Clock-in app for UK construction
TallyGate turns your operatives' phones into a geofenced clock-in, with their daily check sheets opening the moment they clock in. A photo at every clock, it works without signal, and the office approves timesheets by exception instead of chasing paper.
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.
The problem
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, takes a photo, and 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. No hardware to buy, 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. 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. 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 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.
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
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
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.
Fair rules, set once
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
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.
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 screenSavings calculator
Late starts and early finishes of just 15 minutes add up fast. Build your crew, set who arrives late or leaves early, and see what paying only the hours worked is worth.
Day rates are typical examples. Tap a rate to change it to yours.
In 15-minute steps, the same rounding TallyGate uses. Set how many of your crew do each, on a typical day.
Recovered every month
£0
One operative, 15 minutes a day
An estimate, not a promise. It values lost time at your crew's average day rate, across 46 working weeks a year (allowing for holidays and Christmas).
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. 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. Monthly contract, cancel any time. No setup fee.
Compared
The usual ways UK contractors record site hours, side by side.
| 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 |
Questions
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. Book a demo and we'll show it working on one of your sites. If you want to run it for real first, a one-month 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 billing is optional and gives you two months free.
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.
Book a 30-minute demo and we'll show TallyGate working on one of your own sites. Want to run it for real first? A one-month 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.