Time Sheet Software – What Is It And How Can It Help My Business?

One of the most tedious tasks of any employer is the administration and tallying of the timesheets. Totaling all those hours, remembering to subtract lunch periods, vacation time, and unpaid sick time, then adding back in holiday pay, paid time off and bonus hours can become a nightmare. And calculating overtime is worse. Figuring time and a half for an employee who only worked a fraction of an hour is enough to tax the brain of even the savviest bean counter. That's when it pays to consider adding timesheet software to your Payroll and Accounting Department.

Timesheet Software is almost exactly what it sounds like; software designed to help an employer accurately record the number of hours worked by employees during a pay period. Additionally it records and schedules the employee's vacation time, sick days, personal time, clocking in and out for lunches and breaks, and any overtime worked.

The timesheet software available today can do so much more than ever before. Not only can it accomplish the general web-based time tracking discussed above, it can additionally manage projects and the time spent working on them, allow for start and stop of time spent working on a project, conduct expense accounting and reporting, track time for payroll and billing purposes, and can be customized to suit both small and large companies. Something that previously might have taken two full-time employees to accomplish!

Most timesheet software is also compatible with QuickBooks Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel. Employee data can be loaded into the programs one time and can then easily track overtime and quickly calculate percentages of pay for employees who may be short minutes on a complete hour. In the past these calculations may have cost a payroll employee precious hours figuring out the intricate details.

One of the best features of the timesheet software is the ease of use. The employee themselves enters the information right from their own desktop computer. Each morning when they sign in to work, they are in effect "punching in". The same is true for each time they sign out and in for lunch, and when they leave for the day. As each employee is password-protected, the system effectively removes the case of "buddy-punching" a common complaint among employers and the old timesheet system.

Vacations are scheduled in much the same way, by the employees themselves. They schedule a block of time, and the request is forwarded to the supervisor for approval. Most systems can then be programmed to make that period unavailable if another employee from the same division attempts to schedule the same time frame, disallowing any one area from being short-staffed at any time.

Whether your company needs to track time for project account, client billing, or simple payroll reasons, timesheet software is a critical component to a modern and efficient business.