Guide
How to track offshore staff hours fairly
The short answer
To track offshore staff hours fairly, agree in writing what is recorded, give notice before tracking starts, pay from approved timesheets rather than raw activity, and review exceptions instead of screens. This guide covers teams in the Philippines, India and Vietnam: timezones, idle rules, patchy internet, local privacy law and cost.
- 1
- written agreement on what is tracked, before the first shift
- 10 min
- the length of each AirStaff tracking slot
- 60 days
- AirStaff’s default screenshot retention
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What should you agree with offshore staff before tracking starts?
Put it in writing, in plain language, before anyone installs anything. Staff who know exactly what is recorded rarely object to it; staff who find out later usually do.
- What is captured: tracked time, activity counts, screenshots and which apps and sites. And what is not: keystroke contents, webcam, microphone, messages, and anything while clocked out.
- When: only while the person is clocked in.
- Who sees it: their manager, and the person themselves.
- How long it is kept, and how tracked hours turn into pay.
Then check local law, which is the employer’s responsibility. The Philippines has the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173), overseen by its National Privacy Commission. India has the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. For Vietnam, take local advice. If staff are engaged through an agency or employer of record, agree who gives notice.
AirStaff blocks tracking until each person accepts a monitoring notice and records which version they accepted and when. An updated notice pauses tracking until they accept it again.
How do you set working hours across timezones?
Offshore work goes wrong on timezones more often than on effort. Set each person’s contracted hours in their own schedule, and decide which hours must overlap with yours for calls and handovers.
Then make the reports speak one timezone. AirStaff buckets reports, attendance and the Monday digest by your organisation’s timezone, and compares each person’s tracked hours with their own contracted schedule, so a team in Manila and Bengaluru managed from Sydney lines up on one dashboard. A red flag appears when someone has not clocked in by their usual start, not by yours.
Public holidays differ by country. Mark leave on the timesheet so a Philippine holiday is not read as a missed day.
How should idle time and breaks be handled?
Decide the rule once and write it down. A sensible default: time with no keyboard or mouse activity beyond a threshold is idle, idle time is not paid, and a long idle ends the session so nobody is left clocked in over lunch.
AirStaff works this way: idle is detected, never counted as paid time, and a long idle clocks the person out. Reading, calls and thinking can look idle, so give staff a way to add the time back with a reason. In AirStaff, a manual entry is flagged on the timesheet, needs a reason and keeps the original value, so the change is visible rather than disputed.
What happens when the internet drops?
Power cuts and patchy connections are a fact of life in parts of the Philippines, India and Vietnam, and a tracker that loses time when the connection drops will be distrusted quickly. Ask any vendor what happens offline.
AirStaff’s agent keeps recording tracked slots while offline and sends them when the connection returns. Uploads are idempotent, so reconnecting neither loses time nor creates duplicates. If the computer itself loses power, nothing is recorded for that gap, which is what should happen.
How do tracked hours become pay?
Pay from an approved timesheet, not from raw activity. Activity percentages are a signal to look at, not a rate of pay: someone reading a long document or on a client call can do good work at low activity.
- Weekly review
- Managers approve each person’s week in the timesheet grid
- Audited changes
- Manual entries carry a reason and keep the original value
- Export
- Approved timesheets export to CSV or PDF for payroll or the agency invoice
- Overlap
- When switching trackers, run both for one pay period and compare
What should a manager look at each week?
Exceptions, not screens. Most weeks, most people need no attention at all.
| Signal | What it can mean | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Hours below the person’s own average | Illness, a blocker, or disengagement | Ask, before assuming |
| No clock-in by their usual start | Power cut, holiday or a late start | Check leave, then message |
| Activity sliding for several days | Work changed, or motivation did | Look at the work, not only the number |
| Several manual entries in a week | Agent issues or forgotten clock-ins | Check the reasons given |
| Agent offline while clocked in | Connection or device problem | Check the connection, then the agent |
AirStaff raises these as red flags on its own and sends a Monday digest, so you open the people it has flagged.
What does tracking an offshore team cost?
Offshore teams are where per-user pricing hurts most, because headcount is the point.
| Plan | 15 staff, 1 year | 50 staff, 1 year |
|---|---|---|
| AirStaff | $198 once | $396 once |
| Hubstaff Team ($10) | $1,800 | $6,000 |
| Time Doctor Basic ($6.67) | $1,201 | $4,002 |
| WebWork Pro ($3.99) | $718 | $2,394 |
Related reading
Sources and how we checked
Prices checked on each vendor’s own pricing page, in US dollars per user per month on annual billing unless stated. Plans and prices change — check the vendor’s page before you decide.
- Hubstaff pricing guide (plans, screenshot caps, add-ons)
- Hubstaff pricing page (trial)
- Time Doctor pricing plans and features (support article)
- Time Doctor pricing page (plan features, platforms)
- WebWork pricing page (plans, screenshots, features)
- AppSumo listing for WebWork (lifetime deal sold out)
- National Privacy Commission (Philippines): Data Privacy Act of 2012
- MeitY (India): Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
Hubstaff, Time Doctor, WebWork are trademarks of their owners. AirStaff is not affiliated with or endorsed by any company named on this page. No competitor logos or screenshots are used.
Questions people actually ask
How do I track the hours of offshore staff without micromanaging them?
Agree what is tracked in writing, pay from approved timesheets, and look at exceptions rather than screens. AirStaff raises red flags on its own, such as hours below a person’s own average, and sends a Monday digest, so most weeks you open only the people it has flagged.
Do I need consent to track staff working in the Philippines?
Check your obligations under the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act of 2012 and any contract terms; that responsibility sits with the employer. AirStaff blocks tracking until each person accepts a monitoring notice. This is general information, not legal advice.
How should I handle timezones for a team in Manila managed from Sydney?
Set each person’s contracted hours in their own schedule and read reports in one organisation timezone. AirStaff buckets reports, attendance and the Monday digest by your organisation’s timezone and compares each person with their own schedule.
Should offshore staff be paid for idle time on the tracker?
Decide the rule in advance and write it down. AirStaff never counts idle time as paid time and clocks people out after a long idle, and staff can add genuine offline work back as a manual entry with a reason, which is flagged on the timesheet.
What happens to tracked time when an offshore worker loses internet?
With AirStaff, nothing is lost. The agent keeps recording tracked slots offline and sends them when the connection returns, and uploads are idempotent, so reconnecting does not create duplicate time.
How much does it cost to track fifteen offshore staff?
At published annual prices, 15 staff on Hubstaff Team cost $1,800 a year and on Time Doctor Basic $1,201. AirStaff Tier 2 covers 15 staff for $198, once.
Should I pay offshore staff based on their activity percentage?
No. Activity is a signal to look at, not a rate of pay. Reading, calls and thinking can all show low activity. Pay from the approved timesheet, and use activity trends against each person’s own average to decide who needs a conversation.
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