Employee time tracking best practices for 2026
Nine practices that separate tracking people accept from tracking they quietly resent — transparency, scope, idle time and what you report back.
Read articleWorkforce analytics, without the surveillance culture
Know where the working day actually goes
Monicrew tracks time automatically, shows which apps and sites the day is spent in, and keeps attendance, shifts and leave in the same place — so managers get answers instead of asking for status updates.
- No card required
- Set up in under 10 minutes
- Turn any module off
18Online now
142hTracked this week
87%Productive time
Ava Costa92%
Daniel Okafor78%
Sofia Lind64%Timesheet approved
Screenshots off for Design
12modules, and every one has an off switch
6platforms, from Windows to Chromebook
$3.00lowest price per user, per month
24/7human support, every plan included
Product tour
Six screens that run the working week
Pick a tab to see the part of Monicrew it covers. Each one can be switched on or off per team.
Automatic time tracking
The desktop agent captures start and stop times, attributes every session to a project or task, and rolls it all into timesheets your finance team can actually invoice from. Offline work is cached locally and synced the moment the connection returns.
- Project and task level timers
- Offline capture with automatic sync
- Editable, approval-ready timesheets
Thu, 11 Sep — 7:10 hrs tracked
Website redesignNetsoft Holdings3:25Approved
Client meetingsNetsoft Holdings1:40Approved
Design researchInternal2:05Pending
App and URL tracking
Classify any app or domain once and Monicrew applies it across the workspace. Per-role rulesets mean a designer in Figma and a marketer in LinkedIn are both scored fairly, instead of being judged against one blunt company-wide list.
- Per-role productivity rulesets
- Category-level trend reporting
- Private-time toggle for personal browsing
Apps and sites — this week, by role
FigmaDesign · Productive46%
SlackAll roles · Neutral18%
linkedin.comDesign · Distracting9%
linkedin.comSales · Productive22%
The same site scores differently per role — LinkedIn is work for Sales.
Idle time detection
Set the idle threshold that suits your team. When it trips, Monicrew asks the employee what happened and lets them tag the block as a meeting, a break or focus work away from the keyboard — accurate data without the accusations.
- Configurable idle thresholds
- Employee-tagged idle reasons
- Meeting-aware, so calls are not penalised
Idle blocks — tagged by the employee
Meeting10:40 – 11:15Explained
Break13:05 – 13:40Explained
Focus work, away from keyboard15:20 – 15:50Explained
Threshold set to 10 minutes here. Calls and meetings are not penalised.
Projects, tasks and budgets
Break a client engagement into tasks, set a budget, and watch it burn down in real time as tracked hours land against it. Budget alerts fire at the thresholds you choose, so an overrun is a conversation you have in week two rather than a write-off you discover at invoicing.
- Hour and cost budgets per project
- Burn-down alerts at 50/80/100%
- Billable and non-billable task rates
Project budgets — burn to date
Netsoft — retainer64% of 120 h
Brightline — launch86% of $18,000
Internal tooling102% of 40 h
Alerts fire at 50, 80 and 100% — before the overrun, not at invoicing.
Built-in HRMS
Approve leave, publish rosters and keep employee records in the same workspace that already knows who worked when. Payroll exports pull attendance and tracked hours together, so nobody reconciles two systems by hand.
- Attendance and shift rosters
- Leave requests and approvals
- Payroll-ready exports
Attendance — week 37
MonTueWedThuFri
AvaPresentPresentPresentLeaveLeaveDanielPresentLate startPresentPresentPresentSofiaRest dayPresentPresentPresentPresentPayroll and client invoicing
Set pay rates and bill rates per person or per project, approve the period, and export a payroll file or a client-ready invoice from the same approved hours. Multi-currency is handled, and every line traces back to the sessions that produced it.
- Separate pay and bill rates
- Multi-currency invoice exports
- Locked periods after approval
Pay run — AugustPeriod locked
EmployeeApproved hoursRateTotal
Ava Costa152:30$28$4,270
Daniel Okafor160:00$31$4,960
Sofia Lind138:15$26$3,595
Exports as a payroll file or a client invoice from the same approved hours.
Features
Everything you need to run a distributed team
Twelve modules that work together — and every one of them can be switched off per team if it is not right for your culture.
Also in Monicrew
The details that make the numbers trustworthy
Smaller capabilities inside the twelve modules. Which plan includes what is set out on the pricing page.
- Employees tag their own idle time
- Per-role productivity rulesets
- Private-time toggle for personal browsing
- Offline capture with automatic sync
- Missed shift and late start alerts
- Overtime and burnout warnings
- Budget alerts at 50, 80 and 100%
- Separate pay and bill rates
- Leave requests and approvals
- Scheduled reports in CSV, XLSX and PDF
- Shareable read-only dashboards
- Email, in-app and webhook alerts
Inside the product
What the working day actually looks like
Two of the screens your team will live in. Every module can be switched off per team, so what you see here is a starting point rather than a fixed shape.
Time tracking across every device
One click starts the clock. Monicrew records work sessions, breaks and project time on desktop, web and mobile, then rolls them into timesheets your finance team can actually invoice from.
01:08:23Running
MarketingCustomer growth strategiesNo limitsToday 8:12
Fri, 7 Jun — 5:52 hrs
- Product designNetsoft Holdings66%1:032:05 – 3:08 pm
- Client meetingsNetsoft Holdings34%3:253:30 – 6:55 pm
- Design researchInternal51%2:309:10 – 11:40 am
Runs on
- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
- Android
- iOS
- Chromebook
Monitoring you configure, not inherit
Set the rules per role, decide what is captured and who can see it, and let people read their own numbers. Screenshots are optional, blurred by default and off entirely for any team that does not want them.
Leaderboard
Sylvia Moran44:2774%41
Fen Zhao39:0163%38- Jen Anong32:1150%29
Captures — blurred by default Off for Design
Weekly activity76%+9%
Today’s activity66%−4%
Security and privacy
Built so both sides can trust the data
Managers need numbers they can act on. Employees need to know where the line is. Both are written down here, and in our Privacy Policy.
Encrypted in transit
Data is encrypted between every device and Monicrew, and each workspace is isolated from every other.
Role-based access
Managers see their own teams and nobody else’s. Permissions are set per role, not handed out case by case.
Admin audit log
Every admin action is recorded, so a change to tracking settings is never silent. Included on Gold.
No keystrokes, camera or microphone
Monicrew measures how active a session was, never what was typed, and never switches on a camera or microphone.
Screenshots blurred and optional
You set blur and frequency, employees see every capture, and the module switches off per team or person.
A DPA for every customer
Our Data Processing Agreement sets out exactly what we do with the data we process on your behalf.
What Monicrew records
- Working hours, and which project each session belongs to
- Which apps and sites were in use, grouped by category
- Idle stretches — which the employee can then explain
- Interval screenshots, blurred, only where a team has them on
- Attendance, shifts and leave
What it never records
- Never: What was typed — activity levels only, never keystroke content
- Never: The camera or the microphone, at any point
- Never: Browsing while the employee has private time switched on
- Never: Screenshots for any team or person they are switched off for
- Never: Anything in a hidden mode — the agent is visible on every device
How it works
From install to your first real report in one week
Most teams are fully rolled out inside a fortnight. This is the sequence that makes it stick.
01
Invite your team
Send invitations by email or sync from Google Workspace. People install the agent on whichever platform they use — it takes about two minutes each.
02
Set the rules
Choose which modules are on, classify your apps and sites once, set idle thresholds, and decide who can see what. Sensible defaults are ready if you would rather not.
03
Work as normal
Monicrew records hours, attendance and activity in the background. Employees see their own data from day one, which is what makes a rollout stick.
04
Act on what you see
Use the live dashboard for today and scheduled reports for the trend. Fix the staffing gap, rebalance the project, or leave a well-performing team alone.
Day oneevery employee sees their own data
Built for people
Monitoring your team agrees to
Most tracking rollouts fail for cultural reasons, not technical ones. Monicrew is designed so the people being measured can see exactly the same data their manager sees — which is what turns surveillance into feedback.
- Everyone gets their own dashboard from day one
- Employees tag their own idle time, so gaps get explained
- Any module can be switched off per team or per person
- No keystroke logging, no camera or microphone access
Transparent by default — there is no hidden or covert mode, and the agent is visible on every device it runs on.
Right-sized
Monicrew for a team your size
The seat band is set by your headcount, so you are never asked to guess.
Bronze · 1 to 10 users
Small teams
A studio, a founder with a first remote hire, or one department trying tracking for the first time. The essentials, with HRMS included from day one.
$4.66per user / month, billed yearly
- HRMS (Human Resources Management Solution)
- URL and app tracking
- Real time dashboard
- Idle time tracking
- Productivity calculation
- Employee monitoring
- Automatic time tracking
- Attendance and leave management
- Standard reports and CSV export
- Email support
Silver · 11 to 50 users
Growing teams
Several teams, real clients and a finance function that needs project costing. Adds screenshots, per-role rules, shift rosters and payroll exports.
$3.83per user / month, billed yearly
- Everything in Bronze
- Screenshots with blur controls
- Project and client time allocation
- Per-role productivity rulesets
- Scheduled reports (CSV, XLSX, PDF)
- Shift rosters and adherence
- Payroll-ready exports
- Role-based access control
- Integrations and API access
- Priority support
Gold · 51 to 200 users
Large organisations
Many teams and locations in one workspace, with the governance a larger organisation is audited on: SSO, an admin audit log and retention controls.
$3.00per user / month, billed yearly
- Everything in Silver
- Multi-team and multi-location workspaces
- Custom productivity models
- Admin audit log
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Data retention controls
- Signed Data Processing Agreement
- Onboarding and rollout assistance
- Dedicated account manager
- 24/7 priority support
Industries we serve
Built for different business verticals
Tailored configurations for the way each kind of team actually works.
Everywhere your team works
Monicrew is available for
Native agents on every major platform, plus a browser dashboard on any device.
Windows
macOS
Linux
Android
iOS
Chromebook
Integrations
Connects to the tools you already run
Google WorkspaceSingle sign-on and directory sync
GmailReport delivery and alerts
Google GeminiAI summaries of weekly activity
PerplexityResearch-time categorisation
From the blog
Employee time tracking best practices
Practical guidance on rolling out tracking, measuring productivity fairly, and staying on the right side of privacy law.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Still unsure about something? Talk to our team — support is available 24/7.
Is Monicrew employee monitoring software or a time tracker?
Both, and you decide how far it goes. At minimum Monicrew is an automatic time tracker with attendance and reporting. Screenshots, app and URL tracking and productivity scoring are separate modules you can enable or disable per team, per person, or turn off entirely.
Can employees see what is being tracked?
Yes. Employees have their own view of their hours, activity categories and any screenshots captured, and they can delete a capture with a note. Transparency is the default, because monitoring that people do not know about does not survive contact with a real team.
Does Monicrew work offline?
Yes. The desktop agent caches sessions locally when there is no connection and syncs automatically once it returns, so travelling and low-connectivity work is not lost.
Which platforms are supported?
Monicrew runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and Chromebook, plus a browser dashboard that works on any modern device.
How does the free trial work?
Every plan starts with a full-featured trial. No card is required to begin, and you can invite your whole team during the trial rather than testing it alone.
How is pricing calculated?
Per user, per month. The rates shown are for annual billing; monthly billing is available at a slightly higher rate. Your band is set by seat count — 1 to 10 on Bronze, 11 to 50 on Silver and 51 to 200 on Gold.
Get started
See where the working day actually goes
Start a full-featured trial, invite your team, and get your first real report inside a week. No card required to begin.
- Free trial on every plan
- Cancel any time
- 24/7 human support