Think back to the last time someone handed you a crumpled, coffee-stained time card from a job site. Maybe it was missing hours. Maybe the handwriting was barely legible. Or maybe you had to play detective to figure out what job code it should be charged to. Sound familiar?
For decades, paper punch cards were the go-to method for tracking hours in construction. But while they may have worked okay in the past, they just don’t cut it anymore—especially for today’s General Contractors juggling multiple crews, remote job sites, certified payroll requirements, and complex labor codes.
Here’s the thing: paper systems are prone to error, delays, and duplication. They rely on human memory and manual data entry. And when you're dealing with union jobs, prevailing wage compliance, or certified payroll reports, one mistake on a paper time card can cost you real money.
Let’s break it down:
Illegible or incomplete time entries create delays in payroll
Lost or damaged cards leave hours unaccounted for
Manual entry into ERP or payroll systems opens the door to errors
Delayed approvals slow down reporting and invoicing
Inaccurate time records lead to compliance risks and cost overruns
It’s no wonder more GCs are saying goodbye to the old way—and embracing mobile time clocks instead.
Picture this: Your crew clocks in on-site using a smartphone or tablet. Each entry is tagged with GPS, tied to a specific job code, and synced instantly with your accounting software. No chasing down time cards. No data re-entry. No wondering if someone forgot to sign in.
That’s the power of mobile time clocks.
Designed for rugged field environments and built to solve real jobsite headaches, mobile time clock apps—like those in hh2’s construction time tracking solutions—are replacing outdated paper-based systems for good.
Here’s what makes mobile time tracking such a powerful shift for General Contractors:
Employees clock in and out from the jobsite, eliminating delays and improving data accuracy. Supervisors can approve time on the spot—or adjust hours if needed before they hit payroll.
Know exactly where your crews are clocking in. Prevent time theft and ensure teams are on-site when they say they are. For multi-site GCs, this is essential.
No signal? No problem. hh2’s mobile app stores time entries locally and syncs once a connection is available—ideal for remote or rural job locations.
Mobile time entries flow directly into your payroll and job costing systems, like Sage 300 or Vista, with no duplicate entry. The result? Fewer errors, faster payroll, and confident compliance.
Mobile time clocks make it easier to track the details required for certified payroll and Davis-Bacon reporting. No more end-of-week scrambling to match hours, wage rates, and classifications.
Whether your team is spread across multiple job sites or dealing with union wage complexities, mobile time clocks bring the visibility and control you need—without adding administrative burden to your team.
Transitioning from paper punch cards to mobile time clocks isn’t just a trend—it’s a strategic move for contractors who want tighter controls, faster workflows, and better compliance. Let’s look at the five biggest reasons GCs are making the switch.
With paper, mistakes are inevitable. Hours get rounded. Lunch breaks are forgotten. Wage classifications get misapplied. That’s a huge liability—especially for projects with certified payroll requirements or union labor.
Mobile time clocks remove the guesswork:
Automatically track break times and overtime
Apply job-specific pay rates and wage determinations
Tag time entries to cost codes and job numbers in real-time
Prep clean, audit-ready records for certified payroll and Davis-Bacon reporting
When every minute and classification counts, accuracy isn’t optional—it’s essential.
Waiting days to collect and process time cards? That slows everything down—from job costing to billing to workforce planning.
With mobile time tracking, time data is available immediately across your entire operation:
Field supervisors can approve or flag time daily
Payroll teams can spot missing hours before it’s a problem
Project managers can compare labor hours to budgeted costs in real time
Everyone stays in sync. No more blindsides at the end of the week.
Mobile time clocks that sync with your ERP—like hh2 does with Sage 100, Sage 300, Vista, and more—eliminate tedious re-entry and dramatically reduce human error.
✅ Time entries flow directly into payroll and job cost reports
✅ Foremen enter time once—it’s everywhere it needs to be
✅ Fewer errors mean fewer payroll corrections, re-runs, and rework
And that means faster payroll processing, fewer disputes, and smoother audits.
Tracking labor in real time gives you control—especially on fast-moving, multi-crew projects. GCs using mobile time clocks can:
Monitor field productivity throughout the week
React quickly to labor overruns before they hit the bottom line
Make data-backed decisions about crew deployment and project pacing
When labor is your biggest cost center, better tracking = better margins.
Here’s the part that matters most: your field team will actually use it.
hh2’s mobile time tracking tools are built for construction pros—not office workers. That means:
Simple, intuitive interfaces
Works on any device (phone, tablet, browser)
Foremen and crew can enter time without needing IT help
If your current solution only works for the back office, you’re not really solving the problem. Mobile time clocks bridge the gap—field to office.
If you're a self-performing GC, you’ve got a lot on your plate: multiple crews, scattered job sites, union labor rules, prevailing wage compliance, not to mention tight timelines and thin margins. And while paper punch cards might feel familiar, they’re quietly adding friction, risk, and cost to your operation.
Here’s how mobile time clocks help eliminate your most pressing headaches:
Trying to track time for crews working across city, county, and state lines? That’s a logistical nightmare on paper. Mobile time clocks simplify it:
GPS tagging and geofencing validate where time is being logged
Crews can clock in from anywhere, reducing supervisor oversight load
Real-time jobsite visibility makes scheduling and adjustments easier
No more chasing down time sheets from five different sites.
Manually applying the correct pay rates based on job location, union agreement, or project type? That’s a mistake waiting to happen.
With hh2’s mobile time tracking, you can:
Automate wage rate application based on location, job code, or classification
Generate certified payroll reports with the right fields and format
Avoid costly penalties and failed audits with proper documentation
It's compliance you can trust—without the manual lift.
Every paper-based system creates room for human error. Missed hours. Wrong codes. Misread handwriting. One mistake can snowball into payroll delays and frustrated crews.
Mobile time clocks reduce error risk by:
Guiding users through structured, digital entry flows
Validating inputs before they hit payroll
Providing real-time error visibility before it’s too late
Less back-and-forth. More done-right-the-first-time.
When time cards sit on a foreman’s dashboard for days, it throws off your whole reporting cycle. Delayed approvals slow down payroll, certified reports, and billing.
Mobile time clocks allow for:
Daily review and approval by supervisors—even from the field
Instant sync with your ERP for up-to-the-minute cost data
Visibility into labor spend against budget while the job is still in motion
No more waiting until Friday to know if you’re over budget.
Adoption is the linchpin. If your team doesn’t use it, it doesn’t matter how powerful your system is.
hh2’s mobile time tracking was designed with the field in mind:
Works offline in remote areas
Fast, mobile-friendly interface that even tech-averse workers understand
Easy for foremen to review and approve on the go
It’s not just field-friendly. It’s field-first.
Certified payroll is no one’s favorite task. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and leaves zero room for error. Between Davis-Bacon requirements, state-specific rules, and union agreements, generating these reports manually can feel like building scaffolding without a blueprint.
That’s where mobile time clocks—and more specifically, hh2’s Remote Payroll solution—step in to transform the process from chaotic to controlled.
Paper punch cards don’t ask for job classifications. They don’t know which project is tied to federal funding. They don’t validate the wage determination before hours are logged. Mobile time clocks do.
hh2 helps field crews:
Select the correct project and job code at clock-in
Assign the right work classification and union code
Automatically capture prevailing wage data
And because it’s all digital, you’re not scrambling to fill in the gaps on Friday afternoon.
Instead of exporting time data and manually reformatting it to meet state and federal standards, hh2 lets you:
Export pre-configured certified payroll reports with the right fields
Include worker details, hours by classification, fringe benefits, and more
Easily make corrections or adjustments before submission
Whether you're dealing with a federal Davis-Bacon project or a state-level requirement, hh2’s certified payroll tools are built for construction compliance.
Mobile time tracking ensures you always have a complete, accurate digital trail:
Who worked
Where they worked
What they were doing
How much they were paid
No more missing signatures, misclassified roles, or illegible entries. Just clean, consistent data ready to stand up to any audit or inspector.
hh2 doesn’t just collect data—it validates it. Before time entries hit payroll, the system flags:
Missing job codes
Invalid combinations of classification and project
Incomplete hours or overlapping shifts
That means you catch issues before payroll runs or compliance reports are submitted—saving time, money, and headaches.
“When I think back to the Stone Age, how we did payroll before, and I think about how payroll is now, I can't imagine having to do it without hh2.”
— Lorraine Searcy, Anchor 41 Construction
For many GCs, switching from paper punch cards to mobile time clocks doesn’t just improve efficiency—it transforms the way they run their business. The numbers tell one story, but the voices from the field and back office say it best.
Brian Kelling, Metro Air Conditioning Company
“Since we started using Document Flow from hh2, we’ve been able to accomplish one of our primary goals—to go completely paperless. No more filing cabinets. No more manual entry. All of our documents are approved before they go into the AP module.”
While Brian’s focus was AP automation, the same transformation applied to how they handled time tracking. Once their payroll data started flowing digitally from the jobsite to the back office, everything changed: faster processing, fewer mistakes, and a lighter workload for everyone.
Steve Haynes, FAHS Construction Group
“hh2 made it really easy because the guys in the field can use their mobile app or the website. We no longer had to go out to the job site to view a report or dig through a cabinet to find the timecard.”
When you’ve got multiple crews across multiple sites, the last thing you want is to track hours on scraps of paper or rely on a foreman’s memory. Steve’s team embraced hh2’s mobile time clocks because they worked in the real world, where cell service isn’t always great and time is always short.
Lorraine Searcy, Anchor 41 Construction
“When I think back to the Stone Age, how we did payroll before, and I think about how payroll is now, I can't imagine having to do payroll without hh2.”
Lorraine’s payroll process used to involve a frustrating blend of handwritten time cards, spreadsheet re-entry, and guesswork. Now? Her field teams submit hours from their phones. hh2 handles the data integrity and certified payroll exports. And payroll day is no longer a panic event.
These aren’t just success stories—they’re proof that mobile time tracking isn’t a luxury for GCs anymore. It’s a necessity.
When it comes to construction technology, adoption depends on trust. Field crews need tools that just work. Back-office teams need systems that integrate and scale. And executives need to know they’re getting ROI—not just another tech expense.
That’s why self-performing General Contractors consistently choose hh2 for mobile timekeeping and payroll workflows. Here’s what sets us apart.
hh2 isn’t just another generic time clock app. It’s a platform purpose-built for construction, with deep two-way integrations into leading ERPs and payroll systems like:
Sage 100 Contractor
Sage 300 CRE
Viewpoint Vista and Spectrum
Foundation
And more
That means time data flows automatically from the field to payroll, job cost, and certified reporting—no re-entry, no syncing delays, no lost hours.
Whether you're in the office, on-site, or somewhere in between, hh2’s platform keeps everyone connected.
Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Browser-based access for supervisors and admin staff
Offline functionality so crews can clock in even without signal
From rural job sites to urban high-rises, you get uninterrupted time tracking and full data visibility.
Tech doesn’t work unless people actually use it. hh2’s time tracking tools were designed for fast-moving construction teams—not accountants or software engineers.
Simple, intuitive interface for crew members
Supervisor dashboards for easy time review and approval
Automatic prompts to select the right job, cost code, and classification
Adoption is quick, and training is minimal—because it just makes sense.
hh2 supports over 3,200 construction companies managing more than $16 billion annually in payroll and project workflows. Our platform is:
Hosted on Microsoft Azure for enterprise-grade security
Scalable to grow with your team and project volume
Backed by a proven track record of reducing payroll errors, improving compliance, and simplifying labor cost tracking
When you choose hh2, you don’t just get software—you get a partner. Our customer success and support teams know construction, know the ERPs you use, and are there to help you succeed.
“The integration is seamless, the team is responsive, and the time we’ve saved has been tremendous.”
– A happy GC customer (who’s no longer using paper time cards!)
Let’s face it—paper punch cards had their moment. But in today’s fast-paced, compliance-heavy, margin-sensitive construction world, they’re holding GCs back.
Mobile time clocks aren’t just a tech upgrade. They’re a competitive advantage.
They deliver:
Cleaner data from the field
Faster payroll and reporting for the back office
Real-time insights for project managers
Bulletproof compliance for certified payroll and union jobs
And above all—less friction between your people, your projects, and your profits
At hh2, we’ve helped thousands of construction companies leave paper behind. We know what works in the field, and we’ve built tools that connect every part of your labor workflow—from jobsite to job cost.
👉 Explore hh2’s Mobile Time Tracking and Remote Payroll Solutions
See how easy it is to:
Capture time from anywhere
Streamline approvals and payroll
Stay compliant with certified payroll reporting
Integrate with your ERP—seamlessly
It’s time to make the switch from chaos to clarity.
And hh2 is ready when you are.