Time tracking for cleaning crews, building by building.

How time tracking works for a cleaning company

Each site lead's phone is the time clock for their building. Pair it once from a setup link, assign it to that building, and it scans each cleaner's printed QR badge at the door: once in, once out. Cleaners need no app, account or phone of their own.

A weeknight at a four-story office building with a crew of six:

Rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes count as hours worked under 29 CFR 785.18, so leave the crew on the clock. Only an unpaid meal break, where the cleaner is fully relieved of duty, needs a scan out and back in.

A record of who was on site, and when

When a client calls to say the floors weren't done on Tuesday, you want more than the site lead's word. Every punch records the time, the scanner that made it and that scanner's building. Turn on the GPS stamp and each scan also records where it happened.

The shift export lists every shift with its clock-in and clock-out times, location, who scanned it, GPS and any edits. Edits keep a full history, so the record shows what changed and who changed it.

Be clear about what this proves. It shows your crew was in the building and for how long. It doesn't show which rooms were cleaned; that's what your inspection checklist is for.

Route crews and supervisors who visit several buildings

Not every crew stays in one building. A small-office route crew might clean four suites in a night.

• Keep the crew on the clock between stops. Driving from one client site to the next is work time under 29 CFR 785.38. Scan in at the first building and out at the last.
• Let GPS show where each scan happened. With the GPS stamp on, the in and out scans show where the night started and ended.
• Scan late arrivals where they join. A supervisor checking three buildings can scan a late cleaner in on arrival, and the punch records where it happened.

Turnover, new hires and lost badges

Cleaning crews turn over fast. A new hire starts the night they're hired: add their name, print their badge (eight fit on a letter page) and hand it over. When someone leaves, archive them and they stop counting toward your plan.

A badge that goes missing is reissued in one click, and the old code stops working, so a former employee can't use it. Until the new one is printed, the site lead types the cleaner's PIN on the scanner. It's the same reason a supervisor-scanned badge stops buddy punching: someone sees every person who gets clocked in.

Overtime across buildings

Hours at every building add up into one weekly timesheet. A cleaner who works 25 hours at one site and 20 at another has worked 45 hours for you, and the FLSA requires overtime on the 5 hours over 40. TrackBadges totals every punch, from every location, before it applies your overtime threshold, so split schedules don't hide overtime. Check a week by hand with the hours calculator.

What it costs

TrackBadges is free for up to 3 people with every feature. Pro is $9 a month for your first 3 people, plus $1.50 a month for each person after that, so a 30-person crew is $49.50 a month. Scanners are unlimited and free, so a site lead at every building costs nothing extra.

When it isn't the right fit

Residential cleaners who work alone or in pairs and drive straight to homes have no site lead to scan them; an app with GPS on their own phone suits them better. The scanner also needs a connection while it scans, so if the basement entrance has no signal, scan at a door that does or join the building's guest Wi-Fi. For crews that start together at a door, a QR code time clock is faster than a PIN pad or a paper sign-in sheet.