It’s a familiar story: You arrive at the job site, unload your tools, talk to the foreman, and get straight to work. Five hours later, you realize you never started your timer. Or worse, you remember three days later when you're trying to fill out your timesheet.
Manual time tracking is built for office desks, not for the chaos of a construction site or a busy service route. When you rely on memory or manual timers, you are almost certainly losing money.
The 5 Common Reasons Manual Tracking Fails
- You forget to start it: The most obvious one. When things are busy, admin is the last priority.
- You forget to stop it: Ever left a timer running overnight? It ruins your data and requires manual fixing.
- Inaccurate estimates: "I think I was there from 8 to 12" is often just a guess, and usually a low one.
- Lost receipts: Paper receipts get lost in truck dashboards or pockets, meaning unbilled expenses.
- Admin overload: Fixing timesheets at the end of the week takes hours that you could spend resting or working.
What a “Job-Site-Friendly” Solution Needs
Contractors and tradespeople need tools that work in the real world. A time tracking app for this industry needs three things:
1. GPS Automation: It should know when you arrive and leave a job site, so you don't have to remember.
2. Low Admin: It should require as few taps as possible. Ideally, zero.
3. Offline Capability: Job sites don't always have perfect signal. The app needs to work regardless.
Simple Workflow That Works
Here is how a modern workflow looks with a tool like Baxilancer:
1. Arrive
You drive to the site. The app detects the location via GPS.
2. Track
The app logs your start time automatically. You focus on the job.
3. Report
At the end of the week, you export a report. All your hours and locations are there, accurate to the minute.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GPS tracking an invasion of privacy?
Not with the right app. Baxilancer only tracks time when you enter a designated job site. It doesn't track your every move on the weekend.
Does it drain battery?
Modern GPS geofencing is very efficient. It uses significantly less battery than running a GPS navigation app constantly.
Stop Losing Billable Hours
Switch to a system that remembers for you. Check out our GPS solution designed specifically for contractors.
See GPS Time Tracking for Contractors