Union timesheet & payroll softwareTimesheets that already know the union rules
Keep your payroll provider. Workers enter hours once; Appello calculates and approves hours, premiums and allowances, then exports the file your bookkeeper runs.
The weekly timesheet matrix: every worker, every day, one status bar. Approve one, approve the crew, lock the week.
- Approve / reject / bulk approve
- Two-level approval: supervisor then admin
- Lock the payroll week; an admin unlocks it for changes
- Approved timestamp on every record
Insulation, mechanical and electrical contractors running on Appello
What changes in the office on Monday
Union payroll is a rules engine your spreadsheet was never built to be. One missed premium and the steward is on the phone.
Payroll stops being a re-typing job
Hours arrive once, priced against the agreement. Nobody re-types a paper sheet on Sunday night.
The premium is right before anyone approves it
Trade level, wage region and travel zone resolve on the row — not in the bookkeeper's head.
Friday's hours are on the job by Friday
An approved row lands on the cost code the same day, so the job cost you read on Friday is the job you ran.
Counted across every Appello customer account, 2 September 2026.
One week, start to finish
A shift starts at 6:58 in a truck outside the gate and ends as a payroll file your bookkeeper runs. Everything on this page is in the product today. Those with a page of their own link to it.
In the field
Hours start where the work does.
Timesheet matrix
Every worker, every day, one status bar.Time clock app
Start and end the shift on the phone, job already picked.GPS & geofencing
A radius per job; punches outside it get flagged.Foreman bulk crew entry
Twelve people's hours in the time it takes to enter one.Cost-code time allocation
Split a day across cost codes so labour lands on the right line.Worked vs billed hours
Pay at one trade level, bill at another, with rounding rules.The agreement does the math
Before anyone approves anything.
Union payroll & CBA rules
Trade level and agreement resolve the rate on every row.Overtime rules
Daily and weekly thresholds split the hours in bulk entry.Prevailing wage & wage regions
The right rate for the region the work happened in.Travel pay & zones
Versioned rate cards, per kilometre or per zone.Board, per diem & allowances
Board, parking and site allowances on the row.Break-time allowances
Break time from the agreement, added without anyone remembering.Closing the week
Friday afternoon, not Sunday night.
Timesheet approvals
Approve a row, a crew or the week; reject with a reason.Two-level approval
Supervisor first, then admin, with a level-skip permission.Payroll week lock
Lock the week; an administrator must unlock it before changes.Payroll exports
CSV, Sage 50, QuickBooks and other payroll formats.Timesheet reports
Payroll, employee and job-employee reports.Everything attached to the same week
The rest of what a pay period drags along.
Worker expenses
Receipt photo from the phone, coded to job and cost code.Leave & vacation
Requests and approvals that show on the schedule.Union halls
Which hall dispatched the worker, kept on the record.Employment agreements & rates
Versioned agreements with rate labels behind every rate.
“Since adopting Appello, we have one person running payroll now, which frees up two other administrative people to continue on with day-to-day tasks.”
Why trade contractors pick Appello
The union engine is the product, not a setting
Trade levels, wage regions, versioned agreements, travel rate cards and overtime rule sets are first-class records — the same records the schedule and the job cost read.
Built for ICI sub-trades, not adapted from service
Insulation, sheet metal, HVAC, electrical, scaffold, firestop — crews working under a GC on hospitals, plants and outages. That is the only customer we build for.
Honest about what is built
Everything on this page is in the product today.
Your job in Appello
Your trade
Clock in from the truck, not the trailer
The mobile app checks the geofence and shows the required forms for the day before the shift starts.
- Clock in / out with GPS check
- Daily JHA and toolbox talk status before start
- Notes on the entry
- Expense with receipt photo, leave requests
Timesheets work with
One record per job, per worker, per asset. The modules share it.
Questions we get about timesheets
Does Appello replace my payroll provider?
No. Appello calculates hours, premiums and allowances and exports an approved file in the format your accounting system takes (CSV, Sage 50, QuickBooks and other payroll formats) that your payroll provider or bookkeeper runs. You keep your payroll system.
Can a worker be paid at two trade levels in one day?
Yes. Each timesheet row carries its own job and trade level, so an apprentice hour and a journeyman hour on the same day are calculated separately and land on the right cost code.
How does geofenced clock-in work?
Each job has a geofence radius. When a worker clocks in from the mobile app, Appello records the GPS position and flags any clock-in outside the fence. Leaving the site during a shift can trigger a notification to the people watching that job.
What stops someone editing hours after payroll runs?
Locking the payroll week. Once locked, timesheets in that week cannot be changed without an admin unlocking it, and every approval carries a timestamp.
Ready to run payroll from approved timesheets?
Bring a real pay period to the demo. We'll show you the same week in Appello, premiums included.
Score your operation in 8 minutes
22 questions on how your office runs today. You get a scored report and the three things worth fixing first — no call required.
Start the scorecard