If there’s one thing that each employees and employers agree with, it’s that point tracking is a particularly tedious process.
To make the method easier, download the three free worker timesheet templates in MS excel, Google Sheets, MS Word or PDF formats given in this text.
It’s also possible to use an automatic time tracking tool as a substitute of filling out spreadsheets or PDFs manually.
What we’ll cover in this text:
The three varieties of free timesheets to download:
You may click below to go to every template (in MS excel, Google Docs, MS Word and PDF formats)
Automated time tracking
Timesheet basics:
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Weekly timesheet template free
Weekly Timesheet templates are used if you calculate work hours and pay periods on a weekly basis.
Notes on our weekly easy timesheet template:
The “Week starting” field mechanically inputs the date today and fills up the “date” and “day” columns accordingly. You may change this manually.
Total worker hours worked are calculated mechanically. You simply must enter your Time In and Time Out data.
Total Pay is calculated mechanically based on the Rate Per Hour that you just set.
Automatic calculations only apply to those versions: Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. We’ve only provided blank timesheet templates free for Microsoft Word and PDF.
Download timesheet links:
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Bi-weekly timesheet template free
For those who calculate work hours and pay periods every two weeks, a biweekly timesheet template would suit you higher.
Notes on our bi-weekly easy timesheet template:
The “Week starting” field mechanically inputs the date today and fills up the “date” and “day” columns accordingly. You may change this manually.
Total worker hours worked are calculated mechanically. You simply must enter your Time In and Time Out data.
Total Pay is calculated mechanically based on the Rate Per Hour that you just set.
Automatic calculations only apply to those versions: Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. We’ve only provided a blank timesheet template for Word and PDF.
Download timesheet links:
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Monthly timesheet template free
This timecard template is more detailed because it provides an outline of your monthly work hours and pay in addition to a weekly breakdown of that data. You may even divide this right into a semi monthly timesheet.
Notes on our monthly easy timesheet template:
On this free monthly timesheet, the “Month” field mechanically inputs the present month. You may change this manually by entering any date of the month you ought to create a timesheet for.
Dates and Days mechanically refill in accordance with the “Month” field within the excel monthly timesheet. This includes the “Week Starting” column.
Total worker hours worked are calculated mechanically on a monthly basis on this free monthly timesheet. You simply must enter your Time In and Time Out data on the Weekly Breakdown section.
Total Pay is calculated mechanically based on the Rate Per Hour that you just set and the pay period.
Automatic calculations only apply to those versions: Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. We’ve only provided a blank timesheet template for Word and PDF.
Download time sheet links:
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Limitations of manual time tracking with templates
1) The human error factor
There are a hoard of possibilities arising from human error that could lead on to massive mistakes in excel timesheets. For instance, simply using the improper formulas, incorporating improper formats or mistakenly leaving out key figures can result in massive miscalculations in worker pay rates.
In reality, some of the common human errors made in excel timesheets is mistakenly deleting them. Attempting to retrieve these deleted sheets is usually a very difficult task and inevitably result in crises.
2) The discrepancy between actual hours worked vs reported hours worked
While you need to trust your employees, you’ll be able to’t guarantee that everybody of them can be accurate with their reporting. There may even be unintentional errors in reporting actual hours worked.
Unfortunately, Excel sheets don’t offer you the ability to trace actual hours worked in real-time. Time sheets are based on reported hours worked, manually inserted within the spreadsheets.
A discrepancy of about 5-10 minutes each day might not be a problem, but when this difference climbs up, you possibly can lose loads of money.
3) You may’t modify or update data
Tracking time at all times involves elements of modification – whether it’s a sudden latest task or if something takes longer than expected – there at all times needs to be space for adjustment.
Nonetheless, modifying data on traditional excel templates is a really time consuming process.
This difficulty has massive implications when the updates are seen too late and the worker has already been billed for a lower amount of hours than actually worked.
4) It’s difficult to evaluate productivity
Sure, Excel timesheets provide managers with all of the hours staff have worked in a selected week or month, however it’s an excessive amount of data to undergo directly.
The format of this data isn’t conducive to creating insightful decisions. As well as, the probabilities of a manager misinterpreting information is kind of high seeing because it’s quite difficult to undergo all of it.
5) The problem with historical data
You should do not forget that Excel timesheets aren’t designed to store historical data. What this implies is that very often, to avoid wasting space, earlier edition of reports are written over and updated.
The downside of that is you don’t have access to older data anymore.
The largest drawback of not accessing historical data is that firms can’t spot long run trends and analyze productivity over time and even have proof to resolve disputes over hours worked in the long run.
6) You don’t have access to “real time” reports
Timesheets are sometimes sent to managers on a weekly basis.
This implies managers don’t get updates about an worker’s work hours in real time. The problem here is as managers only get a “delayed copy”, loads of the time these sheets may not reflect what’s currently happening or whether there was any alterations to circumstances.
As well as, these reports can wander away within the managers inbox or they’ll get the improper, outdated version of the file.
7) Their tendency to crash
The more an Excel sheet is updated or shared, the upper the probabilities of the file getting corrupted and unusable. You may’t run that risk in terms of the necessary task of time tracking.
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Use an automatic time tracker tool
For those who need a more efficient strategy to track time, something that takes less of your time to administer and analyze, an automatic online tracking tool is for you.
- The tasks they’ve worked on
- The time it took them
- What sites they visited during regular hours
- Clock in times and clock out times and more.
With this software based time clock, keeping track of hours worked has never been easier!
Easy time tracking for tasks
Usage monitoring
This can be a very useful feature and never often available on this simplistic form in other time tracking tools like Dovico timesheet software, Toggl, etc.
The software will even mechanically assume that an worker is taking a break if there’s inactivity for 3 minutes. This ensures that the software isn’t running by mistake when your employees are on their lunch breaks or are only taking a fast breather.
Unnecessary to say, an everyday spreadsheet won’t have the ability to watch your employees to this extent.
Advanced reporting
You may view data on multiple parameters on the blink of an eye fixed. You will have access to detailed reports regarding time usage sorted by individuals, groups, projects and time periods – something you don’t get from regular spreadsheets and timecards.
1) Timesheet report
The timesheet report highlights the overall hours worked by your employees during a selected period so you will have an idea of what they’re all as much as. What’s more is you can easily export these into either .CSV or .XLS formats to make it easy to store.
2) Time use report
3) Timeline every day report
Like a every day timesheet template, the timeline every day report gives you an in depth breakdown of all of the work your employees have done in a day – you’ll know what tasks were worked on, by who and for the way long.
4) Projects report
Like a project timesheet, the projects report focuses on individual projects. You get a breakdown of the period of time spent on the duty in total in addition to identifying which team member spent essentially the most time on it.
5) Attendance report
The attendance report makes tracking absentees in a distant team much easier. You’ll have a listing of all of the absentees within the week together with the explanation why they couldn’t make it.
6) Poor time use report
Sites like Reddit, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter etc are all categorized as potential poor time use (this list is customizable and the feature will be disabled).
Consider it as a time card calculator designed to trace hours spent on tasks you don’t want your employees working on.
7) Web and app usage report
This report showcases all of the Web usage and application activity of every worker. Nonetheless it’s not detailed enough to point out you which of them of those apps or sites were unproductive ones- you’ll should use the poor time usage report back to track that.
Privacy controls
Multiple integrations
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What’s a timesheet?
A timesheet is a spreadsheet for recording how much time an worker spent working on different tasks. Your employees enter the precise time once they start work for the day and likewise their out time – that’s once they log off. Then the overall time worked on individual tasks is calculated. It’s that straightforward.
Keeping track of how much time an worker works will be incredibly helpful. Not only does it makes the complete payroll process for total hours worked much more transparent, but in addition ensures that your employees remain organized.
Ideally, these are the must-have data fields for timesheets:
- An worker name and ID Number if applicable
- A row for every day of the week
- A column for the date, start time and end time
- In some cases, a column to list time beyond regulation hours and sick leave
- An area for the supervisor and worker to place a signature to validate the accuracy of the data within the time sheet
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Applications of timesheets
As mentioned earlier, knowledgeable timesheet is usually a useful gizmo on your worker monitoring process.
Listed here are a couple of the reason why you must use a timesheet:
To keep up records and resolve disputes
The chief reason why employers use time sheets is to take care of a record of what number of hours their employees work and log any time beyond regulation put in. In the event that they have an organized and reliable way of tracking how much work their employees put in, it makes it gauge their performance. If their pay is linked to hours worked (reminiscent of for freelance or contract team members) timesheets make it easier to pay them accordingly.
What this also does is avoid a situation where there’s a serious payroll dispute between the employer and worker about work put in and subsequent time beyond regulation pay. Since there’s an accurate record available of the worker hours worked, these payroll disputes will be handled easily.
To offer accurate quotes to clients
One other good thing about recording total hours worked is that it’s easier to offer accurate quotes to clients. With a reliable time sheet, independent contractors can provide quotes to clients with more confidence. It also increases the transparency of the complete process as clients understand how many hours specific tasks took and why they’re being charged an X amount for those billable hours worked.
To enhance task productivity
In an in depth timesheet, employees can list down the time they spend on repetitive tasks throughout the day. Employers can use this information to calculate what number of hours these specific tasks take normally and improve team productivity for repetitive and regular tasks. Also, with an accurate strategy to measure worker hours worked, the pay period for workers will be adjusted to compensate for sick leave.
Nonetheless, making a table from scratch to watch total hours worked after which calculate appropriate pay at an hourly rate like this might turn out to be a tedious process – especially in the event you’re doing it manually on paper timesheets.
It’s one among the largest complaints we hear from small business owners who’ve just hired their first worker or freelancer and don’t think they’re quite ready to take a position heavily into software like a time card calculator- they’ll’t appear to make the timesheet process efficient enough.
To show you how to with that, we’ve provided you with free timesheet templates – each with different formats to fit your needs. Just download them and use them to make your time tracking process a breeze!
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Methods to streamline your time tracking process
Now that you just’ve got your free timesheet template ready, it’s time to introduce it to your employees and make the complete process as seamless as possible.
You may do that by specializing in the distribution and collection of timesheets.
Distribution
While some organizations still use paper timesheets, most have switched to online timesheets for his or her ease of distribution.
- You may upload a web-based spreadsheet on a shared work account like Google Docs or Dropbox where each worker has access to the spreadsheet in any respect times.
- Alternatively, in case your employees work under very different conditions and require different sorts of timesheets, you possibly can at all times email it to them personally.
- To make this ease of access more seamless, we’ve included multiple spreadsheet formats of the identical template excel free – select one that you just and your employees are comfortable with.
Collection
- Ensure you determine deadlines for all of your employees to submit their timesheets. You don’t want your employees sending the timesheets on different days.
- Specify a format wherein the worker timesheet template needs to be sent to the manager. Whether it’s emailed on to you, uploaded to a shared account, and even printed out on paper timesheets. Establishing uniformity at all times makes the method easier.
- Ensure that they’ve signed/marked a press release of approval on the forms when they provide it to you. You furthermore may want to incorporate a piece for them to place in any time beyond regulation hours worked and sick leave taken.
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Two key suggestions for using timesheets
Keep it easy
You would like your time sheet to be as easy to know as possible. Your employees should face no confusion as to where and what they should input. Timesheets are presupposed to make the time tracking process easier for the employer and employees, not the opposite way around.
Categorize
To make the method much more streamlined, try an assign tasks with code numbers that employees can note down of their timesheets. This fashion you’ll be able to understand how much time employees spend on specific tasks which can show you how to analyze the info higher for planning future task schedules.
We will all agree that timesheets are an incredibly useful gizmo. Nonetheless, paper timesheets and even traditional online timesheets aren’t essentially the most efficient strategy to go about tracking time.
Final thoughts
If a software isn’t what you would like, download our free blank timesheet template that works best for you and your corporation.
Whether it’s the weekly bi-weekly or monthly spreadsheets, these worker timesheet templates are sure to show you how to and your team focus more on necessary tasks and stay productive as a substitute of expending all of your energies on tracking worker work hours.
