QuickBooks Workforce Setup on iPhone, iPad, and Android

QuickBooks Workforce moves time tracking onto each team member’s own phone. In practice, first-day trouble with the app rarely comes from the app itself. It comes from two spots: getting the right listing installed, and then flipping the permissions a phone holds back by default. The steps below cover both, for iPhone, iPad, and Android, in the order that causes the fewest surprises.

Does your phone run the app?

Start in the app store, not in the app. Both stores publish whether a given device qualifies, and that check saves a wasted download.

On an iPhone, open the App Store and search for QuickBooks Workforce. Scroll to the Information section. Next to Compatibility, the store shows Works on this iPhone when the device meets the requirements, and the Size line tells you how much storage the download needs.

Android users find the same details under About this app in the Play Store listing. Compatibility lists each of your active devices and marks the ones that qualify. App info shows the download size.

If the store says a device does not qualify, no setting further down this page will change that. The phone is simply behind the app’s current requirements.

Install QuickBooks Workforce on an iPhone

In the App Store, select Get, then Open once the download finishes. The first launch asks whether the app may send you notifications. That prompt uses the QuickBooks Time name, which the app still carries in places. Choose Allow or Don’t Allow. Notifications are optional, and tracking works either way.

Install the app on an iPad

The extra step here is a filter. Along the top of the App Store, select iPad only and switch it to iPhone only. Search for QuickBooks Workforce again, then select Download app. The listing is an iPhone app, so the filter change comes first.

Install QuickBooks Workforce on an Android phone

In Google Play, search for QuickBooks Workforce. Once you have checked compatibility, go back to the listing, select Install, and open the app when it finishes.

The settings that decide whether tracking works on iOS

Check these before you sign in and start tracking time. Each is a switch the system leaves off or restricted until you change it.

1. Turn off Low Power Mode. Open Settings, then Battery, and switch Low Power Mode off. The mode curbs background activity, and background activity is where much of the app’s work happens.
2. If you use a separate battery saver app, set its rules so it skips the Workforce app.
3. Open Settings, scroll to Workforce, and select Location. Set it to Always, and turn on Precise location when your employer requires location tracking. The Always setting matters because a shift runs longer than the moments the app spends on screen.
4. Back out and select Notifications if you want them. This one is optional.
5. Turn on Background App Refresh for the app.
6. Finish at the master switch. Go to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Location Services, and turn Location Services on. Without it, the per-app choice in step 3 has nothing to act on.

Turn on the permissions the app needs on Android

Android keeps these controls on one page, under a name you might not expect. Open Settings, go to Apps, then App Management, and find QuickBooks Time. The system lists the app under that older name. Selecting it opens the App info page, which holds every setting that follows.

1. Select Permissions, then Location. Choose Allow all the time, and turn on Use precise location if your employer requires location tracking.
2. Select Notifications and allow them, or leave them off. The step is optional either way.
3. Select Battery, then Unrestricted, then go back to save the change. Unrestricted keeps the phone from throttling the app partway through a shift.
4. The same page carries the app’s mobile data controls. Check them if tracking has to continue away from Wi-Fi.

After the permissions are set

Sign in and start the clock. Precise location raises battery use somewhat while it runs, and storage questions tend to trace back to the same GPS work. If tracking later stops mid shift, the cause sits somewhere on the pages above, and the battery controls are a sensible first place to look.