What Is a Timesheet?
A timesheet is a record of the hours someone works during a specific period (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly). Businesses rely on timesheets to calculate payroll, bill clients accurately, track project costs, and demonstrate compliance with labor laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which requires employers to maintain detailed time records for all non-exempt employees.
Employees, contractors, and freelancers fill out timesheets while managers, HR teams, and payroll departments review and approve them. The format varies — from printed time cards and Excel spreadsheets to software-based ones that populate automatically. But the purpose is the same: documenting when work happened and how long it took.
Types of Timesheets You Might Need to Fill Out
Before you start filling in hours, it helps to know which timesheet format your company uses. The right format depends on how often your company runs payroll, whether you bill clients by the hour, and how granular your project tracking needs to be.
Daily Timesheets
Daily timesheets capture an hour-by-hour breakdown of each workday. They work well for hourly employees, field workers, or roles where tasks shift frequently throughout the day. Each entry typically includes a start time, end time, and a project or task label.
Weekly Timesheets
The most widely used format. Weekly timesheets group entries across five to seven working days with a total at the bottom. They align with the standard workweek and are the default for many payroll cycles.
Bi-Weekly Timesheets
Bi-weekly timesheets cover a two-week pay period and are common in companies that process payroll every other Friday.
Monthly Timesheets
Monthly timesheets suit salaried employees and teams that bill clients on a monthly retainer. They provide a broad view of hours and project allocation over a full calendar month, though they require consistent daily logging to stay accurate.
Project-Based Timesheets
Instead of organizing entries by date, project-based timesheets group hours by client, project, or deliverable. They are especially useful in consulting, agencies, and professional services where multiple clients share the same team's time and accurate billing depends on clear project separation.
How to Fill Out a Timesheet in 7 Steps
Follow these seven steps to fill out a timesheet correctly, whether you are using a paper form, a spreadsheet, or time tracking software.
Step 1: Enter Your Name and Employee Information
Start with your full name, employee ID (if applicable), department, and your manager's or supervisor's name. This information ties the timesheet to the correct payroll record and ensures the right person reviews and approves it.
In software timesheets, most of these fields are pre-filled from your user profile, so you can skip ahead.
Step 2: Select the Correct Pay Period or Date Range
Choose the date range that matches your company's payroll cycle — daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Getting the date range wrong is one of the most common timesheet errors that directly causes payroll miscalculations and delayed paychecks.
Step 3: Log Your Start and End Times
Record when you started and stopped working each day. Include clock-in, clock-out, and the start and end of any break periods. Some timesheets track only total duration (e.g., "8 hours") rather than specific start and end times — follow whichever format your company requires.
Step 4: Assign Hours to Projects or Tasks
If your company tracks project-level time, assign each entry to the correct project, client, or task. This step is essential for client billing, project budgeting, and workload analysis.
Step 5: Record Overtime, Breaks, and Time Off
Separate your regular hours from overtime hours. Under the FLSA, overtime must be compensated at 1.5 times the regular hourly rate for non-exempt employees — which is why accurate overtime records are both a payroll necessity and a legal requirement. Also note whether your breaks were paid or unpaid, and log any paid time off (PTO), sick days, holidays, or other leave types for the period.
Step 6: Add Notes or Activity Descriptions
Briefly describe what you worked on during each time block. Activity descriptions give managers context during the approval process and serve as a record when questions come up during audits or client billing reviews.
Step 7: Review and Submit for Approval
Before submitting, review the entire timesheet. Verify that dates are correct, hours add up, projects are assigned, and overtime is separated from regular time. In manual systems, this means signing and delivering the form. In time tracking software like WebWork, it is a single click.
Three Ways to Fill Out Timesheets and Which One Actually Works
Paper Timesheets
Paper timesheets require zero technology and zero training — which is about where the advantages end. You do every calculation by hand, every form needs to be physically collected, reviewed, and stored. They offer no automatic totals, no error checking, and no way to analyze patterns over time. For companies with more than a handful of employees, paper timesheets create more administrative work than they solve.
Spreadsheet Timesheets (Excel and Google Sheets)
Spreadsheets improve on paper by introducing formulas for auto-calculation, easier storage, and some degree of shareability. Many teams start here because the tools are familiar and free. The downsides emerge with scale: formulas break when someone accidentally edits a cell, version control becomes a problem when files are emailed back and forth, and there is no built-in approval workflow or connection to payroll.
Spreadsheets also rely entirely on manual data entry, which means the same human-error risks still apply.
Time Tracking Software
Dedicated time tracking software automates the parts of timesheets that cause the most problems. Time is recorded automatically (or with a single click), entries are linked to projects and tasks by default, calculations happen in real time, and approvals flow through a built-in workflow. The data connects directly to payroll, invoicing, and reporting without manual exports.
For teams that want accurate records without the administrative overhead, employee timesheet software are the clear choice.
WebWork Time Tracker offers all three tracking modes — automatic, manual, and silent — along with a visual calendar, AI-powered work categorization, and direct payroll integrations with Deel, Gusto, Payoneer, and more.
| Criteria |
Paper |
Spreadsheet |
Software |
| Accuracy |
Low — manual only |
Medium — formula-aided |
High — automated |
| Time to complete |
10–15 min/day |
5–10 min/day |
Under 1 min/day |
| Error prevention |
None |
Basic formulas |
Built-in validation |
| Payroll integration |
Manual re-entry |
Manual export |
Direct integration |
| Scalability |
Poor |
Moderate |
Scales with team |
| Real-time visibility |
None |
None |
Live dashboards |
How to Fill Out Timesheets Automatically with WebWork
Manual timesheet entry is where most errors, delays, and frustration originate. WebWork replaces the manual process with automated time tracking that captures hours without anyone typing numbers into cells.
Automatic, Manual, and Silent Time Tracking
WebWork offers three tracking modes to match how your team actually works.
Automatic mode runs continuously once activated — employees do not need to start, stop, or remember anything.
Manual mode lets employees control their own tracking with a start/stop timer, which works well for flexible or creative teams.
Silent mode runs invisibly on company-owned devices and does not require any employee interaction.
Every mode captures the same data: hours, projects, tasks, and activity context.
Visual Calendar with Color-Coded Entries
WebWork's time tracking calendar displays all entries in daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly views, color-coded by source — desktop, mobile, web, idle time, breaks, leave, and holidays. Employees and managers can add or edit entries directly on the calendar. You can also integrate it with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar to get scheduled meetings and events directly inside WebWork.
Project and Task Assignment
Every tracked hour in WebWork is linked to a specific project and task. There are no unassigned hours floating in a spreadsheet, no ambiguous "general work" entries, and no post-hoc guessing about which client a block of time belongs to. Managers can make project and task fields mandatory, so time entries without proper assignments are flagged before submission.
Activity Descriptions and AI Work Summaries
Employees can add activity descriptions to each tracked session, providing context for what they worked on. WebWork AI takes this further by autonomously generating daily activity summaries from tracked data. The AI flags irregularities automatically, so managers see a concise performance overview without reviewing individual entries line by line.
One-Click Timesheet Approval and Payroll Export
When the pay period ends, managers review tracked hours and approve timesheets with a single click. Approved hours flow directly into payroll through integrations with Deel, Gusto, PayPal, Payoneer, Wise, and other payment providers.
How to Get Your Team to Fill Out Timesheets Consistently
Set Clear Expectations in Your Time-Tracking Policy
Define when timesheets are due (daily, weekly, end-of-pay-period), which fields are required (project, task, description), and what happens when submissions are late. A written policy removes ambiguity and gives managers a reference point when following up.
Choose Software That Removes Friction
The less effort a timesheet requires, the more consistently your team will complete it. Automatic time tracking eliminates manual entry entirely. If your current system requires employees to spend 10+ minutes per day filling in forms, the tool is the problem.
Use Reminders and Approval Workflows Instead of Email Follow-Ups
Chasing timesheets through Slack messages and email threads is a waste of management time. Built-in reminders and structured approval workflows — like WebWork's attendance monitoring and automated notifications — keep the process moving without manual intervention.
Lead by Example
Teams where managers track their own time consistently see significantly higher adoption rates across the board. When leadership treats time tracking as part of standard operations rather than a burden imposed on employees, compliance follows.
Connect Timesheets to Outcomes the Team Cares About
Employees are more likely to complete timesheets accurately when they understand the direct connection to their own pay accuracy, fair workload distribution, and project visibility. Framing timesheets as a tool that benefits the team — not just management — changes the conversation.
Beyond Timesheet Filling — A Complete Workforce Platform
WebWork connects tracked hours to the rest of your workforce operations so that data captured in timesheets drives decisions across payroll, productivity, attendance, and reporting.
From tracked hours to processed payments in a single workflow. Automate payroll calculations with built-in overtime and PTO handling, generate invoices from billable hours, and send payments through Deel, Stripe, PayPal, or Payoneer.
See how work time is actually spent, not just logged. WebWork breaks down each team member's day into productive, neutral, and non-productive time, with app and website usage data categorized automatically by AI.
Track who is on time, who is absent, who is on leave, and who is overworking — all from a centralized dashboard that updates in real time. Punctuality rankings, shift compliance, and weekly trends are available without pulling a single report manually.
WebWork AI summarizes team performance, flags irregularities, and generates custom reports on demand. Scheduled reports arrive by email at whatever cadence your team needs. Export as CSV, XLSX, or share a live link with stakeholders.
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