Best Shop Floor Time Tracking Software: 6 Options for 2027

Key Takeaways

• Shop floor time tracking records how long each operator spends on a job, work order or station, so labor cost follows the work instead of a weekly timesheet.

• MRPeasy and Odoo publish per-user prices, Tulip publishes per-interface prices with a 10-interface minimum, and Katana publishes a free plan. MachineMetrics and JobBOSS² are quote-based.

• Katana's automatic timer runs only on tasks started in its Shop Floor App, and a status change made on the main website can copy planned time into actual time. Build a review step for that.

• A general time tracker is not a station tool. Toggl Track's pricing page describes start-and-stop tracking from anywhere and lists no kiosk or station timer.

• Station minutes are the easy part. Check that they post to job costing, export cleanly and get reviewed before they reach payroll or cost reports.

• Zapier, Make and n8n can move labor data between systems, but you then design and own retries, escalation and access controls.

Start with the category decision

Shop floor time tracking software records how long each operator spends on each job, work order or machine, and it ties those minutes to labor cost.

TL;DR: if labor minutes need to land on specific jobs, choose a manufacturing system with a shop floor module. Choose a machine-data platform only if machine run time is the main question. Choose a general timer only if you need hourly attendance for office or field work.

The six vendors here fall into three useful groups. MRPeasy, Katana, Odoo and JobBOSS² are manufacturing systems with a shop floor module, and each ties station minutes to an order. MachineMetrics starts from the machine and adds labor entry on top. Tulip is an app platform where your team designs the station screens. Toggl Track is a general time tracker, and we mention it only to show where station capture stops.

Adoption of digital tools is still early for many smaller plants, which is why the category choice matters before the feature list does.

NAM Q2 2025 survey: 21.8% of manufacturers plan to prioritize digital transformation according to Digital Commerce 360 (2025).

That figure covers the next 12 months and comes from the National Association of Manufacturers' Q2 2025 Manufacturers' Outlook Survey, as reported by the trade site. The same article says many small and mid-sized manufacturers are still in the early stages of digital adoption, which it ties to budget constraints and a lack of in-house expertise. A tool your team cannot staff is a tool that will sit unused, so staffing belongs in the decision alongside price.

How we evaluated these tools

The weights below are our judgment as the authors of this buyer's guide, not vendor data. We put station capture first because labor minutes recorded from memory are the failure this category exists to prevent. Job costing comes next, since minutes that never reach an order are only a timesheet. Export support, setup effort and price transparency carry the rest, and small-shop fit covers minimums and seat counts.

The research base is narrower than we would like. We opened each vendor's own pricing or help pages, plus one trade-press report of a national survey and one survey run by a vendor, which we label as vendor research. Capterra, G2 and Gartner returned access errors when we tried to open them, so this guide uses no star ratings. Several roundup pages we found are vendor-written or vendor-funded, so we did not use their scores either.

What each tool documents at the station

Here, "documented" means the vendor's own page says it. "Not checked" means we did not open that vendor's API reference, so the cell marks a gap in our research rather than a missing feature.

Read the table as a list of questions for the sales call. A "yes" in the station column still needs a demonstration with your own routings, and a "not named" cell is a question to ask the vendor in writing.

Pricing and minimums, checked this month

Pricing checked October 29, 2026. Figures come only from vendor pricing pages opened on that date, and any vendor whose page shows no number is marked Quote-based.

Read the math column before the headline price. On Tulip's page, the 10-interface minimum applies to every edition, so a shop with fewer than ten interfaces still pays for ten. On MRPeasy's page, the one-month-free offer applies to annual billing, so ask for the year-one total in writing. Odoo's page shows two figures for each plan without saying which is monthly and which is annual, so confirm that before you budget. MachineMetrics' page says the cost per machine falls as connections grow, and it says pricing is quote-based. JobBOSS²'s page publishes no price and says, in its FAQ, "While the investment differs."

Vendor profiles

Each profile separates what the vendor documents from our read, and each links to the page that carries the claim.

MRPeasy

Best fit: small job-based or make-to-order shops that want planning, labor reports and shop floor screens under one per-user price.

Documented: the pricing page lists Starter, Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited plans. Its comparison table includes "Shop floor reporting (MES) user interfaces" and "Labor reports by worker," but the text does not say which plan includes which.

Limitations: the page does not name time tracking as a plan feature. "Piece Payment" appears on three plans, and the page does not describe it as time tracking. Our read: confirm station timing in writing before you rely on it.

Implementation: request a plan-by-plan feature list, then test the operator screens with one work center.

Choose it if you want one system for planning and labor reporting and the vendor confirms station screens in writing. Evidence: MRPeasy pricing page.

Katana

Best fit: product and assembly shops that already run manufacturing orders in Katana, or plan to.

Documented: automatic time tracking applies only to tasks started in the Shop Floor App. An operator presses Start, and Pause and Resume continue the clock. Finishing logs the total as Actual time on the manufacturing order. Work started or finished on the main website is tracked manually.

Limitations: when a task is marked In progress or Done from the website, the page says planned time is copied automatically as actual time. Actual and planned times also cannot be edited in the app after completion. Our read: that copy-over behavior can make labor data look more accurate than it is, so set a written rule for it before go-live.

Implementation: add operators to the app, require the Start button on every task, and compare Planned and actual on the Make screen's Tasks tab every week.

Event hooks: Katana's webhook changelog lists manufacturing order events, including manufacturing_order.updated, and says webhooks are added from the API section of Settings.

Choose it if your orders already live in Katana and operators will use the app. Evidence: Katana support article on tracking actual completion time.

Odoo

Best fit: shops that already run Odoo for inventory or accounting and want work orders and operator timers in the same database.

Documented: the Shop Floor module signs in an employee profile as the operator. Each work order has a header timer that totals time from all employees and a personal timer for each operator. Pausing stops the timer. The MO's Work Orders tab shows Real Duration, which includes both Shop Floor time and manual entries. Work orders must belong to a manufacturing order and be scheduled at a work center.

Limitations: the documentation describes timers and reports but does not name an edition requirement. A third-party listing says the Shop Floor screen is Enterprise-only. We could not confirm that from Odoo's documentation, so ask Odoo before you buy. Individual timers reset for each sign-in session, so a shift handover needs a rule.

Our read: Odoo can keep labor data on the same record as the order. The rule that matters most is what happens when someone forgets to stop a timer.

Implementation: enable Manufacturing and the Shop Floor module for one work center, decide how operators sign in and whether a PIN is required, and review Real Duration weekly. Evidence: Odoo Shop Floor time tracking documentation.

Tulip

Best fit: operations teams that want to design their own station screens and have someone to own them.

Documented: the pricing page publishes Essentials and Professional prices per interface, billed annually, with a 10-interface minimum across all four editions. Enterprise and Regulated Industries are sales-led. Add-ons such as AI Actions, Automations Tasks and Computer Vision have no published price.

Limitations: the pricing page names no time-tracking feature, so a labor timer here is something your team designs and maintains rather than something you switch on. Our read: Tulip makes sense when station data beyond labor matters too, such as work instructions or checks, and when you can staff the build.

Implementation: count your interfaces first, because the minimum and per-interface billing set the bill. Then decide whether the labor timer is a first app or part of a larger one.

MachineMetrics

Best fit: plants where machine run status and production counts matter as much as labor minutes.

Documented: the Core Platform lists Automated Production Tracking, Real-Time Production Dashboards, Machine Connectivity Management and unlimited users. The Intelligent MES tier adds Labor Tickets Submission Capability, Track Jobs/Production Orders and bi-directional ERP integration. The page calls pricing volume based.

Limitations: the page shows no numeric price and does not say what each machine needs to connect. Labor tickets sit in the Intelligent MES tier, so confirm that the tier you buy includes them. Our read: MachineMetrics answers a machine question first. If your pain is that labor minutes do not match jobs, you may still need a job-level timer alongside it.

Implementation: ask for a written quote that lists connectivity, labor tickets and the ERP integration you need. Evidence: MachineMetrics pricing page.

JobBOSS²

Best fit: job shops that need scheduling, job costing and labor management in one ERP and can run a formal rollout.

Documented: ECI's JobBOSS² page names Visual Scheduling and Labor & Material Management, which covers job assignments and material tracking. Its payroll section describes automating attendance records. It names JobBOSS job costing for existing customers. The page publishes no price and offers a demo-led conversation instead.

Limitations: the page has no review rating and does not name a station timer or kiosk. Ask how operators record time on the floor.

Our read: this is the heaviest option here. It can fit a shop whose problem is scheduling as well as labor, and it is a poor fit for a shop that only needs station minutes.

Implementation: ask ECI for a written scope, a data migration plan and the labor-capture method. Evidence: ECI JobBOSS² product page.

Where station minutes go after the floor

Station timers are half the job. The minutes still have to reach job costing and payroll without someone retyping them, and that handoff is where manual work tends to pile up.

L2L survey: 65% of frontline supervisors waste up to four hours per shift according to L2L (2026).

L2L sells manufacturing execution software, so read this as vendor research rather than neutral data. The same release says half of the plants it surveyed still rely on manual frontline input, which is the second figure we take from it.

L2L survey: 50% of plants still rely on manual frontline input according to L2L (2026).

Here is a proposed, configurable design for the reconciliation step. It is not a deployed system, and no customer runs it. The trigger is a manufacturing_order.updated event from Katana, which Katana's webhook changelog lists among its manufacturing order events and which is set up under Settings, then API. In a configured US Tech Automations flow, the action reads each order's planned and actual time and compares the two against a variance threshold the owner sets. The output is an exceptions list for the supervisor, showing the order number, planned minutes, actual minutes and the operators who logged time on it.

Human review comes first. A supervisor approves or corrects every exception before any labor cost is posted, and no hours change without a named reviewer. The prerequisites are an API key with read access to manufacturing orders, a mapping from Katana operator names to payroll IDs, and a written rule for the copy-over behavior described in the Katana profile.

Build it in Zapier, Make or n8n, or buy it

Stitching this together in Zapier, Make or n8n is the most common alternative, and it is a fair one. When configured, those tools can keep run histories, retry failed steps, route errors to a separate branch and record audit evidence. What they leave to you is the design: how a replayed webhook avoids posting the same minutes twice, who is told when a run fails, who can see the API key, and who maintains the flow when Katana or Odoo changes a field.

A proposed US Tech Automations design would configure the same trigger with a duplicate check keyed on the order number, a retry hold that escalates to the supervisor after a configurable number of failed runs, an audit entry for every posted minute, and an approval step before anything posts. The prerequisites are the same as before: Katana API access, a time source such as Odoo's Real Duration figure or a time clock export, and a named reviewer. If you already have an internal team that maintains integrations, building may fit. If you do not, the ongoing maintenance is the cost to price in.

Worked example: what a rebuild costs the owner

This is an illustrative calculation with assumed inputs, not a customer result. Assume a supervisor spends 1 hour a day rebuilding labor totals from paper travelers over 250 working days, at an assumed loaded labor rate of $30 an hour. That is 250 hours a year, or $7,500 of supervisor time. If reviewing only the exceptions list, built from Katana's manufacturing_order.updated events, takes 10 minutes a day, the yearly time falls to about 41.7 hours (250 days × 10 minutes = 2,500 minutes), or $1,250. The difference is $6,250 a year before any software cost, and it holds only if the exceptions list is accurate, which is why the copy-over rule needs a named owner.

Who this is for

This guide is for an owner or operations lead at a small manufacturer who needs to know which job consumed the hours and whether the estimate was right. If your only question is hourly attendance for payroll, start with the simpler-tool section below.

Red flags: nobody can review an exceptions list each week, machine uptime matters more than labor minutes, or the vendor will not put the modules and minimums you need in writing.

When a simpler tool wins

Toggl Track's pricing page describes start-and-stop tracking from anywhere and lists no kiosk or station timer, so each station would need its own device or a phone. For hourly attendance that may be enough, and it is the simplest path in this guide.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations

Skip a custom flow in three cases. If the manufacturing system you already run gives you the labor report you need, use its reports and skip the exceptions layer. If nobody will own the exceptions list each week, the flow will generate alerts that nobody reads. If you need attendance and payroll only, a time clock product is usually simpler to run than any integration.

Decision checklist

• Can an operator start and stop time at the station without a desk login?

• Do the minutes post to the job or work order, or only to a weekly total?

• Can you export the labor data in a format your payroll or accounting system accepts?

• Is every price you need in writing, including minimums such as Tulip's 10-interface floor?

• Who reviews the exceptions each week, and what happens to a timer that was never stopped?

• Have you piloted one work center before buying for the whole floor?

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free option worth testing first?

Only if the free plan includes what you need, and Katana's pricing page does not say whether the free plan includes Shop Floor App timing. Confirm that before you start a test.

Do I still need a time clock if I buy shop floor software?

Often yes, because station timers record job minutes while attendance and payroll rules usually live in a time clock or payroll system.

Can Odoo track time on individual work orders?

Yes. Odoo's Shop Floor documentation describes a timer on each work order, a personal timer for each operator, and a Real Duration total on the Work Orders tab.

Why do vendors price per user, per interface or per machine?

Each model charges for the unit the vendor expects you to grow: users for MRPeasy and Odoo, interfaces for Tulip, and connected machines for MachineMetrics.

Can I get a list price for JobBOSS² or MachineMetrics?

Not from their public pages, since both are quote-based. Ask for written pricing that lists each module, connection and minimum you need.

Is a general time tracker enough for a shop floor?

Only when operators can start and stop time from a device they already carry. Toggl Track's public pricing page does not list a station timer.

Choosing from this list

Start with the category: station timers for job minutes, machine data for run time, and a general timer for attendance. For a small shop that needs labor on specific jobs, the shortlist is the manufacturing systems with a shop floor module, followed by written pricing for the exact modules and minimums. Our research could not confirm star ratings or a complete API review for every vendor, so run one work center as a pilot before you commit the whole floor. If you want to see how the exceptions step could be set up for your system, see how US Tech Automations configures this.