Workyard Alternative for Electrical Contractors: What to Compare Before You Switch
Workyard is a construction time tracking app with GPS, geofences, cost codes and project reporting. Plenty of electrical contractors run it without complaint. Others look for an alternative because they pay for project features they never open, or because the hours that reach QuickBooks still do not explain the work to the customer who receives the invoice.
This guide is for an electrical contractor deciding whether to stay on Workyard or move. It covers what Workyard publishes about its plans, the questions that matter for an electrical shop, the kinds of tools that compete with it, and how to switch without losing a pay period.
Facts about Workyard below come from its public pricing page, checked on October 14, 2026. Pricing pages change, so recheck before you decide.
What Workyard Publishes About Its Plans
Workyard lists four plans: Starter, Pro, Autopilot and Enterprise. Here is what the pricing page says about each, and what it leaves out.
| Plan | Published price | What the page lists |
|---|
| Starter | "Plans start at $6 per user / month", billed annually; monthly billing "also available" | GPS tracking, live view of crew locations, export of time to payroll systems including QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop |
| Pro | Not published | Labor cost calculation, reporting by project and cost code, clock-in restricted to geofences, import and sync of projects and cost codes |
| Autopilot | Not published | Marked "most popular" |
| Enterprise | Not published ("scalable pricing") | Contact sales |
The page also says: 14-day free trial, no credit card required, cancel anytime. It does not publish a base fee, a monthly-billing price, or prices for any plan above Starter. If you are on Pro or Autopilot today, your invoice is the only reliable number to compare against. Get it out before you shop.
Five Questions an Electrical Shop Should Answer First
Most switching mistakes come from comparing feature lists instead of comparing the job the tool has to do. Answer these before you look at any vendor.
1. What does your customer need to see on a T&M invoice? If you bill time and materials, the hours alone rarely settle a dispute.8.5 hrs invites a question. 7:02a to 3:32p, pulled and terminated circuits 12 to 18, second-floor east wing answers it. Check whether the tool asks the electrician what got done, and whether that note survives all the way to the document the customer sees. Our T&M billing best practices covers what a customer-safe backup sheet contains.
2. Do you actually use cost codes? Workyard puts cost codes and project reporting on Pro. If your shop bills by job and never splits hours by phase, cost codes are a feature you pay for and do not use. If your estimator lives on phase-level labor, they are essential and a simpler tool will not replace them.
3. Do you need geofences or just a location record? A geofence restricts where someone can clock in. A single GPS point at clock-in and clock-out records where the phone was when the punch happened. The first is enforcement; the second is corroboration. Decide which one you need before you count it as a feature.
4. What does "QuickBooks integration" mean in the tool you are looking at? It can mean a payroll export file, a push of time records, or a two-way sync of customers and projects. Ask exactly which QuickBooks records get created, which fields get filled, and who presses the button. The answer decides how much re-keying is left on Friday.
5. How many people will clock in, and how fast is that number changing? Per-user pricing and flat-tier pricing cross over at different crew sizes. Run the math at today's headcount and at the size you expect in a year.
The Kinds of Tools That Compete With Workyard
Electrical contractors leaving Workyard usually land in one of four categories. Each one trades something.
| Category | Good fit when | What you give up |
|---|
| Construction time and project platforms (ClockShark, BusyBusy) | You want cost codes, geofences and project reporting, just with different pricing or terms | Little in features; check contract length and per-user cost |
| Accounting-suite time trackers (QuickBooks Time) | You want time to live inside the Intuit account you already pay for | Electrical-specific workflow; pricing tied to Intuit's plans |
| General workforce apps (Connecteam, Clockify) | You need forms, chat or scheduling alongside time | Construction focus; more setup to make it fit a jobsite |
| Narrow electrician time and billing tools | You bill T&M and need hours plus the work described, without a project-management layer | Cost codes, geofences, scheduling and other platform features |
For side-by-side detail on specific vendors, see the comparisons for QuickBooks Time, ClockShark and BusyBusy. Each one lists the sources and the date its facts were checked.
A Pricing Worksheet You Can Fill In
Because Workyard publishes only the Starter rate, any table that shows a Pro price without a source is a guess. Use this worksheet with your own invoice instead.
| Line | Your current tool | Option B | Option C |
|---|
| Plan you would need (with the features from your five answers) | |||
| Base fee per month | |||
| Per-user fee x people who clock in | |||
| Annual-billing requirement or contract term | |||
| Monthly total at today's headcount | |||
| Monthly total at next year's headcount | |||
| Hours of office re-keying per week you expect it to remove |
Worked example with visible inputs: at Workyard's published Starter rate of $6 per user per month on annual billing, 12 people who clock in come to $72 per month before any base fee or upgrade. That number only matters if Starter covers what you answered in question 2 and 3; if you need cost codes or geofence restrictions, you are pricing Pro, and you need a quote.
Questions to Ask Any Vendor Before You Sign
- Which plan includes the features I listed, and what is its price at my headcount on monthly and on annual billing?
- Is there a contract term, and what happens to my data if I cancel?
- What exactly gets created in QuickBooks Online: a payroll export, time records, invoices? Which fields are filled? Is it automatic or does someone run it?
- Does the electrician write what got done at clock-out, and does that text appear on anything the customer sees?
- What location data is recorded: a point at each punch, a geofence check, or a continuous trail? Can a worker see what is recorded?
- What happens when a phone has no signal at clock-in?
- Can I export every time entry to CSV at any time?
Switching Without Losing a Pay Period
- Export everything first. Pull time entries, workers and jobs from Workyard for at least the current year, and keep the files. Most tools do not import another vendor's history, so the export is your record for the earlier period.
- Set up the new tool with real jobs. Name jobs the way the customer appears in QuickBooks so the office can match them later.
- Run one crew on both tools for a week. Compare the two sets of hours on Friday. Look for missed punches, notes that were left blank, and anything that did not reach QuickBooks the way you expected.
- Switch at a pay-period boundary. Cutting over mid-period means two sources for one paycheck.
- Cancel last. Workyard says it allows cancel anytime; confirm your own terms and the end of any annual term you prepaid.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Workyard cost?
Workyard's pricing page says plans start at $6 per user per month, billed annually, with monthly billing also available. It does not publish prices for Pro, Autopilot or Enterprise. Checked October 14, 2026.
Does Workyard have a free trial?
Yes. The pricing page offers a 14-day free trial and says no credit card is required.
Which Workyard plan includes cost codes and geofences?
According to the pricing page, Pro adds reporting by project and cost code, clock-in restricted to geofences, and automatic labor cost calculation. Starter includes GPS tracking and a live view of crew locations.
Does Workyard work with QuickBooks?
The Starter plan lists export of time to payroll systems including QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. Pro adds import and sync of projects and cost codes and export of project time to an accounting system. Ask Workyard which QuickBooks records each plan creates.
What should a small electrical shop prioritize in a Workyard alternative?
Start with what your customer needs on the invoice and what your office does with the hours afterward. If you bill T&M, the note describing the work matters as much as the hours. If you estimate by phase, cost codes matter. Pick the category that matches, then compare prices inside it.
Bottom Line
Workyard fits contractors who use its project layer: cost codes, geofence restrictions and labor reporting by project. If that is your shop, the switch may not be worth the disruption, and the better move is to confirm you are on the right plan.
If what you need is hours with the work described, carried into QuickBooks and onto a billing packet the customer can read, a narrower tool may cost less and ask less of the crew. FieldTimesheet is one option in that category, with a clock-out note, one GPS point per punch and an admin-run push of hours to QuickBooks Online; it has no cost codes or geofences, and its plans are listed on the pricing page. Whatever you pick, fill in the worksheet with your own invoice before you sign anything.