Timesheets look simple until you get to work with them and questions arise. Is a timesheet a legal document? Can your employer change it? What happens if you submit it late?

We collected the questions people ask most often about employee timesheets and answered them all in one place. Use the list below to jump to the one you need.

Timesheet Basics

1. What is a timesheet?

A timesheet is a record of the hours an employee has worked during a set period like a day, a week, or a month. Beyond hours, it can show which projects and tasks the employee worked on, breaks, overtime, and time off.

Companies use timesheets to run payroll, bill clients, and understand where work time actually goes. Usually timesheets are submitted and the employer must approve them for accurate payroll. 

2. What should a timesheet include?

A standard employee timesheet includes the employee’s name, the pay period dates, hours worked per day, total hours, overtime, and the hourly rate if it’s used for payroll. Timesheets for client work also mark which hours are billable and to which project or client they belong.

3. What is the difference between a timesheet and a timecard?

A timecard records when an employee starts and ends work. A timesheet records more: hours per project or task, breaks, overtime, and billable time.

4. What are the types of timesheets?

Timesheets differ by the period they cover. They can be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, and monthly. There are also project timesheets, which organize hours by project rather than by date. 

5. Do all industries use timesheets?

No, not all industries use timesheets. Usually, law requires a specific industry to use timesheets. In the US, however, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to keep records of hours worked for non-exempt employees, in whatever format they choose.

In practice, timesheets are standard wherever hours are used for pay or client bills. Usually these are agencies, IT and software teams, consulting, construction, healthcare, and legal services.

Timesheets and Payroll

6. Why are timesheets important for payroll?

Payroll for hourly employees is calculated directly from timesheet data. The hours on the timesheet are added up, converted to decimal format, and multiplied by each employee’s rate. That is why an accurate timesheet is necessary for accurate paycheck.

7. How do you calculate pay from a timesheet?

To calculate pay from a timesheet, add up the hours worked during the pay period, convert minutes to decimals (30 minutes = 0.5), and multiply by the hourly rate. Overtime hours are calculated separately at the overtime rate.

But doing this by hand for a whole team takes hours and may create miscalculations. At WebWork, tracked hours turn into payroll reports automatically so you can view time by day, week, or month and switch to the amount view to see what each person has earned.

8. How do you fill out a timesheet for payroll purposes?

For payroll, a timesheet needs the employee’s name, total hours worked, overtime, and the hourly rate. Breaks should be marked as paid or unpaid, because that changes the total.

Fill in hours daily rather than reconstructing the week on Friday. Time logged from memory is the most common source of payroll disputes.

9. How do you invoice clients based on a timesheet?

Mark the hours that are billable, total them per client or project, and multiply by your billing rate. Invoicing software does this in a few clicks.

WebWork generates hour-based invoices directly from tracked billable time. You choose which members, projects, and activity descriptions to include, and your client pays online straight from the invoice.

If you want to see how tracked hours become payroll and invoices in practice, you can try WebWork free for 14 days. No credit card needed.

Timesheet Laws and Compliance

10. Are timesheets legal documents?

Timesheets are official work records with legal weight. In the US, the FLSA requires employers to keep records of employee hours, and timesheets often serve as evidence in wage disputes.

11. What is timesheet compliance?

Timesheet compliance means keeping time records that meet legal requirements. For US employers, the FLSA’s recordkeeping rules require records of hours worked each day, total hours each week, the regular hourly rate, and overtime pay for non-exempt employees.

Requirements differ by country, so check the labor law where your team is employed. For international teams, that can mean several sets of rules at once.

12. How long should you keep timesheets?

Under the FLSA, US employers must keep payroll records for at least three years, and the records used to calculate wages, including timesheets, for at least two years. Other countries set their own retention periods, so verify the rules in each jurisdiction where you employ people.

Digital timesheets make this easy, since years of records take no physical space and stay searchable.

13. Can an employer withhold pay for a late timesheet?

In the US, no. Employees must be paid for hours worked even if they submit their timesheet late. The California Department of Industrial Relations, for example, states that employees must be paid on payday regardless of whether the timecard was submitted.

Employers can address late submissions through internal policy and disciplinary steps, but delaying a paycheck is not a legal option.

14. Can an employer change an employee’s timesheet?

Yes. The employer is legally responsible for accurate time records, so managers can correct timesheets, as long as the corrected record matches the hours actually worked. But changing a timesheet to reduce recorded hours is wage theft.

That is why WebWork keeps a Time Edit Log that records every time entry addition, edit, and deletion, including who made the change and the previous value. Nothing changes without a trace.

15. Are timesheets confidential?

It depends on what they contain. In the US, a timesheet that records only work hours for payroll is generally treated as a financial record and may fall under public records rules. If it contains personal data such as a social security number, performance evaluations, or leave details, that information is confidential.

Either way, limit timesheet access to the people who need it, and remove access when someone changes roles or leaves.

Filling Out Timesheets Correctly

16. When should employees fill out and submit timesheets?

Fill in hours daily, while the day’s tasks are still fresh and submit by the deadline your company sets which is usually the end of the week or the pay period.

17. How do you record breaks on a timesheet?

Enter the break time in the break section, and mark whether it was paid or unpaid. Under US federal law, short breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as paid work time, while meal breaks of 30 minutes or more are typically unpaid.

WebWork supports custom break policies per employee, and break reports show the duration and paid status of every break, which helps with compliance with local break laws.

18. How do you add overtime to a timesheet?

Record overtime hours separately from regular hours, because they are paid at a different rate. Under US overtime rules, non-exempt employees earn at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 per week.

WebWork separates regular and overtime hours automatically and notifies employees when they reach their overtime threshold, so nobody discovers unplanned overtime at the end of the month.

19. How do you log time for meetings, training, and other non-billable work?

Log it under a dedicated project or category, such as Internal or Professional Development, and mark it as non-billable.

Tracking non-billable time is worth the effort since it shows how much of the week actually goes to meetings and admin work.

20. What is unallocated time on a timesheet?

Unallocated time (UAT) is time not assigned to any specific project, task, or client. It usually covers admin work, internal breaks, sick time, and PTO.

Keeping unallocated time visible instead of hiding it inside project hours keeps both client bills and project reports honest.

21. Can you fill out a timesheet for someone else?

A supervisor can enter or correct time on an employee’s behalf for payroll purposes and that’s a normal part of managing time records. The employee should review the entries and confirm they’re accurate before the timesheet is finalized.

What’s never acceptable is one employee logging hours for another to cover an absence. That’s a form of timesheet fraud known as buddy punching.

Timesheet Accuracy and Fraud

22. What happens if you lie on a timesheet?

Consequences range from a warning to termination, and in serious cases, legal action. Timesheet fraud is a form of theft, since it means being paid for time not worked.

If you’ve made an honest mistake on a timesheet, tell your manager and correct it. 

23. What happens if you submit a timesheet late?

You still get paid, but late timesheets cause payroll errors, delayed client invoices, and extra work for whoever processes them. Repeated late submissions can lead to disciplinary action under company policy.

Automatic time tracking removes the problem at the source, since the hours are recorded whether or not anyone remembers to log them.

24. How do you prevent timesheet fraud?

To prevent timesheet fraud, have the following in place:

1. A clear written policy that defines how time is tracked and what happens when the rules are broken.
2. Time tracking software, which makes padded hours and buddy punching visible.
3. Regular review of time reports, so irregularities surface early instead of at the end of the quarter.

WebWork adds another layer: it automatically flags unusual activity patterns, such as suspiciously constant activity levels that may indicate auto-clickers.

25. Who is responsible for timesheet accuracy?

The employer is responsible for timesheet accuracy. Employees fill out their own timesheets in most companies, but under the FLSA, the legal responsibility for accurate time records stays with the employer.

That’s why clear policies and a reliable tracking system matter because they’re how an employer actually meets that responsibility.

Automating Timesheets

26. Can you create a timesheet in Excel or Google Sheets?

Yes. Set up columns for the date, start and end times, breaks, and total hours, then add formulas to calculate daily and weekly totals. But if you have a large team, you will need a time tracking software to avoid manual work and possible miscalculations.  

27. Can timesheets be automated?

Yes, and this is where timesheet software earns its place. With WebWork, the tracker records work hours as they happen, so timesheets are built while your team is working.

You can choose how tracking works for your team: automatic, manual, or silent mode on company devices. For payroll, WebWork sends timesheets per pay period through the Deel integration or exports payroll reports compatible with Wise, PayPal, Payoneer, and Gusto.

28. What is timesheet freezing?

Timesheet freezing, also called locking, means closing a timesheet so it can no longer be edited. It usually happens after the timesheet has been approved, used for payroll, or invoiced to a client. It protects processed data from after-the-fact changes.

Even without a formal lock, an edit log serves the same goal: any change to processed time data stays visible and attributable.

29. Are timesheets a waste of time?

Manual timesheets can be a waste of time since employees need to spend work time on filling out a timesheet. That is why automated timesheets are the best practice. Time tracking tools track work time while an employee is working and create the timesheet in the background, with no manual effort whatsoever. 

Start a free 14-day WebWork trial and see your first automatic timesheet by the end of the day.