Deck builder time tracking, without the timer.
How a deck builder's day actually looks
Most time-tracking apps assume a steady, predictable day. A deck builder's day is the opposite. You're framing substructures and installing composite railings, switching between addresses like Residential backyards, Poolside decks, Multi-family balconies, and doing tasks like Setting post bases and footings, Laying decking boards, Installing fascia and trim. Timers get forgotten. Manually entering jobsites in advance does not match how calls actually come in.
Friction deck builders tell us about
- Difficulty separating actual build time from transit between residential properties
- Forgetting to log mileage for mid-day trips to the lumber yard or hardware store
- Losing track of time spent on small repair visits versus large-scale structural builds
- Inaccurate time records when moving between different phases like framing and finishing
How TradesTimer handles it
- Automatically detects when you arrive at a new backyard to log the start of a build
- Captures every trip to the supply house as a recorded mileage entry for tax season
- Provides rounded billable hours to simplify invoicing for complex projects
- Distinguishes between active work stops and driving time between different clients
Tracking hours as a deck builder: notes from the tools
I built decks for years, usually alongside framing and reno work. Deck jobs look like one clean jobsite on paper, but the real days are broken up — footings one visit, framing the next, then a gap waiting on railing hardware while you fill the week with other clients' work.
When one deck stretches across three weeks with other jobs in the gaps, a notebook gets messy fast. Which Thursday was the stair stringers? Was the second footing visit three hours or four? If you can't answer at invoice time, you eat the difference.
Automatic tracking fixes that: every visit to that address is stamped with its own start and end, weeks apart or not. The job's total assembles itself while you build other things.
Free. The whole app.
The whole time-tracking app is free — no trial, no feature gate, no ads, no per-user fees. (Encrypted cloud backup is on the roadmap.)
- Automatic day reconstruction from background GPS
- Unlimited stops, drives, and days
- Review and edit any block
- Rounded billable-hours summary, shareable as plain text
- Automatic mileage log, exportable for taxes
- 7-day summary view
- All location data stays on your device
Your location history stays on your phone.
There is no TradesTimer server storing your location trails. No account. No sign-up. Your GPS history lives on the device that recorded it — for as long as you want it. The only time anything leaves your phone is when you choose to share your billable-hours summary yourself.
The app does not talk to any third-party service with your location. Nothing about where you've been is uploaded anywhere. See the privacy policy for the full detail.