# Time Doctor Review for Office and Dispatch Teams > Time Doctor tracks work hours, activity, and app or website usage, with optional screenshots for staff sitting at a desk rather than techs in a truck. It fits back-office and dispatch teams at a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing or landscaping business that need payroll-ready hours exports, more than it fits field crews doing hands-on work all day. Source: https://kitfinch.com/tools/time-doctor Author: Amine from KitFinch Last checked: 2026-09-27 ## In short Time Doctor is a time-tracking and productivity-reporting tool built around desk-based activity: automatic time logging, optional screenshots, app and website usage tracking, and payroll-ready hours exports. It suits the back-office and dispatch side of a trades business more than the trucks, since its core signals (screenshots, screen time, app usage) come from someone sitting at a computer. Pricing runs per user per month across several tiers, detailed in the pricing table on this page. ### Key features for office and dispatch teams | Feature | What it does | Plan level | |---|---|---| | Automatic and manual time tracking | Logs hours automatically or lets a user switch to manual entry for roles needing more control | Entry tier | | Screenshots | Captures periodic screen images as visual proof of activity, configurable per user or company-wide | Entry tier and up | | Web and app usage reporting | Shows time spent across specific websites and applications during tracked hours | Mid tier and up | | Schedules, attendance and time approvals | Manages shift schedules, attendance records and manager approval of logged hours | Mid tier | | Payroll-ready reporting | Generates hours reports formatted for payroll processing, cutting manual re-entry | Mid tier and up | | AI-powered analytics and video screen recording | Adds deeper productivity insights and full video capture instead of periodic screenshots | Top tier | ### Who it's for Time Doctor fits the office, dispatch and back-office staff of a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing or landscaping business, the people scheduling jobs, answering phones and handling admin from a desk, who need accurate hours and activity data flowing into payroll. It works well anywhere a manager wants visibility into how computer-based work time is actually spent across a distributed or hybrid team. ### Who should skip it A business looking to track technicians in a truck, rather than staff at a desk, should look elsewhere. Time Doctor has no scheduling, dispatch, quoting or invoicing built for trades work, so it does nothing to run the field side of the business; a tool like Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceM8 covers that instead. It is also worth skipping, or applying carefully, wherever screenshot and activity monitoring would feel invasive to a workforce that isn't sitting at a screen all day, since that mismatch is one of the more common complaints about deploying it broadly. ### How it handles screenshots and activity monitoring Screenshots and screen recording are described as configurable by team and controlled with privacy guardrails, meaning an administrator, not the individual employee, decides whether a given user is monitored. Settings can be changed company-wide from company settings or per individual user from the manage-users screen, including toggling screenshots on or off and adjusting capture frequency within a set range. Administrators can also restrict or allow a manager's visibility into a specific employee's screenshots, and can enable or disable a user's ability to delete their own captures. This is exactly where the honest limit sits: screenshot and app-usage tracking are built for desk-based computer work, so pointing that kind of monitoring at field crews who are driving, climbing and wiring rather than typing tends to feel like surveillance rather than useful reporting. The feature set reads as strongest for office and dispatch roles, weakest as a fit for techs on site. ### How it handles payroll and reporting Time Doctor ties tracked hours to tasks and work processes so payroll and billing can run without manual reconciliation, and its reporting layer includes activity summaries, web and app usage breakdowns, and payroll-ready exports starting at its mid tier. Its homepage documents native integrations for HR and payroll systems alongside broader workforce-visibility reporting aimed at operations, executive, HR and IT leaders managing distributed or hybrid teams. ### Integrations Time Doctor's mid-tier plan and above document more than sixty integrations, spanning payroll and HR systems along with general productivity and project tools, so hours and activity data can flow into whatever back-office stack a trades business already runs. Add-on modules extend this further, including software-cost insight reporting and dedicated HRIS and payroll integrations for businesses that need a deeper connection than the standard export. ### What to check on pricing Time Doctor is sold across four tiers, from a basic tracking plan up to a fully customizable enterprise tier with private cloud deployment, and it offers a trial period on its highest standard tier before a business commits. Annual billing is described as cheaper than paying monthly. Because feature gates change which tier includes screenshots, payroll exports or AI analytics, check the pricing table on this page and `/tools/time-doctor/pricing` for the current tier breakdown before assuming a feature is included. ### Alternatives Time Doctor covers office and dispatch hours tracking, not field scheduling or dispatch itself. Pair it with a trades-specific platform for the parts of the business it does not touch. - Jobber or Housecall Pro if what you need is scheduling, quoting and invoicing for techs in the field, with Time Doctor layered on top only for office and dispatch hours. - Connecteam if you want a GPS time clock and shift scheduling built for a deskless field crew instead of screenshot-based desk monitoring. - Tradify for a lighter, trades-focused job-management app to pair with office-side time tracking. ### How we reviewed it We checked Time Doctor's homepage directly for its core activity-tracking and payroll positioning and target customer roles, its pricing page for tier structure, integration counts, trial terms and billing options, its features page for screenshot, activity and role-based configuration details, and its help center article on screenshot settings for exactly how monitoring can be turned on or off and who controls it. We did not confirm exact per-seat prices or add-on fees, since this page avoids dollar figures; those appear in the pricing table on this page. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Time Doctor meant for field technicians? Not primarily. Time Doctor is built around desk-based activity tracking: screenshots, app and website usage, and time tied to tasks on a computer. A technician driving between jobs and working with their hands generates little of that signal, so Time Doctor is a better fit for office, dispatch and back-office staff than for the trucks themselves. ### Can employees turn off Time Doctor's screenshots? Screenshot settings are controlled by an administrator, not by the individual employee, and can be toggled on or off per user or company-wide from company settings. Administrators can also restrict or allow a manager's ability to view a given employee's screenshots, so the setting is a management decision rather than something staff opt out of themselves. ### Does Time Doctor feel invasive to field staff? It can. Screenshot capture and app or website usage tracking are designed for monitoring desk-based computer work, and pairing that kind of monitoring with field crews who are not sitting at a screen can come across as surveillance rather than useful reporting. Businesses that use it well tend to apply it to office and dispatch roles, not to techs on site. ### Does Time Doctor connect to payroll systems? Yes. Time Doctor generates payroll-ready reports and documents integrations with HR and payroll systems, letting hours tracked in the app flow into payroll processing without manual re-entry. This is one of its stronger fits for a trades business that wants accurate office and dispatch hours without a separate timesheet step. ### Is Time Doctor better than a dedicated field service app for trades? For managing techs in the field, no. Time Doctor tracks desk activity and hours well but has no scheduling, dispatch, quoting or invoicing built for trades work. A tool like Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceM8 covers the field side of the business, while Time Doctor is better suited to the office and dispatch staff working alongside them. ### Can Time Doctor blur or limit what a screenshot shows? Time Doctor's screenshot settings let an administrator adjust capture frequency and control who can view or delete a given screenshot, with company-wide configuration available from settings. Broader visual redaction options exist in some plans, but the core control most businesses use is simply choosing which users are monitored and who can see the results. ## Sources - https://www.timedoctor.com/pricing - https://www.timedoctor.com/ - https://help.timedoctor.com/changing-time-doctor-screenshot-settings - https://www.timedoctor.com/features Cite as: Amine from KitFinch, "Time Doctor Review for Office and Dispatch Teams", Kitfinch, https://kitfinch.com/tools/time-doctor