Set up two-step sign-in Scan this with an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, 1Password…), then type the 6-digit code it shows.
Or type this key:
Accountant sign-in — view only
Type the 6-digit code from your authenticator app
ClockCost Admin
Enter your company code The same code your crew uses to join the app.
Set up two-step sign-in The office side now asks for a code from your phone after the password. One-time setup — about a minute.
On your phone, open an authenticator app — Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or one you already use. They're free in the App Store and Google Play.
In the app, tap +, choose Scan a QR code, and scan this:
Can't scan? Choose Enter a setup key and type: … Account name: ClockCost · Type: Time-based
Type the 6-digit code the app now shows for ClockCost:
Anyone else who signs in to the office can scan this same code on their own phone now — or later from Settings → Users & access → Admin sign-in.
Save your backup codes If your phone is ever lost, each code signs you in once. Keep them somewhere safe that isn't this phone — print them or save them in a password manager.
Two-step sign-in
New
ClockCost Admin
Live status
Needs attention
Open punches, jobs over estimate, spend that jumped, work aging unbilled, invoices past due, and stock that has run out.
Ask your numbers
Plain-English questions about your time, materials, receipts and invoices — any period, back to your first record. Type it, or tap 🎤 and say it. It answers only from your own figures.
Time entries every punch — click one to edit it
Contractor
Type
Property
Unit
Date
In
Out
Duration
Note
Payroll what each contractor is owed for the pay period
to
Contractor
Type
Hours
Pay basis
Signed
Total
Action
Weekly hours hours per person for the week
Hours only — no pay. Open sessions count up to now and are marked “(open)”.
Contractor
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Split
Total
Mileage estimated business miles from drive sessions
Estimated business mileage from drive sessions (property → property). No pay data — the only dollar figure is the IRS-rate deduction estimate.
Date
Route
Duration
Miles
to
Labor = completed sessions only (hours × rate at time). Materials = cost captured at usage time.
Drive sessions count toward their destination property; shop / no-property sessions fall under “Unassigned / Shop”.
[RATE ESTIMATED] marks properties/sessions whose rate was a client-side estimate.
Property
Hours
Labor
Materials
Receipts
Checks / card
Added
Vehicle
Total
Action
Estimates every number comes from the cost book × quantity
Date
Property / prospect
Template
Mode
Ver
Lines
Amount
Status
Action
Walkthroughs the crew recorded in the app. Use one and its notes and photos start a new estimate.
Labor hours and material cost per unit, at crew pace
Labor hours and material cost per unit, at crew pace. Edit any cell. "Obs" = jobs that have calibrated it.
Trade
Item
Unit
Hrs/unit
Mat $/unit
Waste %
Linked material — last paid
Obs
Source
Prices the app worked out from real purchases, and jobs whose actuals can teach the cost book.
Jobs ready to teach the book
Already learned
When
What
Item
From
To
Who
Variance
From
To
% complete (optional)
Materials row: logged usage only — coverage still ramping.
Estimate line detail ▸ show
Receipts what the crew snapped in the app — search matches vendor, what-for and the amount
to
Date
Vendor
Property
Category
Paid with
Amount
Status
Loading…
Received
From
Check #
For
Amount
Status
Loading…
A check counts as income on the day you received it, once it has cleared and matched its bank deposit. Checks taken to the bank together show there as one deposit — tick them and use “Deposited together”, or ClockCost finds the set that adds up. Photos are office-only: a check shows the payer’s bank numbers.
Materials read-only report — stock edits, usage and restocks happen in the worker app
Inventory
Item
Category
Stock
Unit cost
Value
Usage Log
Date
Material
Qty
Cost
Property
Unit
Who
Categories how materials are grouped and filtered
Add your own — Landscaping, Roofing, Concrete, whatever you buy. Renaming one re-labels every material in it. Retiring hides it from the app without touching existing materials.
Locations warehouse + trucks
Each truck is a stock location. Assign it to whoever drives it — the app opens on their truck. Move stock with Transfer in the app; the warehouse count is what reorders and low-stock alerts watch.
Kits one tap logs the whole bundle
Stock counts & adjustments
When
Type
Material
Where
Change
Reason / route
Who
Restocks
Date
Material
Qty
Cost
Who
Work orders
Work order
Property
Category
Assigned
Scheduled
Age
Status
Unit turns
Property
Move-out
Days vacant
Status
Ready in
Notes
Property
Move-out
Closed
Days vacant
Notes
Photos
Field photos captured by the crew. Pick a property to load its photos (newest first).
Tap a thumbnail to open the full image.
Schedule work orders that have a date
Anything past its date, or with nobody assigned, is marked.
Work order
Property
Window
Assigned
Action
Work order
Property
Assigned
Age
Action
Reports pick a report and a date range
to
Build your own report what to measure, how to break it down, what to leave out — the dates are the report dates above
Invoices what customers owe, what is billed, what came in
to
Date
No.
Customer
Amount
Balance
Status
Action
Hours, materials and receipts on a customer's property that no invoice covers yet — from your billing start date on.
Customers on a monthly cycle.
Rent and anything not invoiced here. Your revenue is mostly rent, collected in TenantCloud; recording it here gives the Profit & Loss a true top line.
Property by property for a period, with what was invoiced, what was paid and what is still outstanding — what an owner expects at month end.
to
1099s who you paid enough to owe a 1099-NEC, for a calendar year
1099-NEC preparation
Which subcontractors you paid enough to owe a 1099-NEC, for a calendar year. W-2 employees are excluded — they get a W-2 from payroll.
Year
Threshold
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) raised nonemployee-compensation reporting to $2,000 for payments from 2026 ($600 through 2025); it is inflation-adjusted from 2027 — change it here if it moves.
What was actually paid
Profitability what each property and customer earned against what it cost
to
What each property cost against what was actually invoiced for it. A property with cost and no invoice shows as a loss — that is either work you have not billed, or one of your own.
Upkeep scheduled maintenance across your properties
Scheduled upkeep that has come around. Raising a work order records it as done when the order is finished; Mark done records it today.
Task
Property
Cadence
Status
Action
A task, how often it comes around, and which properties it covers. Nothing is due until a plan covers a property.
Task
Cadence
Category
Properties
Status
Action
Properties on this plan —
Suggestions from the crew, newest first — anonymous unless a name is attached
Checks prints onto your check stock
Editing check — it hasn’t printed yet. Save puts your changes on this same check.
Amount
$0.00
Category details
#
Category
Description
Amount
Customer / project
Total$0.00
Check book settings
Only the blanks are printed — your company name, bank details and the number already on the paper are never drawn over, and the machine-readable band at the foot is left clear so the check clears and deposits normally.
Date
No.
Payee
Category
Property
Amount
Status
Action
Nothing waiting to print. "Save to print later" on a check puts it here.
Assets & depreciation continued from your CPA's 2025 listing with the IRS tables
Asset
Property
In service
Cost
Class
Taken before
This year
Book value
Figures
Asset
Bank transactions say what each charge was for, then Add — it becomes a cost
toRules ▾
Code a vendor the same way every time. Open a transaction and press Create rule, or:
More ▾
Everything before this date sits under Excluded and counts as nothing — your starting point. Nothing is deleted; restore any line from Excluded.
Paste a CSV
For a card that cannot be linked. Date, description, amount in any order.
For an account with no live feed (the Lowe's account): download the month's transactions from its website as CSV and paste them here, once a month. Pick the account from the list so the books know which account it is.
Date
Account
Description
Category
Property
Amount
Action
Client errors (0 open)
JS errors reported by the worker app and this admin page (window.onerror + unhandled rejections,
capped at 5 per page load). Newest first — tap a row to expand the stack trace.
Deleted entries archived with who, when and why — tap ↩ to restore
Time entries deleted from the admin panel are archived here with who deleted them, when, and why —
a deleted time record that simply vanished would make the timesheet indefensible. Tap ↩ to restore one.
Settings
Appearance how the office side looks on this device
The office side defaults to light; the crew app stays dark. This choice is remembered on this device only.
Books start date, opening balances and which account each payment method is — for the balance sheet
Notifications on this device missed clock-ins and clock-outs, forgotten clock-outs, overdue invoices, books warnings
Turn this on on each computer or phone you want ClockCost alerts on. On an iPhone, first add the office app to your Home Screen (Share → Add to Home Screen) and open it from there — Apple only allows notifications that way.
AI budget a monthly limit on AI use for this company
AI does only ClockCost’s own jobs — reading receipts, job notes, bank suggestions, report explanations, work-order triage, Ask, repair-or-improvement and the estimator. Nobody can use it for anything else, and each person has a daily limit (crew 60, office 200). When this month’s spending reaches the limit, AI pauses until the 1st — everything else keeps working. Your Anthropic account’s own monthly limit stays above this.
$per month
Crew lists what your crew can suggest and vote on
These show up in the crew app under My Pay. Use them for whatever suits the work — tools to buy, truck stock, or Friday lunch.
Onboard a company platform owner only
Creates the company, its admin PIN, and a starter cost book for the trade. Hand the owner the company code and PIN — their crew enters the code on first launch.
Payments account where this company's money lands
ClockCost is a platform: each company that uses it has its own Stripe account, so its transactions and payouts stay its own. Leave this blank for the platform's own books. A company id looks like acct_1ABC….
Close the books lock a finished period
Once a month is reconciled or a return is filed, set the closing date. Bank lines, receipts, checks, bills, invoices, income and time punches dated on or before it can't be changed by accident — changing one takes typing REOPEN, and each override is logged below.
Chart of accounts what the money was for
Expense lines from IRS Schedule E and Schedule C, each carrying its tax line so year-end mapping is not guesswork. Assign one to a receipt on the Receipts screen.
Labor burden what an hour really costs you
A $25/hr employee does not cost $25. Payroll taxes, workers comp and liability sit on top. Enter the percentage you add and job costs will show true cost instead of wage. Typical is 25–40% for W-2; a 1099 subcontractor is usually 0 because they carry their own. Leave both at 0 to keep costing at raw wage.
W-2 employee burden %
1099 subcontractor burden %
Customers who gets billed
An owner, a management company, or a one-off client. Link properties to a customer below and an invoice can gather every hour, material and receipt on those properties for a date range. Email and phone are optional.
Customer
Email
Terms
Bill $/hr
Billing
Properties
Action
Company profile what invoices, estimates and printed reports show
PNG with a transparent background looks best. It is resized for print automatically.
headings and rules on invoices and reports
Company code for setting up a new phone
A worker installing the app on a new phone is asked for this once. Read it to them or text it. Anyone with the code reaches your login screen — they still need their own PIN to get in.
—
Existing phones are never asked for it — only a fresh install or a reinstalled app.
Vehicles & running cost
Give each truck a running cost and assign it to whoever drives it. Every drive that person logs is then costed by the miles between the two properties, and it shows up on the job like labor and materials do. Enter MPG and fuel price and the cost per mile is worked out for you, or type a cost per mile directly to include wear, tires and insurance.
IRS mileage rate ($/mi)
Road factor
The IRS rate is only used for the mileage log and its exports. Job costs use the vehicle's own running cost.
Employees & overtime
Mark each person 1099 or W-2 under Contractors. W-2 employees earn 1.5× after the weekly threshold; 1099 subcontractors never accrue overtime. Federal law requires a fixed, recurring workweek — pick the day yours starts and leave it alone. Daily rules are blank for most states; California and a few others need them.
Workweek starts
OT after (hrs/week)
OT after (hrs/day)
Double time after (hrs/day)
Not tax advice. This computes hours and gross pay — withholding, W-2 filing and workers comp still happen in your payroll service.
Pay period
The pay period drives My Pay, Payroll and the QuickBooks export.
Period length (days)
A period started on
Clock-in & clock-out reminders by location, on the crew's phones
A crew member at one of your properties who hasn't clocked in gets a reminder; one who left a job site still clocked in gets one too. If a reminder isn't acted on, the office is told. Only during the work hours below. Optional for crew — they can turn it off in the crew app (⚙ → Your location), and you aren't told who does. Changes reach phones the next time the app opens.
Work days
Work hours from
to
Time zone
At a property, not clocked in — remind after (min)
Property circle (m)
Left the job site — farther than (m)
…remind after (min)
Tell the office after another (min)
What do you track?
Pick the word for the top level of your work. Everything in the app and this dashboard is labeled to match — like QuickBooks' Customer → Job. Existing data is untouched; only the labels change.
Billing & Overhead
Drives the Job Costs report. All default to 0, which means “cost = what the contractor was paid”
and no billing view — nothing changes until you enter real numbers.
Overhead % (added to cost)
Default bill rate ($/hr)
Material markup %
Bill work from (date)
Card / bank processing fee
Card fee %
How to pay you — printed on every invoice
Overhead % is your allocation on top of contractor pay — insurance, admin, fuel/tools.
Because the crew is 1099, this is small; it is not the 30–50% payroll burden that applies to W-2 employees.
Invoice emails what customers get when you send an invoice
Checking the email setup…
Subject
Message
Fills in for each invoice: {customer} {company} {number} {amount} {due}. You can still change it before each send.
Invoice reminders an automatic email when an invoice goes unpaid past its due date
1st reminder (days after due)
2nd reminder (days after due)
3rd reminder (days after due)
Subject
Message
Only invoices you emailed from ClockCost that are still unpaid, to the customer's email, with the PDF and the invoice link. Each reminder goes once, within a week of its day, so old invoices aren't all reminded the day you turn this on. Leave a box empty to skip it. You get a notice each time reminders go out. A reminder can also be sent by hand from the invoice (Send reminder).
Connected AI Claude, ChatGPT and other AI apps — read your books, and make bookkeeping changes (bank lines, draft invoices, bills, payments, checks) if you allow it
copies ClockCost’s address and opens Claude’s Connectors page
On Claude’s Connectors page click +, then Add custom connector.
Name it ClockCost, paste the address (already copied), click Add, then Connect.
A ClockCost window opens: sign in with your office password and 6-digit code. Tick “Also let it make bookkeeping changes” only if you want that.
ChatGPT: needs a paid ChatGPT plan with Developer mode turned on in ChatGPT’s settings. Then add a custom connector (MCP server) with the address https://clockcost.com/mcp and sign in with your company code, office password and 6-digit code.
Other AI apps: add a custom connector with the address https://clockcost.com/mcp. Don’t open that address in a browser tab — it’s for the AI app. It reads your books; it can make bookkeeping changes (book bank lines, draft invoices, enter bills, record payments, write checks to print) only if you allow that when you connect, and then shows every change first and saves only when you confirm. It can’t send money or email, or see tax IDs.
Click Show connections to see what’s connected.
Admin sign-in two-step sign-in and remembered devices
Two-step sign-in · checking…
The office side asks for the password, then a 6-digit code from an authenticator app. Everyone who signs in to the office adds the same ClockCost entry to their own phone.
Remembered devices
Checking "Keep me signed in for 30 days" on the sign-in screen remembers that phone or computer — it skips the password and the code for 30 days. If one is ever lost, sign them all out here — each will ask again, this one included.
People with access office users and your accountant
Your accountant gets their own sign-in (a password plus a code from their phone) and can see every report and the books. They can't change anything, and never see crew PINs, sign-in settings or W-9 tax IDs. Up to two. Remove one and their access ends right away.
Loading…
Name
Email
Access
Crew permissions what workers can do in the crew app
Editing a price, or restocks and receipts updating it. Off: prices stay as the office sets them, and new items start at $0.
Crew & contractors click a person to see and edit everything about them
Paperwork for each 1099 sub lives on their page: the W-9 carries the legal name and TIN a 1099-NEC needs; the agreement makes the 1099 classification defensible. The TIN itself is never stored here.
Name
Type
Rate
Role
PIN
Paperwork
Status
Action
Properties
Property
Address
Customer
GPS
Action
Bulk import — one per line: Name | Address | unit, unit, unit (address and units optional)
Material usage
Bank line
Payment accounts
Name each account the way you think of it, and add the matching QuickBooks account so a receipt reconciles to the right place.
Shows in the app
QuickBooks account
Last 4
Order
Default
Active
Not Southern Housing's
On account
New estimate
PropertyUnit
…or prospect name
Template
Mode
Scope of work — every item becomes a line: Fix (priced), Check (inspection time, with the likely repair beside it as “If needed”, not in the total), Optional (not in the total). Anything the cost book doesn’t cover is AI-priced for you to check.
Word, PDF or text
Summary for the owner prints at the top of the estimate — edit freely
Lines click a cell to edit — totals recalculate
Type
Trade
Item
Qty
Unit
Hrs/unit
Mat $/unit
Waste %
Hours
Labor $
Material $
Total
Estimate document what the customer sees and signs — every part can be changed
Estimate No.
Prepared for
Valid for (days)
Deposit % or $ — blank = none
Timeline optional
Terms & conditions printed on customer estimates
Rates & markups
Labor $/hr
Material tax %
Overhead %
Profit % (quote)
Contingency %
Internal budget = crew cost/hr, no profit. Customer quote = bill rate, overhead + profit applied. Defaults come from Settings and the actuals library.
Max Purchase Price flip math (internal)
ARV $
Closing %
Holding $
Target profit $
Enter ARV to compute MPP.
More ▾
Property
Hours
Rate
Amount
Each field saves as you change it.
New work order
Schedule & contact (optional)
Work order categories
Your trades, your words.
Start a turn
New upkeep plan
After saving, pick the properties it covers.
Check print setup
Every check stock is laid out a little differently. Tell ClockCost where the check is on your paper, print the alignment test on plain paper, hold it over a real check against a window, and nudge until it lines up.
Where the check is on your paper
The two blank panels become stubs with the details, one for the payee and one for your file.
Move everything right (+) or left (−), inches
Move everything down (+) or up (−), inches
Fine-tune one field
Only if one field is off and the rest line up — your stock may put, say, the amount box somewhere a little different.
Field
Right +
Down +
Preview of the alignment test page
New invoice
Pick a customer and a date range, then Generate.
to
Description
Qty
Rate
Amount
More ▾
Add Material to Job
Logs warehouse material against this property the same way the crew does from the
app. With adjust warehouse stock on, the quantity comes out of (or
goes back into) inventory. For a cost that is not warehouse stock — a supply-house
receipt, a rental — use + Add cost instead.
A saved set of reports for a period. On its day each month it is marked ready and you get a notification; your accountant opens it here under their own sign-in. Nothing is emailed with figures in it.
Add to shop stock
On the receipt
Goes to
Add to stock
Cost each
Total
Add Cost to Job
A cost-only line. It is added to this property's job cost and does not
move inventory — stock levels and the usage log are untouched.
Watch for double-counting.
Material bought for a specific job should already be on that project in
QuickBooks. Adding it here as well counts the cost twice. Use this only for costs
that are not already on the project in QBO — a dump fee, an equipment
rental, or a correction. Warehouse stock pulled for a job belongs in the usage log,
not here.
PropertyUnitDescriptionAmount ($)Date
Edit material
NameCategory
Unit cost ($)
Alert when at or below
Restock up to
VendorOn handWhy the count changed (optional — goes in Stock counts & adjustments)Note
Edit Entry
ContractorPropertyUnitType
Work order
Clock InClock OutRate at time ($/hr)
This is the rate this entry is paid AND costed at. Changing it changes payroll for this entry.
Reason for change
Select Property
Check deposit
E-file export — IRS IRIS
Makes the 1099-NEC file to upload at the IRS IRIS Taxpayer Portal (“Upload CSV with Form Data”). The file holds full tax IDs.
Payer (you)
IRIS checks the column headers exactly. Without a template the file uses the IRS tax-year-2025 layout; if IRIS rejects it, download the 1099-NEC template from IRIS, choose it here and export again — the columns are filled by its own headers.
W-9 from paper
Then upload a scan or photo of the signed paper under Documents. The number is encrypted when saved.
Person
Contact fills in the check, and the W-9 name and address for a 1099
Paperwork on file
W-9Loading…
Documentsthe signed W-9, agreement and insurance certificate — PDF or a photo, office only
Location notice
Own cards (paid back on their checks)
Property
Purchase & tax for the cost basis your CPA depreciates
Units / apartments what the crew clocks into and what bills are tracked by — a single house needs none
Buildings if the lot has more than one, each starts depreciating when it is ready