busybusy vs Quickbooks Time (formerly Tsheets)
Every business owner has uttered the phrase, “How much is this going to cost me?” countless times. Whether you’re buying equipment or looking at mobile time tracking software it’s important to understand the cost and the value you get in return before deciding which one to go with.
Below you’ll find a cost analysis between busybusy and competitor Quickbooks Time that covers everything from base fees, billing policies, package pricing, and contracts – with nothing but the facts.
Cost Breakdown
Spreadsheets and colorful pie charts can be useful when doing cost comparisons, but oftentimes nothing beats a good ol’ yellow legal pad and a pen to organize information and help see the choices clearly.
Below we’ve worked out the monthly cost for 8, 20, and 50 employee companies comparing busybusy and Quickbooks Time pricing (TSheets.) Note: prices were rounded to the nearest dollar.
It’s not difficult to see, both products charge the same rate per user but QBT has a base fee.
Only Pay for What You Use (Fair Billing)
A common concern when considering time tracking software is, ‘Will I use it enough to justify the cost?’. A Fair Billing Policy completely eliminates this concern by only charging you for what you use. This feature is especially important in the construction business because of employee turnover and seasonality.
It’s common for a construction company to run fully staffed for 9 months while the weather is good and then significantly draw down the number of working crews during the winter – sometimes only staffing a secretary to keep the office open and a few mechanics to work on equipment while jobs are slow/nonexistent.
An automatic Fair Billing Policy ensures a construction company is NEVER charged for inactive employees who are not using time tracking software. The savings can be enormous.
Back to pen and paper for a simple example of how much money an automatic Fair Billing Policy can save a company.
In the example above, 40 employees are actively working 9 months of the year, however, during 3 months, only 19 original employees are actively working. By not charging for the 21 seasonal employees who are not using the time tracking software, the Fair Billing Policy automatically saves a company $ $1,110 a year! That’s a significant savings!
busybusy is the only time tracking software company to offer an automatic Fair Billing Policy. Usage is tracked and calculated automatically. No need to manually change someone’s status or add and remove employees from your account. Quickbooks Time does not offer an automatic Fair Billing Policy and will charge 40 employees for 12 months of usage whether they were using the software or not.
Scaled Down Packages
We talked earlier about busybusy Pro and Quickbooks Time Elite. Both charge $10 per user/month, with a $40 monthly base fee from QBT.
In addition to Busybusy Pro and Quickbooks Time Elite, both companies offer a scaled-down version of their time tracking software, and the cost differences are stark.
Quickbooks Time has a cheaper option called the Premium Package. It costs $8 per user/month (with a $20 base fee) and gives you access to 13 features. Busybusy offers a free time tracking package with access to 12 features for $0 per user/month (with a $0 base fee). Yes, it’s 100% free, for an unlimited number of employees, for as long as you want to use it. That’s remarkable! There’s not another time tracking software company that offers anything close to this.
Other Important Pricing Things to Note
- Busybusy offers a 90 day, 100% Satisfaction Guarantee or your Money Back
- Busybusy offers 1 month free for their Pro Package. Quickbooks offers a 14 day free trial period for both their packages.
- Both busybusy and Quickbooks Time (TSheets) offer a Cancel Anytime policy but busybusy allows you to do it in the product (not trying to hold you hostage) and Quickbooks Time makes you call in and wait on hold for 2-3 hours (not kidding)
Summary
Ultimately, when choosing a time tracking software company, it comes down to which one works best for your business. If you own a small coffee shop or a hair salon, Quickbooks Time could and should work for you, that’s what they’re built for. However, if you own a construction business or a business with remote employees, the clear choice is a software company that was specifically created for jobsites out in the field. Jobsite time tracking is what busybusy does and there’s not another product out there that does it better.
The question to ask yourself is not, “How much is this going to cost me?”, the question to ask yourself is, “How much can I save and how much more will I make?”. The answer with busybusy is a whole lotta dollars💰 And sense🤓. And busybusy is confident (or crazy) enough to give that 90 day, 100% Money Back Guarantee to prove it! Need more? Here is a full comparison of busybusy and Quickbooks Time.
[whole notepad image if you want it below]
