QuickBooks Time Review 2026
QuickBooks Time, the product Intuit built out of TSheets, is the default time tracker for businesses that already live in QuickBooks. It does GPS, geofencing, scheduling and payroll sync well. It charges a base fee on top of per-user pricing, and it does not monitor what remote staff are doing on the clock. Here is what that means in practice.
4.2 / 5
HiveDesk editorial rating
Excellent for QuickBooks shops with field crews. Held back by the base fee and the absence of any activity monitoring.
What Is QuickBooks Time?
QuickBooks Time is a time tracking and scheduling product from Intuit. It started life as TSheets, an independent time tracker founded in Idaho in 2006, which Intuit bought in 2017 and renamed in 2021. Today it is sold both as a standalone subscription (Time Premium and Time Elite) and bundled into QuickBooks Workforce alongside payroll and HR tools.
Employees clock in three ways: an online dashboard, a mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android, or a time kiosk on a shared tablet. Managers approve timesheets, build schedules by shift or job, handle time off requests and push approved hours into QuickBooks Payroll or QuickBooks Online. Intuit says the product integrates with more than 50 accounting and payroll applications beyond its own.
The audience is hourly workforces, especially construction, field service, cleaning, healthcare and retail. The product is not designed around knowledge workers at desks, and it shows in what is missing: there is no desktop agent, no screenshot capture and no activity measurement.
QuickBooks Time Pricing in 2026
QuickBooks Time uses a base fee plus a per-user fee, which is unusual among time trackers and matters a lot for small teams. The figures below are from the QuickBooks Time pricing page as of September 2026, shown for monthly billing.
| Plan | Price | Billing basis | What it includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time Premium | $20 base + $10 per user | Per month | Mobile workforce app, GPS while clocked in, geofencing reminders, scheduling by job or shift, timesheet approvals, time off management, alerts, photo attachments, time kiosk, payroll and invoicing sync, unlimited support |
| Time Elite | $40 base + $12 per user | Per month | Everything in Premium plus mileage tracking, project tracking, project estimates vs actuals, project activity feed, timesheet signatures |
| Workforce Premium | $13 per employee | Per month (bundled with payroll) | QuickBooks Payroll with time tracking, geofencing and scheduling included |
| Workforce Elite | $134 base + $17 per employee | Per month (bundled with payroll) | Everything in Workforce Premium plus automated HR workflows, performance management, HR advisor access |
Promotion: Intuit advertises 50 percent off for the first three months, which halves the base fee to $10 (Premium) or $20 (Elite) during that window. After three months the full rate applies.
Trial and minimums: a 30-day free trial is offered. Each plan includes one admin; there is no advertised minimum user count, but the base fee applies even to a single user.
Worked example: a team of 8 on Time Premium pays $20 + (8 × $10) = $100 a month, or $12.50 per person. A team of 25 pays $270, or $10.80 per person. The base fee matters less as headcount grows.
Source: QuickBooks Time pricing page, checked September 2026. Intuit changes promotions often; confirm the current offer before budgeting.
Key Features
Feature availability as described on the QuickBooks Time product and pricing pages. Where a feature is not mentioned, the table says so rather than assuming it is absent.
| Feature | Availability |
|---|---|
| Mobile clock in and out (iOS, Android) | All plans |
| GPS location while on the clock | All plans |
| Geofencing reminders at job sites | All plans |
| Time kiosk on a shared tablet or computer | All plans |
| Scheduling by shift or by job | All plans |
| Timesheet approvals | All plans |
| Time off requests and balances | All plans |
| Project tracking with estimates vs actuals | Elite |
| Mileage tracking | Elite |
| Timesheet signatures | Elite |
| QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Online sync | All plans |
| Third-party payroll and accounting integrations | All plans (Intuit says more than 50) |
| Screenshots or activity monitoring | Not advertised on the product or pricing pages |
| Desktop app for Windows, Mac or Linux | Not advertised; tracking is through the web dashboard, mobile app and kiosk |
What QuickBooks Time Does Well
Tight fit with QuickBooks payroll and accounting
This is the reason most teams choose it. Approved hours flow into QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Online without exports, job codes map to customers and classes, and invoicing pulls from the same timesheets. If your books already live in QuickBooks, that alone removes a weekly reconciliation chore.
GPS and geofencing that respect the clock
Intuit states that QuickBooks Time "only records locations while an employee or contractor is on the clock," and geofences can remind people to clock in or out when they enter or leave a site. For field crews, cleaners and mobile technicians this is the core value.
Scheduling and time off in every plan
Unlike several time trackers that hold scheduling back for a mid tier, QuickBooks Time includes shift and job scheduling and time off management in both Time plans. Publishing a schedule and seeing it against actual hours is straightforward.
Kiosk mode for shared devices
A tablet on the wall becomes a punch clock, which suits warehouses, clinics and any site where not every worker has a company phone. Photo attachments on punches add a check against buddy punching.
Large, well-documented user base
Capterra lists QuickBooks Time at 4.7 out of 5 across more than 7,000 reviews, with customer service rated 4.8. Reviewers consistently praise the mobile app and the payroll integration. Help articles and community answers exist for almost every setup question.
Where QuickBooks Time Falls Short
The base fee makes small teams expensive
Time Premium is $20 a month plus $10 per user, and Elite is $40 plus $12 per user (as of September 2026, monthly billing). A five-person team pays $70 a month on Premium, which works out to $14 per person. The 50 percent promotional discount lasts three months and then the full rate applies.
No screenshots or activity monitoring
Neither the product page nor the pricing page mentions screenshots, app usage or activity levels. For desk-based, remote or contact-center teams that need to see what tracked time was spent on, QuickBooks Time only tells you when someone was on the clock, not what they were doing.
Project tracking sits behind the Elite tier
Estimates vs actuals, the project activity feed and mileage all require Elite. Teams that want job costing on the cheaper plan will find the Premium reports stop at hours by job code.
Reviewers report a learning curve and app glitches
The most common Capterra complaints are a steep learning curve for advanced settings, app crashes in poor coverage areas and syncing delays in the field. These are field-work problems more than office problems, but they are frequent enough to plan for.
Weak fit outside the Intuit ecosystem
The product is built around QuickBooks. If payroll runs on Gusto, ADP or a PEO, the integration list still covers most of them, but the value proposition thins out and the price no longer looks competitive against standalone trackers.
Reviewer themes are drawn from the QuickBooks Time listing on Capterra (4.7 out of 5 from more than 7,000 reviews, checked September 2026).
Who Should Use QuickBooks Time?
QuickBooks Time is a good fit for:
- Businesses that run payroll or accounting in QuickBooks and want hours to flow in automatically
- Field service, construction, landscaping and cleaning crews that need GPS and geofencing
- Sites with shared punch clocks where a kiosk on a tablet replaces a hardware clock
- Teams of roughly ten or more, where the base fee is spread across enough people
- Employers that want scheduling, time off and approvals from one vendor they already trust
QuickBooks Time may not be enough for:
- Remote and desk-based teams that need to see what was worked on, not just when
- Contact centers and BPOs that need screenshots, activity levels and idle detection
- Very small teams where a $20 or $40 base fee doubles the per-person cost
- Companies whose payroll and books live outside the Intuit ecosystem
- Teams that want project costing without paying for the Elite tier
QuickBooks Time Alternatives
The right alternative depends on which part of QuickBooks Time you are trying to replace: the price structure, the missing monitoring, or the Intuit dependency.
HiveDesk: monitoring, scheduling and leave in one $5 plan
HiveDesk tracks time automatically from desktop, mobile and browser apps, captures periodic screenshots with activity monitoring, and adds scheduling, attendance, leave management, task tracking and timesheet approvals in a single plan at $5 per user per month with no base fee. It is built for remote, BPO and contact-center teams rather than field crews, and its one integration is Asana. See HiveDesk features.
Hubstaff: GPS plus screenshots for mixed teams
Hubstaff covers both field GPS and desk-based screenshot monitoring, with payroll integrations beyond QuickBooks. It is the closest like-for-like replacement if you have both kinds of workers. Read the Hubstaff review or the HiveDesk vs Hubstaff comparison.
Buddy Punch or Jibble: field time clocks without the Intuit base fee
Buddy Punch charges $4.99 to $13.99 per user plus a $19 base fee and integrates with QuickBooks, Gusto and ADP. Jibble has a free tier for unlimited users with GPS and facial recognition. Both are reviewed on this site: Buddy Punch review and Jibble review.
Clockify: free time tracking without monitoring
If you only need hours and reports, Clockify is free for unlimited users and adds scheduling and approvals on paid tiers. Read the Clockify review.
QuickBooks Time vs HiveDesk
QuickBooks Time is a field time clock with payroll sync. HiveDesk is a workforce management tool for teams that work at a computer. The table shows where each one is stronger.
| Feature | QuickBooks Time | HiveDesk |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $20 base + $10/user (Premium) | $5/user/mo, no base fee |
| Free trial | 30 days | 14 days, no credit card |
| Screenshots and activity monitoring | Not advertised | Yes |
| GPS and geofencing | Yes | No |
| Employee scheduling | Yes | Yes |
| Attendance tracking | Yes (kiosk, punches) | Yes |
| Leave management | Yes | Yes |
| Project and task tracking | Elite only | Yes |
| Timesheet approval | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | QuickBooks plus 50+ payroll and accounting apps | Asana |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, kiosk | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Chrome |
| Best for | Field crews on QuickBooks payroll | Remote, BPO and contact-center teams |
14-day free trial · No credit card required · All features included
Frequently Asked Questions
As of September 2026, QuickBooks Time Premium is $20 per month plus $10 per user per month, and Time Elite is $40 per month plus $12 per user per month. Intuit advertises 50 percent off the base fee for the first three months. The bundled QuickBooks Workforce plans run $13 per employee per month (Premium) and $134 plus $17 per employee per month (Elite) and include payroll. Prices are shown for monthly billing on the QuickBooks Time pricing page.
No free plan is advertised. QuickBooks Time offers a 30-day free trial of the paid plans. Teams that want a free option should look at Jibble or Clockify, both of which have free tiers for unlimited users.
It tracks GPS location while an employee is clocked in and supports geofencing around job sites. It does not advertise screenshots, app usage tracking or activity levels on any plan. Teams that need screenshot-based verification for remote or desk work should look at HiveDesk or Hubstaff instead.
It is a strong choice for small businesses that already run payroll or accounting in QuickBooks and have hourly staff in the field or on site. The base fee makes it less attractive for teams under about ten people who do not need the QuickBooks sync, because per-person cost climbs quickly.
Intuit acquired TSheets in 2017 and renamed it QuickBooks Time in 2021. The product is the same platform with deeper QuickBooks integration. Older reviews, help articles and comparison pages that mention TSheets refer to what is now QuickBooks Time.
Yes. Both Time Premium and Time Elite include scheduling by shift or by job, with the ability to edit, publish and share schedules with the team. Time off requests and balances are also included in every plan.
For desk-based and remote teams that need screenshots, scheduling, attendance and leave management in one plan, HiveDesk is $5 per user per month with no base fee. For field crews that want GPS without a base fee, Buddy Punch and Jibble are common picks. For a free timer with no monitoring, Clockify is the usual choice. Each has a full review on this site.
QuickBooks Time is better for field teams that need GPS, geofencing and native QuickBooks payroll sync. HiveDesk is better for remote, BPO and contact-center teams that need automatic time tracking with screenshots and activity monitoring, plus scheduling, attendance, leave management and timesheet approvals, all at $5 per user per month with no base fee. HiveDesk integrates with Asana; QuickBooks Time integrates with the QuickBooks suite and dozens of payroll tools.
Related Reading
- All software comparisons and reviews — every review, head-to-head comparison and alternatives page on this site in one place.
- Best Time Tracking Software for 2026 — how QuickBooks Time ranks against the other leading trackers on price, monitoring and scheduling.
- Time Card Calculator — a free weekly or biweekly time card with overtime rules, for teams not ready for software.
- Overtime Pay Laws by State — the rules any time tracker has to get right before hours reach payroll.
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