Best construction timesheet apps UK (2026): seven compared
Seven UK construction timesheet apps compared: where the hours come from, location, approval, payroll files and price.
- Hours come from one of four places: a clock-in button in an app, a GPS geofence that clocks people automatically, a scan of a code at the site door, or a shared tablet. Each has a cost in setup, phone battery, privacy and arguments.
- Check what the worker is told about location. Continuous GPS and background timers are tracking; a single location reading at the moment of a scan is not.
- Look at the payroll output by name: Sage, Xero, BrightPay, QuickBooks, Moneysoft, IRIS, and a CIS sheet for subcontractors. A CSV you have to rework is not a payroll export.
- Per-site prices suit a big crew on few sites; per-worker prices suit a small firm with several jobs on the go. Work it out for your numbers.
A construction timesheet app replaces the Friday ritual of typing up hours from memory. The differences are in where the hours come from, how much the app watches the worker to get them, who approves, and what comes out the other end for payroll and CIS. This guide compares seven UK options.
We make JobGate, so we are not neutral. Everything here about other products comes from their own websites on 3 November 2026 and may have changed since. “Not mentioned” means we could not find it on the supplier’s site, not that it does not exist. If you spot a mistake, email hello@jobgate.uk and we will correct it.
Where the hours come from
Clock-in button in an app. Simple, but it records when they pressed it, not where they were, unless GPS is added. GPS geofence. The app clocks people in and out as they cross a boundary. Accurate when it works, but it runs location in the background all day, drains the battery, and operatives are right to ask what else it records. A scan at the door. The worker scans a QR code on the way in and out; location is read once at that moment. Nothing runs in between. A tablet at the gate. Good for sites with a cabin; useless for a crew of four in an office refurbishment.
JobGate uses the scan. The same scan that opens the safety paperwork for the job starts the day, and the scan on the way out ends it. The office sees a timesheet built from real times, with a flag on anything odd: a scan away from the site, no location, a missing sign-out, a line added by hand. Nobody types up a sheet on Friday.
Seven UK options side by side
| Product | How hours are captured | Location | Approval and corrections | Payroll and CIS | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JobGate | Scan the QR sign on the door in and out. Site managers can clock in from their login. | Read once at the scan. Anything away from site or with no location is flagged, not blocked. No background tracking. | Office approves by person, site or everyone; bulk approve; corrections go on a new line with who and why. Operatives can ask to add hours, adjust a time, claim travel or a receipt. Pay rules: breaks, overtime, weekend rates, guaranteed hours, day rates, holidays and paid days. | Files for Sage, Xero, BrightPay, QuickBooks, IRIS, Moneysoft and custom columns; CIS sheet for subcontractors and the self-employed. | £5 per worker a month, £30 minimum, no set-up fee, no contract, 30 days free. |
| SiteSign | QR or manual check-in. | Not mentioned. | Weekly approvals with an audit trail; overtime and weekend rules on Core. | CSV and PDF. | Per site: £39 (10 sites), £79 (50), £119 (100); unlimited workers; 30-day trial. |
| AttendIQ | GPS geofenced clock-in in the app; facial-recognition kiosk on Complete. | Continuous geofence; polygon fences on Complete. | Multi-stage approval and pay rates on Complete. | Payroll-ready export on Essential; Xero and QuickBooks on Complete; CIS/UTR. | £4.50 or £7 per worker a month, minimum 25, £1,000 to £1,500 set-up, 12-month contract. |
| Valegrid Flow | Clock in and out in the app, 16 languages, voice notes. | GPS stamp on both ends, so hours logged from home look different from hours logged on site. | Manager approval with query and send-back. | CIS payroll, HAVS points, valuations. | From £29 a month. |
| TimeKeeper | App clock-in, tablet kiosk with PIN, facial recognition. | GPS on clock-in; geofenced jobs on Pro. | Approvals; audit trail is a £990 a year add-on. | BrightPay, Xero, Sage 50, Moneysoft. | £3.33 or £5 per employee a month; 14-day trial. |
| SiteClick | GPS clock-in in the app. | GPS. | Not mentioned. | CIS export. | Solo £13, Team £33 for 5 users then £9 a user. |
| QuickBooks Time, ClockShark, busybusy | App clock-in, kiosk; US products with UK pages. | GPS, geofence reminders. | Timesheet signatures, scheduling. | Their own payroll first. | Per user per month; see each site. |
The hours nobody argues about
The arguments come from three places: hours typed from memory, times changed after the event, and a worker who says they were there when the sheet says not. A scan at the door with the time and a location reading answers the first and third. Add-only records answer the second: on JobGate a correction is a new line that says who changed what and why, and the original scan stays. The weekly PDF is sealed, so a timesheet produced for a tribunal or a client a year on is the one the office had on the Monday.
Honest note on price: for a crew of forty on one site, SiteSign at £39 a month or TimeKeeper at £3.33 a head is cheaper than JobGate for hours alone. JobGate’s price buys the hours and the signed safety paperwork and the visitors and the accident book from the same scan. If you only want hours, say so and pick the cheaper tool.
Which suits which firm
- Hours only, big crew, few sites: SiteSign (per site) or TimeKeeper (per head).
- You want the phone to clock people automatically and are happy to run GPS all day: AttendIQ or Valegrid Flow.
- A subcontractor who also wants HAVS points and valuations from the same hours: Valegrid Flow.
- A contractor with several jobs on the go who wants hours from the door scan, no tracking, payroll files by name, and the safety paperwork signed on the same scan: JobGate.
Questions
Does JobGate track where my operatives are?
No. Location is read once, at the moment of the scan, and the phone asks before it does. Nothing runs in the background and nothing is recorded between the scan in and the scan out. If a scan is made away from the site it is flagged for the office to look at; the person is not stopped.
Can a worker correct their own hours?
On JobGate they can ask: add hours for a day they forgot to scan, adjust a time, or claim travel or a receipt, with a reason. The office approves or not. The request and the decision are kept; the original scan is never changed.
What payroll packages do these apps export to?
JobGate: Sage, Xero, BrightPay, QuickBooks, IRIS, Moneysoft, a custom column layout and a CIS sheet. TimeKeeper: BrightPay, Xero, Sage 50, Moneysoft. AttendIQ: Xero and QuickBooks on its Complete plan. SiteSign: CSV and PDF. Check the first file against your package before you rely on it.
How are subcontractors charged on JobGate?
A subcontractor’s operative is only counted once they have been on site five days in a month. Someone in for a day or two costs nothing. Your own staff who sign in are £5 each a month, with a £30 minimum.