Most construction companies don't have one time tracking problem. They have three.
The first is getting accurate time data from the field. The second is getting that data coded correctly to the right job, phase, and cost code. The third is getting it into the accounting system without someone manually transferring it between systems.
Each of those problems can be managed individually with workarounds. But the workarounds add up to hours of manual work every pay period, and each handoff between steps is another opportunity for something to go wrong.
This is the problem hh2 Time Tracking is built to solve. Here's what the workflow actually looks like and what changes when field time connects directly to the accounting system.
The Old Workflow and Where It Breaks
Before contractors implement a connected time tracking system, the typical workflow looks something like this: supervisors collect time on paper or in a spreadsheet. Someone on the payroll team transcribes that data into the accounting system. The payroll manager reviews, catches errors, fixes what they can, and closes out the pay period.
When a pay period has 150 or 200 employees across five job sites, that workflow takes days. Errors are common because the transcription step is manual and because the people entering time in the field don't always have the right cost codes in front of them.
Anchor 41 was running a version of this workflow before switching to hh2 Time Tracking. Payroll turnaround was taking one to three days per pay period. After the switch, turnaround dropped to under three hours. You can read their full story in the Anchor 41 case study.
That's not a marginal improvement. It's a fundamental change in how the workflow operates.
What Changes With a Connected Time Tracking System
When time tracking connects directly to the ERP, the manual steps between field entry and the accounting system are eliminated. Here's what that looks like at each stage of the process.
Time entry in the field. Supervisors or crew members enter time through the hh2 mobile app or web browser. The jobs, cost codes, pay types, and employee records they see are pulled directly from the ERP. They're not entering free text or choosing from a generic list. They're selecting from the actual data that lives in the accounting system, which means what they enter is already in the right format before it ever reaches the payroll team.
This is the step that solves most coding errors before they happen. When the right cost codes are presented at the point of entry, the wrong ones are much harder to choose. For more on how cost code errors originate and how to prevent them, read How Cost Code Errors Cost Contractors More Than They Realize.
Approval routing. Once time is submitted, it moves through a defined approval chain. Supervisors approve their crew's time. Project managers can review job-level entries. The payroll team can see exactly which timesheets are submitted, which are pending approval, and which have flags that need attention. Reminders go out automatically when approvals are overdue.
This is the step that eliminates the Friday scramble. Instead of the payroll manager sending reminder emails and making phone calls on the day payroll needs to close, the system handles follow-up automatically throughout the week. By the time the payroll manager sits down to close the period, the approvals are done.
ERP sync. When time is approved, it flows directly into the accounting system. No export file. No import step. No manual re-entry. The data that was entered and approved in the field is the data that lands in the ERP. The payroll team reviews rather than re-enters.
Miller Construction saw the impact of removing that re-entry step directly: payroll and coding errors dropped by over 99% after switching from manual Sage entry and spreadsheet-based time tracking to hh2 Time Tracking. Read the full story in the Miller Construction case study.
What the Payroll Team Experiences
For the payroll administrator, the shift from a manual workflow to a connected one changes the nature of the job during payroll close.
Instead of spending hours entering data, they're reviewing data that's already there. Instead of chasing supervisors for missing timesheets, they're looking at a dashboard that shows exactly what's outstanding. Instead of correcting cost code errors after the fact, they're seeing a clean set of entries that were validated at the point of input.
The time freed up doesn't disappear. It goes toward the work that actually requires judgment: reviewing anomalies, managing exceptions, and making sure the payroll that runs is accurate before it goes out. For more on what payroll managers face during a typical close cycle, read The Thursday Scramble: What Construction Payroll Really Costs You.
What the Controller and Finance Team See
When time tracking is connected to the ERP, the job cost data in the accounting system is more current and more accurate. Labor costs are coded correctly because the coding happened at entry, not during a manual transfer. The controller doesn't have to reconcile time tracking data against payroll data because they're the same data.
That accuracy flows through to job cost reports, project financial reviews, and ultimately to how well the company can estimate future work based on historical labor costs. For more on how labor data quality affects job costing, read How Cost Code Errors Cost Contractors More Than They Realize.
Less Manual Work, More Reliable Data
The connection between field time and the accounting system isn't a feature. It's the foundation of accurate payroll and reliable job costing. When that connection requires manual steps, those steps create errors and delays. When it's automated, the data arrives in the right place, in the right format, without anyone having to move it there.
If you want to see how hh2 Time Tracking connects field time to your ERP, schedule a demo or visit hh2.com.