Field service time tracking software for crews on the road

The owner’s guide to field service time tracking software

A cleaning, landscaping, pest control or service company pays by the hour for work that happens somewhere else, usually several somewhere-elses a day. This guide covers what field service time tracking software has to handle, the federal rule on travel between sites, personal phones and reimbursement, telling employees about location checks, and the paperwork timing behind seasonal hiring.

What field service time tracking software needs to do

Five jobs, in order. Give each crew its day as a list of sites with times and the people on the truck. Record a punch at each site from a phone, inside a geofence around the customer’s address. Show the office who is where, from the punches alone. Count the day correctly: hours by site, travel on the clock, lunch off it, overtime once the week passes 40. Then pay for exactly the approved hours, with the receipts from the road on the same pay stub. In Workzenly, scheduling, GPS time tracking, timesheets, expenses and payroll are those five jobs on one record.

Be clear about what this software is not. Workzenly does not plan routes, send invoices, take customer bookings, log mileage or dispatch jobs by message. Our comparison of the best GPS time clock apps shows how the clocks differ, and the GPS time clock app guide explains what a location-stamped punch does and does not tell you.

Travel time between sites is paid

This is the rule most often broken when each tech texts in one number at the end of the day. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, time spent traveling between job sites during the workday is work time and must be counted as hours worked (29 CFR 785.38). The ordinary drive from home to the first site, and home from the last one, is not work time (29 CFR 785.35), whether the employee works at one place or at different sites. If the employee must report to your yard first to load the truck or pick up tools, the clock starts there and the drive to the first site is paid, under the same section. The Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet 22 summarizes both rules.

A few states define hours worked more broadly than the FLSA, so check your state before you set the rule. The overtime math is in our guide to how to calculate overtime. If you reimburse driving in a personal vehicle, our IRS mileage rate guide covers the rate and whether you have to pay it; Workzenly does not log mileage, so that stays in a separate record.

Personal phones and reimbursement

Most field crews clock in on their own phones, and most will not mind if two things are handled. The first is cost. California Labor Code section 2802 requires employers to reimburse necessary work expenses, and a 2014 California appeals court decision applied it to a reasonable share of personal cell phone bills. The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act also requires reimbursement of necessary work expenses, which can include part of a personal phone bill. In Workzenly the employee sends the phone share as a claim with a photo of the bill, paid with the next paycheck under your policy.

The second is choice. Someone who would rather not install a work app on their own phone should still be able to clock in. A shared tablet works as a time clock kiosk with a PIN per person, at the yard or riding in the truck.

Telling employees about location checks

Say plainly what is recorded. With Workzenly that is one sentence: your location at clock-in and clock-out, to confirm the site, and nothing in between. Put it in the handbook and have each person acknowledge it. New York, Connecticut and Delaware require written notice of certain electronic monitoring, and California’s privacy law covers employee data. New York’s Civil Rights Law section 52-c, in effect since May 7, 2022, requires written or electronic notice at hiring, an acknowledgment and a posted notice; it is written around phone, email and internet monitoring, so cover a location check in the same notice rather than assume it is exempt. The law here is a patchwork, so the safest approach is clear notice and a narrow scope.

Set the geofence with the phone’s limits in mind. GPS-enabled phones are typically accurate to within about 16 feet under open sky, and accuracy worsens near buildings, bridges and trees, according to GPS.gov. Android’s developer documentation recommends a minimum geofence radius of 100 to 150 meters, about 330 to 490 feet. If honest punches keep landing just outside, widen the radius; the punch is flagged, never thrown away. Our guide what is a geofence covers radius and the notice laws in detail.

Seasonal hiring and the I-9

Leaf season, mowing season and the summer pest rush all mean hiring in a hurry, often people who worked for you last year. The paperwork has fixed deadlines. The employee must complete Section 1 of Form I-9 no later than their first day of employment, and the employer must complete Section 2 within three business days of the hire, according to USCIS. Someone you rehire within three years of the date their previous Form I-9 was completed can come back on Supplement B of that form instead of a new one; after three years, a new form is required. Our Form I-9 guide covers the documents.

Workzenly onboarding sends the offer letter, W-4, I-9 Section 1, direct deposit form and handbook to the new hire’s phone the day they accept, so a seasonal crew member arrives Monday ready to ride, with the documents in their record. Section 2 still needs you or a crew lead to look at the documents in person. For a tech without a phone in the first week, our free timesheet templates keep the hours by site on paper until they are in the app.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Wage, travel-time and monitoring rules change, and states differ, so check your state labor department or an employment lawyer for your situation.

How to choose

1. Run one real day through it. Take a crew’s actual day with four sites, a supply stop and a late start, and see which tool gets the paid hours right with the fewest manual steps.
2. Check what the geofence does with an outside punch. Blocking it leaves a tech unpaid in a parking lot. Flagging it keeps people working and gives you the record.
3. Ask what is recorded between punches. If the answer is “a breadcrumb trail,” ask whether your crews will install it. Clock-in and clock-out location is enough to confirm the site.
4. Look at the receipt flow. A tech who fronts $125 for floor finish wants it on the next pay stub. Check that approved claims reach payroll without retyping.
5. Count the hand-offs. Every time hours move between tools, someone fixes a pay stub later. Cleaning company scheduling software that stops at the schedule, or janitorial scheduling software with no time clock, still leaves hours to retype. Our payroll process guide lists every step of a pay run.

To see your own crews’ day in Workzenly, book a demo and we will set up a workspace with your company’s name and a few of your sites before the call. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.