Quick answer
Yes — Punchcard is a one-time-purchase alternative to QuickBooks Time. It costs $29 once, while QuickBooks Time runs $10/user/mo — about $1,200 per year, every year. Self-hosted punch clock, PIN kiosk, approval queue and payroll CSV — no per-user fees. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside QuickBooks Time's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Punchcard if you are an individual or small team paying QuickBooks Time $10/user/mo for work your own machine can do. Less than one month of QuickBooks Time for a 10-person crew pays for Punchcard forever.
Stay with QuickBooks Time if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Punchcard does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| Punchcard | QuickBooks Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $29 once | $10/user/mo |
| 10 employees, 1 year | $29 | $1,200+ |
| Clock in/out + breaks | Yes | Yes |
| Kiosk PIN punch | Yes | Yes |
| Timesheet approval + audit | Yes | Yes |
| Overtime flagging | Yes | Yes |
| Payroll CSV export | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted, data stays yours | Yes | No |
| 5-year cost | $29 | $6,000 |
Where QuickBooks Time still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into QuickBooks Time's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. QuickBooks Time is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Punchcard wins
- Price, permanently. $29 once versus $1,200/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- 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.
The math
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.
Common 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.
Try Punchcard — $29, one time
Or get Punchcard plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.