Time Tracking for Tradespeople: How to Get It Right (2026)

Time tracking is the task most tradespeople put off — until it starts costing them money. This guide covers why manual time tracking fails in practice, what a trade business actually needs in a time-tracking app, and how to get from clocked hours to a finished invoice without double work.

Why paper timesheets and spreadsheets fail

Most trade businesses start with a paper timesheet or a spreadsheet. It works until the business grows past one person and one van. From there, the same problems keep resurfacing:

• Timesheets sit in the van or on a desk and never get entered
• Hours are misremembered the next day — especially on jobs with interruptions
• There's no link between the hour and the specific job, so invoicing becomes guesswork
• Overtime and travel time get logged inconsistently between employees
• Data gets typed in twice: once on the sheet, once in the invoicing system

The result is always the same: hours that were genuinely worked never make it onto the invoice.

What does missed time tracking actually cost?

Do the math: if an employee "loses" an average of 30 minutes a day in unrecorded time — forgotten, rounded down, or never reaching the invoice — that's over 10 hours a month per employee. At a billing rate of 450-600 DKK/hour, that's 4,500-6,000 DKK in lost revenue per employee, every single month.

For a business with five tradespeople, that adds up to close to 300,000 DKK a year in hours that were worked but never invoiced. This isn't a minor issue — it's typically the single largest leak in a trade business's finances.

What should a time-tracking app for tradespeople do?

Plenty of general time-tracking apps exist, but most are built for office work — not for a tradesperson moving between jobs, often offline on site, who needs hours to flow straight into an invoice. Look for these five things:

1. One tap, not a form

Clock in and out directly on the job you're standing on — without filling in fields first. If it takes more than 5 seconds, it won't get used consistently.

2. Automatic link to the job

The hour should be recorded against the right job from the start, so you can later see exactly how many hours went where — without reconstructing it afterward.

3. Works offline

Job sites often have poor or no signal. A time-tracking app that requires a constant connection fails exactly where it's needed most.

4. Timesheet approval

As a foreman or project lead, you need to review and approve submitted hours from the team before they move forward — so mistakes get caught before they reach the customer's invoice.

5. Direct handoff to invoicing

The most important point: recorded hours must be able to flow straight onto an invoice, without anyone re-typing the numbers into a different system.

How hours flow from job to invoice

In an all-in-one trade app like Svendetid's time registration, the flow looks like this:

1. The employee clocks in on the job from their phone when work starts
2. The hour is automatically recorded against the right job and customer
3. The foreman approves the timesheet — either continuously or at the end of the week
4. Approved hours flow automatically into the invoice, ready to send

There's no manual handoff along the way. That's the difference between time tracking that actually gets used and one that sits untouched in a drawer.

Time tracking for solo contractors vs. teams

The need looks a little different depending on the size of the business.

As a solo contractor, the main goal is making sure no work gets lost between memory and invoice. It's mostly about making the recording easy enough that it actually happens on the fly.

With a team, approval, oversight, and correctly splitting hours across several simultaneous jobs come into play. Seeing time spent per job and per employee in real time becomes important, so budget overruns get caught while there's still time to react.

How to get started

1. Choose one system for time tracking — not several overlapping apps
2. Make sure it's linked to jobs/customers, not just a loose timer
3. Check that it works offline if you work in areas with poor signal
4. Confirm hours can flow directly into invoicing without double entry
5. Set a fixed approval routine — for example, every Friday afternoon

FAQ

What's the difference between time tracking and time registration?

None — both terms describe the same thing: recording how many hours were worked, and on which job. "Time tracking" is the more common term generally, while "time registration" is used more in HR and payroll contexts, but they cover the same function.

Can I track time offline on a job site?

Yes, if the app is built for it. Svendetid stores the entry locally on the phone and syncs automatically the moment there's a connection again — so you never lose a recorded hour because the site had no signal.

Do I need a separate time-tracking app alongside my CRM?

No, you should avoid that if possible. Two systems that both store hours create double work and inconsistencies. A unified system where time tracking, jobs, and invoicing are connected is significantly more reliable.

How do I approve employees' hours?

In an app like Svendetid, the employee submits the timesheet digitally, and the foreman or project lead reviews and approves it from web or mobile — typically continuously or at the end of the week, before the hours flow into the invoice.

How long does it take to roll out time tracking in an app?

Setup itself typically takes under an hour. The real adjustment period — getting the whole team to clock in and out consistently — usually takes 1-2 weeks. Keep the recording as simple as possible from the start, and the habit forms faster.

Time tracking isn't just admin — it's money that otherwise disappears between the job and the invoice. Choose a system fast enough to actually get used, and make sure hours flow directly into invoicing without double work.

Want to see it in practice? Try Svendetid's time registration for free or read more about the full platform for tradespeople.