Compare · Time tracking
WorkMonitor vs Timely
Automatic time capture with AI-drafted timesheets that a person reviews before submitting.
Written from public materials and reviewed September 7, 2026. Check anything here against Timely’s own site before you decide, and everything below about WorkMonitor is read from the same catalogue as our product pages.
Filling in a timesheet, or having one already written
workmonitor.vsTimer-based time tracking
How the sheet gets filled
With WorkMonitor
Captured as the work happens, with idle detected and split out rather than rounded away.
Timer-based time tracking
Somebody starts a timer, or reconstructs the week on Friday from a calendar and memory.
Corrections
With WorkMonitor
Corrections append, carrying the author and the reason, with the original still readable.
Timer-based time tracking
A cell is overwritten. The original number is gone, and so is the reason it changed.
From hours to money
With WorkMonitor
Approved hours seed the invoice and the payroll run directly, through one shared rate engine.
Timer-based time tracking
Export, reformat, paste into payroll or invoicing, then reconcile to find what got mangled.
Rounding
With WorkMonitor
An integer-cent pre-flight that has to balance before a run can be exported.
Timer-based time tracking
Floating-point maths in a spreadsheet, discovered at audit as a recurring few pence.
Proving the hours
With WorkMonitor
A finalized invoice seeds a certificate the client checks themselves, without an account.
Timer-based time tracking
A line item and a total. The client either accepts it or opens a thread about it.
Who signs it off
With WorkMonitor
Multi-stage approval that refuses a self-approval rather than warning about it.
Timer-based time tracking
Whoever has the file, which is usually more people than anyone intended.
The question we get asked
Our people review and edit their own drafts before anyone sees them. Do they lose that privacy?
The review step stays — a draft is still a draft until it is submitted. What is added underneath is that edits append rather than overwrite, carrying the author and the reason. That reads as less private and is actually the opposite in a dispute: it is the record that proves an edit was legitimate rather than leaving it to be argued.
Proof Ledger — deliverables, and the hours behind them
What WorkMonitor ships, with its real status
- Productivity scoring (score, heatmap, category breakdown, rollups)
- Score explainability / breakdown
- App classification & category overrides + per-app privacy deny-list
- Focus & deep-work analysis
- Workload capacity signal (feeds AI Burnout Guardian)
- BI warehouse export (connector in Integrations)
Switching
Bringing your Timely history across
Nobody switches tools if it means abandoning a year of history. Export yours as CSV and the importer maps it onto our columns. There is no dedicated Timely preset yet, so expect to line the columns up once rather than not at all.
The columns your export needs to line up with
- date
- minutes
- project
- task
- note
Six columns, mapped once on the first import. Rows that cannot be normalised still pass through, so the importer reports exactly which ones need attention rather than rejecting the file.
After the import
Where your Timely history lands
Imported hours sit on the same ledger as everything captured after them, so a week from before the switch and a week from after it are read the same way. Corrections append with an author and a reason rather than overwriting, which is what lets you answer why a number changed long after anyone remembers.
Audit log — hash-chained, including who read what
When Timely is the better answer
You want automatic capture with no manager-facing monitoring surface at all.
If that is the deciding requirement, buy that instead. Nothing on this page is worth reading if the unflattering half is missing from it, which is also why every capability above carries its real status rather than a tick.
Questions
Moving from Timely
Answered about what WorkMonitor does, including where the answer is no.
- How do I move my Timely data into WorkMonitor?
- Export it as CSV and the importer maps it onto our columns — email, date, minutes, project, task, note. There is no dedicated preset for this vendor yet, so the columns get lined up once on the first import. Drafted and submitted hours both come across as entries. Every subsequent change appends with its author and reason instead of overwriting the imported value.
- Does WorkMonitor draft timesheets automatically?
- Yes — captured as the work happens, with idle detected and split out rather than rounded into the total, so the sheet is already written when somebody opens it and the job is reviewing rather than reconstructing.
- Can managers see raw activity, or only the submitted timesheet?
- That is a policy decision you make per team and per region rather than a fixed answer. Whatever you choose, the person being measured can see their own record and the log of who accessed it — that half is not configurable.
- What happens when someone edits their drafted hours?
- The correction appends with the author and the reason, and the original stays readable. Nothing is overwritten, so the question "why does this differ from what was captured" always has an answer.
- Does WorkMonitor use AI to categorise work?
- There is an AI layer — agents and a copilot that answer questions over your workforce data — and each cites the evidence behind its answer rather than producing an unexplained figure.
- What does WorkMonitor cost per person per month?
- It is a published per-seat monthly price with the first two seats free and no card. The pricing page lists every tier, so there is no number that only appears on a call.
Ask AI
Ask anything about your team
Plain-language answers about your own workforce data, with the figures behind them. Pick a question to see how it reads.
Pick a question above and WorkMonitor AI will answer from your team's real numbers.
Also comparing
Other time tracking tools
- WorkMonitor vs QuickBooks TimeTime tracking and scheduling inside the QuickBooks ecosystem, with clock-in, GPS and direct payroll handoff.
- WorkMonitor vs DeputyShift scheduling, rostering and time clock for hourly teams, with award interpretation and labour-cost forecasting.
- WorkMonitor vs ConnecteamAn all-in-one operations app for deskless teams: time clock, checklists, training and internal communication on mobile.
- WorkMonitor vs HomebaseScheduling, time clock, hiring and payroll for small hourly businesses — retail, hospitality and local services.
Take these with you
The software is the easy part of a rollout
Here is what we would send a manager doing one for the first time: how to read a productivity number, what to say to a remote team before anything is installed, and a policy you can adopt as written.
Point it at one team for a week.
Create the account, put the agent on a handful of desks, and leave it alone. On Friday you read the week instead of reconstructing it: hours against their projects, focus and idle per person, and the timesheets already filled in.
Free for two seats. No card, and no sales call to sit through.