5 Ways a Time Tracking App Can Help You Manage Subcontracted Work

A time tracking app can solve the biggest challenge general contractors face: managing subcontracted work.

One struggle is managing subcontracted work, which is highly specialized and unique to each individual project but typically hard to track and coordinate.

For example, you might find yourself working with several subcontractors who temporarily join a project to fill a specific role, such as a foreman or superintendent.

Because they are third-party participants, it can be difficult to track, manage and even locate them.

But managing subcontractors doesn’t have to be a headache.

By using a time tracking app, the power of accurate and convenient time tracking is placed into each worker’s own hands.

According to an eBilly study on time management, employee time tracking solutions can reduce productivity leaks by 80%. That’s a huge impact, especially for larger construction projects that could take years to complete. 

And a mobile time tracking app doesn’t just benefit one side.

For a construction business owner or general contractor, it provides strong management and visibility of subcontractors and their work, while for subcontractors, it provides convenience and accuracy.

At the end of the day, a time tracking app makes everyone’s lives easier while saving you money.

Why Tracking Subcontracted Time is So Tricky

Subcontracted time tracking creates unique challenges that traditional methods simply can’t handle.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at the most common hurdles a general contractor faces when trying to manage subcontractors and their tasks.

Diverse Pay Structure

Every subcontractor brings their own payment preferences and billing requirements. Because subcontractors are specialized tradesmen often hired for a single task, their payroll structure can be complicated.

The more subcontractors you hire for a single project, the more complex time tracking, billing and payroll will become.

Dispersed Workforce

Subcontractors scatter across multiple job sites, making them nearly impossible to track.

Subcontractors frequently work on multiple projects simultaneously, requiring them to move around a lot and making it difficult to locate them.

On top of that, communication is often inconsistent, as many jobsites lack internet connection, preventing them from receiving notifications or contacting the office.

Broad Time Allocation

Subcontractors usually bill their labor via a lump sum, rather than tracking detailed hours for each individual task.

So, it’s up to the general contractor to ensure that the hours are being tracked and allocated appropriately.

Lack of Real-Time Visibility

Manual time tracking methods create information black holes that leave you guessing.

When subcontracted hours are captured through manual methods, like spreadsheets or punch clocks, there is a delay in when you can actually see that data.

So, if a subcontractor makes a time tracking mistake, you might not notice it until much later, costing you valuable time and effort to correct it.

Without real-time visibility of subcontracted work, it is far more difficult to notice discrepancies as they happen.

Discrepancies and Disputes

When errors or mistakes do occur, they need to be caught.

However, this can be challenging if the subcontractor uses their own system of time tracking that is not compatible with your own.

When multiple people are tracking time, data will often have to be re-input, often leading to miscalculations, discrepancies and potential disputes.

Burden on the Administrative Team

Your administrative team drowns in paperwork trying to reconcile subcontractor hours. Accurately handling subcontracted work can burn a lot of time and money.

The more opportunities for mistakes, the more time construction project managers and administrators must devote to chasing down missing information and correcting discrepancies.

Reliance on Outdated Methods of Time Tracking

Outdated time tracking methods fuel every single problem mentioned above.

For example, imagine you are overseeing construction for a warehouse and need to hire a subcontractor to install the drywall.

The problem is, you still use physical timesheets, which the subcontracted team loosely fills out. Eventually, they begin reporting inconsistent hours and complete their tasks past the deadline, which leads to overall project delays.

In this instance, since you used an outdated form of time tracking, there was no real-time visibility of labor or clear communication standards, which left the door open for costly inconsistencies and delays.

Now, imagine you have ten different tasks that need to be subcontracted over the length of a project, sometimes multiple at once.

It will become nearly impossible to effectively manage those tasks.

Major discrepancies will pop up, leading to disputes, and ultimately, your bottom line will suffer from it.

Tracking Subcontracting Work With a Time Tracking App

Modern time tracking apps eliminate these subcontracting headaches with powerful digital solutions. Managing a construction project is hard enough without the difficulties of subcontracted work.

So, to make things easier, you can turn to mobile time tracking software, which not only eliminates many of these burdens but also can greatly benefit your entire workforce.

A time tracking app doesn’t have to be limited to just employees on your payroll. Many apps allow you to give access and create profiles for any number of subcontractors, so they can use the app themselves.

Here’s are the best features that will benefit you and your subcontractors:

1.) Biometric Security

Using the subcontractor’s unique biometric features, such as their face or fingerprint, a time tracking app can verify that the person logging in and recording time is exactly who they say they are.

And with a tool like facial recognition, you can completely eliminate the threat of buddy punching and dangerous cyberattacks, protecting both yourself and the subcontractor from fraudulent activity.

Biometric security also provides a quick and painless way for subcontractors to log in and record their time, so don’t have to rely on remembering a password or PIN number.

2.) GPS Locating and Geofencing

Ever lose track of where your subcontractors are? With GPS locating, you can ensure that they are always where they should be when performing a job.

This provides real-time visibility and communication into the whereabouts of every subcontractor and their team, connecting everyone together.

And with geofencing, subcontractors can only clock in within the perimeter of the jobsite, ensuring their hours are as accurate as possible.

3.) Task-Based Time Tracking

Task-based tracking breaks down broad project time into detailed, actionable data. Unless directed otherwise, a subcontractor will typically track all their time under one single task that they can bill as a lump sum at the completion of their work.

However, this doesn’t help general contractors much, especially on complex projects with many different subcontracted tasks.

With a time tracking app, an individual subcontractor (and their team) can be linked to their specific tasks, which then automatically track and organize their associated hours.

This reduces errors in timesheets and provides detailed hourly data that you can use for financial budgeting and even future estimating.  

4.) Real-Time Data Collecting

Real-time data streams give you instant visibility into project progress. Without the delaying effect of physical timecards, you never have to wait to see how a project or task is progressing.  

With a mobile time tracking app, subcontractors can log time immediately while on the jobsite, which updates in real time, so you always have transparent visibility of your projects, so you can ensure that all agreed-upon milestones are being met.

If any discrepancies come up, you can catch and address them immediately, rather than wait till the end of the work week.

And having accurate and instantaneous hourly field data can make your payroll simple and effective.

5.) Mobile Accessibility

Mobile apps put powerful time tracking tools directly in workers’ hands. Gone are the days of an employee forgetting how many hours they worked. With a time tracking application right in their hands, they never have to wait to input their labor.

Subcontractors and employees have access to offline usage, advanced technical support and real-time communication between the field and office.

Instead of feeling disconnected from your subcontractors, you can be assured of every step of their progress, so that your projects and by extension, your profits, never fall behind.

WorkMax Simplifies Subcontracting

WorkMax transforms chaotic subcontractor management into streamlined digital workflows. As a general contractor, you might face challenges with billing a subcontractor’s hours, coordinating their tasks, and even viewing their progress on your project.

What further complicates things is the use of ineffective time tracking tools like manual time sheets.

If you can’t get accuracy in your time tracking, subcontracted work will quickly overflow your budget.

However, using an advanced time tracking app built for the construction industry, you can reduce the risk of inaccurate or fraudulent time recording from your employees and subcontractors, as well as gain full visibility of the status of your projects.

With WorkMax, you won’t have to make guesses about your subcontracted work.

Even on large projects with many distinct subcontracted parties, you can efficiently track, manage and coordinate their hours, using tools like facial recognition, GPS tracking and automation.

To learn more, contact one of our specialists today!