If you are shopping for an ExakTime alternative for electricians, it is probably not because the GPS is bad. The GPS works fine.
It is usually something else. The annual contract renewed. The brand changed names. Nobody will answer straight which version of QuickBooks it syncs to.
Then there is the quieter reason. A customer questioned a T&M invoice, you pulled the report, and the report proved your electrician was on site — but it did not explain what he did there.
That gap is the whole thing. The charge was fair. The explanation was missing.
What follows is the evaluation and migration procedure: what to test before you switch any field time system, how to get your history out, what breaks in QuickBooks sync on a mid-year switch, and when you should stay exactly where you are.
First, Know What You Are Actually Shopping Against
ExakTime is now Arcoro Time. Arcoro's own ExakTime page states it plainly: "ExakTime is now Arcoro Time."
The old exaktime.com/pricing/ URL 301-redirects into Arcoro's site. The product you bought is now a module inside a construction HR platform.
That matters for a 15-person electrical shop. The integrations named on Arcoro's ExakTime page are QuickBooks, Sage, Acumatica, Foundation, ADP, Viewpoint, and ConstructionPayroll.com — a list built for companies with an HR department.
Here is what Arcoro publishes for pricing:
| Plan | Published price | What it adds |
|---|
| Time Essential | "starts at $9" per employee/month | Mobile time & attendance, GPS/location awareness, perimeter control, meal break tracking, custom forms |
| Time Professional | "starts at $11" per employee/month | Employee communications, job assignment scheduling, PTO administration |
| Time + Payroll | "starts at $19" per employee/month | Everything in Professional plus Arcoro Payroll |
Source: Arcoro's ExakTime pricing plans page, which states pricing is "per employee per month with an annual contract and annual payment terms," notes that monthly and quarterly terms are also available, and applies volume discounts at 200+ employees.
Two lines are missing from that page: hardware cost and any platform or base fee. Neither is published. Get both in writing.
For outside signal, ExakTime's Capterra listing shows an Advanced plan at $9.00 per user per month with Premium and Elite as "Custom Quote Available." It carries an overall 3.5 out of 5 from 6 reviews, with Value for Money rated 2.7 — the lowest of its four rated dimensions.
Six reviews is a thin evidence base. Treat it as a reason to ask harder questions, not as a verdict.
Which QuickBooks Does It Actually Sync To?
Public sources disagree — Arcoro's ExakTime page lists only "QuickBooks" with no version, while ExakTime's Capterra listing names QuickBooks Online Advanced specifically — so get the tier in writing from every vendor before you sign anything.
QBO Advanced is QuickBooks Online's top tier and costs several times what Plus does. If you are on Essentials or Plus, a sync that requires Advanced is not a feature difference — it is a QuickBooks upgrade you have to price into the worksheet below.
Send this exact email to every vendor, including whoever you are replacing:
Which QuickBooks products does your time sync support — Desktop, QBO Essentials, QBO Plus, QBO Advanced? Does it write TimeActivity records against a customer and service item? Does any of it require QBO Advanced?
A one-line written answer to that is worth more than any feature grid. If a salesperson will not put the tier in an email, that is your answer. How TimeActivity records actually get written is covered in this QuickBooks time entry walkthrough.
What ExakTime Does Well, Before You Talk Yourself Out of It
The rugged clock line is real hardware solving a real problem, and it is the hardest part to replace.
Per ExakTime's JobClock Hornet datasheet, the Hornet stores up to 20,000 punches, runs six months on a set of batteries, operates from -10°F to 170°F, and syncs over Bluetooth to a phone. The JobClock LE is the lower-cost unit in the same line — check its own datasheet for its capacity and sync method, since they differ. Workers clock in with colored key fobs.
If your crews work sites with no reliable signal and no AC power, nothing on a phone matches a weatherproof box screwed to a stud.
Arcoro's ExakTime page also names GPS geofencing and geotracking, project and cost codes, equipment tracking, daily reports, employee timecards, and photo ID capture.
Equipment tracking — logging tools, incidents, and repairs against a job — is on Arcoro's ExakTime feature list. If you are using it, write it down and confirm each replacement candidate has it; phone-only time apps often do not.
Why a Location Trail Still Loses the Argument
A location trail loses the argument because your customer is not asking where your electrician stood — they are asking what they paid for.
Every proof mechanism in this category — GPS stamp, geofence, photo at punch — answers "was he there." That is the office's question, and it is already settled.
The customer's question is different, and it shows up 30 days later attached to an unpaid invoice.
Same eight hours. Same job. Two records:
| What the record says | What the customer reads | What happens next |
|---|
| Worker on site 8.77 hrs, GPS verified | A number and an address | "Eight hours doing what?" You discount it, or you win and lose the relationship. |
| Thu 7:02a-3:48p — pulled and terminated circuits 12-18, second-floor east wing | Work performed, in sequence, on a date | The line explains itself. The argument never opens. |
The second row is not a software feature. It is one sentence a journeyman can say out loud in four seconds.
So the real evaluation question for any system on your list is not what the dashboard looks like. It is what the printed export looks like in a customer's hands.
If you have never seen one built that way, here is an annotated sample billing packet — no signup, nothing to fill in. Use it as the standard you hold each vendor's export against.
What the New Record Has to Capture
The new record has to capture four things: clock times, the job, one plain line describing the work performed, and the rate you bill — entered the same day, by the person who did the work.
Four fields per worker per day, in this order:
- Date and in/out times. Actual times, not rounded to the half hour.
- Job or customer. Whatever name matches your QuickBooks customer exactly.
- What was done. The specific noun: panel, circuit numbers, floor, room, riser, device count, what got energized.
- Hours and the bill rate — the rate you charge, not the rate you pay.
Test it directly: print the report you would email to a GC and look for your own cost on it. This is a five-minute check, and it is the fastest way to rule a vendor out.
Three ways to capture field #3, cheapest first:
- A paper daily field report the foreman signs on site. Free, works Monday, no vendor involved — the forms are in this T&M billing backup kit — free, no signup.
- A custom form in whatever system you choose. Most field time apps have some form builder; require exactly one text field at end of day and nothing else.
- A time app that prompts at clock-out with one-tap reuse of yesterday's note, which is what FieldTimesheet does.
The Real Obstacle Is Not the Software
The note field stays empty because nobody explained what it is for.
"Fill in the notes so I can see what you are doing" gets a shrug. It sounds like being checked up on, and it earns the cooperation it deserves.
"Write one line so when the GC tries to knock eight hours off this invoice I can show them exactly what we did" gets cooperation. On that argument, the crew and the company are on the same side.
Say it out loud at a Monday huddle, once, in those words. Then make the note cost seconds.
One field. End of day. Plain language. No dropdown taxonomy of 40 cost codes, no required photo, no essay.
Give them the wording, too. "Pulled and terminated circuits 12-18, second-floor east wing" is the model — trade, quantity, location. Post that example where they can see it.
What to Test Before You Switch Any Field Time System
Run one real job all the way through to a printed, customer-facing page before you sign a contract. Seven tests, all doable in a trial or a demo with your own data.
- The no-signal test. Put a phone in airplane mode in a basement or mechanical room, clock in, force-close the app, reopen it 30 minutes later. Does the punch survive, and does it reach the office when signal returns?
- The print test. Generate the customer-facing report. Is your cost rate on it? Is there a column describing work performed? Would you email it to a GC unedited?
- The note test. Hand the phone to your least tech-interested apprentice and ask him to log "replaced four ballasts, suite 210." Count the taps, and count them the same way on every vendor you try. Whichever takes the fewest is the one that will still be getting filled in six weeks from now.
- The rate test. Put a journeyman and an apprentice on one job at different bill rates. Can the system carry both rates on the same job without a workaround?
- The QuickBooks test. Sync one week, then open QuickBooks and check it yourself: right customer, right service item, billable flag set, hours matching. Then change a rate and re-sync and watch what happens.
- The export test. Ask for a full CSV export of the demo data before you buy. If you cannot get a plain CSV out, you are renting your own records.
- The math test. Fill in every line of the cost worksheet below, including the lines nobody publishes.
The Cost Worksheet Nobody Fills Out
Per-user price is rarely the whole bill. Fill in all six lines for each vendor, side by side, before you compare anything.
| Line | Your number | Where to get it |
|---|
| Per-user price × headcount | Vendor's published pricing page |
| Platform or base fee | Ask in writing — frequently unpublished |
| Hardware units + fobs | Ask for a per-unit quote and a fob count |
| Implementation / setup | Ask whether onboarding is billed once or waived |
| Annual vs monthly commitment | Contract terms on the order form, not the website |
| QuickBooks tier required | The written answer to the email above |
Example arithmetic, using only published figures, for a 15-electrician shop:
| Input | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|
| Headcount | 15 | Your crew — substitute your own |
| Time Essential, per employee | $9/month | Arcoro ExakTime pricing page |
| Software subtotal | 15 × $9 = $135/month | Arithmetic |
| Payment terms | Annual contract, annual payment | Arcoro ExakTime pricing page |
| Implied annual commitment | $135 × 12 = $1,620 | Arithmetic |
| JobClock hardware + fobs | Not published | Must request |
| Platform / base fee | Not published | Must request |
This is example arithmetic on published numbers, not a quote and not a claim about your bill. Run it with your own headcount and the plan you would actually buy.
The rule: any line you cannot fill in is a line that will surprise you later. A "custom quote" tier is normal. An unanswered "what is the base fee" is not.
Worth pricing on the other side of the ledger, too — what the invoice arguments already cost you. There is an invoice dispute cost calculator here with the inputs visible so you can change them.
How to Get Your Time History Out Before You Cancel
Export everything to CSV or Excel while the account is still active and paid, and do it before you give notice.
- Pull every report the system offers, pay period by pay period, for your full retention window. Timecards, by-job, by-employee, and any daily reports.
- Export as CSV or Excel, not PDF only. Keep the PDF for the record; the CSV is what you can search, sort, and re-import.
- Include the notes and description fields. For any job still unpaid or in dispute, those fields are your billing backup — losing them costs real money.
- Save it twice, in two places, with the job name and date range in the filename.
- Export your setup, too: job list, cost codes, employee list, rates. That is what you will rekey into the new system, and it is the slowest part of a migration.
- Keep the records as long as the law requires, not as long as the vendor does. The U.S. Department of Labor's FLSA recordkeeping rules require payroll records be kept three years, and the time records wage computations are based on for two years. A prevailing-wage contract or your state may require longer.
What Breaks in QuickBooks Sync on a Mid-Year Switch
Two things break on a mid-year switch: duplicate time entries and mismapped customers. Both are preventable with a clean cutover date and one parallel pay period.
Five things to control:
- Make the cutover date the first day of a pay period. Never mid-week. A split week is where reconciliation goes bad.
- Do not backfill old hours. They are already in QuickBooks. Re-importing them creates duplicate TimeActivity records and doubles the labor cost sitting on that job.
- Re-map jobs to QuickBooks customers by hand, once, and check the spelling. "Miller Residence" and "Miller Res." are two customers, and they will split one job's costs into two.
- Verify service items and the billable flag on the very first synced week, before you invoice anything from it.
- Run parallel for one pay period. Both systems, same week, then reconcile totals before you shut the old one off.
One more: disconnect the old app's QuickBooks connection when you are done. Two apps writing time into the same company file is where most duplicate-hour messes start.
If you are re-checking how job costs should land once the sync is clean, the mechanics are in this job costing walkthrough for electricians.
When You Should Stay with ExakTime
Stay with ExakTime if the hardware is doing work nothing else can do, or if your payroll already runs through something on Arcoro's integration list.
- You own JobClock units and they work. A weatherproof, battery-powered clock with key fobs on a site with no signal and no power is a specific answer to a specific problem. Do not throw that away for a better note field.
- You need geofenced clock-in as a hard rule. Arcoro's ExakTime page lists GPS geofencing and perimeter control. If a GC contract requires clock-ins be restricted to a site boundary, put that on your shortlist as a hard filter and confirm it on each vendor's own feature page — do not assume either way.
- Your payroll or ERP is on their list. Sage, Acumatica, Foundation, ADP, Viewpoint, ConstructionPayroll.com. Replacing a working payroll bridge to gain a better field note is a bad trade.
- You track equipment against jobs. Tools, incidents, and repairs logged to a job is on Arcoro's ExakTime feature list. Confirm any replacement carries it before you switch.
- You are over 200 employees. Arcoro publishes volume discounts at that size, which changes the per-seat math entirely. This post is written for 10-to-30-worker shops.
Switching costs a pay period of double entry and a week of crew friction. Spend that only on a problem a form cannot solve.
The Switching Checklist
Work top to bottom. Do not sign anything until item 7 is done.
- Write down what you actually use today — every feature, every report anyone opens.
- Email every vendor the QuickBooks tier question, verbatim, and wait for writing.
- Run the no-signal test on your worst site.
- Run the print test and look for your cost rate on the customer-facing page.
- Run the note test with your least tech-interested crew member.
- Confirm two bill rates on one job.
- Fill in all six lines of the cost worksheet, including the unpublished ones.
- Export your full time history and setup data to CSV, and back it up twice.
- Pick a cutover date on the first day of a pay period.
- Re-map jobs to QuickBooks customers by hand and proof the spelling.
- Run both systems parallel for one pay period and reconcile.
- Disconnect the old QuickBooks connection, then cancel — in that order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ExakTime still called ExakTime?
Not really. Arcoro's own ExakTime page says "ExakTime is now Arcoro Time," and the old exaktime.com pricing URL 301-redirects into arcoro.com. The name still appears in URLs and listings, but you are buying a module of a construction HR platform.
Does ExakTime work with QuickBooks Online Plus, or do I need Advanced?
Get it in writing, because the public sources disagree. Arcoro's ExakTime page lists "QuickBooks" with no version, while ExakTime's Capterra integration list names "QuickBooks Online Advanced" specifically. Ask which QBO tiers are supported and whether the sync writes TimeActivity records before you commit.
What does ExakTime cost for 15 electricians?
On published figures, Time Essential starts at $9 per employee per month, so 15 × $9 = $135 per month, on an annual contract with annual payment terms per Arcoro's pricing page. Hardware and any base fee are not published, so that $135 is a floor, not a total.
Can I export my time history out before I cancel?
Export it yourself while the account is active rather than relying on anyone to send it later. Pull every report per pay period as CSV or Excel, include the notes and description fields, and save your job list, employee list, and rates separately for rekeying.
Do I have to replace my JobClock hardware to switch?
The clocks are tied to their own system, so treat them as sunk cost, not as transferable equipment. If crews genuinely work with no signal and no power, that hardware may be the strongest reason to stay put.
Will my electricians actually write a note at the end of the day?
They will if it takes one line and they know what it is for. Framed as "so the customer cannot chisel us on work we did," it lands; framed as a compliance step, it does not. Keep it to one field, allow reuse of yesterday's wording, and post an example of what good looks like.
What do I actually show a customer who disputes a T&M invoice?
A page per day showing date, who was on site, what was done in plain trade language, hours, your bill rate, and the amount — with your cost rate and margin nowhere on it. Assemble it chronologically, one page per day, one line of work performed per worker. Practical patterns for building that are in this T&M billing guide.
Does any of this work in a basement or mechanical room with no signal?
Only if you test it yourself, because "offline support" is a checkbox that hides very different behavior. Clock in with airplane mode on, force-close the app, reopen it half an hour later, and confirm the punch reaches the office once signal returns.
The Bottom Line
ExakTime documents where your crew stood, and it does that part well. Rugged clocks, geofencing, and cost codes are real capabilities that a phone-only app does not simply replace.
But a location trail plus an hours total is still an invoice your customer has to take on faith. That is why the switch usually is not about GPS at all.
So judge every candidate — including the one you already pay for — on one thing: print the page you would hand a customer, and see whether it explains the charge without you standing there to narrate it.
If it does, you have what you need. If it does not, a signed paper field report fixes it before any contract does.