Track Crew Hours in 2 Taps. Payroll Ready in Minutes.

What is GoodEvent Time?

GoodEvent Time is a mobile time tracking and workforce management system built specifically for event industry teams. It combines scheduling, geofenced clocking, timesheet management, and payroll export in one platform designed for crews working across multiple sites. Event businesses use it to track hours accurately, prevent time theft, reduce payroll processing time, and maintain compliance with Working Time Regulations whilst managing teams in fast-paced, mobile environments.

Unlike generic time tracking systems designed for office workers or retail staff, GoodEvent Time understands event industry realities: crews move between venues, temporary staff work irregular hours, site managers need real-time visibility, and payroll must account for varying rates, travel time, and multi-day festivals. The system works on any mobile device without expensive hardware, with geofenced clocking that verifies staff are actually on-site before they can clock in.

Marquee hire companies, furniture rental businesses, festival organisers, and event production companies use GoodEvent Time to eliminate manual timesheets, reduce payroll overpayments, and give managers instant visibility into crew attendance. At £3 per employee monthly, businesses typically see 19x ROI through reduced time theft, faster payroll processing, and prevented overtime costs.

Why Manual Time Tracking Fails for Event Businesses

Event companies waste thousands monthly on time tracking problems that manual systems can't solve.

Time theft costs 5-7% of payroll. Staff arriving at 8:03 but writing "7:30" on paper timesheets. Crew members clocking in for absent colleagues (buddy punching). Drivers adding 15 minutes to every delivery timesheet. These small inflations compound across employees and pay periods. A crew member earning £12/hour who rounds up just 10 minutes daily costs you £40 monthly, £480 annually. Multiply across 10 employees: £400 monthly in time theft, £4,800 yearly. Manual systems can't prevent this because there's no verification of when staff actually arrived or if the person clocking in is who they claim.

Spreadsheet timesheets consume hours of admin time. Collecting paper timesheets from site managers. Transcribing handwritten hours into Excel. Checking for errors and inconsistencies. Contacting staff to clarify illegible entries or missing days. Calculating break deductions, overtime rates, and holiday hours manually. Admin staff spending 10+ hours monthly on payroll processing at £15/hour costs £150 monthly in labour. This pays for 50 employees on GoodEvent Time. The opportunity cost of admin staff not doing higher-value work compounds the problem.

No real-time visibility creates management problems. Site managers don't know who's arrived until they physically see them. Office managers can't verify crew attendance without phoning site managers mid-event. When someone doesn't show up, you discover it hours later when setup is behind schedule. This lack of visibility prevents proactive problem-solving. By the time you know there's a staffing issue, it's too late to call in backup without overtime costs or rushed recruiting.

Buddy punching is undetectable with manual systems. Two crew members agree: one stays home, the other clocks them in on the paper timesheet. Without identity verification, you pay for work that never happened. Selfie verification combined with geofencing makes this impossible staff must be physically present at the correct location with their face visible to clock in. This single feature eliminates one of the most expensive payroll frauds in the industry.

Compliance violations create legal risk. Working Time Regulations require documented breaks, maximum weekly hours tracking, and accurate records of all time worked. Manual systems lack audit trails. When inspectors request records, you produce error-filled spreadsheets or missing paper timesheets that don't prove compliance. Fines for violations exceed the cost of proper tracking systems by orders of magnitude. Digital systems with automatic break tracking and permanent records eliminate this risk.

Overtime costs spiral without real-time monitoring. By the time you review weekly timesheets, staff have already worked 50-hour weeks at overtime rates. Real-time tracking lets you see hours accumulating and adjust schedules before overtime thresholds hit. A single prevented overtime week (8 hours at time-and-a-half) saves £144 per employee. Preventing this quarterly across 10 employees saves £5,760 annually more than software costs for 160 employees.

Payroll errors damage employee relationships. Underpaying staff creates dissatisfaction and retention problems. Overpaying creates budget variances and expensive corrections. Manual transcription errors cause both. According to the Workforce Institute, payroll errors cost 1-8% of total payroll expenses. For a £20,000 monthly payroll, that's £200-£1,600 monthly in error-related costs. Automated digital tracking eliminates transcription errors entirely.

Geofenced Clocking and Identity Verification

Geofenced clocking combines location verification with identity confirmation to ensure staff are actually on-site when they clock in.

How geofencing works: You set a virtual boundary (geofence) around each event site, venue, or depot. Staff can only clock in when physically inside that boundary. Their phone's GPS confirms location before the clock-in registers. This prevents remote clock-ins staff can't clock in from home, during their commute, or from the wrong site.

For a marquee installation crew, set the geofence around the wedding venue. For festival staff, create geofences for different zones backstage, main stage, camping areas. For delivery drivers, geofence your depot and each delivery location. Staff working across multiple sites during one shift clock in at each location as they arrive.

Selfie verification adds identity confirmation: Beyond location, staff must take a selfie that timestamp-stamps with their clock-in. This prevents buddy punching if John clocks in for absent Peter, the selfie shows John's face, not Peter's. Managers reviewing timesheets see the selfie alongside clock-in time and location, providing complete verification.

The selfie doesn't require facial recognition technology it's simply photographic evidence. If there's ever a dispute about attendance, you have timestamped proof showing exactly who clocked in, when, and where. This evidence quality makes timesheet approvals faster and disputes rare.

Setting appropriate geofence sizes: Make geofences large enough to avoid false negatives from GPS variance (typically 50-100 metre radius), but small enough to prevent gaming. A geofence covering an entire town lets staff clock in from home. A 75-metre radius around a wedding venue ensures they're genuinely on-site without being so precise that GPS drift causes clock-in failures.

For multi-site events, use separate geofences per location. Festival crew working across three stages clock in at each stage, providing documentation of exactly where they worked. This location tracking supports accurate labour cost allocation to specific event areas or client billing when charging by crew hours.

Offline functionality with sync: Event sites often have poor mobile signal. Clock-ins work offline and sync automatically when connection returns. Staff arriving at a remote wedding venue with no signal can still clock in. Once they're back in coverage (or connected to WiFi at the depot), the clock-in uploads with its original timestamp preserved. You never lose clock-in data due to connectivity issues.

Privacy and data protection: Location tracking only happens when staff actively clock in or out, not continuously throughout their day. GoodEvent Time doesn't track employee locations when they're off-duty. This respects privacy whilst providing the verification necessary to prevent time theft and ensure payroll accuracy.

James, Trafalgar Marquees:

"Good Event has enabled our entire team [office to onsite] to connect digitally. Everyone knows their daily jobs and management can easily share event info, load lists, schedules etc to their team. We've seen a huge decrease of expensive mistakes and an increase of time saved."

Scheduling and Rota Management

Event crew scheduling tools help you build rotas quickly, manage availability, and ensure adequate staffing for all events.

Drag-and-drop rota builder: Create shifts by dragging staff names onto dates and times. Set shift start and end times, assign to specific events or sites, and designate roles (crew lead, driver, installer). The visual interface shows weekly or monthly views, making it easy to spot understaffing or double-bookings. Building a week's rota takes 10-15 minutes instead of hours with spreadsheets.

Integrate rotas with booking calendars from GoodEvent Business. When you create an event booking, the system shows which crew are available those dates. Assign staff directly from the booking, automatically creating their scheduled shifts. Changes to event dates update crew rotas automatically, keeping everything synchronised without manual updates across multiple systems.

Staff availability management: Crew members log their availability through the mobile app. They mark dates unavailable, request holiday time, or update their regular availability patterns ("available weekdays, not weekends"). When building rotas, the system highlights available staff and greys out those who've marked unavailable. This prevents accidentally scheduling staff who can't work and reduces schedule conflicts.

Holiday tracking integrates with scheduling. Staff submit holiday requests through the app. Managers approve or decline from the dashboard. Approved holidays automatically block that staff member from being scheduled during those dates. The system tracks holiday allowances, showing how many days each employee has remaining. This prevents over-allocation and ensures compliance with statutory holiday entitlements.

Multi-site and multi-event scheduling: Event businesses often run multiple jobs simultaneously. The visual rota shows all events and sites in one view. See which crews are assigned to the Saturday morning marquee installation in Cornwall, the afternoon corporate event setup in London, and the evening festival shift in Wales. Quickly identify if you've double-booked anyone or need to hire additional staff.

Shift templates for recurring patterns: Create templates for common shift types: "Standard Install (7:00-15:00)," "Delivery (9:00-17:00)," "Festival Evening (18:00-02:00)." Apply templates to multiple dates or staff members instantly. This speeds up rota creation for businesses with predictable patterns, like weekly rental deliveries or regular venue staffing.

Notifications and shift confirmations: Staff receive notifications when shifts are assigned, modified, or cancelled. They can acknowledge shift assignments from their phone, confirming they've seen the schedule. This reduces no-shows from staff who didn't know they were scheduled and provides documentation that they were properly notified.

Emergency schedule changes: When last-minute changes happen (common in events), update the rota and staff receive instant notifications. If someone calls in sick, unassign them, find a replacement in the availability list, assign them, and they're notified immediately. This real-time update capability prevents the communication chaos of texting crews individually or hoping they check their email.

Break Management and Working Time Regulations

Break rule management automates compliance with Working Time Regulations whilst accurately tracking paid and unpaid time.

Automatic break calculations: Set rules based on shift length: 30-minute unpaid break for shifts over 6 hours, 60-minute break for shifts over 9 hours. The system calculates required breaks automatically based on clock-in and clock-out times. When a crew member works an 8-hour shift, their timesheet shows 7.5 paid hours with the 30-minute break deducted automatically. You never manually calculate break deductions again.

Configure break rules by employee type, role, or shift pattern. Drivers might need more frequent short breaks due to driving regulations. Festival staff working overnight shifts might require different break patterns than day crew. Set these rules once and the system applies them consistently across all relevant timesheets.

Break clock-in/clock-out tracking: For detailed break monitoring, staff can clock out for breaks and clock back in when returning. This provides precise tracking of when breaks occurred and their duration. If an employee takes a 45-minute lunch instead of the allocated 30 minutes, the timesheet reflects the actual time taken. This precision matters for businesses billing client hours or analysing productivity.

Some businesses prefer simple shift start/end with automatic break deductions. Others want detailed break tracking. GoodEvent Time supports both approaches, letting you choose the level of detail appropriate for your business size and compliance requirements.

Working Time Regulations compliance: UK regulations limit working hours to 48 per week on average and require 11 consecutive hours' rest in every 24 hours. The system tracks cumulative weekly hours and flags when employees approach these limits. Managers receive alerts before staff exceed thresholds, allowing schedule adjustments to maintain compliance.

For businesses with opt-out agreements (where employees consent to work beyond 48 hours), track and document these agreements within the system. Audit reports show compliant tracking for all employees, with exceptions properly documented. If regulators request proof of compliance, generate reports showing break records, weekly hour totals, and rest period documentation.

Industry-specific break patterns: Event work often involves split shifts or unusual hours. Crew might work 7:00-11:00 for morning setup, break during the day, then return 18:00-23:00 for evening service. The system handles these non-standard patterns, calculating breaks correctly regardless of shift structure. Festival staff working 14-hour overnight shifts receive appropriate break calculations that differ from standard day shifts.

Laura, BAR Events UK:

"We began using Good Event earlier this year and we're unsure how we managed so long without it! It's been a game changer for us in terms of productivity and has really helped us streamline the business. The Good Event team have been brilliant to work with!"

Timesheet Approval and Management

After staff clock in and out, timesheets require manager approval before payroll export.

Automatic timesheet generation: Clock-ins and clock-outs automatically populate timesheets. Managers see a weekly or monthly view showing all staff, their shifts, total hours worked, and status (pending approval, approved, or disputed). No manual timesheet creation or data entry required the system generates timesheets from clock-in records.

Timesheets display calculated hours with break deductions applied. A crew member who clocked in at 08:02, clocked out at 17:58, with automatic 30-minute break deduction, shows 9.43 hours worked (9 hours 26 minutes). Precise to-the-minute tracking prevents the rounding that costs businesses thousands annually.

Bulk approval workflows: Managers approve multiple timesheets simultaneously. Review the weekly timesheet list, verify hours look reasonable, select all or multiple entries, and approve with one click. For businesses with 50 crew members working multiple shifts weekly, this bulk approval reduces what would be hours of individual review to minutes of oversight.

Timesheet approvals trigger in your workflow. Some businesses have site managers approve first, then office managers review and approve for payroll. Others have single-stage approval. Configure approval stages to match your organisational structure and financial controls.

Flagging and investigating discrepancies: The system highlights unusual entries: extremely long shifts, missing clock-outs, clock-ins outside geofenced areas, or hours significantly different from scheduled shifts. These flags help managers identify genuine errors, forgotten clock-outs, or potential time theft.

When reviewing flagged entries, managers see clock-in selfies and geofence locations. If a crew member claimed to work 12 hours but the site manager says they left early, review the clock-out selfie and location. If someone forgot to clock out, manually adjust the timesheet with notes explaining the correction. This investigation capability turns payroll review from blind approval into informed oversight.

Staff timesheet visibility: Crew members view their own timesheets through the mobile app. They see hours worked each day, total weekly hours, and approval status. This transparency reduces "I didn't realise I only worked 6 hours that day" disputes because staff see their tracked time in real-time. If there's a discrepancy, they can flag it immediately rather than discovering it at month-end.

Amendments and corrections: Managers can edit timesheets when errors occur: adding missing clock-ins, adjusting clock-out times for forgotten sign-offs, or correcting shifts where crew worked different hours than initially clocked. All amendments are logged with timestamps and manager notes, creating audit trails for any changes. This protects both the business and employees by documenting why hours were adjusted.

Payroll Export and Integration

After timesheet approval, export hours directly to your payroll system.

One-click CSV export: Payroll report export generates CSV files containing employee names, hours worked, pay periods, and any additional fields your payroll system requires. This file imports directly into most payroll software (SAGE, Xero Payroll, QuickBooks, BrightPay, or manual payroll systems). What previously took 10+ hours of manual transcription now takes 2 minutes: export, import, verify totals.

IMPORTANT: GoodEvent Time does NOT integrate directly with Xero or other accounting software. Hours must be exported and manually imported into your payroll system. This means there's one manual step transferring the CSV file but it's vastly faster than manual timesheet transcription. The export contains all necessary data in payroll-ready format, eliminating the primary time drain (data entry) whilst maintaining flexibility to use any payroll provider.

Customisable export formats: Configure exports to match your payroll system's requirements. Include or exclude specific fields: employee ID numbers, cost centres, job codes, overtime vs regular hours split, or custom rate categories. Once configured, exports maintain consistent formatting for seamless monthly imports.

For businesses with multiple pay rates (standard, overtime, travel time, site lead premium), categorise hours appropriately. The system can split hours into categories for payroll import: 40 hours standard rate, 8 hours overtime rate, 5 hours travel time. Your payroll software applies the correct rates to each category automatically.

Pay period management: Set pay periods weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. The system automatically groups timesheets into the correct period for export. When generating payroll exports, select the pay period and only approved timesheets from those dates export. This prevents accidentally including unapproved or future-dated hours in payroll runs.

Error-free data transfer: Automated exports eliminate transcription errors that plague manual payroll processing. You're not misreading handwritten "8" as "3" or transposing digits from spreadsheets. The hours staff worked are the hours exported, exactly. According to the Workforce Institute, payroll errors cost 1-8% of total payroll expenses. Eliminating transcription errors can save £100-1,600 monthly on a £20,000 payroll.

Audit trails and record-keeping: Digital records include clock-in timestamps, selfies, geofence locations, break deductions, amendments (with reasons), and approval chains. If employees query their pay, you have complete documentation showing exactly when they clocked in/out and which managers approved their hours. This documentation protects against disputes and provides evidence for HMRC or regulatory audits.

Wages vs Revenue Reporting

Labour cost analysis shows whether your events are profitable by comparing crew costs against event revenue.

Real-time labour cost tracking: See exactly how much you're spending on crew hours for each event. A Saturday wedding shows 3 crew members worked 28 combined hours at average rates, costing £336 in labour. Compare this against the event's total revenue (marquee rental, furniture, delivery fees) to calculate labour cost as a percentage of revenue.

For rental businesses, typical targets are 15-25% labour costs. If an event shows 40% labour costs, you've either underpriced the rental or overstaffed the job. This visibility lets you make data-driven decisions about pricing and staffing rather than discovering margin problems when reviewing month-end financials.

Event-level profitability: When integrated with GoodEvent Business, wages sync with booking records. See which events are profitable and which erode margins. A corporate event quoted at £5,000 that required £2,000 in labour (40%) highlights pricing problems or scope creep. The visual dashboard shows labour cost percentages across all events, quickly identifying outliers requiring investigation.

This event-level analysis reveals patterns: weekend weddings consistently hit 18% labour costs (good), but weekday corporate setups hit 35% (problematic). With this data, adjust pricing, staffing levels, or operational efficiency for specific event types to protect overall margins.

Staff productivity metrics: Identify which crew members work efficiently and which require more hours than average for the same tasks. If one installer consistently takes 8 hours for marquee setups that other crews complete in 6 hours, that's a training issue or productivity problem costing you money. Address individual performance issues with data rather than subjective impressions.

Seasonal trend analysis: Event businesses experience seasonal fluctuations. Track labour costs across months and years to understand seasonal patterns. Perhaps June-September labour costs run 20% (acceptable) but October-March hit 45% because you're not adjusting crew sizes for lower event volumes. This insight drives better off-season scheduling decisions.

Overtime cost visibility: Separate reports show overtime hours and associated premium pay. If you're paying £4,800 monthly in overtime (common during peak season), is that from necessary weekend festival work or poor scheduling creating unnecessary overtime? The data shows which staff members regularly hit overtime and whether it's avoidable through better schedule management.

Mobile Access for Crew and Managers

GoodEvent Time works on any mobile device without expensive hardware or installations.

Staff clock-in from their phones: Crew members download the app (or access via browser), enter their PIN, take a selfie, and clock in. The entire process takes two taps and 5 seconds. No expensive biometric hardware at depots or sites. No shared tablets that get lost or broken. Each crew member uses their personal smartphone, which they carry anyway.

For businesses concerned about requiring staff to use personal devices: the app is small, uses minimal data, and doesn't access other phone features beyond camera and GPS. Most event workers already use their phones for work WhatsApp groups, checking schedules, taking site photos. Adding clock-in capability doesn't meaningfully burden their devices.

Manager oversight from anywhere: Operations managers view real-time attendance from their phones whilst traveling between sites. See who's clocked in at the Saturday morning installation in Cornwall, who's late for the afternoon delivery in Devon, and who's already clocked out from the evening festival shift in Wales. This visibility from anywhere prevents the need to physically visit sites just to verify attendance.

Approve timesheets from your phone during dead time: commuting, waiting for meetings, or evening review. The mobile interface shows the same timesheet data as desktop, with approve/reject buttons and ability to add notes or adjustments. Managers don't need to be at their desk to keep payroll processing moving forward.

Site managers coordinate crews mobile-first: Site managers see which crew members are assigned to their events, when they're scheduled, and whether they've clocked in. If someone is running late or fails to show, site managers know immediately and can coordinate with office managers for replacements. This real-time coordination happens via the platform, reducing reliance on phone calls and text messages.

No hardware to maintain or lose: Traditional time clocks require hardware at each location, installation, maintenance, and replacement when damaged or lost. Mobile-based systems eliminate these costs entirely. Your only "hardware" is the smartphones your crew already own. If a phone breaks, they borrow a colleague's briefly or use a tablet anything with a browser and camera works.

Real-Time Dashboard and Notifications

Live visibility into crew attendance helps managers respond quickly to staffing issues.

Real-time attendance dashboard: See exactly who's clocked in across all sites at any moment. The dashboard shows each event or location, crew members assigned, who's clocked in (green), who hasn't arrived yet (orange), and who's late based on schedule (red). This at-a-glance overview prevents the need to phone individual site managers asking "Has everyone shown up?"

For multi-site operations, the dashboard groups by location. Festival organisers managing 200+ crew across 10 zones see attendance by zone. Marquee companies with three simultaneous weddings see each site's staffing status separately. This organisation makes large-scale crew management comprehensible.

Instant notifications for important events: Managers receive notifications when crew clock in late, when someone forgets to clock out after their shift, when staff approach overtime thresholds, or when geofence violations occur (someone trying to clock in outside the designated area). These alerts enable proactive management rather than discovering problems during weekly timesheet review.

Customise notification preferences to avoid alert fatigue. Some managers want every clock-in notification. Others only want alerts for late arrivals or problems. Configure notifications to match your management style and team size.

Staff receive schedule reminders: Crew members get notifications of upcoming shifts: "You're scheduled tomorrow 7:00-15:00 at [venue name]." These reminders reduce no-shows from staff forgetting shifts. They also provide opportunities for staff to flag unavailability before the day arrives, rather than calling in sick morning-of.

Emergency communication channel: The platform facilitates urgent messages to crew. If site access changes last-minute or event timing shifts, send messages through the system. This supplements (not replaces) your primary communication methods (WhatsApp, phone) but provides a documented channel showing which crew members received critical information and when.

How Marquee Hire Companies Use GoodEvent Time

Marquee hire businesses manage installation crews, delivery drivers, and breakdown teams across multiple sites simultaneously.

Installation crew scheduling: Build weekly rotas showing which crews handle Friday installations, Saturday setups, and Sunday breakdowns. Visual scheduling prevents double-booking crews or forgetting to assign someone to a job. The Saturday schedule might show: "Crew A: Wedding in Cornwall (7:00-15:00)," "Crew B: Corporate event London (9:00-17:00)," "Crew C: Festival setup Wales (6:00-18:00)."

Multi-site attendance tracking: During peak wedding season, you're running 15 events simultaneously. The dashboard shows real-time attendance across all 15 sites. By 8:00 AM, you can see which sites have full crews and which are missing people. This early visibility lets you redirect available crew from one site to another, call in backup staff, or inform clients of potential delays before they discover issues themselves.

Delivery driver hour tracking: Drivers clock in at the depot, then clock in/out at each delivery location as they arrive/depart. This creates documented proof of when deliveries occurred and how long they took. If a client claims delivery was late, your records show the exact clock-in time at their venue with geofence verification. For businesses billing delivery time separately, accurate driver hour tracking ensures you're charging for actual time spent.

Breakdown crew management: Sunday breakdown crews sometimes "forget" to clock out, claiming extra hours. With selfie + geofence verification, clock-outs prove they were still on-site when they claimed. This eliminates the common problem of crew clocking out when leaving the venue but actually leaving 30 minutes earlier.

Seasonal staffing flexibility: Scale employee count in the system to match seasonal demand. Peak season (May-September) might have 40 employees at £120/month. Off-season (October-April) drops to 15 permanent staff at £45/month. You're only paying for employees actually working, not maintaining hardware or subscriptions sized for peak capacity year-round.

Marcus, Bristol Party Hire:

"Really great company that really understand the equipment hire world. Very good at communicating and coming up with solutions where needed. Bristol Party Hire has been using Good Event for a year now and it's so much better that our previous invoicing software! Would recommend checking them out."

How Festival Organisers Manage Large Crews

Festival and large event organisers coordinate hundreds of temporary staff across multiple zones and shifts.

Zone-based geofencing: Create separate geofences for each festival area: main stage, camping, bars, entrances, production areas. Staff working across zones clock in at each location, documenting exactly where they worked. This supports accurate labour cost allocation to different budget areas and verifies staff actually rotated through their assigned zones as scheduled.

Shift pattern management: Festivals run 18-24 hour days with staff rotating through morning, afternoon, evening, and overnight shifts. Build these complex shift patterns in the scheduler, and staff receive clear notifications of which shift they're working and where. The system tracks cumulative hours across multi-day events, alerting when individuals approach Working Time Regulations limits.

Temporary staff onboarding: Festival temporary staff might work one 3-day event annually. Create their employee profile, assign shifts, and they clock in with PIN and selfie. After the festival, their profile remains but inactive until the next event. At £3 per active employee monthly, you only pay during months when temporary staff actually work. A 200-person festival crew for one weekend in August costs £600 for that month, then drops to your core team cost for September.

Real-time staffing visibility: Festival site managers need to know exact current staffing levels. The dashboard shows who's currently clocked in at each zone. When a production manager says "we need two more riggers at main stage," you can see which riggers are on-site but clocked into other zones and redirect them, rather than calling in off-site staff at premium rates.

Payroll for hundreds of temporaries: Exporting payroll for 200+ temporary workers after a 3-day festival would take days with manual timesheets. GoodEvent Time generates one CSV file containing everyone's hours, ready for payroll import. This export takes 2 minutes. Even with post-export verification, you complete festival payroll in a few hours rather than a week of admin work.

How Equipment Rental Companies Track Delivery Teams

Equipment rental and furniture hire businesses need accurate driver and delivery crew hours.

Depot clock-ins: Drivers and delivery crew clock in at the depot when starting their day. This establishes their shift start time for payroll. The geofence around your depot ensures they're actually present, not clocking in from home during their commute.

Per-delivery tracking: Create geofences at each delivery location. Drivers clock in upon arrival at the venue, clock out when departing. This documents exactly when deliveries occurred and how long they took. For businesses with contracted delivery windows or SLA commitments, this data proves compliance or identifies which drivers consistently run late.

Multiple deliveries in one day create a chain of clock-ins: depot (7:00), venue A (9:15-10:30), venue B (11:00-12:15), depot return (14:00). This granular tracking supports accurate client billing for delivery time and identifies inefficient routes or drivers who are slow on-site.

Travel time vs on-site time: Separate reports show hours spent traveling between locations vs hours spent at venues. If drivers are spending 40% of their time traveling, that indicates routing inefficiency or geographic service areas that are too spread out. This data drives decisions about depot locations, route optimisation, or surcharges for distant deliveries.

Collection verification: When collecting equipment after events, clock-ins prove crew actually visited the site for collection. This matters when clients claim you failed to collect on the agreed date. Your records show exactly when the crew arrived for collection, with selfie and location proof.

Labour cost allocation to events: For rental businesses using GoodEvent Business, delivery and collection hours sync with booking records. Each event booking shows exactly how much labour time it consumed for delivery, installation, breakdown, and collection. This supports accurate job costing and pricing decisions. If a particular venue consistently requires 30% more delivery time than similar venues, adjust delivery pricing for that location.

Pricing and Return on Investment

GoodEvent Time costs £3 per employee per month, with flexible scaling to match seasonal demands.

Transparent per-employee pricing: No setup fees, no contracts, no hidden costs. Just £3 monthly per active employee. 10 employees cost £30/month. 50 employees cost £150/month. Calculate your cost instantly by multiplying your team size by £3.

Charging per employee (not per clock-in or per feature) makes budgeting straightforward. You know exactly what you'll pay each month based on your current team size. No surprise bills from usage-based pricing or hidden transaction fees.

Seasonal flexibility: Event businesses don't maintain consistent team sizes year-round. Peak season might need 50 crew members (£150/month). Off-season drops to 20 permanent staff (£60/month). Scale your employee count up and down through the system, paying only for active employees each month. This flexibility matches your business reality rather than forcing you to pay for maximum capacity year-round.

ROI calculation for 10 employees:

Reduced time theft: £400/month saved
Employee earning £12/hour who rounds up 10 minutes daily:

• £2/day overpayment
• £40/month per employee
• £400/month across 10 employees

Faster payroll processing: £75/month saved
Admin time cut from 10 hours to 2.5 hours monthly:

• 7.5 hours saved × £15/hour admin rate
• £112.50 monthly savings
• Conservative estimate: £75/month

Prevented payroll errors: £100+/month saved
Payroll errors typically cost 1-8% of payroll expenses:

• £20,000 monthly payroll × 0.5% error reduction
• £100/month in prevented corrections and overpayments

Total monthly savings: £575+
Software cost: £30/month
Monthly net benefit: £545
ROI: 19x return (£19 saved for every £1 spent)

Annual ROI: £6,540 savings on £360 investment

This calculation uses conservative estimates. Many businesses see higher returns from prevented overtime, reduced overtime costs, compliance violation avoidance, and improved labour allocation decisions.

Payback period: Less than 2 days. The time theft prevented in the first 48 hours pays for the first month's software cost.

Tom, Bemanic Events:

"We've used Good Event for nearly two years and it's helped our company leaps and bounds. Not only are the guys at Good Event extremely helpful, but the software is easy to use, reliable and professional, making the clients interaction with us when booking a marquee an absolute breeze."

Common Questions About GoodEvent Time

Does GoodEvent Time integrate with Xero?
No. GoodEvent Time does NOT integrate with Xero or other accounting software. You must export timesheet data as a CSV file and manually import it into your payroll system. This takes 2 minutes but is not automatic. Only GoodEvent Business invoices integrate with Xero, not timesheets.

What happens if there's no mobile signal at the event site?
Clock-ins work offline and automatically sync when connection returns. Staff can clock in at remote venues with no signal, and the data uploads once they return to coverage or connect to WiFi. Original timestamps are preserved, so offline clock-ins still show accurate arrival times.

Do staff need to download an app?
Staff can use a mobile browser or download the optional app. Both work identically. The app provides slightly faster access, whilst the browser option means staff don't need to install anything on their personal devices. Most businesses find staff prefer the app because it's faster to open.

How does geofencing work if GPS is inaccurate?
Set geofence radius large enough (typically 50-100 metres) to account for normal GPS variance. This prevents false negatives where staff are genuinely on-site but GPS places them slightly outside the boundary. The radius should be large enough for GPS accuracy but small enough to prevent gaming (clocking in from nearby locations without actually entering the site).

Can managers manually adjust timesheets?
Yes. Managers can edit clock-in/out times, add missing entries, or make corrections. All manual adjustments are logged with timestamps and notes explaining why changes were made. This provides audit trails whilst allowing legitimate corrections for forgotten clock-outs or system errors.

What about privacy concerns with selfies and location tracking?
Location tracking only occurs during active clock-ins and clock-outs, not continuously throughout the day. The system doesn't track employees when they're off-duty. Selfies are used solely for timesheet verification and aren't shared beyond managers reviewing timesheets. This respects privacy whilst providing the verification necessary for payroll accuracy.

How do you prevent staff sharing PINs for buddy punching?
The selfie requirement prevents shared PINs from enabling buddy punching. Even if two staff members share PINs, the selfie shows who actually clocked in. Additionally, educate staff that buddy punching is payroll fraud with potential employment consequences. Most staff don't risk their jobs to help colleagues commit fraud.

Can we try it before committing?
Yes. Start a free trial or book a demo to see the system working with your own crew before paying. The trial includes full functionality, so you can test geofencing at your actual sites, build real rotas, and verify the system works for your business before committing.

Getting Started with GoodEvent Time

Begin tracking crew hours accurately in three straightforward steps.

1. Create your free account at goodevent.com/time. Enter your business details, create your admin login, and you're in the system. Takes 3 minutes.

2. Add your crew members and set up geofences. Import employee list via CSV or add them individually. Create geofences around your depot and common event sites. Set your break rules and pay period preferences. This initial setup takes 20-30 minutes but only happens once.

3. Have crew download the app and start clocking in. Send staff the app link, they enter their PIN, and they're ready to clock in. First clock-in with selfie + geofence takes 10 seconds. Subsequent clock-ins are even faster as they learn the routine.

Time to value: Accurate time tracking starts from the first clock-in. Payroll export ready after first pay period (typically 1 week to 1 month depending on your schedule).

Related Resources

Other GoodEvent Time Features

• Geofenced clocking Location + identity verification
• Event crew scheduling Build rotas in minutes
• Break rule management Automatic compliance
• Holiday tracking Manage time off requests
• Payroll export One-click CSV export
• Labour cost analysis Track profitability

GoodEvent Time Use Cases

• Event crew management Multi-site team tracking
• Delivery team tracking Driver and logistics hours
• Casual staff management Temporary and seasonal workers

Complementary GoodEvent Tools

• GoodEvent Business Sync crew schedules with event bookings
• GoodEvent Business crew scheduling Assign staff to specific events
• GoodEvent Business job sheets Crew access event details
• GoodEvent Network Find freelance crew through the community

Industry Resources

• Marquee hire industry Installation crew time tracking
• Furniture rental Delivery team management
• Equipment rental Multi-site driver tracking
• Festival events Large temporary staff coordination
• Corporate events Event crew scheduling
• Wedding planning Setup and breakdown crew tracking

External Authority Resources

• Working Time Regulations UK government guidance on working hours and breaks
• ACAS Employment Rights Advisory service on employment compliance