This FAQ covers the most common questions UK construction firms, subcontractors and site managers ask about construction time tracking. It explains what to look for in a time tracking system, how contractors can record hours accurately, and how to track time against live projects without creating extra admin for the site team.
Our buyers guide scores the main UK options — Site Samurai, Procore, Fieldwire, PlanRadar, COINS and JobLogic — on compliance execution, payment control and rollout risk, and links each claim to the vendor’s own documentation.
The best time tracker for construction workers is one built for how sites actually operate, not a generic office timesheet app. On a construction site, you need something that can handle mobile teams, changing locations, subcontract labour, patchy signal and the reality that operatives do not want to spend ten minutes filling in forms at the end of a shift.
For example, on a housing development in Manchester, a site manager may have bricklayers, groundworkers and plant operatives all starting at different times across separate plots. Paper timesheets often lead to missing hours, late payroll queries and arguments over who was on site when. A proper construction time tracking system lets each worker log time against the right plot, phase or activity, while the manager checks attendance in real time.
SiteSamurai is a strong fit because it is designed around construction workflows rather than generic staff admin. It helps firms record labour hours accurately, tie them back to projects and activities, and keep a live view of who is on site. That means less paperwork, cleaner payroll data and better visibility of labour costs before they become a problem.
To keep track of hours worked as a contractor, you need a method that is accurate, consistent and easy to maintain across multiple jobs. The biggest mistake contractors make is relying on memory, scraps of paper or WhatsApp messages at the end of the week. That nearly always leads to missed hours, billing issues and disputes with the principal contractor or client.
Take a subcontract joiner working across a school refurbishment in Leeds and a retail fit-out in Birmingham. If he only writes down total daily hours, he may know he worked ten hours but not how many were spent on classroom partitions versus shopfront installation. That becomes a problem when preparing invoices, checking productivity or proving time on variations.
Using SiteSamurai, contractors can log hours directly against the correct project and activity from site. Instead of chasing notebooks and text messages, they have a digital record of labour time that can be checked by supervisors and pulled into reports. This is especially useful for self-employed trades, subcontract gangs and small firms that need to stay on top of payroll, applications for payment and project profitability without adding office-heavy admin.
To track time on projects properly, you need to move beyond simply recording who turned up. Good project time tracking shows where labour hours are being spent, whether the job is running to programme, and which activities are eating into margin. In construction, that means connecting time data to real site work, not just creating a weekly attendance sheet.
For instance, on a commercial refurb in London, the site team may need to know whether extra hours are going into demolition, M&E first fix or finishing works. If all labour is lumped together under one timesheet heading, the project manager cannot see where productivity is slipping. By contrast, if operatives book time against the right work package, the team can quickly spot that second fix is taking longer than priced and deal with it before the cost overrun grows.
SiteSamurai helps by making project-level time tracking part of day-to-day site management. Labour hours can be tied back to jobs, tasks and site activity, giving project managers a clearer picture of progress and cost. That supports better forecasting, cleaner records for valuations and variations, and less time spent manually reconciling labour sheets in the office.
Good construction time tracking is not just about payroll. It gives contractors and site managers better control over labour, progress and project costs. If you want a simpler way to record hours on site and link them to real project activity, SiteSamurai can help streamline the process.
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