QuickBooks Time Tracking Tutorial for Beginners

About this video

David, partnered with QuickBooks Online, gives a beginner tutorial on time tracking in QuickBooks Payroll. All three payroll plans include full-service payroll; Payroll Premium adds same-day direct deposit, time tracking in the mobile app, shift schedules, timesheet approval from anywhere, and location tracking while clocked in, while Payroll Elite adds advanced project management and job progress, geofence reminders to clock in/out on entering or leaving a job site, and a guarantee of up to $25,000 of protection against payroll tax penalties. He chooses Premium as the most popular option and the Plus accounting plan, noting a base monthly fee plus a per-employee fee. Setup covers pinning the Payroll and Time apps, confirming payday and business address, and adding an employee (example: Megan Bowen at a doughnut shop) with self-onboarding in the QuickBooks Workforce app and time tracking enabled — only available on Premium and higher — plus hourly base pay, account mapping and default hours. In Workforce, employees tap Track Time, add past time with the plus button, or clock in with the big green button (location capture is optional) and clock out; managers review and approve timesheets under Time > Approvals. Customisation includes timesheet fields (customer, billable, class, services, notes), a location field that appears as ‘department’ in the app, custom fields as text, numbers or dropdowns with up to 100 options, automatic or manual breaks, geolocation set to optional, not tracked or required, restricting which customers each employee can see, and manager groups who can approve time. The Time Kiosk, set up in the classic QuickBooks Time under Feature Add-ons, runs on a dedicated computer or tablet with an optional photo on clock-in/out, a member list or typed name, and a PIN per employee, with a default 20-second inactivity sign-out. Finally he builds shift schedules — setting start/end times, team members, customer, location and notes, saving drafts and publishing the whole week — and notes templates, copying a previous week, and subscribing via a calendar URL, with some functions still working only in the classic view.

Key takeaways

• Time tracking in the mobile app requires Payroll Premium or higher; Elite adds geofence clock-in reminders and up to $25,000 in payroll tax penalty protection
• Employees use the QuickBooks Workforce app to clock in/out with the green button or add past time, with optional location capture; managers approve timesheets in Time > Approvals
• Timesheets are customisable with customer, billable, class, services and notes fields, a location field shown as ‘department’, and custom fields with up to 100 dropdown options
• Breaks can be automatic or manual, geolocation can be optional, off or required, and access can be restricted per customer and per manager group
• A Time Kiosk on a shared tablet/computer uses employee PINs and optional photos with a 20-second default sign-out, and schedules should be drafted then published for the whole week

Episode details: published March 11, 2026 · 16:16 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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