Is managing your team's time a constant challenge? Are you unsure if employees are arriving and leaving on schedule or if their work hours are being utilized efficiently? 

Do you have a system in place to manage employees’ time, attendance, and productivity? Despite the options available, are you still asking employees to track their time and efforts on a sheet of paper? If so, you’re not alone. In the U.S., 38% of companies still use paper time sheets to track time. 

Pro tip: There’s an easier way… Implementing digital time sheets into your company is a great way to accurately record, measure, and analyze employees’ time and, ultimately, improve the company’s profitability. 

In this article, we'll define time sheets, showcase their effectiveness, provide real-world statistics and use cases, and show you how you can implement a digital time sheet immediately for free.  

If you’re truly interested in learning how to run your company more efficiently, I suggest you keep reading. 

What Is a Time Sheet? 

A time sheet’s primary use is to record time spent on various tasks and projects. This data is especially helpful for accounting, billing, and payroll. While a time sheet does record an employee’s time, it’s not its principal function. 

Officially, according to Merriam-Webster, a time sheet is defined as a medium for recording employees’ time of arrival and departure and for recording the amount of time spent on each job. 

A time sheet may also be classified as a data table used by employers to track the time an employee has worked over a specific period. Businesses use time sheets to record time spent on tasks, projects, or clients. Historically, time sheets were recorded on paper, but they have largely transitioned to digital formats, such as spreadsheet software, online time tracking tools, and mobile apps. 

Time sheets are generally completed and collected shortly after the timeframe they cover, which may be daily, weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly, or per project. 

Among the time tracking industry, there is some confusion surrounding the terms "timecard" and "time sheet." While these two time tracking elements are often recognized as synonyms, there are some differences that set them apart.  

A timecard is solely a record of an employee’s working hours. Timecards are traditionally used with time clocks and serve as a source to record clock punches that define an employee’s start or stop times. These documents exist solely to track time – that’s it. 

The History of Time Sheets

The concept of tracking time dates back to ancient civilizations, when workers’ hours were recorded manually on tablets or ledgers. The tracking of hours proved to be essential to managing labor and wages. Hammurabi's Code, a legal document composed from 1755-1750 B.C., set specific pay rates for different jobs. It said a tailor would earn five grains of silver per day, while a farm laborer would get six grains.

The Industrial Revolution facilitated a greater need for more structured and organized time tracking. Factories and large-scale operations required systematic ways to monitor worker hours for productivity and payroll purposes. 

Punch clocks emerged in the early 20th century, allowing employees to quickly and easily stamp their arrivals and departures on a time sheet. Another popular option during this time was paper time sheets, which allowed employees to manually enter their working hours. Completed time documents would then be verified and processed by human resource departments. 

In the late 20th century, computers brought forth digital spreadsheets and automated time tracking systems, which aimed to simplify the process and minimize manual mistakes. 

Today, many companies enjoy the convenience of sophisticated mobile or online time tracking software. These systems allow employees and employers to track time and productivity via comprehensive time sheets at any time and any place. These offerings grant users numerous advanced features, including project management, invoicing, payroll, reporting, analytics, cloud availability, and more. 

How Time Sheets Work

Employers and employees typically utilize time sheets to record employees’ exact work time, breaks, or vacation days. Time sheets offer human resource managers the data necessary to correctly pay employees. 

Time sheets may also be used to document how long a specific process took to complete. For example, if you have 10 workers on a job, and the project required four hours, that’s the equivalent of 40 man-hours.

At the end of the week, all time sheets and turned in to the human resources department, which then verifies the hours, assembles the data, and enters/submits the information into a payroll system. This data is then used to ensure employees are fairly and accurately compensated for their shifts. 

Time sheets are considered legal documents and may be referenced as key documents during invoices and transactions. 

The Benefits of Time Sheets

Time sheets have proven to be effective accountability tools in the business world. On a grand scale, the U.S. economy loses 50 million hours in productivity per day because of unrecorded work activities. 

On a more granular scale, according to Vouchercloud, employees spend only 2.8 hours on productive tasks with up to four hours a week spent on unproductive tasks. Approximately 34% of employees who use time tracking software are more productive than those who do not.

Let’s take a dive into the specific benefits of time sheets and the many ways their existence can help boost productivity:  

Employee Data: Time sheets help identify employees, including their names, identification numbers, departments, positions/titles, etc. 

Job Management: Some time sheets require employees to enter the scope of their work – i.e., their location, client name, job duties, the date, etc. Additionally, time sheets provide evidence of who worked what hours on each project, allowing managers the ability to allocate resources effectively. Accurate time sheets allow administrators to bill jobs more accurately, as they can base invoices on the proper number of hours worked.  

Employee-Manager Interactions: Managers generally have to sign off on/approve employee time sheets. This process creates a passive weekly interaction between both parties. Time sheet validation ensures employees are adequately completing their jobs and the employer is scheduling appropriately. Additionally, some employees may include notes on time sheets to define the scope of the job, note unexcused absences, or mention any roadblocks that may have emerged.  

Enhanced Productivity: Tracking how employees spend their time is a great way for businesses to measure performance. If employee Joe Smith habitually fails to reach his goals, perhaps Joe’s not a great fit for the most labor-intensive or time-sensitive projects. Tracking time via time sheets is a surefire way to gain awareness into a business's efficiency.

Accurate Payroll Processing: Time sheets ensure accurate recording of hours worked, making payroll easier to complete. Accurate payroll processing ensures employees are paid correctly for the actual time they work. 

Pristine Records: Long gone are the days of mile-long paper trails. Digital time sheets allow businesses to store data in the cloud, eliminating stacks of physical documents. This significantly cuts down the administrative requirement to organize and retrieve documents. Time sheets also offer proof a company remains in compliance with all labor laws and regulations regarding work hours, overtime, and breaks. 

Remote Work: Digital time sheets facilitate the effective management of all workers regardless of where they are working. With modern mobile apps, workers have convenient access to their time clocks 24/7. 

Common Applications and Industries

Numerous industries utilize time sheets to manage their projects. A few examples include: 

Manufacturing and Construction: In these industries, time sheets are essential for tracking project timelines and ensuring each phase is completed on schedule. Missing deadlines or milestones can have significant consequences for the entire project.

Consultancy and Agency Environments: Project teams in consultancy or agency settings use time sheets to track hours spent on projects, facilitating accurate client billing based on work hours.

Software Development and IT: Industries involving software developers, IT specialists, and designers often adopt time tracking solutions to stay current with trends. Time sheets help monitor time spent on specific tasks or projects.

Service-Based Industries: Law firms, consulting companies, freelancers, and businesses offering hourly services rely on time sheets for accurate client billing. They track time spent on tasks, projects, or clients.

Health Care: Time sheets streamline administrative tasks, manage appointment schedules, and track employee attendance and productivity in real time.

Accounting and Finance: Time sheets are vital for accounting firms to track billable hours, automatically calculate invoices, and ensure compliance with labor laws.

Use Cases

Time sheets serve multiple purposes for a company’s internal staff, offering them data and guidance for the present and future. For example, time sheets are commonly utilized to analyze employee productivity. in project-based industries, such as engineering, construction, or architecture, time sheets offer valuable insights into how an employee is spending his or her time. Through this data, employers can identify trends, such as which employees consistently achieve their goals or which projects occupy the most time. 

For industries where clients are billed per hour, time sheets ensure accurate billing. A time sheet can provide a detailed map of the time spent and the number of hours required to complete the task. 

Additionally, time sheets are essential trails for legal compliance. If and when potential litigation arises, time sheet records offer definitive evidence of your employees’ hours. Time sheets may also be used for performance evaluations, forecasting, planning, etc. 

Digital vs. Paper Time Sheets

Typically, time sheets are either available digitally or in paper form. 

With paper time sheets, employees must manually record their working hours, adding a notation every time they punch in or out. 

Digital time sheets (or time sheet apps) are automated templates designed to simplify the time tracking experience across different projects and tasks. The software is designed to eliminate the manual process, improving time data accuracy based on employee punches. 

While each time sheet application may differ in its simplicity and scope, OnTheClock’s timesheet app is designed to save you time by eliminating the manual process. Using clock in and out times, the application improves data accuracy across timecards, time sheets, payroll, and more. 

Whether an employee clocks in from a mobile device or desktop computer, his or her timecard will be updated instantaneously. This allows managers to see who’s currently working, when they started, and how much time they’ve accumulated in real time. 

Managers can quickly add or adjust single or multiple days’ worth of hours all in one screen. Simply make an adjustment to the employee’s timecard and allow the system to do the rest. The time sheet’s editing feature will automatically calculate any edits and instantly reflect the changes that have been made. 

If an employee forgets to punch in, an automated text message reminder can be scheduled. These notifications aim to reduce unnecessary hours worked and save time by not adjusting time sheets for those who forgot to punch the clock. 

Manage Your Time Accurately, Efficiently, and Effectively with OnTheClock 

While there are many digital time sheets to choose from, OnTheClock makes capturing and editing employee time sheet information as easy as possible. Designed to eliminate the manual process, OnTheClock’s intuitive software is proven to simplify the time tracking process, resulting in boosted productivity. OnTheClock can significantly streamline the management of employee time sheets through the following features:

Accurate Time Tracking: Employees can clock in and out with precision, ensuring all hours worked are recorded without errors. This accuracy eliminates manual entry mistakes, providing reliable time sheets.

Automated Calculations: The software automatically calculates total hours worked, including regular hours, overtime, and any other custom time categories defined by the employer. This feature simplifies time sheet management and ensures compliance with labor laws.

Real-Time Monitoring: Managers can monitor employee hours in real-time, allowing them to address any discrepancies immediately. This real-time tracking ensures time sheets are always up-to-date and accurate.

Mobile Accessibility: With OnTheClock’s mobile app, employees can clock in and out from anywhere, making it convenient for remote or fieldwork. This ensures that all work hours, regardless of location, are accurately tracked and included in time sheets.

Integration with Payroll Systems: OnTheClock seamlessly integrates with various payroll systems, streamlining the process of transferring recorded hours into the payroll system. This integration ensures that time sheets are processed accurately and on time, reducing administrative burden.

Customizable Reporting: Managers can generate detailed reports on employee hours worked, overtime, and other relevant metrics. These reports can be customized to meet specific business needs or compliance requirements, providing transparency and clarity in time sheet management.

Notifications and Reminders: The software can send automated reminders to employees to clock in and out, ensuring time sheets are complete and accurate. Managers can also receive notifications of any irregularities or missed punches.

By utilizing OnTheClock, businesses can ensure their employee time sheets are managed effortlessly, accurately, and efficiently, leading to improved productivity and compliance. Luckily, you can trial OnTheClock free for 30 days. Check it out today to learn why 157,000 individuals utilize the software to maximize their minutes each and every day. For more information, visit www.ontheclock.com.