A timesheet is a record of the amount of time an employee has spent at work, on a particular job, project or working for a specific client. This information could be recorded on paper, a spreadsheet or in a cloud software system such as our timesheet module. By keeping track of the time an employee starts and finishes work, as well as any breaks they have taken, a timesheet can be used to calculate the employee’s pay for the day, week or month.
As project-based work has become more commonplace, timesheets aren’t just used to calculate payroll. Project or client based timesheets are more detailed records showing the amount of time spent on each project or client, which means they can be used for billing purposes and to help with project management. These types of timesheets are also useful for HR Professionals to analyse the activities being carried out and the amount of time taken which could help with workforce planning.
Did you know that Natural HR came into existence because of paper-based timesheets?
In 2010, Sarah Dowzell was running a small cleaning business and her remote team would complete the paper timesheet, shown below and post it to Sarah so that she could process the weekly payroll. Sometimes staff would forget to send their timesheet or occasionally they would get lost in the post which leads Sarah to look for a more efficient way to keep track of working hours…que the first version of Natural HR as she couldn’t find anything in existence!
