A timesheet is a document or a piece of paper that shows a record of the time worked by an employee. In this article, we’re going to look at the typical format and layout of a timesheet, the details it carries, and how you can quickly make one if the need arises.
Timesheet Format: What Details Do Timesheets/Timecards Carry?
Here is what a typical timesheet looks like:
Here is a list of the details that you can usually find in a timesheet.
- Day: This field shows the day of the week for which the pay is calculated.
- Starting time/Clock-in time: This field shows the time that the employee started working.
- Ending time/Cloud-out time: This field shows the time when the employee clocked out or stopped working.
- Break minutes/duration: This field shows the total time that the employee took for their break.
- Total time: The total time (minus the break minutes) is mentioned in this field for each day.
- Total hours: Mentioned separately, this field shows the total number of hours that the employee has worked collectively over the week/month.
- Regular hours: This field shows the number of hours that the employee worked in their regular/demarcated schedule.
- Overtime hours: This field shows the hours that the employee worked above and beyond their demarcated schedule.
- Total pay: This field mentions the total amount that the employee is due to be paid according to their total worked hours.
How to Quickly Create a Timesheet?
There are two methods that you can use to quickly create a timesheet for your employees.
Method 1: Use an Online Timesheet Calculator
This method is great if you want to not just create the timesheet but also calculate the total pay for the tracked hours.
An online timesheet calculator (also known as a “timecard” calculator) is a tool that lets you enter the exact hours that an employee has worked, along with their hourly rate. You can also specify the incremental increase of the hourly rate for overtime, as well as the days of the week to be calculated. (The exact features and functions provided differ from tool to tool, but these ones are common.)
Here are some notable perks and benefits of using an online tool:
- With a timecard calculator, you can easily perform the calculation with just a click, without wasting time on complicated additions and subtractions yourself.
- A timecard calculator also lets you save and download the timesheet as an image or PDF. This can help you share the timesheet with your employees if they need it or to save it for future reference.
- Timesheet calculators often provide considerable customization options. You can change the name, data, hourly rate, currency, etc. This helps you easily make timesheets for all types of employees that your organization may have, whether on-site or remote.
Method 2: Use a Template on Google Sheets
Another method that you can use to create timesheets is Google Sheets. The timesheets created using this method are excellent for viewing and reference purposes.
Technically, with this method, you can perform the calculations as well, but they require considerable skill. In Google Sheets, you can set various formulas in specific cells to automatically perform calculations. For example, you can set cell F5 to contain the product of the values in A1 and B2.
In this way, it is possible to create an automatic timecard calculator within Google Sheets, but like I said, it requires a lot of skill and expertise.
Here is an image of a template that you can find on Google Sheets:
Here is the public URL to this template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12xUkek4BWXPtXaXbCfizy72Y0mA1nHof0kzPf6A_-Is/edit?gid=546322831#gid=546322831
As you can see, this template contains similar fields and entries to the ones that are present in the timecard calculator.
Here are the benefits of using Google Sheets for making timesheets:
- With Google Sheets, you have more control over the styling and formatting of the entries. If you want to style and format the various entries, such as the names, dates, etc., you can do so by making the text bold, underlined, italicized, or differently colored.
- You can share the documents with others if needed, such as other members of the HR and Accounts teams.
- As is the case with a timesheet calculator tool, the timesheet created using Google Docs can be downloaded. There are various formats that you can choose from when downloading the timesheet, including:
- Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)
- OpenDocument (.ods)
- PDF (.pdf)
- Web page (.html)
- Comma-separated values (.csv)
- Tab-separated values (.tsv)
Wrapping Up
A timesheet contains various details that outline the total hours worked by an employee as well as the remuneration they are due. In the post above, we have mentioned the general format of these sheets along with the methods that you can follow to quickly create one.
The two methods mentioned above include using an online timesheet calculator or Google Sheets. Using a timesheet calculator is easier and more user-friendly, while using a template on Google Sheets is more feature-rich and versatile.