Employee Timesheets

Term Definition
An employee timesheet is a method for recording and tracking the amount of an employee's time spent working. The employee timesheet can report total hours worked or time spent working on a specific task or job. Employee timesheets are primarily used for payroll. The hours worked provide a record for time to be paid. In many companies, only non-exempt employees have timesheets. This enables a company to accurately track and pay hours worked according to applicable laws and regulations including Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Used in project management, employee timesheets improve project execution,  decision-making and compliance with labor and government regulations. According to one definition, it is a document or a program that tracks the number of hours you work, either in one week or on a particular project. In other words, an employee timesheet is a record that you can look back on to find out how much time you spent doing something.

Employee timesheets were originally developed for employers to track the number of hours worked for payroll. However, timesheets are no longer used just for payroll. Employee timesheets are used to record the start and end time of tasks or simply the duration of the task. Employee timesheets may contain a detailed breakdown of tasks accomplished by the employee. The information can be used for project costing, job estimation, tracking, management, client billing and payroll.

Tracking time can reduce an organization's costs by making payroll processing more efficient, by making costs visible so you can lower them, and by automating billing & invoicing. Tracking time can also increase revenue through automated  billing. Automated billing facilitates client invoicing by providing access to accurate data for all the hours worked by consulting staff. This in turn expedites the invoicing process avoiding billing backlog. In turn, payments are received much faster and the  inconvenience of missed bills is eliminated.

Area of Application
Project Accounting
Timesheet Policy

Related Terms
Timecard
Time Sheet
Web Timesheet