Clock Clerk vs Workday: an honest comparison
Workday is the HR, payroll and finance system of large organizations, and its time tracking and professional services automation live inside it. Clock Clerk is the hours, boards and approvals of a small firm, with a published price. Here is where each one wins.
Checked against Workday's product and help pages in November 2026. Workday publishes no prices, so the cost below is Clock Clerk's alone; ask Workday for a quote.
Side by side, question by question
| Question | Clock Clerk | Workday |
|---|---|---|
| Timesheet approvals | Every plan, Free included. One reviewer approves each person's calendar month. Approved hours are locked, and a send-back carries its reason. | Yes, in Time Tracking. Approvals follow the business process you configure, from the manager to the project manager, with mass approval and checks against labor rules. |
| Project boards | Every plan. A board per project with your own columns; each card has an hour estimate and its own thread. No Gantt, sprints or dependencies. | Project plans, not boards. Workday Projects has phases, tasks, assigned resources and a timeline; we found no card board. |
| Client collaboration | Starter and up. Clients join a project's threads as guests, at no charge. They do not see boards, hours or invoices in the app. | A customer portal for invoices, statements and card payments, with Workday Financials. We found no shared project conversation. |
| Invoices from approved time | Team. A draft takes the client's approved, billable hours at your rates and locks them while the invoice stands. US dollars, one tax rate, no online payment. | Project Billing, with PSA and Workday Financials. Time and expense, fixed fee, milestone and retainer billing, with revenue recognition. |
| Timer and mobile app | Neither. Hours are typed per day and task in the browser, which fits a phone screen. No timer, idle detection or app to install. | Yes. A mobile app with check-in and check-out, reminders when a worker reaches a job site, and time clocks. |
| Scheduling and time off | No. A holiday calendar lowers targets on public holidays, but there is no capacity plan, leave request or balance. | Yes. Absence management, shift scheduling and skills-based resource management, tied to payroll. |
| Accounting export | Team. Hours, costs and expenses go to QuickBooks Online or Desktop; Enterprise adds other ERPs. Invoices stay in Clock Clerk. | It is the accounting system, if you run Workday Financials. Otherwise it connects through its integration tools. |
| Who is charged | Only the people who log hours that month. Approvers, administrators, finance readers and client guests are free. | Every employee, as a yearly subscription on a contract of several years, quoted by Workday's sales team. |
| Free plan | Up to 3 people, 10 active projects and 20 clients, with approvals, boards and expenses. | None. Workday is sold through a demo and a quote; we found no self-service trial. |
| Sign-in and single sign-on | Single sign-on from Starter, at $3 a filer: Okta, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or any OpenID Connect provider. Free signs in with a password, with two-step sign-in and passkeys. Provisioning from Okta or Entra ID over SCIM is on Enterprise. | Through your identity provider. Workday signs people in over SAML from Okta, Microsoft Entra ID and other providers, set up as part of a Workday deployment. |
What it costs a 15-person company
Fifteen people who all log time. Workday does not publish prices, and its packages for mid-sized companies are built for organizations of several hundred employees and more, so there is no Workday figure we could put beside these.
| Product and plan | Per person / month | 15 people / month | 15 people / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clock Clerk Starter, for up to 15 people who log hours: approvals, boards, expenses and client threads, without invoices | $3 | $45 | $540 |
| Clock Clerk Team: adds invoices, contractors and the QuickBooks export | $6 | $90 | $1,080 |
| Clock Clerk Team, when 3 of the 15 only approve and log no hours | $6 | $72 | $864 |
| Workday Time Tracking with HCM, or Professional Services Automation with Financials | Not published: quoted by Workday, per employee, on a contract of several years, with implementation on top | ||
Clock Clerk bills each month for the people who logged hours in it. There is no annual plan, so there is no annual discount either. List prices in US dollars, before tax.
Clockify, Paymo, Productive, Scoro, ClickUp and Workday are trademarks of their owners, who have not reviewed or endorsed this page. Their plans and prices are given as published on the date at the top.
When Workday is the better choice
Workday is the system of record for people and money in large organizations. Choose it over Clock Clerk if any of these is what you need.
You already run Workday
If your HR, payroll or finance is in Workday, its time tracking feeds them without a connector, and your people sign in to one system. Clock Clerk on Enterprise can send its hours there, but it is a second system.
Hourly staff, shifts and payroll
Workday schedules shifts, applies overtime and labor rules, and pays the hours it records. Clock Clerk records project hours; it does not run payroll or shifts.
Full services finance
Workday bills fixed fees, milestones and retainers, recognizes revenue, and works across currencies and legal entities. Clock Clerk's invoices are time and materials, in US dollars, with one tax rate.
Thousands of people in many countries
Workday is built for large organizations, with configurable approval chains, audit and support for many countries. Clock Clerk is built for firms of a few to a few hundred people.
When Clock Clerk is the better choice
Clock Clerk does far less than Workday, and is in use the same day.
You are 15 people, not hundreds
Workday's smallest packages are aimed at organizations with hundreds of employees. Up to three people use Clock Clerk free, and the cost table above is the whole price.
You want to start this week
Clock Clerk needs no implementation project: sign up, add your clients and projects, and log hours the same day. A Workday rollout takes months and usually a partner.
No contract to sign
Starter and Team are billed monthly for the people who logged hours, and you can stop at the end of any month.
Boards and client threads next to the hours
Each project has a board, and clients join its threads as guests at no charge. In Workday, project plans and time sit apart from any conversation with the client.
Asked while comparing
Can Clock Clerk send our hours to Workday?
Yes, on Enterprise. Approved days go to Workday Time Tracking as time entries and, with Workday Financials, their cost goes to the project as well. A correction after export is sent as a reversal and a new entry. Some firms keep Workday for HR and payroll and use Clock Clerk for project hours, boards and client threads.
Why is there no Workday price in the cost table?
Because Workday does not publish one. It quotes each customer on a contract of several years, priced by the number of employees and the modules chosen, and implementation is paid separately. Advisers who publish buyers' figures report annual costs in six figures even for its smaller customers, but we could not check those against Workday.
Why does a Clock Clerk page say where the other product is better?
Because a trial would show you the gaps anyway, a week later. These pages are checked against each product's published plans and help pages on the date at the top. If something here is wrong or has changed, write to us and we will correct it.
Try it on a month of your own hours
Thirty days of the Team plan, no credit card required. When the trial ends, your data stays and stays readable. Start with your work email and set a password from the link we send you.