Site clock-in app for UK construction · Every head counted
Half an hour lost a day, across a quarter of the workforce on a 40-person site, can add up to £33,333 a year in wages for time nobody worked.* TallyGate's geofenced clock-in, with a photo at every clock, records the real times, so you pay only for the hours worked.
*Illustrative example: 10 of 40 operatives (a quarter of the workforce) losing 30 minutes a day at a blended £250 day rate (9-hour day), 5 days a week, 48 working weeks a year. Not a guarantee. Work out yours.
On site now · Riverside Plot 4
Site clerks used to count men through the gate in fives: four strokes, then a bar across. The five-bar gate. TallyGate keeps the same count live, as each operative clocks in.
Savings calculator
Half an hour late in, early out or on a long break doesn't look like much on one sheet. But a site is a mix of trades on different day rates, from labourers to plant operators and supervisors, and those lost minutes add up across all of them, every day. Put in your own numbers and see what paying only for the hours worked could be worth.
Paid for time nobody worked, a year
£33,333
10 people losing 30 minutes: 5 hours a day, at about £27.78 an hour.
The time lost in the first 2 working days of each month would cover the subscription. No set-up fee, so the saving starts in month one.
Illustrative example, not a guarantee. These figures are worked out only from the numbers above: people losing time × minutes lost × hourly rate (day rate ÷ paid hours in a day) × working days, with 48 working weeks a year and a month taken as a twelfth of a year (4 working weeks). Trade day rates are typical examples, not quotes, and leave out employer costs such as National Insurance, pension and holiday pay. TallyGate prices are the published monthly prices, excluding VAT (Site £25 a month plus £3.50 per operative, Pro £49 a month plus £5 per operative). Annual Pro is also available at a fixed £1,740, £2,990 or £4,240 a year for up to 25, 50 or 75 operatives, saving up to 2 months against monthly at the top of each band. No set-up fee, so the saving starts in month one. What you actually save depends on your site, your crew and whether that time is being paid today.
20 operatives
£16,667 a year in lost time
Pro for 20 operatives costs £149 a month (£1,788 a year), leaving £14,879 a year in this example.
30 operatives
£25,000 a year in lost time
Pro for 30 operatives costs £199 a month (£2,388 a year), leaving £22,612 a year in this example.
40 operatives
£33,333 a year in lost time
Pro for 40 operatives costs £249 a month (£2,988 a year), leaving £30,345 a year in this example.
100 operatives · bigger site
£83,333 a year in lost time
Pro for 100 operatives costs £549 a month (£6,588 a year), leaving £76,745 a year in this example.
Illustrative examples using the assumptions stated above, at an example blended rate of £250 for a 9-hour day (about £27.78 an hour), 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year. Your trade mix and rates will differ. They are not results from real customers and not a guarantee. See full pricing.
Health and safety · Audit-ready records
Your paperwork's done before boots hit the ground. The daily forms you allocate open the moment an operative clocks in, so checks are completed, signed and timestamped before the tools come out. When a principal contractor or a health and safety inspector asks to see them, the records are already there, because they were made as part of signing in.
Inside the geofence, with a photo. Their allocated forms open straight away: pre-use checks, check sheets, RAMS by revision and inductions.
Each form is completed on the phone, signed and timestamped against the person, the site and the shift. A failed plant check takes that machine out of use until it's marked repaired.
Anything still unsigned after the grace period is flagged for a supervisor. Signed records save as PDFs and can be exported. The audit trail builds itself, one clock-in at a time.
TallyGate enforces the checks you set and helps you evidence that they were done. It doesn't make a site compliant on its own: what to check, and acting on what the checks find, stays with you and your competent people.
Where the money goes
Paper timesheets get filled in on Friday from memory. Start times round down, finish times round up, and someone signs in a mate who's still on the M25.
Biometric tablets fix part of it, but they cost hundreds per site, need power and signal at the cabin, and someone has to move them every time the job moves.
TallyGate puts the clock where the operative already is: their phone. It checks they're inside the site boundary and takes a photo, so nobody can clock in a mate from the car park, and it keeps every raw time. You pay what was worked, and you can prove it.
Example week. Names are illustrative.
How it works
Set up a site in the morning and have the crew clocking in by lunch. Nothing to buy up front: no hardware, nothing to install from an app store, and it runs on the phones and laptops your people already have.
Search the postcode and click round the boundary on the map, or drop a simple circle. Set the site's own working hours.
Operatives open TallyGate on their phone, take a photo and tap once. Their check sheets for the day open straight away.
Clean timesheets approve in bulk. Only the exceptions need a look: missed clock-outs, outside the fence, overtime.
Send approved hours to Xero Payroll or Staffology, CIS subcontractors to Xero as bills, or download an import file for your payroll.
Daily checks
Give each person the check sheets they need. The moment they clock in, those sheets open on their phone, before they pick up a tool, so faulty plant is caught before it's used and there's a signed record when a client or auditor asks. Daily checks come back every morning. RAMS and inductions are signed once and drop off the list. Supervisors see anyone who hasn't done theirs.
Tick or untick to change what this person is given. This is what the office sets up once, in TallyGate.
Tap to clock in
Try it
Drag the operative round the site, or change the clock times, and see how clocks outside the fence and late starts are handled before anything is paid. These demos use the same rules TallyGate applies on live sites.
Drag the dot, click the map, or pick a spot.
By default, anything that isn't clearly inside is flagged for the office to check. Want it stricter? Switch on blocking and a clock-in clearly outside the fence is refused.
Example settings: site hours 07:30 to 17:30, half-hour rounding, overtime at ×1.5 once a manager approves it.
A day on site
From the gate opening to Friday's payroll, here's where TallyGate catches lost time and does the work that used to happen on clipboards and phone calls.
Today's rota is already on everyone's phone. Two operatives still owe the new RAMS revision; it opens when they clock in.
Photo, one tap, inside the fence. His excavator check opens straight away, before he starts the machine.
Dan was due at 07:30 and hasn't clocked in. The supervisor's phone buzzes, and Dan gets a reminder.
Seat belt latch faulty. The dumper is out of use until someone marks it repaired.
Finish was 17:30. His phone reminds him to clock out before he drives off.
Clean timesheets approve in bulk. Hours go to Xero or Staffology, and CIS subbies go to Xero as bills.
Features
One app, three views. Operatives use it on their own phone. Supervisors run the crew from theirs. The office works on a laptop and gets timesheets it can trust, so it pays for the hours on the clock and nothing more.
Clock in and out in seconds, even on a site with no signal.
Know who is on site right now without walking the job.
Approve a week of timesheets in minutes, then send them to payroll.
For the office
Approval by exception means the office looks at the few shifts that need it, not every line. The jobs that used to mean a phone call, a spreadsheet or a filing cabinet, all in one place on a laptop.
Plan the week by site and publish it to everyone's phone. If someone on the rota hasn't clocked in by their start time, the supervisor gets an alert, and so does the operative.
Heads and hours by site and trade, by day or week, ready for the main contractor. Attendance reports and a CSV download.
Flags anyone over the 48-hour average, short of 11 hours' rest, or on too many days in a row. Records 48-hour opt-outs.
Switch on or off · no extra costRecord each check, how it was done and a copy of the documents. Get a warning before a follow-up check is due.
Forgot to clock out? The operative asks in the app, the office approves or refuses, and the timesheet updates with a record of who agreed.
"Site closed tomorrow, high winds." It pops up on their phone until they tap Got it, so you can see who has read it.
Operatives request leave from their phone. Approved leave shows on the rota and stops false no-show alerts.
Two-step login for office accounts, and a full audit trail of every change, approval and export.
Phone alerts
A no-show alert at start time tells you that morning, not on Friday. TallyGate sends alerts straight to phones, free. There's no app store download and no charge per message. Texts and emails can be switched on as a backup.
Works on Android, and on iPhone once TallyGate is added to the home screen.
Their language
Operatives pick their language when they register, and the app on their phone is in that language from then on: clocking in, check sheets, sign-offs, reminders and the fire alarm. The office stays in English.
Connections
Clock-ins, checks and signatures flow into one place, and out to payroll and your records. Nobody types up a timesheet again, so no office time goes on rekeying hours and nothing gets added on the way.
Fair rules, set once
Rounding and overtime follow your rules, not whoever fills in the sheet. Rules are applied when hours are calculated, never when they're recorded. The raw clock times are always kept and exported next to paid hours.
Late starts round up and early finishes round down to the step you choose, so nobody is paid for time they weren't there.
Time outside site hours or on a non-working day is overtime, held until a manager approves or rejects it with a note.
GPS can drift and welfare may sit outside the fence, so an outside clock-in is flagged for a check. Or switch on blocking and it's refused.
Clock events are never edited or deleted. A correction voids the original, records who and why, and adds a manager entry.
Approving a period locks it. A manager has to unapprove it before anything can change, so payroll figures stay put.
Clock-in photos are deleted after the period you set. Location is only recorded while someone is clocked in.
Safety and compliance
Missing checks and unsigned RAMS cost time when a client or auditor asks. When an operative clocks in, TallyGate asks what plant they're using today, then puts the checks and documents they owe straight in front of them. When the alarm goes, it knows who to look for.
Start a roll call and TallyGate on every phone on the list turns into a flashing red fire alert. It stays red until that person taps "I'm at the assembly point", or a fire marshal checks them off. The marshals' screen counts down who is still not accounted for, live, on as many phones as you need.
Pick the machine, run the check. A failed check takes that machine out of use until someone marks it repaired, with a note. Supervisors see it immediately. More on daily and pre-use checks.
Upload the PDF and see who has and hasn't signed. A new revision archives the old one and everyone signs again.
Build your own check sheets, inductions and toolbox talks, and give them to people at one site or every site. Each signed record prints or saves as a PDF. See how it works.
Your brand
Your crew should see your company, not ours. Before you go live we set TallyGate up in your company colours with your logo, on the sign-in screen, throughout the app and as the icon on their home screen. Text colours are picked automatically, so whatever your colours, it stays easy to read on site.
Your Company
On their home screen
Pricing
You're only billed for operatives who actually clock in that month, so labour that comes and goes doesn't cost you when it's gone. Set it against the saving you worked out above. Prices exclude VAT.
Clocking in and timesheets
£25 base + £3.50 per operative
Clock-in plus site safety paperwork
£49 base + £5 per operative
For whole projects with many subcontractors
One flat fee, unlimited users
30 operatives on Pro works out at £6.63 per operative per month. Billed monthly in advance, cancel any time. No set-up fee.
Fixed price for the year, paid upfront as a 12-month commitment, saving up to 2 months against monthly Pro. Prices exclude VAT.
Saving is greatest at the top of each band; smaller teams may pay less on monthly. If you go over your band, you move up to the next band, pro rata, for the rest of the term.
No set-up fee. No contract on monthly plans. Cancel any time. Live in a day or two, not weeks.
Monthly plans are billed in advance at the start of each month.
Compared
The usual ways UK contractors record site hours, side by side, including the hardware and office time each one needs.
| Paper sheets | Biometric tablet | TallyGate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proves they were on site | No | Yes, at the tablet | Yes, GPS and photo |
| Hardware per site | Clipboard | Tablet, power, signal | None, their phone |
| Works with no signal | Yes | Often not | Yes, sends later |
| Moves when the job moves | Yes | Someone moves it | Draw a new boundary |
| Office time to process | Hours of typing | Varies | Minutes, by exception |
| Fire roll call | Whoever wrote their name in | Printout from the tablet | Live list, red alert on every phone |
| Daily checks before work | If someone remembers | Usually separate | Open at clock-in, every day |
| No-shows and reminders | Phone round | Rarely | Free phone alerts |
| In their own language | English only | Varies | 4 languages, their choice |
Compared with UK providers
Two well-known UK clock-in systems, set against what a building site needs. Prices are for 70 operatives a month, excluding VAT.
| What you get | TallyGate | BrightHR (Blip app) | Chime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire roll call | Live list, red alert on every phone | Not listed | Not listed (live on-site register and emergency contact details offered) |
| Daily check sheets that open at clock-in | Pro | Not listed (health and safety tasks offered as a paid add-on) | Not listed as check sheets at clock-in (daily checklists offered; RAMS and documents can be signed at clock-in) |
| Works with no signal | Phones keep clocks and send them later | Not listed | Not listed |
| Setup fee | None | Not listed | £2,000 one-time setup |
| Contract | Monthly, billed in advance, cancel any time; or annual (12 months, save up to 2 months) | Fixed term of 24, 36 or 60 months | Billed annually |
| Price for 70 operatives, a month, ex VAT | £270 Site or £399 Pro, billed monthly; or £4,240 a year up to 75 (annual Pro) | Not published for 70 people; quote after a demo (published prices “from £3.00 per person depending on business size”) | £875 a month equivalent (Growth plan, £10,500 a year for 1–75 users, billed annually), plus £2,000 setup |
| Pre-use plant checks and defects | Pro | Not listed | Plant checklists and faulty equipment reporting |
| RAMS sign-off and inductions | Pro | Method statement tool offered as a paid add-on | RAMS, toolbox talks and inductions signed in the app |
| Card records and expiry warnings | Yes | Not listed | Skills and qualifications records (expiry warnings not listed) |
| Geofenced clock-in | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Photo at clock-in | At every clock | Not listed (flexible clock-ins record a map screenshot) | Selfie and facial recognition sign-in |
| Timesheets approved by exception | Yes | Not listed | Multi-layered timesheet approvals (approval by exception not listed) |
| Payroll export | Xero Payroll UK, Staffology and CIS bills on Pro; spreadsheet on Site | Timesheet CSV reports and import to BrightHR Payroll | Sage integration; CSV and Excel exports |
| Your logo and colours in the app | Pro | Not listed | Not listed |
| Languages for operatives | English, Polish, Romanian, Albanian | Not listed | Not listed |
Based on each provider's published website information, checked 1 November 2026. Features and prices may change; see their sites for current details. “Not listed” means we could not find the feature on the provider's public website; it may still be available. Sources: BrightHR pricing, BrightHR Blip, BrightHR payroll, Chime pricing, Chime features, Chime time and attendance. BrightHR and Chime are trade marks of their respective owners; TallyGate is not affiliated with either.
Questions
It depends on your crew and trade mix. As an illustrative example, if a quarter of the workforce on a 40-person site loses 30 minutes a day at a blended day rate of £250 for a 9-hour day, that is about £138.89 a day, or £33,333 a year over 48 working weeks, against £249 a month for Pro. Use the savings calculator with your own trades and rates. It is an estimate based on the figures you enter, not a guarantee.
The daily forms you allocate open as soon as someone clocks in, and each one is signed and timestamped against the person, site and shift. Anything left unsigned is flagged. So when a principal contractor or a health and safety inspector asks for your checks, the records are already there and can be printed or exported as PDFs. TallyGate helps you evidence the checks you set; it does not make a site compliant on its own.
No. TallyGate runs in the phone's browser and can be added to the home screen like an app. There's nothing to find in an app store and nothing to update.
Clocks are saved on the phone with their time and position, and sent automatically when signal comes back. The original time is kept, so nobody loses hours.
No. Location is only recorded while someone is clocked in, and the clock screen says so. Nothing is tracked once they clock out.
Yes. Give each person the check sheets they need: a daily excavator check, a vehicle inspection, a permit, whatever applies. One sheet or twenty. They open on the phone the moment that person clocks in. Daily checks come back every day; RAMS are signed once per revision and inductions once. The supervisor sees anyone who hasn't done theirs.
By default they can, because GPS isn't perfect and welfare is often just outside the boundary, and the shift is flagged for a manager to check. If you'd rather, switch on blocking and a clock-in clearly outside the fence is refused.
A supervisor starts a roll call from their phone. Everyone clocked in is on the list, and their phones show a flashing red fire alert until they tap "I'm at the assembly point" at the muster point, or a marshal ticks them off. Marshals see who is still not accounted for, live, and can record the hand-over to the fire service. Every roll call and drill is saved as a printable record.
Yes. If someone on the rota hasn't clocked in by their start time, they get a reminder and their supervisor gets an alert. If they're still clocked in after their finish time, they're reminded to clock out. Phone alerts are free; texts and emails can be switched on as a backup.
The operative app comes in English, Polish, Romanian and Albanian. Each person picks their language when they register and can change it any time. Reminders and the fire alarm arrive in their language too. More languages can be added.
Approved hours send straight to Xero Payroll UK and Staffology. CIS subcontractors go to Xero as bills, with Xero working out the CIS deduction. For BrightPay, Sage 50, IRIS and Moneysoft there's a ready-made import file in each system's own format.
TallyGate is built to keep only what's needed: location while clocked in, and clock photos deleted after the period you set. We provide a data processing agreement and a template DPIA you can adapt for your workforce.
Yes. Ask for the free demo pack and we'll email you a short slide deck and a demo video showing how it works. If you want to run it for real first, a two-week pilot covers one site and up to 10 operatives for £99 plus VAT, and that £99 comes off your first invoice if you carry on.
Monthly, and you can cancel any time. Annual Pro is optional: a fixed yearly price that saves up to 2 months against monthly billing.
No set-up fee. Monthly plans are billed in advance and roll month to month, so you can cancel any time and it takes effect at the end of the month you've paid for. Annual plans are a 12-month commitment paid upfront, with a fixed price for up to 25, 50 or 75 operatives that saves up to 2 months against monthly billing. Bespoke work such as custom integrations or bulk data import is quoted separately.
Yes. Before you go live we set TallyGate up with your logo and your company colours, and the icon on your crew's home screens is yours too. Your operatives see your company every time they clock in.
TallyGate was built on live UK highways and groundworks sites by a site manager with 30 years in construction, to replace paper gate sheets that never quite added up. About TallyGate.
See how TallyGate stops you paying for minutes nobody worked. We'll email you a short slide deck and a demo video showing TallyGate at work on a site: no call or meeting needed, and it's free. Want to run it for real first? A two-week pilot covers one site and up to 10 operatives for £99 + VAT, taken off your first invoice if you carry on. No setup fee, no long contract.