The price anchor
| Punchcard | QuickBooks Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 — no subscription | $10/user/mo |
| Annual | $0 after purchase | $1,200 |
| 5-year total | $29 | $6,000 |
| 10-year total | $29 | $12,000 |
Subscription figures from the vendor's published pricing ($10/user/mo, ~$1,200/yr); the Punchcard column is the full price, paid once.
Break-even analysis
Less than one month of QuickBooks Time for a 10-person crew pays for Punchcard forever.
- After 1 year: Punchcard has cost you $29 total — QuickBooks Time has cost $1,200.
- After 3 years: Punchcard is still $29 — the subscription is at $3,600.
- After 5 years: Punchcard is still $29 — the subscription is at $6,000.
What you get for $29 once
- Clock in / out / break. One-click punch board per employee; daily hours computed from punch pairs with breaks deducted.
- PIN kiosk mode. A big-button PIN pad at /kiosk for a shared tablet or front desk; one tap toggles in/out, no admin session, disable it in settings.
- Weekly timesheets. Hours by day with punch-level detail; edits require an audit note recording who changed what and why, in integer cents.
- Approval queue. Submit, then approve or reject with a comment (required on reject), bulk approve, full decision audit trail.
- Overtime flagging. Configurable weekly threshold (default 40h) and multiplier (default 1.5x), highlighted everywhere OT appears.
- No renewal, ever. The license does not expire and there is no per-seat meter — $29 is the whole price.
Pricing questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — Punchcard is MIT-licensed at github.com/bensblueprints/timesheet-approval-mvp. The $29 buys the packaged Windows installer and updates; building from source is free.
Where does my wage data live?
In a SQLite file on your own server — wage and payroll data never leaves your box.
Is this a subscription in disguise?
No. $29 once, no renewal, no per-user monthly fee.
Punchcard — $29, one time
Or get Punchcard plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.