Home / Compare / HR Duo vs Lumber
HR Duo vs Lumber
Two construction workforce platforms that put time, HR and payroll in one system, built around different payroll rules. HR Duo serves UK and Ireland firms with multi-site rotas, geofenced and biometric clock-in, right-to-work checks and a Duo AI HR assistant, while Lumber targets North American contractors with certified payroll, union and prevailing wage tools and AI agents. Vendor pages re-read Oct 18, 2026; desk research, not tested, no winner.
In short: HR Duo (Construction HR & multi-site workforce management; no public prices (quote / sales)) vs Lumber (Construction payroll, HR & workforce; no public prices (quote / sales)). Facts last checked Oct 18, 2026. No winner declared; not tested.
DESK RESEARCH, NOT TESTED. Compiled from vendors' public websites (accessed Oct 18, 2026). Vendor claims are not verified by Means & Methods Lab. No scores or rankings.
Side by side
| Sheet row | HR Duo | Lumber |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Construction HR & multi-site workforce management | Construction payroll, HR & workforce |
| AI role (our label) | AI features added to established product | AI-first |
| What it does | UK and Ireland HR and workforce platform with a construction solution for multi-site rotas, geofenced clock-in, payroll and an AI HR assistant. It covers multi-site shift/rota scheduling, geofenced clock-in, employee and subcontractor tracking, certification and right-to-work checks, digital onboarding and contracts, labour-cost monitoring by project, attendance synced to payroll reporting or payroll run inside HR Duo (HMRC/Revenue, RTI, auto-enrolment named), and 250+ self-updating UK and Irish policy templates plus employee-relations support. Re-read Oct 18, 2026: its time clock hardware offers PIN, QR code, facial recognition and fingerprint clock-ins with offline clocking, and Duo AI, listed under the HR Intelligence plan, answers HR questions from your employee data, policies and employment law, drafts letters, contracts and job descriptions from approved templates, and guides managers through disciplinary, grievance and absence processes. We changed the label from Not AI-first to AI features added on Oct 18, 2026 because its own AI Assistant page describes these features. | Construction workforce platform for payroll, HR, compliance and field operations, with AI agents for certified payroll and other compliance work. The vendor describes it as "Built for Construction. Powered by AI." The site lists AI agents, a free AI audit tool, and a feature that turns collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) into AI insights you can chat with. Re-read Oct 17, 2026: its Agent Center lists individual agents for certified payroll, union, funding, COI, workers' comp and tax notice analysis that it says can run on top of an existing ERP or HCM (Acumatica, Sage, Viewpoint, Procore, Knowify, ServiceTitan, ADP, Workday, COINS) by API or file upload, routing exceptions to a human; its certified payroll page lists WH-347 automation, prevailing wage validation before reports are generated, AI scanning for missing entries or anomalies, and PDF, XML or CSV export for LCP, DIR, eMars and Elation. Lumber says it cuts payroll processing time by 95% and is SOC 2 Type II audited (vendor claims). The site serves region-specific content; the homepage we were served described Canadian payroll. Re-read Oct 18, 2026: the menus list payroll (prevailing wages, union payroll and reporting, certified payroll, workers' compensation, tax filing, remittances, Record of Employment), field operations (time tracking, schedule and dispatch, equipment and productivity tracking, form builder, job costing, safety), HR and benefits (applicant tracking, onboarding, credential management, a learning management system) and agents including a Paper Timecard Agent and a Certificate of Insurance Agent; the agent page says exceptions route to a person when rules conflict or data is incomplete. |
| Who it's for | Construction and engineering firms in the UK and Ireland managing multi-site employees and subcontractors, often without a large in-house HR team. | Subcontractors through multi-state enterprise contractors. |
| Pricing (as publicly stated) | No public prices on the pricing page (checked Oct 16, 2026; re-checked Oct 18, 2026): hrduo.com/pricing lists three plan areas (Operations, HR Intelligence, Talent Management) plus features included in all plans, and says pricing is tailored to the organisation and the plans needed, with employee numbers one of the factors; quotes via "Request a Demo". Confirm current pricing with the vendor. Earlier note (Oct 15, 2026): demo / contact sales. | No public prices found (checked Oct 17, 2026): /pricing returns a not-found page. Lumber's agent FAQ says Premium Agents are a flat monthly fee based on the agent's complexity and the volume of information processed, with bundle discounts for more than one agent; the homepage showed a holiday offer of up to 15% off modules. Confirm current pricing with the vendor. |
| Test status | Not tested. No scores. | Not tested. No scores. |
| Vendor links | ||
| Sources |
Facts last checked: Oct 18, 2026. Prices change; check the vendor page before relying on them.
Where the vendor descriptions differ
- Starting point (vendor wording): HR Duo's construction page promises to manage your construction sites, workforce coverage, contractors and projects from one platform, for construction services, engineering, infrastructure and specialist contractors; the same platform is sold to healthcare, hospitality, retail and manufacturing, and its time-tracking page says it is used across the UK and Ireland. Lumber calls itself AI powered construction payroll and workforce management software (Built for Construction. Powered by AI.), with Payroll, Field Operations, HR and Benefits, Financial Services and AI Agents menus.
- Time and attendance: HR Duo lists clock-ins from mobile, tablet, kiosk or desktop with geofencing, its own time clock hardware with PIN, QR code, facial recognition and fingerprint options and offline clocking, timesheets built from clock data with one-click approval, rules for breaks, overtime and rounding, live attendance with lateness alerts across sites, and Bradford Factor absence tracking. Lumber lists time tracking, schedule and dispatch, field data capture, equipment and productivity tracking, a form builder, job costing and safety management, plus a Paper Timecard Agent.
- Payroll rules: HR Duo connects approved hours to payroll reporting or runs payroll inside HR Duo (HMRC and Revenue filings, RTI and auto-enrolment named in our Oct 16 read) and sells 250+ UK and Irish policy templates with employee-relations support. Lumber lists prevailing wages, union payroll and reporting, certified payroll (WH-347 automation, wage checks before reports are generated and exports for LCPtracker, DIR, eMars and Elation in our Oct 17 read), workers' compensation, tax filing and remittances, and a Record of Employment item, a Canadian form.
- Subcontractors and onboarding: HR Duo tracks subcontractor hours by geofence and syncs them to payroll, stores contracts and certifications centrally, and onboards returning or new subbies digitally: contracts sent for e-signature, a document checklist, and right-to-work and certification checks before the start date. Lumber lists HR, applicant tracking, onboarding, benefits administration, credential management, an organizational chart and a learning management system, and a Certificate of Insurance Agent for subcontractor COIs.
- AI: HR Duo now describes Duo AI, an assistant built into the platform that answers HR questions from your employee data, company policies, its employment guidance and employment law, escalates when HR should step in, drafts HR letters, contracts, policy updates and job descriptions from approved templates for review and e-signature, and walks managers through disciplinary, grievance, absence and performance processes with warnings when steps are missed; it says it uses no generic internet searches. We changed HR Duo's label from Not AI-first to AI features added on Oct 18, 2026. Lumber keeps its AI-first label: its agents for certified payroll reporting, union rules, funding, paper timecards and certificates of insurance run on top of an existing ERP or HCM (Acumatica, ADP, Workday, COINS, Sage, Viewpoint and QuickBooks named) by API or CSV, and route exceptions to a person when rules conflict or data is incomplete.
- Pricing: neither publishes prices. HR Duo prices by workforce size and the plans chosen (Operations, HR Intelligence, which lists the AI Assistant, Talent Management and Payroll); every plan includes employee profiles, analytics, the mobile app, self-service, subcontractor records, a skills matrix, document storage and custom reports. Lumber's /pricing returns a not-found page; its agent FAQ (Oct 17 read) says Premium Agents are a flat monthly fee based on complexity and volume, with bundle discounts. Not used here: HR Duo's hours-saved, accuracy and scheduling-speed counters, which did not render in our fetch, and its customer quotes and logos, and Lumber's processing-time claim and case studies.
Paraphrased from the sources listed above. Vendor claims are reported as claims.
What we can't tell you yet
Which tool is better for your work. That needs testing on the same package with a verified answer key. Planned measures for this comparison:
- Whether HR Duo supports any US or Canadian payroll rules, or Lumber any UK or Irish ones; each site names only its own region's rules
- How each records hours for subcontractor crews who are not on your payroll, and what the subcontractor has to install
- What either costs for your headcount and modules
See the methodology and leaderboard status.
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