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Time Tracking

Time Tracking gives your team a built-in way to clock in and out on jobs, review and approve timesheets, and see real labor costs against your project budget — all inside Handoff.

Written by Handoff Support

Setting up Time Tracking

When you first enable Time Tracking, a setup wizard walks you through the basics:

  1. Select Time Tracking tab and then select Set up time Tracking:

  2. Choose which team members track time or add a new team member:
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  3. Set hourly rates per person

  4. Configure your org-wide defaults (geofence, daily log, budgets)

Once setup is complete, you can update any of these settings at any time from the org settings page — you're not locked into what you chose during setup.

Org-wide settings

Reach the settings page by tapping the gear icon on the Time Tracking header.

Every setting here is the default your team members inherit. Saving a setting applies it across the whole org and removes any per-person overrides for that field — so you don't have to walk the roster one by one.

  • Require crew to be on site: If the customer is not on site, clock-in will be flagged to admin for review.

    • Options: 250 ft, 500 ft, 1,000 ft, ½ mile

  • Daily log at clock-out: Crew is prompted to write a note when clocking out

  • Daily log required: If the daily log is on, clock-out is blocked until a note is added

  • Add labor hours to budgets: Approved hours feed into the project's labor budget automatically

  • Auto-approve clean shifts: Shifts under the hour threshold are approved at clock-out without manager review

  • Max hours before review: Shifts longer than this are sent to the review queue (1–24 hours, default 10)

How crew clocks in

  1. Open Handoff and go to Time Tracking

  2. Tap Clock In and select the project

    1. If geofence is on, crew must be within the set radius to proceed

  3. The timer starts and keeps running in the background — even if the app is closed

How crew clocks out

  1. Tap Clock Out

    1. Add break time if applicable

  2. Add a daily log note (required or optional depending on your org settings)

  3. The entry is submitted for review or auto-approved based on your settings

Reviewing and approving timesheets

Managers access timesheets from the Time Tracking tab. Filter by person, project, or date range.

For each entry you can:

  • Approve: marks the entry complete; hours flow to the budget if enabled

  • Flag: marks it for follow-up without rejecting

  • Request changes: sends it back to the crew member with a note

Budget integration

When "Add labor hours to budgets" is on, approved hours are multiplied by each person's hourly rate and counted toward the project's labor Spent. This updates in real time as entries are approved, so you can see where you stand against your estimate while the job is still in progress.

Subcontractor time tracking (Scale only)

Scale customers can have subcontractors clock in and out directly from the subcontractor portal, no Handoff seat required.

  • General Contractors enable specific subcontractors under "Who tracks time?" in Team Management

  • Subs clock in/out from their portal, tied to the project they're working on

  • Every sub entry goes to the manager review queue, sub hours are never auto-approved

  • Approved sub labor counts toward the project's spent alongside your own crew

A few things to know

  • Geofence enforces location at clock-in; it does not automatically clock crew in or out

  • Crew cannot see org-wide settings; they only see what applies to their clock-out sheet

  • Hourly rates are set per person in Team Management

Need to Upgrade?

  • Contact your Success Coach by opening Handoff and going to settings, select the Success Coach tab and send a message or email [email protected]

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