can clock in and record shifts anytime, anywhere to ensure your time is logged accurately.
Whether you're arriving on-site, managing a team, or reviewing the day’s progress, you can quickly start a shift, log breaks, assign cost codes, add notes, and approve time shifts right from your phone.
This mobile time tracking helps reduce errors, improve job costing, and keep payroll accurate without needing to return to the office.
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