How to Implement a Timesheet System in 5 Steps

Are you still tracking time through conventional manual process? Relying too much on cumbersome paper documentation and Excel reports to track employee work time and assets. Well, you are not alone.

Manual time tracking methods make payroll pointlessly complex and may be costing your business more than you could imagine. The need of the hour is to upgrade your manual processes with an automated timesheet system like TimeCentral.

Not sure how to integrate a timesheet software into your HR system? Discussed here are 5 key steps to implement a timesheet system.

1. Determine the Right Amount of Detail You Want

The right amount of detail you want from the time tracking system should be clearly determined. It should not be too precise or too vague, but exactly based on the information you want. Our recommendation is to begin at the project level. It will help determine the number of hours worked on the project, without the need to overburden an employee’s timesheet with data for each individual task.

You can further split a project into multiple deliverables to gather more information. Later on, you can use the timesheet system to how precisely how much time your employees have spent on each project deliverable.

2. Choose Activities You Want to Track

Now based on the amount of detail you want, determine the activities, projects and deliverables you want to track. Then you can consider adding operational activities, like support and maintenance, which are not necessarily linked to a project but are crucial to track employee work time precisely. Further, you can include administrative tasks such as absences, holidays, training, etc.

3. Set the Goal of the Timesheet

Having specific and clear goals is important before you set up a timesheet system. Determine for what reasons you want to set up automated time sheets – gain insights on your employees’ workload, monitor project costs, etc. It is also crucial to explain the goal clearly to your employees.

4. Establish a Streamlined Process

Determine what kind of information you’d need to set up the timesheet system successfully. This may include considering who will validate the timesheet, when to submit a timesheet, the process of timesheet entry when someone is on holiday or absent, which activities to cover in the timesheet, etc.

5. Get Everyone on Board

When all the elements of timesheet management is in place as discussed above, communicate the same to everyone and if necessary, provide a training session or user guide.

Getting started with TimeCentral is simple and hassle-free, empowering your payroll processes.      

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