whats-best.ai

Time Tracking & Attendance

Timely

UK / wider Europe Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: 1 of 4 dimensions proven

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Memory AS · timelyapp.com

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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The panel's verdict

Timely (Memory AS; contracting entity Timely AS of Oslo, Norway) is an automatic time tracker: its opt-in Memory app records page titles and timestamps of active web and desktop apps and drafts AI timesheets for one-click approval. The bench's strongest scores come in project, cost-centre & billing, built on billable rates, cost rates, project dashboards, tags and an Invoices feature in 50+ currencies, with Tasks as a $5-per-person add-on on any plan. Its weakest are payroll handoff, with no named payroll system, DATEV export, format or surcharge handling in the evidence, and absence & shift planning and working-time law & audit record, where no vacation, sickness or roster function and no break, rest or retention rule appears — the only retention figure is backups destroyed after one week. Disagreements came in below threshold; the one spread worth naming, payroll handoff 0-1, divides judges who counted the generic API/Zapier path as a floor from those who did not. Pricing transparency sits flat at 2 (tiers named, Enterprise contact sales); sovereignty at 3-4, with the evidence listing ownership, data residency and subprocessor exposure as unknown.

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Speaks for it

  • Automatic, opt-in Memory capture tracks page titles and timestamps of active web and desktop apps, with AI timesheet entries never shared without review and approval
  • Project, cost-centre & billing scored 5-6 on billable rates, cost rates, project dashboards, tags and an Invoices feature in 50+ currencies
  • Tasks add-on at $5 per person is available on any plan for scheduling and tracking deliverables
  • Sheet states no screenshots, no keystroke logging, no data sale, and private timelines with only user-approved entries shared
  • Hosting stated as ISO 27001-certified AWS servers in Europe, with a free trial and bookable demo

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Held against it

  • Payroll handoff scored 0-1: no named payroll system, no DATEV, no defined export format and no night/Sunday/holiday surcharge handling in the evidence
  • Absence & shift planning scored 1-2: no vacation entitlement, carry-over, sickness or duty-roster function evidenced anywhere
  • Working-time law & audit record scored 1-2: no break, daily-maximum or 11-hour rest rules appear, and the only retention figure is backups destroyed after one week
  • Capture in the real workplace scored 2-3 and covers only desk work: no mobile app, shared terminal, badge reader, offline mode or GPS in the evidence
  • Pricing page names Starter, Unlimited and Enterprise but prices only the $5-per-person Tasks add-on; Enterprise is contact sales, with no billing period, VAT treatment or minimum seats stated

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Best for

  • You run a desk-based agency or services firm that bills projects by the hour and invoices in multiple currencies
  • Your team's work happens in web and desktop apps and you want automatic capture with a review-and-approve step instead of manual timers
  • You need project-level billable rates, cost rates and dashboards more than payroll handoff or absence management
  • You want to add task scheduling selectively at a known per-person price

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Avoid if

  • You need a defined handoff to a named payroll system such as DATEV, or surcharge handling for night, Sunday or holiday work
  • You employ field, shift or deskless workers who need mobile, offline, kiosk or badge capture
  • You must evidence German working-time duties — break and rest limits, and retention of records — to an inspector
  • You need absence management (vacation entitlement, carry-over, sickness, duty rosters) inside the system

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The scores

Capture in the real workplace

Show reasoning
How this is scored

How time actually gets recorded across the workforces a buyer has — desk staff, field and site crews, shift and deskless workers — and what happens when the network is not there.

0 — One browser timer and nothing else; anyone away from a desk records nothing.

3 — Web plus a mobile app, but no offline capture, no shared terminal, and corrections are an admin task rather than a workflow.

5 — Web, mobile and at least one shared capture point (kiosk, terminal or badge), with offline capture that syncs, and a correction workflow with approval.

8 — Several capture paths including hardware terminals or badge readers, reliable offline handling, GPS or geofenced check-in where the vendor states its limits, and bulk correction with an audit trail of who changed what.

10 — Capture fits the workforce rather than the reverse: desk, deskless, field and shift models all first-class, offline as a designed state rather than a failure mode, and every correction attributable, reasoned and reversible.

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The Operations Lead

The only capture path evidenced is the Memory app on web and desktop, tracking page titles and timestamps of active apps, and the vendor's pitch is to 'forget timers and manual input' — that's anchor zero for my workshop and field crews, dressed up as AI. There is no mobile app, no shared terminal, no offline capture and no GPS in the evidence; the AI review-and-approval flow and 'one-click approve' are the only workflow elements lifting it slightly above nothing for anyone away from a keyboard. 1 3

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The Payroll Officer

Automatic Memory capture across web and desktop apps is real capture, but the evidence knows no mobile path, no shared terminal or badge, no offline statement and no GPS/geofence — a site crew or shift worker records nothing here. The correction story is one-click approval of AI drafts, which is a review step, not a bulk correction workflow with an audit trail of who changed what. 1 3

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The Works Council Advocate

The Memory agent records page titles and timestamps of every active web and desktop app — thorough for desk staff, but the evidence evidences no mobile app, no shared terminal, no offline behaviour and no correction workflow with an audit trail, so shift, field and deskless workers are left recording nothing. As a council I also note the only capture path is the one that sees the entire working day, however politely. 1 3

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The Agency Owner

The Memory tracker auto-captures every web and desktop app, which is exactly what I want across forty desks — but it is the only capture model evidenced: no mobile app, no offline behaviour, no kiosk or badge for site visits, so anyone away from a desk records nothing. 1 3

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The Field Supervisor

The Memory tracker auto-records whatever a desk machine touches, which is more than a browser timer, but the evidence shows no mobile app, no offline mode, no kiosk, badge or shared terminal, and no GPS — my crew in a basement at 6am records nothing. The only workflow evidenced is one-click approval of AI entries, not a foreman's correction with a trail. 1 3

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The Skeptic

Memory tracks 'any web and desktop app' and that is the whole capture story: no mobile app, no shared terminal, no badge reader, no offline mode appears anywhere in the evidence, so field, site and shift workers record nothing. The one-click approval of AI timesheets is review of AI suggestions, not a correction workflow with an audit trail of who changed what. 1 3

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Working-time law & audit record

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How this is scored

Whether the record satisfies the German recording duty (BAG 2022, § 3 ArbSchG) and the ArbZG rules around it — breaks, maximum hours, rest periods, retention — and whether it survives being inspected.

0 — Hours are summed and nothing else; no break handling, no limits, no retention statement.

3 — Break deduction exists but is a flat rule; no daily maximum or rest-period checks, and no stated retention period.

5 — Configurable break rules, warnings on the 8/10-hour daily maximum and the 11-hour rest period, and per-employee reports covering the recording duty.

8 — The ArbZG rules are modelled rather than approximated: break and rest enforcement with documented exceptions, overtime and time-account rules, the two-year retention handled by the system, and an export built for an inspection.

10 — The vendor treats the record as evidence: tamper-evident entries with full change history, retention and deletion executed per statute, documented handling of on-call, standby and travel time, and published guidance mapping features to the ArbZG sections they serve.

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The Operations Lead

Beyond an 'Overtime & undertime' reporting line and a 'Locked time' feature there is no break handling, no daily-maximum or 11-hour rest checks, no change history and no retention statement for working-time records — the only retention number on file is backups destroyed after one week, which is not a § 3 ArbSchG record. Nothing here maps to the BAG duty, and I would not put this in front of an inspection. 1 3

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The Payroll Officer

Nothing names breaks, the 8/10-hour daily maximum, the 11-hour rest period or record retention; the only retention number anywhere is backups destroyed after one week, which does not comfort an inspector. 'Overtime & undertime' and 'Locked time' hint at a time account and some immutability, but the ArbZG is not modelled and no inspection-ready export exists. 1 3

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The Works Council Advocate

There is overtime/undertime tracking and a 'Locked time' feature, but the evidence is silent on break rules, the 8/10-hour maximum, the 11-hour rest period, retention of the record and any inspection export — nothing maps to § 3 ArbSchG or the BAG duty. The one-week backup destruction is a backup policy, not statutory retention, and automatic capture without modelled ArbZG limits is a raw record, not evidence. 1 3

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The Agency Owner

Nothing on breaks, daily maximums, rest periods, retention for inspection, or an export built for one — the only surfaces are 'Overtime and undertime' and 'Locked time' in the feature list, and a Norwegian vendor shows no sign of modelling ArbZG or § 3 ArbSchG. The seven-day backup destruction in the privacy policy is not a working-time retention story. 1 3

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The Field Supervisor

Not a word on breaks, the 8/10-hour maximum, the 11-hour rest period or record retention — 'Overtime and undertime' is a report, not an ArbZG check, and nothing maps to the BAG duty. Worse, backups are destroyed after one week, which is the opposite of an inspection-ready record. This is built for the desk, not for the Aufzeichnungspflicht. 1 2 3

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The Skeptic

Not one break rule, daily maximum, rest period or retention period for working-time records is in the evidence — the 'GDPR ready / ISO 27001' badge is a data-protection claim wearing a compliance costume, and the only retention figure anywhere is backups destroyed after one week, which serves the vendor, not an ArbZG inspection. 'Overtime & undertime' and 'Locked time' are report features, not enforcement of limits. 1 3

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Absence & shift planning

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How this is scored

Vacation, sickness and the shift or duty roster — the half of attendance that decides whether the time data means anything.

0 — No absence handling; vacation lives in a separate calendar or spreadsheet.

3 — Vacation requests with approval, but entitlement is manual, carry-over is not handled and there is no rostering.

5 — Automatic entitlement and carry-over, sickness recording, an absence calendar, and basic shift planning with availability.

8 — Public-holiday calendars per location, pro-rata entitlement, substitution and swap workflows, shift templates with qualification and rest-period checks, and coverage warnings before publication.

10 — Planning and recording are one system: rosters that respect statutory rest and the works agreement, absence that reflows the plan automatically, and forecast-versus-actual reporting a team lead can act on.

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The Operations Lead

The planning features are project-hours planning — 'Planning', 'Planned time', 'Workspace capacity', 'Capacity management and reporting' — not a duty roster for shift crews. There is no vacation request, entitlement calculation, carry-over, sickness recording or holiday calendar anywhere in the evidence, so my absence half stays in a spreadsheet; that is anchor zero with capacity charts bolted on. 1 2

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The Payroll Officer

'Planning', 'Planned time' and 'Workspace capacity' exist, and a $5 Tasks add-on schedules deliverables — that is capacity planning, not a duty roster. Vacation entitlement, carry-over, sickness recording and substitution appear nowhere; the absence half of attendance is simply absent. 1 2

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The Works Council Advocate

'Planning' and 'Planned time' here mean project hours and workspace capacity, not vacation, sickness or a duty roster; the evidence shows no entitlement, carry-over, holiday calendar or substitution workflow anywhere. This is rubric level 0's world — absence lives outside the system — dressed in project-planning language. 1 2

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The Agency Owner

'Planning', 'Planned time' and workspace capacity exist, but they are about allocating billable work, not vacation entitlement, carry-over, sickness or a duty roster — no absence handling is evidenced at all, so vacation still lives in a spreadsheet. 1 2

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The Field Supervisor

'Planning' and 'Planned time' are project scheduling, not a duty roster: no vacation request, entitlement, carry-over or sickness anywhere in the evidence, and no roster, swap or coverage workflow. Vacation lives in someone's separate calendar — the anchor-0 world. 1 2

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The Skeptic

'Planning', 'Planned time' and the Tasks add-on are project and deliverable scheduling, not absence management — vacation entitlement, carry-over, sickness and holiday calendars are absent from every page captured. No rostering function is even hinted at. 1 2

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Project, cost-centre & billing

Show reasoning
How this is scored

Whether recorded time can carry the allocation an agency, workshop or professional-services firm needs — project, task, cost centre, billable status — through to an invoice or a client report.

0 — Attendance only; no project, task or cost-centre dimension at all.

3 — A free-text note or a single project field, with no rates, no billable flag and no per-project reporting.

5 — Projects and tasks with a billable flag and per-project reports, plus a rate per person or per project.

8 — Multi-level structure (client, project, task, cost centre), rate cards by person, role and project, budget tracking with warnings, and an invoice-ready export.

10 — Time becomes revenue without re-entry: approval before billing, rate rules that survive a rate change mid-project, client-facing reports, and a maintained handoff into named accounting or invoicing systems.

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The Operations Lead

This is Timely's home ground: projects with billable rates, cost rates, a project dashboard, tags and an Invoices feature, plus task-level structure via the $5-per-person Tasks add-on. It falls short of an 8 because there is no evidenced budget tracking with warnings, no rate cards by role, and the integration list names project tools but not one accounting or invoicing system. 1 2

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The Payroll Officer

Billable rates, cost rates, per-project dashboards and a native Invoices feature give a services firm real allocation and revenue math in 50+ currencies. It stops short of the anchor above: no evidenced client/project/task/cost-centre hierarchy, no budget tracking with warnings, and no named accounting handoff. 1 2

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The Works Council Advocate

Projects, billable rates, cost rates, project dashboards and native invoices are all evidenced, with Tasks as a priced add-on — the anchor-5 package plus invoicing. But no budget warnings, rate cards, cost-centre structure or named accounting handoff appear, and the margins-to-profit framing reads as management analytics I would want co-determination over before it doubles as a performance ledger. 1 2

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The Agency Owner

Projects, tasks, billable and cost rates, a project dashboard and in-product Invoices are all evidenced, plus a review-and-approval step before any timesheet entry is shared — that covers most of my billing chain. But no budget tracking with warnings appears anywhere, and the rate granularity (per person, per role, per project) is unstated, so it sits above a plain project tracker and short of rate-card-and-budget control. 1 2 3

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The Field Supervisor

The one thing it genuinely does: projects and tasks with a billable flag, billable rates, cost rates, per-project dashboard, invoices and 50+ currencies. That clears the projects-plus-rates anchor and adds invoicing, but no client/cost-centre hierarchy, budget warnings or a named accounting handoff are evidenced. 1 2

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The Skeptic

This is the one criterion the product actually dresses for: billable rates, cost rates, project dashboard, tags and invoices are all named features, with tasks as a priced add-on — that meets 'projects and tasks with a billable flag, per-project reports and a rate'. But there is no evidenced client/cost-centre hierarchy, no budget warnings, and 'Invoices' is one word in a feature list with no export into a named invoicing system behind it. 1 2

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Payroll handoff

Show reasoning
How this is scored

How the recorded month reaches payroll — DATEV, Lohn und Gehalt, an in-house system or the tax adviser — and how much of it is automated rather than retyped.

0 — No payroll path stated; the month leaves as a spreadsheet someone retypes.

3 — Generic CSV said to be usable for payroll, with no named system, no defined format and no handling of surcharges.

5 — A named payroll integration or a documented export format for at least one major system, covering hours, absences and overtime.

8 — Vendor-maintained integration with a named provider, covering night, Sunday and holiday surcharges, time accounts and mid-month changes, with a lock step before transmission.

10 — Payroll is designed for, not exported to: several named systems maintained, an auditable approval and lock, retro handling for corrections after the close, and the tax adviser given their own scoped access.

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The Operations Lead

No payroll path is stated anywhere: the integrations are Harvest, Toggl, monday.com, calendars and Azure AD — no DATEV, no Lohn und Gehalt, no documented export format, no surcharge handling. The month would leave as downloaded data someone retypes; the API access is a developer project, not a handoff, so this barely clears anchor zero. 2 1

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The Payroll Officer

No named payroll system, no DATEV, no defined export format, and — the part that decides my month — no handling of night, Sunday or holiday surcharges anywhere in the evidence. A generic API and Zapier mean the bridge to payroll is built by hand, which is the retyping I am supposed to be spared. 1 2

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The Works Council Advocate

No payroll path is stated anywhere: no DATEV, no named system, no defined format, no surcharge handling — only a generic GDPR-style data download and Zapier/API as conceivable bridges. The month leaves as a file someone re-types. 1 2 3

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The Agency Owner

The evidence is entirely silent on payroll — no named system, no defined format, no surcharge handling; only a generic API and Zapier exist, which is a path I'd pay a consultant to build, not a handoff my bookkeeper can use. 1 2

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The Field Supervisor

No payroll path is stated — no DATEV, no named system, no defined format, no surcharge handling; the integrations list stops at monday.com, ClickUp and Azure AD. The month leaves through a generic API or Zapier the buyer wires up themselves, which is the retyped-spreadsheet anchor with extra steps. 1 2

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The Skeptic

No payroll system, no DATEV, no export format, no surcharge handling — the month leaves as a generic 'download your data' and an API that someone else has to build the payroll bridge for. The evidence is silent where this criterion needs it most, and silence here means retyping. 1 3

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European sovereignty panel opinion

Show reasoning
How this is scored

Where the data lives, who the contracting entity is, who the subprocessors are, and whether that is documented rather than assumed. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; scored here as this buyer weighs it.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting region unstated or non-EU, subprocessors not named.

3 — EU hosting offered as an option, but the contracting entity is non-EU or the subprocessor list is absent.

5 — EU hosting as standard and an EU contracting entity, but the subprocessor chain includes non-EU providers without an explained safeguard.

8 — EU or DACH hosting with a named data-centre provider, EU contracting entity, full subprocessor list published, and any non-EU processing named with its legal basis.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: vendor, entity, hosting and every subprocessor in the EU, data-centre certification published, and an on-premises or private-cloud option for buyers who need it.

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The Operations Lead

The hosting is at least named and regioned — ISO 27001-certified AWS in Europe — and the contracting entity is Timely AS of Oslo, EEA rather than EU, with Stripe processing cards. But the subprocessor list is absent and ownership unknown, so I cannot tell my works council who sees the data; that lands between the anchors — solid standard EU-region hosting, but no published subprocessor chain. 3 2

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The Payroll Officer

Timely AS in Oslo is an EEA entity and AWS Europe hosting with ISO 27001 is stated, but the subprocessor list is unpublished, ownership is unknown, and the one named processor — Stripe — is American. For payroll-adjacent data I want the chain in writing, not 'Europe' as a region. 2 3

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The Works Council Advocate

The contracting entity is Timely AS in Oslo — EEA and GDPR-bound, but inferred from a footer with no imprint or registry extract — hosting is named AWS in Europe with ISO 27001, and Stripe is named for payments; ownership is unknown and no subprocessor list exists. That sits above rubric level 3 (EEA entity, named EU-region hosting) but well below 5's demands, because the subprocessor chain is undocumented and the vendor's own data-residency statement is not confirmed. 2 3

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The Agency Owner

ISO 27001-certified AWS hosting in Europe is stated and Stripe is the named payment processor, but the contracting entity is Norwegian with no registry evidence, ownership is unknown, and no subprocessor list is published — EEA is acceptable to me, undocumented is not. 2 3

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The Field Supervisor

European AWS hosting with ISO 27001 is standard and the entity is Timely AS of Oslo — EEA rather than EU, and even that is inferred from a footer with no imprint. No subprocessor list exists in the evidence and Stripe sits in the card chain, so the chain is assumed, not documented. 2 3

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The Skeptic

The entity is Timely AS of Oslo — EEA, not EU — and the evidence itself concedes there is no imprint or registry extract behind that inference. Hosting is 'AWS servers in Europe' with no country named, and the subprocessor chain is 'unknown' apart from Stripe processing cards; no published subprocessor list exists in the captured evidence. 2 3

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Pricing transparency

Show reasoning
How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual invoice for their headcount — including terminals, modules and minimums — from public pages alone.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A per-user headline exists, but hardware, modules or a minimum seat count are unpriced or unmentioned.

5 — Per-user prices public for the main tiers with the billing period stated, but at least one commonly needed piece (terminal hardware, planning module, payroll export) sits in an unpriced bundle.

8 — Every tier and module priced publicly with per-user maths, billing period, minimum term and VAT treatment stated; only genuinely custom work lacks a number.

10 — Complete price computability: a calculator or table producing the annual invoice for a given headcount and module selection, including hardware, setup and renewal terms.

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The Operations Lead

The pricing page names Starter, Unlimited and an Enterprise tier that is flatly 'contact sales'; the only number in evidence is the Tasks add-on at $5 per person. No per-user price for the main tiers, no billing period, no minimum term or VAT treatment in the evidence, so I cannot compute the annual invoice for my 200 seats from public pages. 2

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The Payroll Officer

The only number on the captured pricing page is the Tasks add-on at $5 per person; core plan prices, billing period, minimum seats and VAT treatment are missing, and Enterprise is contact sales. With just a trial and a demo button on offer, a buyer cannot compute an annual invoice from these pages. 1 2

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The Works Council Advocate

The pricing page names tiers (Starter, Unlimited, Enterprise) and prices only the Tasks add-on at $5 per person, while Enterprise is 'contact sales' and no per-user price, billing period or minimum for the main tiers appears in the evidence. Nobody — council or buyer — can compute the annual invoice from this, which is itself information about the sales model. 2

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The Agency Owner

A pricing page exists with plan names and one captured number — the $5-per-person Tasks add-on — but no per-user price for Starter or Unlimited, no billing period, VAT treatment or minimums, and Enterprise is contact-sales; I cannot compute my annual invoice for forty people from this. 1 2

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The Field Supervisor

The only number in the evidence is the Tasks add-on at $5 per person; Starter and Unlimited get feature lists but no evidenced per-user price, billing period or VAT treatment, and Enterprise is 'Contact sales'. No buyer computes an annual invoice from this — and the 'ROI calculator' is about savings, not the bill. 1 2

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The Skeptic

The pricing page yields exactly one figure — the Tasks add-on at $5 per person — while the main tiers carry feature lists with no prices and Enterprise is 'Contact sales'. No billing period, no VAT treatment, no minimum seat count, so a buyer cannot compute an annual invoice from what is public. 2

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European sovereignty — proven facts

1 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency EU only ⚠ unverified 3/3 pts 5 Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Sources (14)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage timelyapp.com Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Pricing timelyapp.com Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Privacy policy timelyapp.com Checked 15 Sep 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Terms of service www.timely.com Checked 21 Sep 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Security / trust page www.timely.com Checked 30 Sep 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Capture in the real workplace — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Capture in the real workplace — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Working-time law & audit record — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Working-time law & audit record — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Absence & shift planning — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Absence & shift planning — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Project, cost-centre & billing — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Project, cost-centre & billing — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Payroll handoff — found from sitemap www.timely.com Checked 1 Oct 2026 Details →