TimeTracker vs QuickBooks Time: Full Comparison
QuickBooks Time gives field crews GPS clock-in synced to QuickBooks Payroll. TimeTracker adds budgets, approvals, and client invoicing on the same hours.
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Our quick verdict on both tools
Pick QuickBooks Time if your staff work from job sites and your payroll already runs through QuickBooks. Pick TimeTracker if you bill clients for hours and want budgets, approvals, and invoicing built around the same tracked time, without a base fee plus per-employee pricing.
Start tracking freeWhat this comparison covers
TimeTracker and QuickBooks Time are both time tracking tools, compared here side by side so you can see how they differ.
Anyone deciding between TimeTracker and QuickBooks Time for time tracking should start with the quick verdict above.
Compare the two products at a glance
Both tools solve time tracking. Here is what each one includes, side by side.
TimeTracker
Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem.
- Best for
- Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.
- Pricing
- Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.
- One-click task timers
- Timesheet submission and approvals
- Effective-dated billing and cost rates
- Live project budgets and profitability
- Client invoicing and payments
- Client portal with a cost firewall
- Reports and dashboards
- Expense tracking with billable markup
QuickBooks Time
Owned by Intuit and built to sync natively with QuickBooks Online and Payroll, so timesheets and payroll share one data source.
- Best for
- Small and mid-size field service or construction businesses already running QuickBooks Online or Payroll.
- Pricing
- No free plan. Time Premium $20/mo base + $10/employee/mo; Time Elite $40/mo base + $12/employee/mo. Intuit now also sells Workforce Premium and Elite alongside these.
- GPS time tracking with location breadcrumbs
- Geofencing to remind staff to clock in (Elite)
- Scheduling by shift or job
- Mileage tracking for field staff
- Job and project costing
- Native two-way QuickBooks sync
See how they stack up
Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for both tools, side by side.
Pricing checked 2026-07-30. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.
Which one fits your team
Choose TimeTracker when…
You bill clients by the hour and want an invoice to match tracked time exactly.
Approved hours flow straight into an invoice, so what you bill always matches what was tracked.See how
You need to see if a project is still profitable while the work is still running.
Live budgets compare cost to price as the team logs hours, so a losing project shows up early, not at invoice time.See how
You want a manager to approve a timesheet before it turns into a bill.
Timesheets lock after approval, so nobody bills a client for hours no one signed off on.See how
Your rates change by client or by person and old invoices need to stay correct.
Rate changes are effective dated, so past invoices keep the rate that was active at the time.See how
You need to track time down to the task, not just the job.
Every entry ties to a client, project, and task in one record, so reports can be sliced any way a client asks for.See how
You want to see where a project budget went, hour by hour.
Estimate vs actual reporting shows planned hours against real hours per task, so scope creep gets caught early.See how
You track expenses alongside billable hours on the same project.
An expense can be marked billable, get a markup, and land on the same invoice as the tracked time.See how
You want a flat per-user price instead of a base fee plus per-employee cost.
One predictable per-user rate covers billing and reporting, so the bill does not creep up as pricing tiers stack.See how
Choose QuickBooks Time when…
Your staff work from job sites and you need to confirm they clocked in from the right place.
GPS time tracking with location breadcrumbs shows exactly where a clock-in happened, which suits field and construction crews.See how
Your payroll already runs through QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Payroll.
QuickBooks Time syncs natively both ways, so timesheets and payroll share one data source without exporting and re-entering hours.See how
You want to remind staff to clock in once they reach a job site.
Geofencing on the Elite plan nudges staff to clock in automatically once they arrive, cutting down on forgotten punches.See how
You need shift scheduling included without paying for a top-tier plan.
Scheduling by shift or job is included on every QuickBooks Time plan, not gated behind the highest tier.See how
Your field staff drive between job sites and you need mileage logged automatically.
Built-in mileage tracking on the Elite plan logs driving distance for reimbursement without a separate app.See how
You want job costing tied directly to QuickBooks, not a general billing tool.
Job and project costing feeds straight back into QuickBooks, which fits a construction or field service business already built around it.See how
You are a small crew that just needs simple time and attendance, not client invoicing.
The Premium plan covers GPS, job costing, and QuickBooks sync at a lower entry cost than tools built around client billing.See how
You already trust Intuit for accounting and want one vendor handling both.
Owned by Intuit, QuickBooks Time is built to match QuickBooks Online's data model, so support and updates stay in step with it.See how
Popular features
Employee time tracking your team will actually use
One click starts a timer, or people type hours in by hand. Every entry ties to a client, project, and task, so the record stays clean.
Explore Time Tracking→Bill for every hour you earn
Mark each entry billable or non-billable while you work. Approved hours roll straight into reports you can bill from.
Explore Billing→See where the time really goes
Break hours down by client, project, and team member. Find the work that pays off and the projects that run over.
Explore Reports & Dashboards→Use cases this solves
Frequently asked questions
- Is TimeTracker cheaper than QuickBooks Time?
- QuickBooks Time charges a base fee plus a per-employee cost, starting around $20 a month base plus $10 a user on the Premium plan. TimeTracker charges one flat rate per user with no base fee, plus billing and invoicing built in. See the billing page for the full list.
- Which tool is better for field crews that need GPS tracking?
- QuickBooks Time wins here. GPS tracking with location breadcrumbs and geofencing are mature, well-tested tools built for construction and field service crews. TimeTracker focuses instead on time tracking by task for billing-first teams, not location-based clock-in.
- Does TimeTracker sync with QuickBooks the way QuickBooks Time does?
- QuickBooks Time has the deepest native sync since Intuit owns both products. TimeTracker exports tracked hours and invoices through its own data export tools, which works well but is not the same tight, built-in connection.
- Which tool shows if a project is still profitable while work is happening?
- TimeTracker shows cost against price live as hours are logged, so you can see project profit before the job ends. QuickBooks Time focuses more on job costing tied to payroll than live profitability reporting.
- Can both tools send invoices to clients?
- TimeTracker turns approved hours straight into an invoice, see how invoicing from tracked time works. QuickBooks Time is built more around timesheets feeding payroll and job costing than sending a client invoice.
- Does QuickBooks Time include scheduling?
- Yes, and this is a real strength. Shift and job scheduling is included on every QuickBooks Time plan, not gated to a top tier. TimeTracker's strength instead is timesheet approvals tied to billing, not shift scheduling.
- Can I set different rates for different clients in TimeTracker?
- Yes. Rates can be set per client and per person, and old rates stay attached to invoices you already sent. See rate management for the full picture. QuickBooks Time does not build rates around client billing this way.
- Does TimeTracker track mileage like QuickBooks Time does?
- No. QuickBooks Time's Elite plan logs mileage automatically for field staff who drive between job sites. TimeTracker instead tracks billable expenses tied to a project, which covers billing but not automatic mileage logging.
- Is QuickBooks Time enough if I do not use QuickBooks for accounting?
- It still works, but most of its value comes from the native QuickBooks sync, so a team on different accounting software gets less out of it. TimeTracker's reports and dashboards work the same regardless of which accounting tool you use.
- Which one should an agency billing clients by the hour pick?
- An agency billing by the hour usually gets more from TimeTracker, since tracked time, budgets, and invoices live in one place without a base fee. If you want a broader list of options to weigh, our QuickBooks Time alternatives page covers more ground than this one page.
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