FieldTimesheet separates W-2 employees from 1099 subcontractors from day one. Every hour, every payment, every job — tracked and ready for 1099-NEC filing without the year-end panic.
Most electrical contractors run mixed crews. You have W-2 journeymen on payroll and 1099 subcontractors who come in for specific jobs or busy seasons. During the year, everyone works side by side on the same job sites, clocking the same hours. But when January arrives and 1099-NEC forms are due, you need to untangle twelve months of mixed data. Which payments went to subs? How many hours did each one work? Did any contractor cross the $600 threshold on a job you forgot to track? The scramble is real, and it happens every single year. The IRS deadline does not care that your records are a mess.
The stakes are higher than a few hours of paperwork. The IRS has stepped up enforcement on worker misclassification, and penalties can reach 100% of the unpaid employment taxes if you misclassify a W-2 employee as a 1099 contractor. Even if your classifications are correct, sloppy record-keeping makes it nearly impossible to defend yourself during an audit. You need clean, separated records showing exactly how much you paid each subcontractor, on which jobs, for how many hours. Reconstructing that data from memory or a shoebox of invoices in January is how contractors get burned.
The common workaround is a separate spreadsheet for subcontractor tracking. But spreadsheets always fall behind. Someone forgets to log a sub's hours for two weeks. The spreadsheet lives on one person's computer and nobody else can update it. By October, the spreadsheet is so incomplete that you end up calling subcontractors individually to reconcile hours before year-end. FieldTimesheet eliminates this problem by tracking W-2 and 1099 workers in the same system from day one, with clear separation built into every report.
Simple setup. Immediate results.
When adding a new worker, mark them as a 1099 contractor. Their hours and payments are tracked separately from W-2 employees in every report, every export, and every summary. The flag is set once and applies to all future time entries for that worker. No duplicate systems, no separate tracking sheets.
Set each subcontractor's hourly rate when you add them to the system. FieldTimesheet calculates totals automatically as they clock in and out. If a sub's rate changes mid-project, update it and all future entries reflect the new rate. Historical entries preserve the rate that was active when the work was performed.
Subcontractors use the same simple mobile clock-in as your W-2 employees. They open FieldTimesheet on their phone, select a job, and tap Clock In. No separate system, no extra training, no different workflow. The only difference is behind the scenes — their hours are categorized as 1099 labor in your reports.
When 1099-NEC filing season arrives, pull a single report showing total payments per contractor for the tax year. The report shows each sub's name, total hours, hourly rate, total compensation, and the jobs they worked on. Cross-reference hours against invoices in seconds instead of spending days reconciling spreadsheets and bank statements.
Built specifically for electrical contractors
Every worker is flagged as W-2 or 1099 when they are added to the system. There is no end-of-year sorting, no retroactive classification, no guessing. The separation is built into the data from the first clock-in, so your records are always audit-ready.
Because subcontractor hours and payments are tracked throughout the year, pulling 1099-NEC data in January is a single report. The days of calling subs to reconcile hours, digging through bank statements, and racing the filing deadline are over.
Clean, separated records showing exactly who was paid what, on which jobs, for how many hours. If the IRS questions your 1099 filings or worker classifications, you have timestamped, job-level data to back up every number.
Subcontractors use the same mobile clock-in as employees. There is no separate app, no different workflow, no additional training. A 1099 sub who shows up on Monday morning can be clocking in by lunch with the same two-tap process your W-2 crew already uses.
Each subcontractor's hourly rate is stored in the system, so labor costs are calculated automatically. You can see exactly how much a sub is costing per job without manual math or spreadsheet formulas. Rate changes are tracked historically so past entries stay accurate.
Compare the hours FieldTimesheet recorded against the invoices your subcontractors submitted. Spot discrepancies before you pay — a sub who billed 40 hours but only clocked 32 is easy to catch when both numbers are in the same system.
According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), approximately 10-30% of employers misclassify workers as independent contractors. The IRS actively audits construction companies for misclassification, and penalties are steep: 1.5% of wages plus 40% of unpaid FICA taxes for unintentional misclassification, and up to 20% of wages plus 100% of FICA taxes for willful violations. In 2017 alone, DOL investigations recovered over $86 million in back wages for misclassified workers across construction and other industries.
Beyond classification risk, the practical challenge is tracking subcontractor payments accurately throughout the year. When sub hours are tracked in separate spreadsheets, text messages, or paper logs, the data is invariably incomplete by January. Office managers spend days or weeks in January chasing down totals and cross-referencing bank statements to prepare 1099-NEC filings — a process that introduces errors and delays.
Tracking 1099 subcontractors in the same system as W-2 employees eliminates this year-end scramble. When subs clock in and out alongside the regular crew, you build a complete, auditable record of every hour worked throughout the year. The data is ready for 1099-NEC preparation without reconstruction, and discrepancies between hours tracked and invoices submitted are caught in real-time rather than discovered during tax season.
When you add a worker, you flag them as either W-2 or 1099. Both types use the same clock-in workflow and appear on the same dashboard. The difference is in reporting — 1099 workers are separated in all reports so you can pull their total hours and payments independently for tax filing. The classification also affects how their time entries sync to QuickBooks, appearing as vendor time activities rather than employee time activities.
No. FieldTimesheet generates the data you need for 1099-NEC filing — total payments per contractor for the tax year, broken down by job. You or your accountant use that data to file the actual forms through the IRS, your tax software, or a payroll service. FieldTimesheet handles the tracking and reporting side, not the filing itself.
No. Each worker — whether W-2 or 1099 — can only see their own time entries, clock-in history, and profile. Subcontractors cannot see other workers' hours, rates, or job assignments. Only admin users have access to the full dashboard and reporting across all workers.
You can update a worker's classification in their profile at any time. Historical time entries retain their original classification, so your records accurately reflect how the worker was classified when the work was performed. New entries going forward use the updated classification. This is important for maintaining clean audit trails.
No. FieldTimesheet tracks hours and calculates labor costs based on hourly rates. It does not track material purchases, equipment rentals, or other expenses. For material and expense tracking, most contractors use QuickBooks directly. FieldTimesheet focuses on doing one thing well — time tracking — and syncing that data to QuickBooks where it joins the rest of your financial records.
FieldTimesheet provides the payment data you need for both federal and state 1099 filings. However, state filing requirements vary — some states require separate filings, others participate in the Combined Federal/State Filing Program. Your accountant or tax software handles the specific filing requirements for your state. FieldTimesheet gives them the accurate data they need to file correctly.