Time is one of the most valuable resources for both humans and corporate entities. In a company, meeting deadlines, generating profit, and achieving success is a big possibility with effective time management. For this reason, employers want their workers to keep up with the demands of the fast-paced world so that they can ensure development and profitability. With a timesheet at hand, it will be easier for employers to keep track of the workforce’s efficiency. In this guide, we will walk you through the basics of timekeeping with the help of timesheets.
The advancement of technology brought significant changes in our lives—from our personal and everyday living to our professional endeavors. It created such a huge impact in this world that changed the way we live our lives. Of all the contributions technology has given the society, the most significant one was providing individuals and businesses a more efficient way to carry out various tasks.
In a company setting, it is essential to track and keep a record of the time an employee spends on paid labor. Traditionally, employers or the human resource staff make use of timesheet, which is literally a sheet of paper containing manually inputted data in a tabular format. It specifies the amount of time a worker spends to complete work-related tasks. Nowadays, the availability of spreadsheets, software, and time-tracking applications eliminated the need for the human resource staff and employees to manually input the starting time and end time to complete a specific project. While its purpose remains the same, digital timesheets give the human resources team a more efficient way to keep track of their employees’ working time. Digital or print, timesheets can either be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly.
No matter how long an employee stays within a company, there is no guarantee that they will report to work on time every day. A CareerBuilder study revealed that at least once a month, 29% of workers claimed that they came late for work. The study also showed that 41% of employers fired their employees because of tardiness. But how can the human resource staff know the exact time each employee reports to work? Through timesheets. Beyond the number of hours reflected on a timesheet, this document is an essential tool in a company that, without it, various company processes will be hard to accomplish. In this section, let us look into the importance of a timesheet in the different aspects of a company.
A study conducted by the United States’ Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that most employers (36.5%) in the private sector pay their employees on a biweekly basis. Meanwhile, some employees (32.4%) receive their salary once every week. Other types of pay periods, such as semimonthly and monthly, are less common in private sectors.
The time frame your timesheet covers should correspond with the pay period implemented in your company. It would be helpful if you make use of monthly timesheets if you pay your employees once every month. This way, it will be easier to calculate the payroll since the employees’ timesheets are the basis for their salary and wages. Provided in this section are the different types of pay periods you can implement in your company.
Weekly Pay Period: A weekly pay period means that employees receive their paychecks once every week on a specific day. Knowing that a calendar year consists of 52 weeks, a weekly pay period results in 52 paychecks in a year. This type of pay period is ideal for hourly or trade employees since it will help them manage their cash flow more effectively. Payroll processing will also be easier with a weekly pay period since it does not include lots of data. Its downside, though, is that it can be time-consuming on the part of the human resource or payroll professionals because they have to make calculations every week.
Biweekly Pay Period: A biweekly pay period means that employees receive their paychecks once every two weeks. With this type of pay period, a company’s workers receive 26 paychecks over the course of a year. In most months, employees will have two paychecks and three on some months. With this type of arrangement, workers can effectively manage their personal expenses because they know when they can expect a paycheck from the company. Since the human resource personnel processes the payroll once every two weeks, the likelihood of errors will be lesser as opposed to the weekly pay period.
Semimonthly Pay Period: Often confused with the biweekly pay period, a semimonthly pay period means that employees receive their paychecks twice per month. While the biweekly pay period results in 26 paychecks for the year, the semimonthly amounts to only 24. The usual paydays for this type of pay period fall every 15th and 30th day of the month. If the specified date falls on a weekend, employers should pay their employees on the closest weekday.
Monthly Pay Period: A monthly pay period means that employees receive their paychecks only once per month, resulting in 12 in a year. However, if you want to maintain good employee relationships, then implementing this type of pay period in your company will be a bad idea. Although it has the lowest processing costs on the part of the business, a monthly pay period makes it hard for the employees to manage their finances and may end up financially strained a few weeks after payday. There’s a reason why the monthly pay period is the least preferred as opposed to the other options.
According to the United States’ Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time workers work for 8.50 hours during weekdays and 5.27 hours for the weekends. Meanwhile, part-time workers spend 5.17 hours on work-related tasks on weekdays and 4.81 on weekends. Whether an employee is working full-time or part-time, it is crucial to keep a record of the time they spent for work. That is why in every company, timesheets are must-haves. In this section, learn how to create a monthly timesheet by following the steps outlined below.
Every document you make use of for your business should have a visual representation of your company in some ways. That is why it is essential to incorporate your company’s identity into your timesheet. Much like a letterhead, the top portion of your timesheet should include your company logo, name, address, contact number, and website URL (if applicable.)
The first section of the timesheet should reflect relevant information about the employees. Companies with a large workforce assign each employee an identification number to make the data unique for each individual. Aside from the employee’s identification number, other details such as their names, contact number, department, supervisor’s name, and manager’s name should also be in this section. It is imperative to have proper employee identification in the timesheet so that every worker will receive adequate compensation and the right amount of salary during payday.
When various data is arranged in rows and columns, it would be easier for the readers or viewers to comprehend the information presented. For this reason, you should make use of a table in your timesheet for it to look organized. In the table, insert blank cells for the employees to input the day, date, time in and time out, break time, total working hours for the day, and overtime.
In the absence of time tracking applications, some companies rely on their employees’ integrity in recording their attendance or working hours. For printed monthly timesheets, you must leave enough spaces for the employees and their supervisors to affix their signatures. Doing so will assure the employers that the details written on the timesheet are factual.
To ensure profitability, businesses must first look into the internal factors which influence their success. And although it sounds like an added burden, managing your employees’ productivity can be beneficial for the organization. It helps avoid time thieves and eliminates unproductive hours, which, as a result, saves the company from wasting its resources—time and money. Regardless of the size of your company, a timesheet is an important document you should have. It enables you to have a clearer picture of the workforce’s working hours and keep track of their efficiency.
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