You bid jobs by the hour. If your time data is wrong, your margins are wrong. Paper timesheets get lost in trucks; punch clocks don’t exist when the job is 18 miles away on a residential street. ClockOut is a GPS-verified time clock built for crews who clock in standing in someone’s front yard.
Where landscaping companies leak money
- Paper timesheets get lost. Or get smudged. Or get filled in from memory on Friday afternoon for hours worked Tuesday morning.
- Drive time bleeds into job time.Without GPS, you can’t tell if 8 hours of a 10-hour day was actually billable.
- Crew leads round up.Studies estimate buddy punching and time rounding costs the average SMB 4-7% of gross payroll. On a $400k payroll, that’s $16-28k a year.
- Per-property hours are guesswork. Without knowing which property ate the hours, you bid the next job by gut feel.
What ClockOut does for landscaping crews
GPS-verified clock-in at every property
Crew lead opens the app, taps clock-in. We capture latitude / longitude and verify they’re inside the geofence you set for that property. If they’re at the shop or a Wawa, you’ll know.
Per-property punch tracking
Set a geofence on each property. Every clock-in is matched to the property it happened at and stamped with the GPS address, so a 10-hour day is tied to real locations: Henderson, Pinewood HOA, Vista. Exactly what you need to bill accurately and re-bid intelligently.
Job costing by property
Give each property or maintenance contract a job code (name plus an optional short code). The crew picks the code when they clock in and can switch it on the active shift; you can re-tag any entry later. The reports page totals hours by job code for any date range, and the generic ClockOut CSV export carries a Job Code column. So the Henderson lawn and the Pinewood HOA each show their real labor hours, and you re-bid from numbers instead of a hunch. Job costing is on Starter and up.
Kiosk mode for the shop
Park a tablet at the shop entrance. Crew clocks in with a 4-digit PIN before they roll out, no logins, no personal phones required. Turn on the optional clock-in photo and the kiosk takes a webcam snapshot at clock-in (with a live preview) and attaches it to the entry, a plain photo for you to eyeball, not face recognition. If the camera is unavailable, the punch still goes through.
Automatic overtime and break rules
Federal FLSA weekly overtime applies automatically. On the Pro plan, the compliance pack lets you configure daily overtime thresholds, meal and rest break rules, and maximum hours. Missed meal breaks get flagged in the exception inbox before they show up on the next payroll run.
Payroll export in two clicks
At end of pay period, lock the timesheets and download a CSV formatted for ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks, or a generic CSV. Approved hours flow straight in, no transcription, no copy-paste errors.
ClockOut vs the alternatives
| ClockOut | Paper sheets | QuickBooks Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPS verification | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Geofencing per property | ✓ | ✗ | Partial |
| Per-property punch tracking | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Job costing by code | Starter plan | Manual | Varies |
| Offline punch sync | ✓ | ✗ | Varies |
| Kiosk mode | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Starting price (5 crew) | $15 / mo | $0 + your time | Varies |
| Free tier | Up to 2 employees | None | 30-day trial |
| Payroll export (ADP / Gusto / QB) | ✓ | Manual | ✓ |
| Per-employee billing sync | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Set up in under 10 minutes
- 01
Create your company
Sign up at useclockout.com, free up to 2 employees, no credit card.
- 02
Add your crew
Invite by phone or email. They open ClockOut in a phone browser, log in, and they’re ready. The kiosk-mode tablet works independently of personal phones.
- 03
Add your active properties
Drop a pin on each property, set the geofence radius (we default to 100m). When crews clock in, we verify they’re inside it.
- 04
Run your first payroll export
At the end of the pay period, review the exception inbox (late clock-ins, missed breaks, overtime), approve, and export. Done.
Related pages
- Employee scheduling app: recurring templates, open shifts, swaps, and confirmations.
- Free work schedule maker and time card calculator, no signup.
- GPS time clock and PTO tracker.
- Also for construction and cleaning services teams.
FAQ
Does ClockOut work without cell service?
Yes, for punches. On a residential street with no signal, ClockOut saves the clock-in or clock-out on the phone and syncs it with its original tap time once signal returns. The app has to have been opened on that phone first, synced punches are flagged for you, a punch that could not be checked against the geofence is recorded and flagged for review rather than blocked, and punches older than 48 hours are not accepted. Breaks need a connection. Where signal is poor all day, a shared kiosk tablet on wifi at the shop or in the lead’s truck is still the simplest option.
Can crews clock in on a single shared device?
Yes, use kiosk mode. Park a tablet at the shop or in the lead’s truck. Each crew member punches in with a 4-digit PIN.
How does per-property tracking work?
Set a geofence on each property. When the crew lead clocks in, the punch is matched to the property they’re standing at and stamped with the GPS address. End of week, the hours are tied to the property they happened on.
Does it handle California daily overtime?
On the Pro plan, the compliance pack lets you configure daily overtime thresholds and meal and rest break rules. Crossings are flagged in the exception inbox. Standard federal FLSA weekly overtime is calculated on every plan.
How does payroll export work?
Lock the pay period in ClockOut, click export, choose a CSV formatted for ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks, or a generic CSV. Approved hours with overtime calculated flow into your payroll system.
What does it cost for a 10-person crew?
$30/month on the Starter plan. Pro is $50/month and adds the compliance pack for configurable OT and break rules. See pricing.