Generate Recurring Revenue: Adding Time Tracking to Your Payroll Practice

Every one of your payroll clients has employees who track their hours somehow. Paper timesheets, spreadsheets, an app they found on their own, or maybe just the honor system. Whatever method they use, those hours eventually end up on your desk for payroll processing.

What if you owned that step too?

By offering time tracking as a managed service, you create a new recurring revenue stream tied directly to your existing client relationships. Here is why this particular add-on makes such compelling business sense:

Your cost basis is essentially zero. Every ProPay license includes a ProClock account at no additional charge. You are not buying new software, paying per-seat fees, or taking on SaaS subscription costs. The platform is already part of your ProPay investment.

You control the pricing. Unlike SaaS competitors where the vendor sets the price and bills the end customer directly, ProClock through ProPay puts you in control. You decide what to charge your clients. You set the margins. You own the relationship.

Your clients already need this. They are tracking time one way or another. The question is whether that process creates extra work for you (messy paper timesheets, missing data, last-minute corrections) or whether it feeds cleanly into your payroll workflow.

Before you set your pricing, it helps to understand what businesses pay when they buy time tracking on the open market. Current pricing from major competitors (as of early 2026):

| Provider | Pricing Model | Cost | |———-|—————|——| | QuickBooks Time (TSheets) | Per user/month + base fee | $8/user/month + QuickBooks Online subscription required | | Deputy | Per user/month | $5-$9/user/month depending on plan | | When I Work | Per user/month + add-ons | $2.50-$8/user/month + $1.50-$2/user for time tracking add-on | | Homebase | Per location/month | $20-$48/location/month (annual), free basic tier | | Gusto (bundled with payroll) | Per employee/month + base | $6-$24/employee/month + $49-$199/month base |

Sources: QuickBooks Time pricing, Deputy pricing, When I Work pricing, Homebase pricing, Gusto pricing

The market range for standalone time tracking falls roughly between $4 and $12 per employee per month. That is what your clients would pay if they went out and bought a solution on their own.

Here is what matters for you: your cost is already covered by your ProPay license. Every dollar you charge for time tracking is margin.

You have flexibility in how you price time tracking to your clients. Here are three models that payroll professionals commonly use for add-on services:

Charge a flat rate per employee per month. This is simple, predictable, and scales naturally as your clients grow.

Recommended range: $4-$8 per employee per month

This positions you below what clients would pay for standalone solutions like QuickBooks Time or Deputy, while still generating significant revenue. At $5 per employee per month, you are offering clear value compared to the $8-$9 per user that major competitors charge.

Charge each client a fixed monthly fee regardless of employee count. This works well for clients in a similar size range and simplifies your billing.

Recommended range: $50-$150 per month depending on company size

• Small clients (under 15 employees): $50-$75/month
• Medium clients (15-30 employees): $75-$100/month
• Larger clients (30+ employees): $100-$150/month

Roll time tracking into a premium payroll processing tier. Instead of charging separately, you create a “Standard” and “Premium” service level where Premium includes time tracking, mobile clock-in for their employees, and automated timesheet import.

Example:

• Standard payroll processing: your current rate
• Premium (payroll + time tracking): current rate + $75-$150/month

This approach works especially well for client conversations because you are not asking them to buy something new. You are upgrading an existing relationship.

Let us run through three scenarios with real numbers. In each case, we will use the per-employee model at $5 per employee per month since that provides a clear, conservative baseline.

• **Your setup:** 20 payroll clients, average 15 employees each
• **Time tracking revenue:** 20 clients x 15 employees x $5/month = **$1,500/month**
• **Annual revenue:** **$18,000/year**
• **Your incremental cost:** $0 (ProClock included with ProPay)
• **Your margin:** Nearly 100%

That is $18,000 in new annual revenue from your existing client base, with no additional software costs.

• **Your setup:** 50 payroll clients, average 20 employees each
• **Time tracking revenue:** 50 clients x 20 employees x $5/month = **$5,000/month**
• **Annual revenue:** **$60,000/year**
• **Your incremental cost:** $0
• **Your margin:** Nearly 100%

At this scale, time tracking revenue alone could cover an additional staff member or represent a substantial boost to your bottom line.

• **Your setup:** 100 payroll clients, average 10 employees each
• **ProPay Enterprise license (100 clients):** $6,060/year
• **Time tracking revenue:** 100 clients x 10 employees x $5/month = **$5,000/month**
• **Annual revenue:** **$60,000/year**
• **Net from time tracking alone:** $60,000 – $6,060 = **$53,940/year**

Even if you attribute your entire ProPay license cost against time tracking revenue (which you should not, since ProPay is your core payroll platform), the math is overwhelming.

For context, consider what this same setup would cost under a SaaS competitor model. Gusto charges $49/month base plus $6 per employee minimum. For 100 clients at 10 employees each, that is 100 separate Gusto subscriptions: (($49 + ($6 x 10)) x 100) x 12 = $130,800/year. Your ProPay Enterprise license covers all 100 clients for $6,060/year. That is a 95% cost difference that goes directly into your margins.

Revenue is not the only reason to add time tracking. There is a powerful secondary benefit: client retention.

The professional services industry averages an 84% client retention rate, according to First Page Sage’s 2026 industry benchmarks. But that rate climbs significantly when clients use multiple services from the same provider. High switching costs through bundled services are one of the key retention levers correlated with retention rates above 80%.

Here is why time tracking is particularly sticky:

Integration creates dependency. When a client’s employees clock in through ProClock and that data flows directly into your ProPay payroll processing, you have created a seamless workflow. To leave your practice, the client would need to find a new payroll provider, set up a new time tracking system, retrain their employees, and rebuild that integration from scratch. That is an enormous amount of friction.

It touches the client daily. Payroll processing happens once or twice a month. Time tracking happens every shift, every day. Your service becomes part of their daily operations, not just a periodic task.

Existing clients are your best customers. Research from Bain & Company, cited in the Harvard Business Review, found that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. Existing clients are also significantly more likely to purchase additional services compared to the probability of converting a brand new prospect.

Every client you retain by offering integrated time tracking is a client you do not have to replace. And acquiring new clients costs significantly more than keeping the ones you have.

You know the numbers work. But how do you actually bring this up with clients? Here are conversation frameworks that work.

Do not lead with a sales pitch. Lead with the problem you already see:

> “I have been thinking about how we can make your payroll process smoother. Right now I am spending time reconciling your timesheets every pay period, and I know your managers are spending time collecting them too. I want to show you something that could save both of us a lot of headaches.”

Ask questions that let the client articulate their own pain:

• *”How are your employees currently tracking their hours?”*
• *”How much time does your manager spend collecting and reviewing timesheets each pay period?”*
• *”Have you ever had payroll corrections because of timesheet errors?”*

If they answer honestly, you will hear about messy handwritten timesheets, employees forgetting to clock in, supervisors chasing down missing hours, and corrections after the fact. According to the American Payroll Association, 80% of paper timesheets require error corrections before they can be processed (Source: HR Dive / EY study).

Connect it to the problem they just described:

> “We now offer integrated time tracking as part of our services. Your employees clock in from their phones, their supervisors approve hours with one click, and the data comes directly to me for payroll. No more paper. No more chasing. No more corrections.”

“We already have a system.”

> “That is great. What I am hearing, though, is that the data still needs to be transferred to me manually for payroll. With our integrated system, that handoff is automatic. It eliminates the gap where errors creep in.”

“It sounds like another expense.”

> “I understand. Let me share what standalone time tracking costs on the market right now: $8 to $12 per employee per month from most providers. Our pricing is well below that, and it includes direct integration with your payroll, which those standalone tools do not offer.”

“My employees will not use it.”

> “If your employees have smartphones, they can use this. It takes about two minutes to set up. Employees just open the app and tap to clock in. We have seen that once employees try mobile clock-in, they prefer it to paper because they do not have to remember to fill out a timesheet at the end of the week.”

“We do not really have a problem with time tracking.”

> “That is what most of my clients said before they switched. The issue is not that paper timesheets fail catastrophically. It is that they create a low-level tax on everyone’s time: your managers collecting them, your employees filling them out, and me processing them. Automating that step saves time on every side.”

When your clients buy time tracking directly from a SaaS vendor, here is what happens: the vendor sets the price, bills your client directly, and owns that relationship. If that vendor happens to also offer payroll (like QuickBooks or Gusto), they now have a direct line to your client and a reason to pitch their own payroll service.

That is a competitive threat to your practice.

When you offer time tracking through ProClock as part of your ProPay license, the dynamic is completely different:

| Aspect | SaaS Direct Model | Your Practice Model | |——–|——————-|———————| | Who sets the price | The vendor | You | | Who owns the client relationship | The vendor | You | | Who controls the data | The vendor | You | | Integration with payroll | Maybe, if compatible | Built-in, seamless | | Competitive risk to your practice | High (vendor may upsell payroll) | None | | Your cost per client | $0 | $0 (included with ProPay) |

This is a fundamentally different business model. You are not reselling someone else’s software. You are extending your own professional service with a tool that is already included in your ProPay license. Your clients see you as a more complete provider. Your competitors see a practice that is harder to displace.

If you are already a ProPay user, you have a ProClock account waiting for you. Here is how to launch time tracking for your first client:

Step 1: Choose your pilot client. Pick the client who gives you the worst timesheets. The one with the handwritten scrawl, the missing submissions, the last-minute corrections. They have the most to gain and you have the most to save.

Step 2: Set up their ProClock account. Export the client from ProPay to create their ProClock account. The account ID links directly to their ProPay client record, so data flows seamlessly between systems.

Step 3: Configure their employees. Add their employees to ProClock with their basic information. Employees will receive an invitation to download the mobile app.

Step 4: Show the client. Walk them through the manager dashboard at manager.proclock.com. Show them how employees clock in from their phones, how supervisors approve hours, and how the data exports directly to you for payroll.

Step 5: Run a parallel period. For the first pay period, run ProClock alongside their existing method. This lets everyone get comfortable without any risk. By the second or third pay period, the paper timesheets disappear on their own.

Step 6: Roll out to more clients. Once you have one success story, the conversation with your next client becomes even easier: “I just set this up for another client and their manager told me it cut her timesheet processing from two hours to ten minutes.”

According to the AICPA, 83% of accounting and payroll firms reported revenue growth in 2025, with the strongest growth coming from firms that have deeply integrated technology into their service offerings. The firms pulling ahead are not just doing the same work faster. They are expanding what they offer.

Adding time tracking to your payroll practice is not about becoming a technology company. It is about recognizing that the data your clients need to track is the same data you need to process their payroll. Owning both sides of that equation makes your service more valuable, your workflow more efficient, and your practice harder to leave.

The tool is already in your hands. Your ProPay license includes it. The revenue is waiting in your existing client base. The only question is whether you start with one client this week or wait for a competitor to offer it first.

See how ProClock integrates with ProPay to create recurring revenue from your existing client base. No additional software costs. No complicated setup. Just a smarter way to serve your clients and grow your practice.

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