Put the right crew on the right site each day, adjust when weather or deliveries change, and see the hours against the plan.
A carpenter may be on two sites in a week. The schedule has to say where, not only when.
An inspection that slips or a late concrete pour moves the whole crew. Foremen need to change tomorrow’s roster tonight and know everyone saw it.
Each job has a labor budget. Without hours tagged by job, overruns appear only after the job is closed.
Foremen build the weekly roster in EZTime scheduling by site and crew, and workers see it in the mobile app. Workers clock in with GPS on site or with an NFC tag at the site trailer, and hours are tagged by job.
Changes go out as announcements by app or text, so the crew sees tomorrow’s site before they leave home.
| Need | How EZTime handles it |
|---|---|
| Who is on which site | Weekly roster by site and crew |
| Last-minute changes | Announcements by app or text, on record |
| Swaps and call-outs | Approved shift swaps and open shifts |
| Hours against the plan | Clocked hours tagged by job |
| Overtime and rest rules | Running totals and labor rule alerts |
A framing contractor runs three crews across five houses. On Tuesday evening the foreman learns that Thursday’s inspection moved, shifts one crew to another lot, and sends an announcement; all six workers read it that night. At the end of the week, the hours report shows Lot 12 is 40 hours over budget, and the owner talks to the builder about the late lumber delivery that caused it.
The business in this example is fictional.
Agree on scheduling rules with your foremen and get qualified advice where pay is involved. Travel between sites, reporting time pay and overtime rules vary by state.
| Measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Scheduled vs clocked hours by job | Shows overruns while you can still act |
| Overtime hours by crew | Shows overloaded crews |
| Changes made less than 12 hours ahead | Shows how stable the plan is |
| Late starts by site | Reveals access or travel problems |
Review weekly with your foremen. A job that keeps running over usually has a planning or sequencing problem.
Most contractors plan from a master schedule but run the job from a short-interval plan, often a three-week look-ahead. The foreman lists the tasks for the next three weeks, the crew size each needs, the inspections that gate them and the materials that must arrive. Each week, the plan rolls forward a week.
Crew assignments come from the look-ahead, not from habit. If framing on Lot 14 needs 6 people for 4 days and the inspection on Lot 12 slips, you can see two weeks ahead which crew moves where.
| Week | Task | Crew | Gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frame walls, Lot 14 | 6 | Lumber delivered Monday |
| 1 | Punch list, Lot 9 | 2 | Owner walk-through |
| 2 | Roof framing, Lot 14 | 6 | Framing inspection |
| 2 | Sheathing, Lot 15 | 4 | Slab cured |
| 3 | Framing, Lot 15 | 6 | Truss delivery |
Your crews are only part of the site. Electricians, plumbers and drywall subs all need space, and when too many trades work in the same area at once, productivity falls for everyone. Put subcontractor start dates and crew sizes on the same look-ahead, and confirm them each week.
Schedule each trade into zones, such as floors or units, so that two crews are not working on top of each other. When a sub misses a start date, the look-ahead shows immediately whose work moves, and you can tell your own crew before they drive to the site.
Weather cancels work with little notice. Federal law pays only for hours worked, so a crew sent home at 7:15 a.m. is paid for the time they were on site waiting or working. Several states require reporting-time pay when a scheduled employee reports and is sent home, including California, New York and New Jersey, with rules on how many hours you owe.
Make the call the night before when you can, and send it as a message everyone confirms. A schedule change that reaches the crew at 9 p.m. costs nothing; the same change at 7 a.m. at the site can cost a few paid hours for every worker.
Overtime is a tool for a short push, not a plan. When a schedule slips, weeks of extended hours often bring fatigue and mistakes, and the cost of every hour goes up by half. Compare the cost of a second crew for a week with the overtime premium for the same hours before you decide. Overtime vs new hire calculator
Yes. The roster shows site and shift in the mobile app.
EZTime is built for your own employees. Many contractors share dates with subs separately.
Often, when workers report to the yard first. Check travel time pay rules.
Yes. Hours are tagged by job and can be reported against your budget.
A short-interval plan that lists tasks, crew sizes, inspections and deliveries for the next three weeks. It rolls forward weekly and is how foremen assign crews from day to day.
No federal rule sets a notice period for construction schedules, and most predictive scheduling laws cover retail and food service rather than construction. As a working rule, post the week’s plan on Friday and confirm the next day’s assignments by early evening.
Under federal law, you pay for the time they actually worked or were required to wait on site. Some states, including California, New York and New Jersey, require reporting-time pay for a scheduled shift that is cut short.
Time tracking for construction crews
Run your crew from your phone
Scheduling basics
When sent-home workers get paid
Book a short demo and see how EZTime fits the way your team works.
Note: This page is general information, not legal or payroll advice. Rules differ by state and city. Examples are fictional.