Understanding Timesheets: Are They Just for Management or Also for Clients?

Friends,

Can someone suggest to me the significance of timesheets? I have been asked to prepare them with the help of department heads. Before that, I would like to know whether timesheets are prepared solely to calculate the efficient utilization of work hours in terms of production for management to understand, or if they are also useful for the client who assigns us the project. Kindly clarify this for me.

Hi,

Time sheets are basically a document that certifies an employee's presence at a customer location, and Finance raises the invoice based on the approved time sheets. In general, time sheets are prepared on a weekly basis, using a simple Excel sheet with the employee's name, location, time in, time out, work done, employee signature, and customer signature. If the time sheet is not approved by the client or if there is any mistake, there is a chance that Finance may not be able to bill the resource to the client.

Regards,
Anup

Time sheet is basically a document which certifies an employee's presence, working status, and type of leave. Its purpose is to calculate the efficient utilization of work hours in terms of his/her ToC, SoW, or ToR. Time sheets must be prepared on a weekly basis on a simple Excel sheet which covers the name of the employee, designation, level, location, time in, time out, and work done on a specific project/assignment.

Let me share my experience:

1. In our office, we simply punch our ID card into a machine that logs our time in and out. Time sheets must be prepared weekly on an Excel sheet containing employee name, designation, level, location, time in, time out, and work done on specific projects/assignments.

2. This data is automatically saved in the system daily.

On Sunday, we open the Excel sheet on my PC where my initial and name appear automatically. We just click three times to (a) select the week number, (b) enter the time to be recorded, and (c) save. This process covers everything, including leaves. The data is saved automatically in the system, and the Account/Finance department and system managers handle it. Employees or part-time professionals do not need to worry about anything.

If you have any queries, please let me know.

Best wishes to all,

Anju

Hi Anju,

We do have a biometric system at the office, which provides periodical individual reports on work hours. However, our management is interested in knowing both the work hours and idle hours. We have prepared a format for each department with different codes for work. Currently, I am receiving timesheets that include idle hours as well. The biometric software can only provide work hours. My question is, what should be the next step after identifying the idle hours?

Please provide clarification as this information will undoubtedly be beneficial to other members of our community. Any assistance on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
SARI

Hi,

Adding to the in-time and out-time of the employees, we also need to take the travel period into account if the employee is traveling on a business matter. However, there should be an approval from his reporting manager to enter this into the timesheet.

Regards,
Roopa

Dear All,

Good day. I am working as an HR Manager of a small-sized (40+) offshore development company. I am also facing a similar issue in collecting timesheets from employees on a daily basis. Can anyone please advise me on a template for timesheets to achieve more effective results from employees?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards,
KPM :)

Sari,

Timesheets are useful in processes or projects where billing for the client is done on an hourly basis or based on the number of full-time employees plus 10% backup staff hired for the same. Costing for some processes is based on value addition, such as legal or financial matters. Per-hour billing is convenient for processes where transactions are similar to commodities.

Efficiency is the second part. For example, in a BPO environment, metrics like talk time, AHT (Average Handling Time), after-call work, idle time, etc., are used to achieve higher levels of efficiency in various ways. Depending on workflow patterns and forecasting, manpower planning is done, including determining the number of shifts, start/stop times, break times, etc.

Feel free to ask any questions or share doubts.

Suryavrat

Dear Suryavrath,

Thank you for the clear information on timesheets. Could you please forward me a template to calculate work hours and idle hours to check efficiency? I am also tasked with preparing competency gap analysis. How should I proceed? Many friends have assisted with presentations, but I am finding it challenging to start as project leaders are not very supportive of the idea and do not seem transparent. I am the only HR person and have no one to discuss this with.

If you don't mind, could you share your contact number? I have many doubts and find it challenging to work alone. Please help me.

Sari

Hi Sari,

My cell number is 9999645755.

Email: suryavrat.rana@btopenworld.com

I haven't got any ready templates as such since it is a number-crunching process. Excel is fair enough for most of the calculations.

Your company should have some sort of reporting tool for analyzing dialer information. Check with the IT department.

Operations personnel would not be happy with improvements that ideally should come from them. You would be more like an outsider pinpointing faults.

For starters, begin with a single process, preferably sales or tech support. Collection calls are too lengthy; check the call duration and timings, then plot results on an hourly basis and display them on a notice board.

Check the break timings and duration. Ensure that people stick to the same.

Check "First-time resolution" in tech support (very important). There is no point in having the customer call several times.

Regarding sales, there is one major flaw; people review every single completed sale. This is incorrect, as the sample size from a quality perspective should not exceed 50%.

Any type of monitoring is an expense; every single Quality Assurance personnel is a cost in itself, and the burden eats into the margins.

Has your company ever conducted an end-user satisfaction survey apart from client feedback? Perform a Pareto analysis on customer requirements and begin by fulfilling those.

People dislike variance. For example, as a bank customer, you wouldn't appreciate it if your statement sometimes arrives in 5 days and other times in 15 days.

Any process with 100% results on any parameter requires immediate management intervention. For instance, if transaction volumes are low.

Regards,

Surya Vrat

Hi all,

Could anyone please let me know if there is any connection of timesheet with the leaves or the leave policy?

If a company has an access card system, does HR require a timesheet for attendance purposes? Or if there is a leave card for taking leaves and the analysis is regularly updated, does HR still require a timesheet? Isn't this a duplication of work for HR?

My management wants to make the timesheet HR's responsibility, but I feel it's not necessary as we have leave cards for leave tracking and access control for attendance tracking. I personally believe that the timesheet should only be used for hourly computation of the projects, which is the responsibility of the project manager and not HR.

Please let me know if I am wrong or if the timesheet serves any other purpose for HR.

Best Regards,
Simran

Simran, you have a valid point regarding the avoidance of data duplication. However, do use "time" calculations as a baseline in various HR processes for calculating efficiency/effectiveness metrics.

Surya

Thank you for your response.

We do not handle any computation for employee efficiency. It's the project managers who calculate and submit the hours to Germany, as the parent company is German. They perform the calculations based on the project requirements.

In this specific scenario, do you believe HR should monitor the timesheets? Is there any connection to the leave policy?

Best Regards,
Simran

Simran, it can be skipped if your project manager is doing it. However, start calculating the cycle time of various processes in HR. For example, if one applies for leave, how much time does it take from start to finish? Pick one process at a time and remove bottlenecks, etc.

Surya

Dear friends,

The timesheet concept is used to analyze the time taken to complete tasks. Through timesheets, we gain insights into employees' strengths, efficiency, productivity, and time management.

Timesheets also help us understand work status, start time, finished time, the duration to complete tasks, and the time of completion. They are useful for comparing employees within the same organization, with the same designation, performing similar work, and noting the time taken by each individual.

Best regards,
Kamal