Timesheet

A timesheet is a way of recording time spent on customer or internal projects. Timesheets should not be confused with time tracking, which is the tracking of time on tasks or clocking in or out of work, but unfortunately the two terms have become interchangeable in recent years.

Historically a time sheet was paper or spreadsheet that represented time spent by customer, project or task on each day of the week. Most software systems mirror this layout, but there are a number of ways in which a timesheet can be displayed.

The ‘Classic’ layout

The most common timesheet is one that is based on paper versions, with columns for Customer, Project, project sub-levels and then the days of the week. Users enter the customer/project they are working on and the hours spent on this task each day. Often timesheets have row and column totals as well as a weekly total. Some systems are available in two-week, four-week, half-monthly or bi-weekly format as well as the typical weekly format.

The Calendar timesheet layout

A calendar timesheet format is a more modern and more visual take on the format, and it works very well for professional services organizations or any business that uses Outlook or Google calendars. As most of the data used in a time sheet already exists within employees’ calendars, this format can save employees several hours each month. Additionally, users can see instantly how complete their timesheet is. Days will be filled with calendar items showing what they worked on and blank days need attention. In contrast, in the classic timesheet users need to look at the total for each day to understand how complete it is.

The transaction list

Another layout is the timesheet transaction list or grid. This lists each time transaction in date order and allows people to scroll up and down to see each individual transaction and its history.

Timewatch provides all of these timesheet formats and lets the user choose the layout they prefer most.