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A timesheet (or time sheet) is a paper or digital record of the hours an employee or contractor works in a set period, such as a day, week or pay period. Businesses use timesheets to calculate payroll, bill clients, track overtime and leave, and see how time is spent across tasks and projects.
A timesheet is a record of work hours. This is an oversimplified definition. However, if you see the implications of a timesheet, you will understand it is the foundation of various business operations.
Businesses use timesheets to track hours worked, calculate payroll, bill clients, manage workforce, and understand how employees allocate their time across tasks and projects.
Timesheets can be maintained manually using paper forms, digitally using spreadsheets, and automatically through time tracking software.
A 2018 QuickBooks Time survey finds 44 percent of small businesses report timesheet errors as their biggest challenge. In this guide, we'll explain what a timesheet is, how it works, the different types of timesheets, and how to create and use one effectively.
A timesheet is a record of an employee's working hours over a specific period, such as a day, week, or month. It can be a digital record or paper document. It includes information like start and end times of an employee’s working hours, breaks, overtime, and the time spent on individual tasks, projects, or clients.
Timesheets are commonly used by businesses, freelancers, and contractors to maintain accurate records of work hours. This record helps organizations with payroll calculations, client billing, project cost tracking, workforce management, and improving operational efficiency.
For employees, timesheets provide a record of their reported working hours and completed time entries.
A timesheet usually contains the following information: employee name, date, clock-in/clock-out time, breaks, total working hours, and project/task details.
Here is what information to expect in a typical timesheet:
Field | Description |
Employee name or ID | Identifies the employee recording their working hours. |
Date | Specifies the day on which the work was performed. |
Start and end time | Records when the employee started and finished work. |
Break duration | Records meal breaks or other breaks, where applicable. |
Total working hours | Shows the number of hours worked, excluding unpaid breaks. |
Project or task details | Identifies the projects, clients, or tasks associated with the recorded time. |
Regular and overtime hours | Separates regular working hours from overtime, where applicable. |
Billable and non-billable hours | Distinguishes hours chargeable to clients from internal or non-billable work. |
Approval status | Indicates whether a manager or supervisor has reviewed and approved the timesheet. |
However, not every timesheet includes all these fields.
The information recorded in a timesheet depends on its purpose and the organization's requirements.
For example, a basic attendance-oriented timesheet may record only dates and working hours, while a project-based timesheet may provide detailed task-level records.
“Read more: What is time management and how to manage time?
A typical employee timesheet is organized into rows and columns, with each row representing a workday or time entry. It records when employees worked, how many hours they completed, and, where required, which tasks or projects they worked on.
For example, consider a software developer working five days a week. The following weekly timesheet records the employee's daily start and end times, unpaid breaks, and total working hours.
A detailed project-based timesheet could also specify how these 40 hours were distributed across software development, debugging, testing, meetings, and other assigned activities.
Some advanced timesheets may also include the apps and website usage, productive, unproductive, and neutral time, and idle and offline hours.
This additional information helps managers understand how working time is allocated across different responsibilities.
Timesheets help businesses maintain accurate records of employee working hours. This, in turn, helps with accurate payroll processing, client billing, compliance, project cost management, workforce planning, ensuring employee accountability, and improving operational efficiency.
Here are seven important benefits of timesheets for businesses:
Timesheets reduce payroll discrepancies and ensure employees are compensated according to their recorded hours and applicable pay rules. It provides an accurate record of employees' working hours, breaks, and overtime. This helps payroll teams calculate wages for hourly employees and determine overtime payments where applicable.
Timesheets help record billable and nonbillable hours spent on specific projects or services. This accurate record helps businesses prevent missed billable hours, supports invoice preparation, and provides documentation when clients request a breakdown of billed work.
Timesheets help businesses maintain organized records of employee working hours, breaks, and overtime, which may be required under applicable labor and employment laws.
Accurate time records can support internal audits, payroll reviews, and responses to questions about employee working hours or compensation.
However, timesheets alone do not guarantee legal compliance. Employers must ensure their timekeeping practices, record retention, and payroll processes meet the requirements applicable to their business and jurisdiction.
Timesheets help project managers understand how much employee time is spent on different projects and tasks. By comparing recorded hours with estimated project effort, managers can identify activities that are taking longer than expected.
For example, if a project was estimated to require 100 working hours but has already consumed 120 hours, managers can investigate the reasons for the difference and reassess the project's remaining workload, costs, or timeline.
Timesheet data helps managers understand how working hours are distributed across projects, clients, and responsibilities.
By reviewing these records, businesses can identify employees or teams with consistently high workloads, recognize potential capacity constraints, and make more informed decisions about task assignments and staffing requirements for effective workforce planning.
For example, if one team regularly spends more hours on client support than anticipated, managers can review whether additional resources or workload adjustments are needed.
A project-based timesheet creates a documented record of employees' reported working hours, when task-level entries are included, and how those hours are allocated.
This gives managers greater visibility into work-hour records and helps employees maintain a clear account of the time spent on assigned responsibilities. These records can also be useful when resolving discrepancies related to working hours, overtime, or project effort.
However, recorded working hours alone do not establish the quality of work or an employee's overall productivity. For quality of work, you need detailed insight into a user’s activity.
More detailed timesheets that capture user activity such as app and website usage and productive, neutral time, idle, & offline time. This record helps managers improve operational efficiency and identify individual work patterns.
“Read more: What are the most common time wasters in the workplace?
An employee records the work hours in a timesheet manually using paper forms or spreadsheets, or automatically using a time tracking software, submits the timesheets for review and approval to a manager, and businesses then use these records for payroll calculations, client billing, project management, and workforce reporting.
The timesheet process generally involves five steps:
Employees record their working hours, including start and end times, breaks, and overtime, where applicable. Some timesheets also capture the time spent on individual tasks or projects.
Depending on the organization's requirements, employees may allocate their recorded hours to specific projects, tasks, or clients. This helps businesses understand how working time is distributed across different activities and distinguish between billable and non-billable hours.
At the end of the reporting period, employees submit their completed timesheets. The submission frequency may be daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly, depending on the organization's policies.
Managers or supervisors review the submitted timesheets to check for missing entries, incorrect calculations, or discrepancies. If corrections are needed, the timesheet may be returned to the employee for revision before approval.
Once reviewed and approved, timesheet records can be used to calculate payable hours, prepare client invoices, monitor project costs, and generate workforce reports. The specific use depends on the organization's timekeeping and reporting requirements.
Filling out a timesheet involves recording your working hours, including start and end times, breaks, and time spent on specific tasks or projects. Whether you use a paper timesheet, an Excel spreadsheet, or digital time tracking software, the basic process remains similar.
Follow these five steps to fill out an employee timesheet correctly.
Start by entering your name, employee ID (if applicable), department, and the reporting period covered by the timesheet.
Enter the time you started and finished working each day. Record meal breaks and other unpaid breaks separately so they can be excluded from the total working hours.
For example, if you start work at 9:00 AM and finish at 6:00 PM, with a one-hour unpaid lunch break, your total working time is eight hours.
If you work multiple shifts or have different start and end times during the week, record each day separately.
If your organization requires project-based time tracking, allocate your working hours to the relevant tasks, projects, or clients.
For example, a software developer working eight hours may record:
Software development: 4 hours
Debugging: 2 hours
Testing: 2 hours
This helps managers understand how recorded working time is distributed across different work activities.
Calculate the hours worked each day by subtracting unpaid breaks from the time between your start and end times.
Add the daily totals to determine the total hours worked during the reporting period. If required, separate regular hours, overtime, and billable or non-billable hours according to your organization's policies.
For spreadsheet-based timesheets, formulas can automate these calculations and reduce manual errors.
Before submitting your timesheet, verify that all working days are included, time entries are accurate, and breaks or project allocations are recorded correctly.
Submit the completed timesheet according to your organization's reporting schedule. If manager approval is required, the reviewer may approve the entries or request corrections.
Recording working hours regularly, rather than reconstructing them at the end of the reporting period, can help reduce missing or inaccurate entries.
To calculate timesheet hours, subtract the employee's start time from their end time and deduct any unpaid breaks. For weekly or monthly timesheets, add the daily working hours to calculate the total time worked during the reporting period.
Depending on the organization's requirements, timesheets may also separate regular hours, overtime, and billable hours.
The basic formula for calculating daily working hours is:
Total Working Hours = End Time − Start Time − Unpaid Breaks
For example, consider an employee with the following schedule:
Start Time: 9:00 AM
End Time: 6:00 PM
Total Elapsed Time: 9 hours
Lunch Break: 1 hour
Total Working Hours: 8 hours
Calculation:
9 hours − 1 hour = 8 working hours
The employee records eight working hours for that day.
If a shift crosses midnight, the calculation must also account for the change in date.
To calculate weekly working hours, add the total hours worked each day during the reporting period.
Overtime refers to working hours that exceed the applicable daily or weekly limits under employment laws, contracts, or workplace policies.
For a simple illustration, suppose an employee works 45 hours in a week and their organization's applicable overtime threshold is 40 hours.
Overtime Hours = Total Hours Worked − Regular-Hour Threshold
45 − 40 = 5 overtime hours
In this example:
Regular working hours: 40
Overtime hours: 5
Total working hours: 45
However, overtime rules vary by jurisdiction and employment arrangement. Some employees may qualify for overtime based on daily limits rather than only weekly totals. Employers should apply the rules relevant to their workforce rather than assuming a universal 40-hour threshold.
Billable hours are the hours a business can charge to a client under an agreed billing arrangement. They are commonly recorded in project-based timesheets used by IT services companies, consulting firms, and agencies.
For example, suppose a developer records eight working hours:
Table:
Work Activity | Hours | Classification |
Client project development | 4 | Billable |
Client project testing | 2 | Billable |
Internal team meeting | 1 | Non-billable |
Employee training | 1 | Non-billable |
Total | 8 |
In this example, the employee records six billable hours and two non-billable hours.
If the agreed billing rate is ₹1,000 per hour,
Billable Amount = Billable Hours × Hourly Billing Rate
6 × ₹1,000 = ₹6,000
The business can use these records to support an invoice for ₹6,000, subject to the contract's billing terms and any applicable taxes.
Note: Total working hours and billable hours are not necessarily the same. Employees may spend time on internal meetings, training, administrative tasks, or other activities that count as working time but are not chargeable to clients.
“Read more: What is time budgeting and how to budget your time effectively?
Timesheets are generally categorized based on how frequently working hours are recorded, what information businesses need to track, and the method of information recorded. Based on these, timesheets are categorized into three types: frequency, activity, and tracking method.
A daily timesheet records an employee's working hours for each workday. It typically includes start and end times, breaks, total hours worked, and, where required, the tasks performed during the day.
Daily timesheets are useful for businesses that need detailed, day-to-day records of employee working hours, such as those managing multiple shifts or hourly workers.
A weekly timesheet records an employee's working hours over a seven-day reporting period. It typically shows the hours worked each day, breaks, overtime, and total weekly hours.
Weekly timesheets are commonly used by organizations that review employee working hours or project effort on a weekly basis. They provide a consolidated view of the workweek without requiring separate submissions for every workday.
A biweekly timesheet records working hours over a two-week period, typically 14 consecutive days. It is often used by organizations that follow a biweekly payroll or reporting schedule.
A semimonthly timesheet, on the other hand, covers two reporting periods per month, such as the 1st–15th and 16th–last day of the month.
Although both involve two reporting periods or weeks, they are not the same. Biweekly timesheets generally cover 14 days, while semimonthly timesheets vary in length depending on the month.
A monthly timesheet provides a consolidated record of an employee's working hours for an entire month. It may include daily hours, leave, overtime, and time spent on different projects or activities.
Monthly timesheets are useful for businesses that review working hours, resource allocation, or project effort on a monthly basis.
However, employees should record their hours regularly rather than relying on memory at the end of the month, as delayed entries can increase the likelihood of inaccuracies.
A basic attendance-oriented timesheet records dates, working hours, break duration, and overtime. It records when the employee started and finished work, meal breaks or other breaks, where applicable, total working hours, and overtime hours that separate regular working hours from overtime, where applicable.
A project-based timesheet records the time employees spend on specific projects, tasks, or clients rather than focusing only on their total working hours. It tracks billable and non-billable hours that distinguish hours chargeable to clients from internal or non-billable work.
For example, a software developer working eight hours a day might record four hours on client development, two hours on bug fixes, and two hours on testing.
Unlike daily, weekly, or monthly timesheets, project-based timesheets are categorized by what they track rather than the reporting period. A project-based timesheet can therefore be maintained daily, weekly, or monthly.
Timesheets can be maintained manually, digitally, or through automated time tracking software. The main difference is how working hours are recorded, calculated, and managed.
Manual timesheets require employees to enter and maintain their working hours themselves. Digital timesheets store these records electronically, while automated timesheets use software to capture or generate time entries with less manual effort.
Each method has its advantages and limitations, depending on the organization's size, work structure, and reporting requirements.
Manual timesheets require employees to record their working hours themselves, typically using paper forms or spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
Employees enter their start and end times, breaks, and, where required, time spent on specific projects or tasks. Working hours are then calculated manually or using spreadsheet formulas.
Manual timesheets are generally suitable for freelancers, small teams, or businesses with straightforward timekeeping requirements.
Digital timesheets allow employees to record and manage working hours electronically using dedicated software or online timekeeping systems.
Employees can enter their hours through web or mobile applications, while managers can review records, calculate totals, and generate reports from a centralized system. Automatic calculations can reduce arithmetic errors, and centralized records make timesheets easier to access and review.
Digital timesheets are useful for businesses that want to replace paper or spreadsheet-based records with a more structured timekeeping process.
Automated timesheets use time tracking software to capture working hours or generate time entries with minimal manual input. Depending on the software, time records may be generated using running timers, work sessions, application usage, project activities, or other tracked events.
These software tools integrate with project management software like ClickUp, Jira, and Asana to create accurate timesheets automatically for projects. The collected data can then be organized into daily, weekly, or monthly time records.
Thus, automated timesheets are particularly useful for organizations managing distributed teams, multiple projects, or large volumes of working-time records.
Explore the MaxelTracker’s ClickUp integration for automatic timesheet tracking.
Timesheets, timecards, attendance records, and time tracking are closely related concepts, but they serve different purposes. While all four involve recording employee time, they differ in the information they capture and how businesses use that information.
Understanding these differences helps businesses choose the right method for managing working hours, attendance, and time spent on work activities.
A timesheet records the hours an employee works during a specific period. Depending on its format, it may also include time spent on individual tasks, projects, or clients.
A timecard, traditionally used with time clocks, primarily records when employees clock in and out of work. It helps employers calculate working hours based on those entries.
The main difference is that timesheets may provide a detailed breakdown of how working hours are allocated, whereas traditional timecards focus on when employees start and finish work.
An attendance record tracks whether an employee is present, absent, late, or on leave during a scheduled working period.
A timesheet, on the other hand, records the number of hours worked and may include details about the tasks or projects performed during those hours.
For example, an attendance system might show that an employee was present on Monday, while a timesheet could show that the employee worked eight hours, spending five hours on development and three hours on testing.
Attendance records help businesses monitor employee presence and absences, while timesheets provide more detailed information about recorded working time.
Time tracking is the process of measuring and recording how much time employees spend working or performing particular activities. It can be done manually using timers and spreadsheets or automatically through time tracking software.
A timesheet is a record that organizes this time information for a particular reporting period.
“Read more: What is the Labor Management System (LMS)?
Timesheets help businesses maintain working-hour records, but their accuracy depends on how consistently employees record time and how effectively managers review those records. Missing entries, incorrect calculations, and delayed submissions can lead to payroll discrepancies, inaccurate project costs, and unreliable reporting.
Here are five common timesheet problems and practical ways to prevent them.
Employees may forget to record their working hours, breaks, or project activities, especially when managing multiple tasks throughout the day.
How to avoid it:
Encourage employees to record time regularly rather than reconstructing their workweek from memory. Digital reminders and automated time tracking can also help reduce missing entries.
When employees complete timesheets days after performing the work, they may rely on estimates rather than actual working hours. This can lead to inaccurate payroll calculations, project reports, and client billing.
How to avoid it:
Establish a consistent time-recording process and encourage timely entries. Where appropriate, use time tracking software to capture working hours automatically and allow employees to review and correct their records.
Employees working across multiple projects may accidentally assign hours to the wrong task, project, or client. These errors can distort project costs and lead to incorrect billing.
How to avoid it:
Use clearly defined project names, task categories, and billing classifications. Review time allocations regularly and provide employees with straightforward guidelines for selecting the correct project or task.
Delayed submissions or manager approvals can interrupt payroll processing, client invoicing, and project reporting, particularly when businesses depend on timesheet data to meet reporting deadlines.
How to avoid it:
Set clear submission and approval deadlines. Use automated reminders and establish a process for resolving missing or disputed entries promptly.
Manually adding working hours or calculating breaks and overtime can lead to arithmetic mistakes, particularly when timesheets contain numerous entries. And sometimes timesheets may contain duplicated entries, unrecorded breaks, or hours that do not match supporting work records. Whether caused by mistakes or intentional misreporting, these discrepancies can affect the reliability of timesheet data.
How to avoid it:
Use spreadsheet formulas or digital timesheet software to calculate total hours automatically. Review exceptions, such as overnight shifts, missing clock-out times, and overtime entries.
Establish clear timekeeping policies, provide a transparent correction process, and review unusual entries without assuming misconduct. Where appropriate, automated time records can provide additional information for verification.
Maintaining accurate timesheets requires more than choosing the right format. Clear policies, timely recording, employee training, and consistent reviews help businesses improve the reliability of their working-hour records.
Traditional timesheets provide a record of working hours, but businesses may need additional information to understand how those hours are distributed across daily work activities.
MaxelTracker helps businesses automatically track working time across activities, monitor application and website usage, and convert tracked time data into productivity insights. These insights can help managers understand work patterns and identify areas that may require further investigation.
Timesheets are a practical way for businesses to record employee working hours, maintain accurate time records, and understand how working time is allocated across tasks and projects. Whether maintained manually, digitally, or automatically, they support payroll processing, client billing, project cost tracking, and workforce planning.
However, recording working hours is only one part of understanding workforce performance. To make better productivity decisions, businesses also need visibility into work activities and the outcomes employees achieve.
MaxelTracker helps businesses go beyond basic timesheets with automated time tracking, application and website usage tracking, and productivity insights. By turning tracked working-time data into actionable insights, businesses can identify work patterns, investigate inefficiencies, and make more informed workforce management decisions.
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