QuickBooks Time Review (2026)
Independently reviewed by ClockIt · Pricing verified August 4, 2026
QuickBooks Time — the product formerly known as TSheets — is one of the most widely used time trackers in the US, with 4.7 stars across more than 7,000 Capterra reviews. It also raised its per-employee price by 25% on 1 July 2026 and no longer sells standalone. Here is what it costs now, what it does well, and where it starts to hurt.
No credit card required. ClockIt is a QuickBooks Time competitor — we've noted below where QuickBooks Time is the better choice.
The verdict
If your books already live in QuickBooks Online and you want timesheets that flow straight into payroll with no export step, QuickBooks Time is genuinely hard to beat. The GPS tracking, geofencing and scheduling are mature and well tested. The catch is the cost structure: a monthly base fee, a per-employee fee that just went up, and a QuickBooks Online subscription you cannot opt out of.
- Best for
- Businesses already paying for QuickBooks Online that want time tracking and payroll in one ledger.
- Not for
- Teams that don't use QuickBooks Online, or small teams where the base fee plus per-seat cost dwarfs the value of the integration.
QuickBooks Time pricing
Recent change: On 1 July 2026 Intuit raised the per-employee fee on both plans by $2/month. The base fees were unchanged. For a small team on the Premium plan that is a 25% increase on the per-seat line.
| Plan | Base fee | Per user |
|---|---|---|
| Time Premium | $20/month | $10/user/monthRose from $8/user on 1 July 2026 |
| Time Elite | $40/month | $12/user/monthRose from $10/user on 1 July 2026 |
QuickBooks Time is no longer sold as a standalone time tracker. It requires an active QuickBooks Online subscription (or must be paired with QuickBooks Payroll), which is billed separately and on top of the figures above.
Time Premium: $20 base + 10 × $10/user. Excludes the required QuickBooks Online subscription.
10 × $2.99/user. No base fee, no other subscription required.
What QuickBooks Time does well
- Deepest QuickBooks Online integration on the market — timesheets land in payroll with no CSV step
- Mature GPS tracking and geofencing, well proven with field and construction crews
- Scheduling, mileage and project tracking in the Elite tier
- 4.7 stars from over 7,000 Capterra reviews — a very large, very consistent review base
Where it falls short
- Two-part pricing: a monthly base fee on top of every per-employee fee
- Per-employee price rose 25% on the Premium plan in July 2026
- No longer available standalone — a QuickBooks Online subscription is mandatory
- No free tier
- Overkill for a small team that just needs employees to clock in and out
What QuickBooks Time actually is
QuickBooks Time started life as TSheets, an independent time tracking product that Intuit acquired in 2017 and rebranded. The DNA is still visible: it is a field-services time tracker at heart, built around mobile clock-ins, GPS breadcrumbs, geofenced job sites and crew scheduling.
What Intuit added was the ledger. Hours approved in QuickBooks Time move into QuickBooks Payroll without an export, which removes the single most annoying step in most small-business payroll runs. That integration is the product's real moat, and it is the reason most of its 7,000+ reviewers are happy.
What it costs in 2026
QuickBooks Time uses a two-part price: a flat monthly base fee for the account, plus a fee for every employee you track. Premium is $20/month plus $10 per user. Elite is $40/month plus $12 per user.
On 1 July 2026, Intuit raised the per-employee fee on both plans by $2/month while leaving the base fee alone. On Premium that took the per-seat line from $8 to $10 — a 25% increase for small teams.
The figure that catches people out is the third one. QuickBooks Time is no longer sold standalone; you need an active QuickBooks Online subscription for it to work. If you already pay for QuickBooks Online, that cost is already sunk and the maths is fine. If you don't, you are buying an accounting suite in order to run a time clock.
Where the cost structure starts to hurt
Two-part pricing punishes small teams disproportionately. On a 50-person crew, a $20 base fee is noise — it works out at 40 cents a head. On a five-person team it is $4 per head before you have tracked a single hour, and it sits on top of $10 per user.
This is the same trap in reverse that a lot of flat-fee plans set. A base fee is only good value once you are big enough to spread it thin. Below that line you are paying a fixed toll for the privilege of being a customer.
The QuickBooks Online requirement compounds it. For a business that does its books elsewhere — or on paper, or in a spreadsheet — the true cost of QuickBooks Time is the time tracking bill plus an accounting subscription it did not want.
How ClockIt compares
ClockIt is a narrower product. It does time and attendance — clock-ins, schedules, leave, overtime rules, timesheet approval and payroll-ready exports — and it does not try to be your accounting system. There is no base fee and no requirement to buy anything else.
The trade is straightforward. You give up the zero-step QuickBooks Payroll sync and take a payroll-ready export instead. In return you drop the base fee, the mandatory QuickBooks Online subscription, and roughly two-thirds of the per-seat cost.
ClockIt also ships something QuickBooks Time does not: biometric hardware support. If you want fingerprint or facial recognition clock-in on a physical device — including ZKTeco and eSSL units you may already own — that is native, not a third-party add-on.
Where ClockIt is the weaker choice: if your books are already in QuickBooks Online and payroll runs through QuickBooks Payroll, the native sync is worth real money in saved admin time. Be honest about which of those two situations you are in.
QuickBooks Time FAQ
How much does QuickBooks Time cost in 2026?
QuickBooks Time Premium costs $20/month plus $10 per user per month. Time Elite costs $40/month plus $12 per user per month. Both per-user fees rose by $2 on 1 July 2026. An active QuickBooks Online subscription is also required and is billed separately.
Is QuickBooks Time being discontinued?
QuickBooks Time is not discontinued, but it is no longer sold as a standalone product. It now requires an active QuickBooks Online subscription, or must be paired with QuickBooks Payroll. Existing standalone customers should check their renewal terms with Intuit directly.
Is QuickBooks Time the same as TSheets?
Yes. TSheets was acquired by Intuit in 2017 and rebranded as QuickBooks Time. It is the same underlying product lineage, with deeper QuickBooks integration added since the acquisition.
Do I need QuickBooks Online to use QuickBooks Time?
Yes. As of 2026 QuickBooks Time requires an active QuickBooks Online subscription. If you do not otherwise need QuickBooks Online, that subscription is an additional cost on top of the time tracking fees.
What is a cheaper alternative to QuickBooks Time?
ClockIt costs $2.99 per user per month with no base fee and no requirement to buy any other product. For a team of 10 that is $29.90/month against roughly $120/month for QuickBooks Time Premium, before the QuickBooks Online subscription. ClockIt provides payroll-ready exports rather than a native QuickBooks Payroll sync, so weigh that against the saving.
Does ClockIt work with QuickBooks?
ClockIt exports approved timesheets in formats ready for QuickBooks and other major payroll systems. It is an export step rather than the native in-ledger sync that QuickBooks Time offers.
Paying a base fee you don't need?
ClockIt is $2.99 per user per month. No base fee, no bundled accounting subscription, and biometric devices supported out of the box.