The top 10 time tracking tools for staffing companies

Tracking time lets staffing companies monitor employee productivity, individual capacity, and most importantly, ensure their employees aren’t under or overpaid.

However, manual methods like Excel timesheets can result in poor timekeeping and non-compliance with government payroll requirements. This can also lead to fines, back payments, and penalties.

That’s why you should use a time tracking tool.

But with hundreds of tools available today, which one should you choose?

In this article, we’ll cover 10 time tracking tools for staffing companies with their key features, pricing, and user ratings. Also, learn the five key benefits of tracking time for staffing companies.

Top 10 time tracking tools for staffing companies
- 1. Time Doctor
2. HiveDesk
3. On-Time Web
4. QuickBooks Time
5. Hubstaff
6. Toggl Track
7. OnTheClock
8. ClockShark
9. ClickTime
10. Tempus

5 key benefits of time tracking for staffing companies

Let’s get started.

Top 10 time tracking tools for staffing companies

A staffing or recruiting agency is an organization that fulfills the staffing needs of companies based on their skills requirements. In simpler terms, it acts as a middleman between employers and employees.

And to ensure that the agents are working diligently and getting paid fairly, it’s important to track time accurately.

Now let’s look at the 10 best time tracking solutions for staffing agencies:

1. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a workforce analytics platform that empowers managers with the visibility to lead with trust, not control. Mid-market companies and growing SMBs use it to gain real-time visibility into work, support employee well-being, and continuously improve productivity across remote, hybrid, and in-office teams.

Key features

Here’s a detailed look at some of Time Doctor’s most powerful features:

A. Simple time tracking

Time Doctor is a workforce analytics platform that gives you flexible time tracking so employees can record their hours in a way that fits how they work. The platform captures work activity in real time and transforms it into clear visibility for teams, helping leaders understand how work happens while keeping the experience simple for employees.

In manual/interactive mode, employees simply open the app, select their current task, and start the timer. Time Doctor runs in the background and tracks the apps and websites used during work. When they’re finished or want to take a break, they can stop the timer with a single click.

In automatic mode, Time Doctor can start tracking time when employees turn on or log into their work devices. This mode helps improve accuracy and reduces the need for manual edits or forgotten time entries.

Both modes are designed to provide clear visibility for managers and employees while minimizing disruption to the workday.

B. Idle time tracking

Time Doctor measures idle time (periods without keyboard or mouse activity) to help teams understand focus patterns and potential productivity blockers.

Idle time is measured in idle seconds and idle minutes
You can configure when idle time should start counting and set limits that make sense for different roles

Instead of silently recording behavior, Time Doctor can display a gentle idle time pop-up when someone has been inactive for too long—nudging them to either refocus or take a break. This helps reduce unintentional time drift and supports more accurate timesheets.

This design helps organizations balance accountability with privacy and trust.Moreover, you can set how long the timer can run without any activity. Once it reaches the limit, the tracker automatically stops tracking time and displays an idle time pop-up. This pop-up alerts employees to focus on their tasks.

Note: Time Doctor isn’t a keystroke logger. It only checks if there’s any mouse or keyboard activity.

C. Screencasts (Optional)

The screencasts feature helps you verify whether employees in your staffing company are working on the assigned task or not by taking screenshots of your employees’ work screens.

This way, you’ll also be able to gain useful insights into employee time and computer use.

Note: To protect employee privacy, Time Doctor lets you blur or delete screenshots with sensitive data like passwords.

D. Productivity reports

Time Doctor tracks several data points related to employees activity. You can access a wide range of reports generated in real-time.

Here’s a quick look at these reports :

Activity summary report: See active seconds, minutes, unproductive, manual, and mobile time for each employee over a selected time period.
Attendance report: See if an employee is present, absent, partially absent, or late in real-time.
Hours tracked report: View the total number of hours tracked by employees for any date range.
Projects & tasks report: See the time spent on projects as well as individual tasks.
Timeline report: Look at the time spent on tasks and breaks in a day or the whole week.
Custom export report: Customize the fields you’d like to include in one single report.
Web and app usage report: View the time spent by an employee on each app and website during work hours.

E. Payroll management

Time Doctor payroll management feature lets staffing companies calculate billable hours and generate payroll based on the time tracking data. This can help your company build a credible reputation with clients.

With this feature, you can:

Automate timesheets to pay your employees regularly.
Approve a timesheet manually or automatically.
Customize your staffing company’s payroll system with options to edit each employee’s payment currency, pay rate, and payment method.
Integrate with payroll software like Paypal and Wise.
Export your payroll as a CSV file and make batch payments by uploading it to PayPal, Wise, or Gusto.

F. Chrome integrations

Time Doctor’s powerful Chrome Extension integrates with 60+ tools that include project management, helpdesk, accounting software, and more.

For example, Time Doctor integrates easily with tools like Asana and Jira.

You can even add time tracking to tasks you’ve created on tools like ClickUp. As a result, you can help your team avoid wasting time and work more efficiently.

Check out other tools you can integrate with Time Doctor.

Also, read about other features of this powerful tool.

Pricing

Time Doctor’s basic plan starts at $6.70/user per month. It also supports a 14-day free trial that doesn’t require any credit card information.

User ratings

G2: 4.4/5 (420+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.5/5 (540+ reviews)

2. HiveDesk

HiveDesk is time tracking software for staffing agencies that helps maximize billable hours and profitability with timesheets, reports, and cost tracking.