How long do you have to keep employee timesheets

What is an employee timesheet?

An employee timesheet is a method used to record how many hours an employee spends working. Its objective is to calculate the hours that each employee has worked and how they have been distributed throughout their day.

This accounting includes the hours between entering and leaving the workplace, as well as overtime hours and those that have not been performed, for whatever reason.

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How do timesheets work?

All employees must enter their working hours and then send it to the responsible person. They can enter their hours according to the projects, tasks or activities established, and they can also include comments.

There are different ways to keep track of employee timesheets: from software that count the hours from a computer, mobile assistance systems that track employees, cards with which employees clock their hours at the office entrance, or advanced technologies that use fingerprints or retinal scans.

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What is an employee timesheet used for?

An employee timesheet is used by HR to keep track of the hours worked by each employee. This is beneficial for both the worker and the company. Thanks to timesheets, employees can be sure that they won’t be working extra hours that won’t be paid, and the company can control employee absenteeism and save time in managing schedules, among other things.

With timesheets, workers have to register all their exits and entrances to the office, even those that occur during breaks. This is especially useful to have an overview of the hours that the employee actually spends working and completing its tasks, with the aim of measuring productivity and making decisions such as increasing or reducing the personnel required for specific projects.

Timesheets are also useful as a payroll records and salary management tool, as it’s a really important source of information. With this system, companies can improve their organization while improving the productivity of their workers at the same time. Do you know what the value of each and every single one of your employees is? Learn how to calculate working hours. 

Pros and cons of using timesheets

Pros of using timesheets

In addition to all the benefits we have already talked about, implementing a work timesheet in a company also means being able to know which worker is doing its job at a specific time. This information can be useful if an emergency situation occurs.

Flexible hours can also be implemented easily, as well as managing shifts just by taking a look at the scheme that includes the schedules of all workers, and this is especially useful if your company has a high staff turnover. Finally, staff timesheets are also a good way to count the hours that the company owes an employee, or the hours that an employee owes the company.

Cons of using timesheets

The biggest disadvantage is the rejection that workers may feel regarding this control measure, assuming that they will be monitored with evidence regarding their activity on the job. If this change takes place in your company, you must ensure that the way you communicate it internally is correct, always emphasizing the benefits that this system has for workers.

If you don’t communicate it properly, your employees may feel a lack of confidence on your part and that can lead to them feeling unmotivated in their jobs. Do you know what time theft at work is? Discover it here!

How long should you have to keep employee timesheets?

According to Canada’s Labour Standards Regulations, employers must keep employment records such as timesheets for at least 36 months. For the construction sector, employers must keep their records six years after the last year to which this information relates.

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Whether you need it for internal staff, traveling to visit clients or on project sites, or even for subcontractors who need to calculate working hours, Mobile-Punch allows thousands of companies to carry out significant savings in time and money.

What should be included in a timesheet?

Although the requirements and fields vary depending on the company, an employee timesheet should include the following information:

• Name of the employee
• Pay period
• Date and day worked
• Hours worked
• Total hours worked during the week

Labor costs may be the largest expense in your business. For any company that wants to record working hours more effectively and generate more profits, having an employee schedule management system is essential. Remember that, after all, time is money!

Here are some of the benefits you will enjoy if you use Mobile-Punch’s employee work schedule management app:

• Detailed list of personnel and relevant information
• Each employee has access to their schedule
• A system that automatically calculates the hours worked
• Optimal and flexible schedule planning
• Automatic notifications
• Schedule planning based on the skills and talents of your employees
• Accurate payroll reports
• Better management of mobile employees

How does a timesheet affect payments?

Many employees have a certain number of hours set by contract. If they work overtime, the company must compensate them financially or accumulate them so that they have extra hours or days of vacation. In other cases, employees don’t have predetermined hours, but instead charge for the hours worked. This is the case of temporary work agencies.

For example, depending on the month or the client’s needs, the company will need a worker to work more or less hours. In both cases, the hours are important for accounting. For this reason, many companies connect timesheets with the payroll module. In this way, the data is dumped and the payroll generation time is reduced, as well as the human errors when entering the hours.

There are companies that outsource their payroll. In this case, there are two possibilities: the first option is to send a report with all the hours per employee to the agency that manages their payroll or, what could also be done is to grant external access to that to the agency for them to access the data when they need it.

Timesheets are also used to pay external employees or freelancers. What many companies do is receive the total monthly hours in an excel spreadsheet or invoice issued by the external employee. In other cases, external access is granted to the freelancers so that they can introduce their hours.

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How does a timesheet affect billing?

A timesheet is essential for those companies that bill by the hour or that can be hired by hour packages. Normally, almost all the companies that invoice in this way are those of service or those that work on a project basis.

For a service company that provides staff for certain functions, a timesheet is very important. Employees fill in the hours worked and these are collected so that they can be billed to the customer. To do this, there are companies that connect the employee timesheet with the billing system.

In this way, the data is dumped and the system automatically reflects it on the customer’s invoice. This allocation of hours can be deducted from the established amount of hours hired by the client or accumulated in the invoice if the contract wasn’t for a determined number of hours.

Companies that work on a project basis must also keep a good track of the hours worked, since a timesheet is very useful to know the profitability that a company planned to obtain and to see what the profitability that is finally obtained is.

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