Competitor Comparison
Same Payroll Exports. Zero Base Fee
QuickBooks Time charges a $20–$40 base fee plus $8–$10 per employee, on top of a required QuickBooks
Online subscription. Cloud Time Manager exports cleanly to QuickBooks — and it’s free.
Online subscription. Cloud Time Manager exports cleanly to QuickBooks — and it’s free.
If you're Choosing Between Them,
Here's The Short Version
QuickBooks
QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) is Intuit’s time-tracking product. It’s a strong choice if you’re already deep in the QuickBooks ecosystem and want timesheets that auto-flow into payroll without re-keying. The trade-off is the cost stack: Time Premium runs $20/month base plus $8 per user per month; Time Elite runs $40 plus $10 per user. Both require an active QuickBooks Online subscription. GPS tracking and geofencing are Elite-tier features.
Cloud Time Manager
Cloud Time Manager exports clean CSVs directly to QuickBooks (along with ADP, Gusto, and Paychex), gives you GPS geofencing on every plan, and is free for HMS merchants. You keep your QuickBooks Online subscription — you just don’t pay extra for the time-tracking layer.
What you Actually Pay
- Cloud Time Manager
$0 /user/month
No hardware. No setup fees. Cancel anytime.
- Software platform: $0/month — completely free
- GPS and geofencing: included on every plan
- QuickBooks Online still required for accounting (separate)
- Direct CSV export to QuickBooks Online and Desktop
- All features included — no Premium/Elite tier split
- No base fee, no per-user fee, no admin fee
- Free forever for HMS merchants
- QuickBooks
$200–$500 hardware + $11+/month
Extra costs often not shown upfront.
- Time Premium: $20/month base + $8/user/month
- Time Elite: $40/month base + $10/user/month
- QuickBooks Online subscription required (separate)
- GPS and geofencing: Elite tier only
- Time Premium + Payroll Premium bundle: $88 base + $10/employee
- Time Elite + Payroll Elite bundle: $134 base + $12/employee
- 30-day free trial
Side-by-Side Feature Table
Feature
Base subscription cost
Per-user cost
QuickBooks Online required
GPS tracking
Geofencing
Mobile time tracking
Project & job costing
Drag-and-drop scheduling
Auto-schedule engine
Real-time dashboard
Shift swap & pickup
Minor labor law engine
On-demand pay
QuickBooks payroll integration
Free trial
QuickBooks
$20–$40/month base
$8–$10 per user/month
Yes — additional cost
Elite tier only
Elite tier only
Yes
Elite tier
Yes
No
Yes
Limited
No
No
Native (deepest)
30 days
Cloud Time Manager
$0 — no base fee
$0 per user
Optional (CTM exports to it) Free, included
Included on every plan
Included on every plan
Offline-first — works with no signal
Included
Yes
Demand-analysis optimizer
WebSocket — instant updates
Full shift swap workflow
State-specific rules, auto-enforced
Built-in earned wage access
Direct CSV export
Free forever for HMS merchants
Honest Assessment
You run payroll inside QuickBooks Online and want timesheets that flow natively, in real time, with no CSV import step. The Intuit-to-Intuit integration is the deepest available — that’s the product’s whole reason for existing.
You’re a small accounting-firm-managed business where your bookkeeper handles everything inside QuickBooks and prefers not to add a non-Intuit tool to the stack.
Five things QuickBooks Time Doesn't Do As Well
Cost — by a wide margin
Run the math: 15 employees on Time Premium is $20 + (15 × $8) = $140/month, or $1,680/year. Cloud Time Manager is $0 for the same 15 employees, on every feature including GPS. The savings show up before you even start optimizing.
GPS on every plan, not just Elite
QuickBooks Time gates GPS and geofencing behind the Elite tier — $40 base + $10/user/month. Cloud Time Manager includes GPS geofencing free on every plan.
Auto-schedule engine
QuickBooks Time has scheduling but no auto-generation. Cloud Time Manager’s demand-analysis optimizer builds shift plans automatically — typical managers save 3–8 hours per week.
Offline-first mobile
QuickBooks Time’s offline mode syncs once a connection returns, but it’s not the central design principle. Cloud Time Manager is offline-first by default — every device, every plan, no special configuration.
Minor labor law enforcement
QuickBooks Time has no native engine for state-specific minor scheduling rules. Cloud Time Manager auto-enforces school-night limits, max daily/weekly hours, and restricted shift times for under-18 workers — important for restaurants, retail, and quick-service operators with teen staff.
Switching From QuickBooks Time
This migration is unusually clean because both systems export to the same QuickBooks accounts:
- Export your employee list and pay periods from QuickBooks Time
- Import employees into Cloud Time Manager
- Configure your QuickBooks export mapping in CTM (Online or Desktop)
- Workers download the CTM mobile app and set their password
- Run one pay period in parallel — verify hours match between systems
- Confirm the CSV import into QuickBooks reconciles cleanly
- Cancel the QuickBooks Time subscription
Keep QuickBooks Online
Switching off QuickBooks Time doesn’t mean leaving QuickBooks. You keep your QuickBooks Online (or Desktop) subscription for accounting and payroll exactly as before — Cloud Time Manager just replaces the time-tracking layer that sits on top.
See more comparisons
Keep QuickBooks. Cut the QB Time Bill
Same export. GPS on every plan. Free for everyone.