How to Fill Out a Timesheet of Employees Correctly

Keeping track of your employee’s hours is an important part of any business.

Your employees need to be properly compensated for their time. And as a business owner, you want to make sure that you’re not paying them too much or too little.

Timesheets are a great way to keep track of the hours each of your employees has worked. They are a tried and trusted method of time tracking.

But what exactly is a timesheet? And how do you fill out a timesheet correctly?

Let’s take a closer look.

Here’s What We’ll Cover:

What Is a Timesheet?

How to Make a Timesheet

How to Fill Out a Timesheet

Key Takeaways

What Is a Timesheet?

A timesheet is a diverse and multifunctional tool.

The most common use of a timesheet is to allow you to record the amount of time an employee has worked. This can be the number of hours in a shift, or the number of hours worked on a specific task.

These timesheets are then handed over to your accounting and finance department which are then used for payroll.

In project management, timesheets are a great way for businesses to keep track of their time and keep projects on track.

They can also be used as a management tool for expense tracking or to estimate the availability of their team.

How to Make a Timesheet

There are a number of methods and ways to create a timesheet.

The simplest way is a physical timesheet. This is a cheap and effective way to keep track of your time. The problem with physical timesheets is that they lead to a build-up of paperwork.

Paper timesheets are also easily misplaced or lost. Your accounting department will have to have stringent filing procedures in place which takes up time.

A much more effective way to make a timesheet is by using online timesheet software. This allows you to keep everything organized online. This in turn allows your payroll department to be far more streamlined and efficient.

How to Fill Out a Timesheet

Most timesheets are done on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. They can also be done on a per-project basis.

Here are the steps you need to follow to properly fill out any of these common timesheets:

1. Enter the Employee’s Name

Here you should fill out the employee’s full, legal name whose hours you are recording.

2. Provide the Date or the Date Range

Next up you need to add the date.

As mentioned above, timesheets tend to be on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

It’s vital that you enter the correct information for payroll, tax and audit purposes. This is because inaccurate records and details can create issues for your business.

3. Fill in the Task Details

This should be the exact task or the project that the employee was working on, or just their job title.

These details help your accounting department to file the sheet correctly. It also allows you to give proof of billable hours for clients.

You can fill in specific details here if needed. This is especially important for freelancers or contractors who work on a task-by-task basis.

4. Add Hours Worked

You should then fill in the number of hours worked on each specific day.

If you’re working on a project timesheet then you would fill out how long it took to complete each task.

5. Calculate Your Total Hours

Once everything else is completed and filled in, you should calculate the total number of hours worked within the time period.

This can be used to calculate any extra hours, overtime hours or double time for payroll purposes.

6. Approve the Timesheet

Once the timesheet has been completed it will need to go through the approval process.

The details must be verified and signed off to help prevent any timesheet fraud.

Key Takeaways

Timesheets are key tools that allow your business to streamline its payroll process.

Having a streamlined process allows you to take a significant amount of unnecessary work off of your finance department.

In the modern business world, there is no more efficient way to process timesheets than with time tracking software.

Are you looking for more business advice on everything from starting a new business to new business practices?

Then check out the FreshBooks Resource Hub.

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