Homebase vs. TSheets (QuickBooks Time): Which time tracking app fits your team?

You need your team to clock in and out reliably. But Homebase and TSheets — now called QuickBooks Time — are built for completely different businesses.

Homebase is built for shifts at physical locations: restaurants, retail stores, salons, and coffee shops. Your team clocks in at the register, you build the weekly schedule, and payroll runs from the same app. QuickBooks Time is built for mobile crews — construction teams, landscapers, and plumbers who clock in from different job sites every day and need to know exactly which jobs are eating into their labor budget.

This breakdown covers real pricing, what each tool actually does, and the honest trade-offs so you can pick what fits.

Homebase vs. QuickBooks Time in 30 seconds

Both tools track time. That's where the overlap ends.

Pick Homebase if:

• Your team works at your location and your schedule changes every week.
• You need scheduling, time tracking, team messaging, and payroll in one app.
• You want to start free and add tools as you grow.

Pick QuickBooks Time if:

• Your crew clocks in at a different job site every day.
• You're already running your books through QuickBooks Online.
• You need to track which projects are over budget on labor.

What is Homebase?

You're running a restaurant, retail store, or salon. Every week you're building schedules, tracking who actually showed up, running payroll, and responding to "can you cover my shift?" texts at 10pm. Homebase puts all of that in one place.

You build the schedule, your team clocks in on their phones or at your iPad by the register, and when payday comes, you run payroll from the same app. No jumping between systems.

Here's what you get:

• Free plan for one location — not a trial, actually free.
• Employee scheduling with AI-powered scheduling, shift swaps, open shifts, and labor cost visibility while you build.
• Time clocks with GPS verification, photo clock-in, and automatic overtime alerts.
• Team messaging with group chats, read receipts, and schedule notifications — so your team stops texting your personal number.
• Tip management that pools, tracks, and flows tips straight into payroll.
• Task manager for recurring checklists, opening and closing workflows, and completion tracking.
• Hiring and onboarding with job posting, applicant tracking, digital W-4s and I-9s, and e-signatures.
• HR and compliance with labor law alerts, handbook creation, and access to HR advisors.
• Payroll as an add-on with automatic tax filing, direct deposit, W-2s, and Pay Any Day earned wage access.

Over 150,000 small businesses use Homebase. Try it free for one location — no credit card required.

What is QuickBooks Time?

QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) is a time tracking tool built for mobile crews. Your plumber clocks in at the Rodriguez house Monday, moves to the Chen job Tuesday, then hits the Garcia site Wednesday — and you see exactly where they were and for how long.

If you're already using QuickBooks Online, it syncs right in. Tracked hours flow to your accounting automatically, so you can see which jobs are profitable and which are costing you.

Here's what it does:

• GPS tracking verifies your crew is actually on-site.
• Geofencing clocks people in automatically when they arrive at a job.
• Job costing tracks exactly how many hours each project consumed.
• QuickBooks sync connects hours to your accounting without manual entry.
• Mileage tracking (Elite plan) logs distance between job sites.
• Photo timestamps let your crew document site conditions at clock-in.
• Crew management tracks multiple teams across different locations at once.

QuickBooks Time doesn't include payroll — that requires a separate QuickBooks Payroll subscription. And while it offers scheduling and basic communication, team messaging and HR tools aren't part of the package.

Homebase vs. QuickBooks Time pricing

Homebase charges per location. QuickBooks Time charges per person. That distinction matters a lot at scale.

Homebase pricing

Basic — Free

• One location
• Includes scheduling, time clocks, and POS integration

Essentials — $30/month per location

• Unlimited team members
• Includes advanced scheduling, time tracking, and team messaging
• Save 20% with annual billing ($24/month)

Plus — $70/month per location

• Unlimited team members
• Everything in Essentials, plus AI scheduling, PTO tracking, and departments and permissions
• Save 20% with annual billing ($56/month)

All-in-One — $120/month per location

• Unlimited team members
• Everything in Plus, plus onboarding, labor cost management, and HR and compliance tools
• Save 20% with annual billing ($96/month)

Add Homebase payroll to any plan for $39/month + $6 per employee. Includes automatic tax filing, direct deposit, W-2s, and Pay Any Day earned wage access. Right now, buying payroll includes 6 months of the Plus plan free.

Once you pick a plan, adding team members doesn't raise your base cost. A 5-person team pays the same location fee as a 50-person team.

QuickBooks Time pricing

Premium — around $20/month + $8 per user/month

• GPS time tracking, scheduling, job costing, QuickBooks sync, and overtime alerts

Elite — around $40/month + $10 per user/month

• Everything in Premium, plus geofencing, mileage tracking, project management, and priority support

Verify current pricing at QuickBooks.com — promotions and changes happen regularly.

What this looks like in practice

A 16-person salon on Homebase Essentials pays $30/month for the location plus payroll costs. The same team on QuickBooks Time Premium pays roughly $148/month for time tracking alone — before adding a separate payroll subscription on top.

Breakdown: Homebase scheduling vs. QuickBooks Time scheduling

Both tools let you schedule your team, but they work completely differently. Homebase is built for weekly schedules that change constantly, while QuickBooks Time focuses on assigning crews to job sites.

How Homebase handles scheduling

You need to build next week's schedule, someone just called out for tomorrow, and three people want to swap shifts. Homebase is built for this.

You start with a template from last week, drag names around for 10 minutes, and publish. Your team gets texts instantly. When someone needs a day off, they request it in the app and you approve from your phone. When someone can't work a shift, they post it as open and a teammate claims it — you just get a notification to approve.

The schedule also shows your labor cost in real time as you build, so you know before you publish if you're overspending on a slow Tuesday.

What you can do:

• Build schedules with templates — copy last week, adjust, done.
• Let the AI auto-schedule based on who's available and your labor budget.
• Post open shifts so your team claims them instead of you texting everyone.
• Approve shift swaps without being the middleman.
• See labor costs while scheduling so you don't overspend.
• Send automatic texts and emails when the schedule drops.

How QuickBooks Time handles scheduling

QuickBooks Time lets you assign people to shifts and jobs, and your crew can view their schedule in the mobile app. The schedule syncs with time tracking so hours log against the right job.

What it doesn't have is the shift swap workflow, labor forecasting, availability management, or employee-facing scheduling tools that shift-based teams rely on week to week. The real focus is making sure your crew clocks in at the right job site.

What you can do:

• Schedule shifts and assign people to specific jobs.
• Your team sees their schedule in the mobile app.
• Assign field crews to specific job sites.
• Verify people showed up where they were supposed to.

Which one fits your situation?

Pick Homebase if your schedule changes every week, people swap shifts constantly, someone's always calling out, and you need to watch labor costs.

Pick QuickBooks Time if your main concern is proving your crew was at a specific job site from 9am to 3pm — not juggling schedule changes.

Breakdown: Homebase time tracking vs. QuickBooks Time tracking

The big difference here is location. Homebase tracks time at your physical business, while QuickBooks Time tracks time across multiple job sites.

How Homebase handles time tracking

Your team clocks in at your register or on their phones when they get to work. They punch in with a PIN or the iPad takes their photo. The system knows if they're actually at your business — not clocking in from home.

Hours calculate automatically. Breaks get tracked. Overtime gets flagged before it happens. Different pay rates get recorded correctly. Then everything flows straight into payroll with no copying numbers around.

What you can do:

• Clock in with PIN codes or photo verification at your tablet.
• GPS confirms they're at your business address when clocking in from their phone.
• Breaks and overtime calculate automatically based on your state's rules.
• Track multiple pay rates for each person (server wage vs. manager wage).
• Prevent early clock-ins.
• Send hours directly to payroll without any spreadsheets.

How QuickBooks Time handles time tracking

QuickBooks Time is built for crews that move around. Your plumber clocks in at one house, moves to the next job, then hits a third site — and you see exactly where they were and for how long.

Geofencing clocks people in automatically when they arrive at a job site. They can take photos to show what the site looked like. You can track which jobs are eating up the most labor hours and costing you money.

What you can do:

• GPS geofencing clocks people in automatically at a job site.
• Track hours per project so you know what each job actually cost in labor.
• Employees can take photos at clock-in to document the site.
• Track multiple crews across different locations at the same time.
• Track mileage between job sites.

Which one fits your situation?

Pick Homebase if your team works at your location, you need hours to flow straight into payroll, and you're managing shifts at physical stores, restaurants, or salons.

Pick QuickBooks Time if your crew is at a different job site every day and you need to bill clients for those exact hours.

Breakdown: Homebase payroll vs. QuickBooks Time payroll

Homebase has payroll built in as an add-on. QuickBooks Time doesn't — you need to buy QuickBooks Payroll separately.

How Homebase handles payroll

Hours from time tracking flow into payroll automatically. You review, approve, and run payroll. Taxes calculate and file. Direct deposits hit bank accounts. W-2s generate in January.

Your team can also access earned wages early through Pay Any Day before payday, at no cost to you. Tips get processed and distributed through the same system.

What you can do:

• Add payroll to any Homebase plan for $39/month + $6 per employee.
• Taxes calculate and file automatically in every state where you have employees.
• Run multi-location payroll from one dashboard.
• Process tips and distribute them correctly.
• W-2s and 1099s generate and send automatically.
• Let your team access earned wages early at no cost to you.

How QuickBooks Time handles payroll

QuickBooks Time doesn't do payroll. It tracks hours, then exports them to QuickBooks Payroll, which you buy separately. The time data flows over automatically so you're not re-entering hours — but processing, tax filing, and direct deposits all happen in a different product at an additional cost.

What you can do:

• Export hours to QuickBooks Payroll (separate subscription required).
• Time data syncs automatically so you're not re-entering it.
• Taxes calculate and file in QuickBooks Payroll.
• Job costing data flows into your accounting reports.
• Multi-state tax filing happens in QuickBooks Payroll.

Which one fits your situation?

Pick Homebase if you want time tracking and payroll in one place and want taxes filed automatically without thinking about it.

Pick QuickBooks Time if you're already running your books through QuickBooks, need job costing in your accounting reports, and don't mind buying payroll separately.

Breakdown: Homebase HR vs. QuickBooks Time HR

Homebase includes hiring, onboarding, and HR support. QuickBooks Time doesn't do any of that.

How Homebase handles HR

You need to hire a server, onboard them with I-9s and W-4s, and know when your state updates its meal break rules. Homebase posts your job to multiple boards, lets applicants apply through the app, walks new hires through paperwork with e-signatures, and stores everything. You also get access to HR experts who can review your policies or help you write an employee handbook.

What you can do:

• Post jobs to multiple job boards from one place.
• Track applicants and send onboarding paperwork with e-signatures.
• Store employee documents electronically.
• Get alerts when labor laws change in your city or state.
• Ask HR experts questions about policies and handbooks (HR Pro).
• Set up PTO policies that track accruals automatically.

How QuickBooks Time handles HR

It doesn't. QuickBooks Time tracks time. If you need to post a job, onboard someone, store their documents, or figure out if you're compliant with a new labor law — you need a different tool for that.

What it doesn't do:

• No job posting or applicant tracking.
• No onboarding or document management.
• No compliance tracking or labor law alerts.
• No HR support or policy help.

Which one fits your situation?

Pick Homebase if you're hiring, onboarding, and managing compliance alongside scheduling and payroll — and need it all in one place.

Pick QuickBooks Time if you already have HR handled elsewhere and just need precise job site time tracking.

Pros and cons of Homebase and QuickBooks Time

No tool is perfect for everyone. Here's what each does well and where they fall short.

Homebase pros

• Free to start: scheduling, time clocks, and messaging for one location costs nothing.
• Built for shift work: handles schedule changes, callouts, shift swaps, and last-minute coverage.
• Works from your phone: build schedules, approve timesheets, and run payroll from anywhere.
• Everything in one app: scheduling, time tracking, messaging, tips, tasks, hiring, onboarding, HR, and payroll.
• GPS tracking included at no extra per-user cost.
• AI scheduling and AI hiring assistant built in.

Homebase cons

• Only for hourly teams: not built for salaried office workers or 9-to-5 desk jobs.
• Payroll costs extra: it's an add-on at $39/month + $6 per employee, not included in the base plan.
• Charges per location: three stores means three separate subscriptions.

QuickBooks Time pros

• GPS tracking is excellent: geofencing and job site verification are top-tier for field crews.
• Job costing tracks exactly how many labor hours went to each project.
• Seamless QuickBooks sync for accounting.
• Photo timestamps let your crew document site conditions at clock-in.
• Multi-crew tracking across different locations at once.

QuickBooks Time cons

• No free plan: even basic time tracking requires a paid subscription.
• Per-user pricing gets expensive fast with larger teams.
• Payroll requires a separate QuickBooks Payroll subscription.
• No built-in team messaging.
• No hiring, onboarding, or HR tools.

The bottom line

Homebase is built for businesses with hourly shifts at physical locations. Restaurants, retail stores, salons, gyms, and coffee shops. If you're juggling callouts, watching labor costs, tracking tips, and trying to keep your team on the same page, we built Homebase for exactly that.

QuickBooks Time is built for field teams that move around. Construction, landscaping, plumbing, electrical. When you need to prove where your crew was and bill a client for those exact hours, QuickBooks Time tracks it precisely — just know you'll need QuickBooks Payroll alongside it.

Start free with Homebase for one location. No credit card required. Get scheduling, time clocks, and team messaging working today, then add payroll when you're ready to bring everything together.