The Factorial alternative for construction companies
Factorial is a very wide HR platform: clock-in, absences, documents, expenses, payroll and recruiting. HoraTrack is the opposite. It does one thing, time records on site, and it does it with per-site geofencing, an offline app and reports ready for an inspection.
A vertical product for construction instead of a horizontal suite bent into shape.
If you are digitising the whole HR function — hiring, payroll, documentation, absences — Factorial covers far more ground than HoraTrack and replacing it with us makes no sense. If your problem is specific and happens in the field, knowing who is on which site and with what evidence, a vertical product will give you in a day what a horizontal suite needs a rollout project for.
Why construction companies look for a Factorial alternative
Too much product for a specific problem
When all you need is twenty people clocking in across three sites, a platform that also does recruiting, training and expenses is a burden: more configuration, more training and more things that can go wrong.
The site is not a first-class object
You can model it as a project or a workplace, but it will not have its own geofencing perimeter, its own site statuses or a crew that rotates. You end up maintaining all of that yourself.
Site workers do not want a portal
A foreman wearing gloves, holding a phone in bright sunlight, needs one big button — not an employee portal with requests, documents and notifications. The more interface there is, the more support incidents you get.
Hours do not book themselves to a site
To get the labour cost of each site you end up exporting and cross-referencing in a spreadsheet. It is the same manual work you were doing with paper timesheets, only with better handwriting.
Factorial and HoraTrack, point by point
| What you need on site | Factorial | HoraTrack |
|---|---|---|
| Product focus | Horizontal HR platform: people, payroll, recruiting and more | Vertical time-record product for companies that work on site |
| Unit of organisation | Employee, team and workplace | Site: address, geofencing radius, status, assigned crew and booked hours |
| Location validation | Clock-in from app and web, built for general headcount | Per-site geofencing: every entry is checked against the radius and flagged if it falls outside |
| Hours per site | HR reports per employee and period | Reports per site, worker or period, with hours already booked to each site |
| Use in the field | Employee portal covering all of people management | One screen and one button: the worker sees their site and clocks in |
| No signal | Built for environments with a stable connection | The app records time and GPS with no coverage and syncs when it returns |
| Functional scope | Payroll, absences, documents, expenses, recruiting and training | Time records and site control only. The rest stays with your payroll provider |
| Working-time records | Meets working-time recording duties for general headcount | Meets them with a timestamp, a location and a GPS status on every entry |
| Getting started | An HR rollout project involving several parts of the business | Create the site, set the radius on the map, invite the crew. Live the same day |
This comparison is based on Factorial's public documentation and on our own experience rolling out time records on construction sites. Factorial and every other brand mentioned belong to their respective owners; this page is not affiliated with them. Functional scope changes over time and depends on the plan you buy, so always check their website too. If you spot anything out of date, email us at info@soamee.com and we will correct it.
When to switch and when not to
Stay with Factorial if…
- You want one platform for the entire HR function, payroll and hiring included.
- Your workforce is mostly office-based and sites are occasional or subcontracted.
- You need personnel document management, e-signature and approval flows.
- You have an HR team that will actually use all of those modules.
Switch to HoraTrack if…
- Your problem is in the field: who clocks in, where, and with what evidence for an inspection.
- You run simultaneous sites and need hours booked per site without going through a spreadsheet.
- You want the crew clocking in today, not when the rollout finishes.
- Your crews move between sites and you need to reassign them in seconds from the dashboard.
- You would rather pay for a tool that does one thing well than for an entire suite.
What moving from Factorial looks like
We export your history
You download entries and personnel data from Factorial. That file covers the previous period and is kept for as long as the rules require.
We model sites properly
What were workplaces or projects in Factorial become sites with an address, a geofencing radius and a status of their own.
We onboard the site crew
Only the people who clock in on site. Office staff can stay in Factorial untouched, because the two tools do not compete over that profile.
We wire up payroll
We agree the export format your payroll provider expects, so the switch does not force you to redo your month-end close.
Everything about time records on site
Per-site geofencing, multi-site, offline app, reports and a live dashboard.
Per-user plans with 14 days free and no credit card.
How we digitise sites, work reports and day-to-day operations.
When an off-the-shelf product is not enough for how your company works.
Pick who we compare against
Try it on a real site, not in a generic demo
14 days free with every feature. You create your first site, draw its perimeter on the map and invite your crew in five minutes. No credit card.
Start free trialFAQs about moving from Factorial
Do I have to drop Factorial to use HoraTrack?
Why use a vertical product instead of a complete suite?
Does HoraTrack run payroll?
What happens if someone clocks in outside the site perimeter?
Do I need hardware or terminals on site?
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