How to Avoid the 5 Weekly Timesheet Nightmares

Does your time tracking process go something like this?

Every week you beg, plead and cajole your staff into filling out their timesheets accurately and on time. When you finally do receive their time (usually late), you then have the pleasure of spending hours compiling the data into Excel (or whatever software you use for payroll).

And without fail, right before you hit the “send” button to your payroll service, you find out an employee hasn’t submitted all their hours. That means you can’t accurately bill customers – and, of course, your boss will blame you.

Headaches ensue.

When it comes to time tracking, it’s up to you to ensure error-free timesheets are sent to your payroll provider. But it seems impossible when you’re dealing with nightmares like the following.

Timesheet Nightmares

Hard-to-Read Timesheets

You finally – for once! – have everyone’s timesheet on time. That means you might actually get out of the office at 5 tonight. But, lo and behold, when you take a closer look, you see that a dozen of them are barely legible. Is that an AM or a PM? Did they write an 18 or a 16? Looks like another late night in the office for you.

Hard-to-Access Timesheets

An employee comes to you with a question about their time from a month ago. It should be as easy as a few clicks to access. In reality, though, it takes a half hour of digging before you can even find the right week.

Then your employee asks for a copy. After an hour of scouring the Internet for answers, you realize that you can’t print weekly timesheets from QuickBooks Online.

And forget about being able to pull and analyze valuable information, like project costs and who’s getting close to overtime limits.

Late Timesheets

Timesheet due dates don’t change. And yet, you always have a handful of employees who have trouble getting their timesheets in on time. It doesn’t seem to matter how many ‘polite’ reminders you send them.

They promise to do better and might even be on time for a week or two. But they quickly revert to their old ways, which once again means you’re staying late or working weekends.

Partial Information

An employee forgets to include a date. Another doesn’t fill out the correct number of hours worked. Yet another doesn’t even sign their name. Whatever the case, you have incomplete information – and it’s up to you to chase down the missing details.

Inaccurate Information

Did you ever get a timesheet where the numbers just didn't add up? Or you have a spreadsheet with duplicate entries and you don't know why, but you can’t seem to delete them?

You want to pay your employees and get paid by your customers. But you can’t do that without accurate hours in place.

It’s amazing really. Today’s cell phones have more computing power than NASA’s first Apollos that went to the moon. And yet, we’re still relying on clunky and archaic ways of tracking employee time.

If you’ve ever wondered how you can improve time tracking or payroll without hiring another person, the answer is easier than you might think. With cloud-based time tracking, you can make your time tracking function dramatically simpler and more valuable to your company – and you can save the Tylenol for someone else.

Here’s how:

Avoiding the Nightmare

Employees Clock in from Any Approved Phone or Browser

Whether it’s through a cell phone, landline, or web browser, cloud-based time tracking lets you choose how and where employees are allowed to clock in.

What this means for you: No more chasing down employees to fill out paper timesheets or trying to decipher illegible handwriting. Employee can digitally fill in timesheets anywhere and anytime – even from home on a Saturday night.

You Can Review and Approve Timesheets Online

With cloud-based time tracking, you can view a real-time feed of the tasks your employees are tackling. Employees can also see their own hours, so they know their time is being calculated properly.

What this means for you: You can quickly approve or reject hours in a professional way, and also enhance accuracy and honesty in the process.

Access Valuable Insight and Data

Want to track job codes? Or see how many hours a certain project took to complete? No problem. With cloud-based tracking, you can track exactly what employees are working on and generate reports that break down valuable details, like the job / project / client costs.

What this means for you: You have the advanced data you need to ensure everyone is working as efficiently as possible.

Better Manage PTO

Managing vacations, sick days and PTO can be a huge headache. But with cloud-based software, you can authorize employees to submit their own PTO hours and get notified when they do, or you can manage the process for them. You can also easily add or use your own vacation or PTO codes and track accruals faster.

What this means for you: Easily see employee time off totals, and who’s scheduled to work – when – so you can easily plan shifts accordingly.

Better Manage Overtime

With a cloud-based system, you can set alerts for employees that notify you when they’re nearing overtime. You can then adjust schedules accordingly to plan the most cost-efficient combinations.

What this means for you: You can cut down on overtime expenses.

Assign Roles and Manage Permissions

Different employees may require different permissions. Your sales rep may need permission to track time via their mobile device. Your warehouse workers don’t have access to a computer. They need to be able to clock in through a landline – but you also need to give their manager the ability to approve timesheets online. With a cloud-based time tracking system, you can specify exactly what employees can and can’t do.

What this means for you: You can customize how employees track time and how managers approve it to seamlessly fit into your existing processes.

Comply with Government Regulations

With cloud-based time tracking, you always have an audit trail of changes. You can go back and see which times were edited or deleted, by whom and at what time. Your data is also backed up daily.

What this means for you: You can protect your company against time-consuming DOL audits and costly fines.

At the end of the day, a cloud-based time tracking system means you can finish payroll in seconds – not hours. Your boss will be thrilled, and you can get out the door at a decent hour and get your life back!