Time tracking can be a tedious activity, yet, it’s one of the most essential activities for any business. Not only does keeping track of employees’ hours ensure accurate payroll processing, but it’s also a requirement by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
One method of time tracking involves creating timesheets and filling them out daily. However, you can imagine the hassle of doing that every single day. A great alternative would be to use templates, like the ones we’ve shared in this post, which you can customize to suit your needs.
What Are Timesheet Templates?
Timesheet templates are reusable documents that simplify the process of recording work hours. While online timesheets are faster, convenient, and more accurate, 1 in 10 companies still prefers manual timekeeping systems like printed time logs and offline spreadsheets.
Timesheets allow employees to fill out their working hours each day. These time tracking spreadsheets indicate a detailed breakdown of how each worker spends company time on various tasks. This includes clock-in and clock-out times, tasks, lunch breaks, and overtime.
The accounting department later collates the data and approves or amends it.
In most cases, templates mostly come in spreadsheet formats (Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets). All you have to do is print out the template and distribute copies to the entire team, who will be tasked with filling them out.
A template can contain the following entries:
- The employee’s name
- Date, start- and end-times
- Days of the week
- Overtime
- Lunch breaks
- A column for the supervisor to sign after approval, as well as an area for employee validation
A template can also contain a column for monitoring employee attendance.
Why Use a Template?
A template can be beneficial for businesses in several ways:
- A free template is ideal for a small business or freelancer working with a tight budget.
- Timesheet templates not only ease work hours logging. They save time and simplify invoicing and billing. Consider a monthly template that separates billable and non-billable time. It makes the work of the accounting department easier when creating invoices. For hourly workers, daily templates can indicate overtime, making it easier to calculate the amount payable. In addition, templates bring to light time leakage, so you can make amends to ensure accuracy.
- Timesheets ensure you and your workers’ time is organized properly. At the end of the day, week, or month, you can view and analyze time usage reports.
- Templates come in various formats, including Excel, Google Sheets, Word, and PDF. They are simple to use, and anyone can fill them out.
- Excel-based templates have built-in formulas that automate calculations. Since they automatically add up the payable hours and hourly rates, they speed up invoice generation for clients.
There are numerous types of templates:
- Daily templates, which focus on one day only. They are more suitable for freelancers and employees who clock in and out several times throughout the workday or hourly employees. They are useful in detecting irregular overtime, lunch breaks, and sick time.
- Weekly timesheet templates and bi-weekly templates. If you pay or get paid weekly or every two weeks, a weekly or bi-weekly template is an excellent choice. It allows you to see work hours within the pay period and process invoices.
- Monthly templates are for those who pay or get paid each month. They can accommodate large data entries in a single form, making it easier to deduce monthly work patterns.
Free Printable Templates
Below, we share free templates that you can print and use with your team. You’ll find:
- Daily timesheet templates
- Weekly timesheet templates
- Monthly timesheet templates
To use any of the templates, click File and select Make a Copy. You can then customize the timesheet by filling out the necessary details and distributing the blank templates to your team members.
Now, all that remains is to ensure everyone submits their completed timesheets daily, weekly, or monthly.
Daily Timesheet Templates
Do you have hourly employees? A daily template tracks your employees’ time every day. It can be helpful for managers who want to determine their team members’ daily work patterns.
A daily template can contain the following areas:
- Date
- Employee name
- Manager name
- Days of the week
- Start and finish time
- Break times
- Hourly rates
- Total worked hours
The daily timesheet you use will differ depending on what you want to record. Here are some examples of daily templates:
A simple daily template captures clock-in and clock-out times, breaks, and total worked hours. It comes with a preset formula, meaning you simply feed the data, which is automatically calculated to show how much you owe the employee.
Get your FREE simple daily timesheet template for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Daily Timesheet Template for Multiple Employees
If you manage a team of workers, your daily template should provide areas to fill each of your employees’ names, as well as days of the week. In this template, we’ve included columns for time in and time out, breaks, lunch, and hourly rates.
As you can see, you can view time spent on breaks, see who isn’t taking breaks, including lunch breaks, and encourage them to do so. The “Hourly Rate” column allows you to see how much money you owe each worker.
Get your FREE daily timesheet template for multiple employees for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Daily Timesheet Template with Breaks
Allowing downtime for your team has been scientifically proven to boost productivity. According to Psychology Today, breaks prevent “decision fatigue”, restore motivation, and improve your physical and emotional health.
With that in mind, consider allocating a specific amount of time for breaks to allow your workers to refresh their minds and get back to work rejuvenated. This template contains time spent on sick days, overtime, and holiday.
It’s a great option for monitoring employee attendance and absence to facilitate accurate payroll.
Get your FREE daily timesheet template with breaks for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Daily Project Timesheet Template
This template is ideal if you manage multiple projects and employees on different days. It lets you track projects being handled by each of your employees, as well as the project expenses.
At the end of each workday, you can calculate the revenue for each project as well as billable and non-billable time. You can even see when each team member clocked in and out.
Get your FREE daily project timesheet template for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Daily Construction Timesheet Template
A daily construction timesheet template allows you to capture a detailed breakdown of your workers’ activities on a day-to-day basis. Besides recording the start and end times, it also lets you record the cost code, project, and quantity of activities.
Since the workers travel back and forth to the site every day, we’ve included a column for expenses like fuel and mileage.
Get your FREE monthly timesheet with overtime tracking for Google Sheets.
Weekly Timesheet Templates
Do you track hours spent working on a weekly basis? A weekly template would suit you perfectly. This printable timesheet provides you with options to log the work hours for employees or contractors and calculate pay periods weekly, with ease.
The weekly templates are usually submitted weekly to payroll. Here are a few examples of weekly employee templates that you can use:
This template is for those who want to track regular work hours weekly. It lets you indicate the hourly rate for making calculations and enables you to track when employees clock in and clock out.
Get your FREE weekly time tracking spreadsheet for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Bi-Weekly Time Tracking Spreadsheets
If you pay employees every two weeks, you’ll need a bi-weekly template specifically designed for that purpose. Our template includes options to calculate regular work hours, overtime, and wages for every 14 days.
Get your FREE bi-weekly time tracking spreadsheet for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Monthly Timesheet Templates
A monthly template records the amount of time an employee spends working on tasks each day of the month. It’s an affordable option for small businesses or contractors who can’t afford to invest in attendance management and invoicing systems.
Here are some monthly templates that you can use with your team:
Simple Monthly Timesheet Templates
If you only want a monthly timesheet that records when you start and finish work, as well as lunch breaks, this simple printable template is for you. Simply fill it out, and it will automatically compute the total hours worked.
Get your FREE simple monthly timesheet template for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Monthly Timesheet Template with Overtime Tracking
If your team works overtime regularly, this template allows you to track overtime to prevent disputes. Apart from the usual start and end times, it has an additional column to record overtime hours.
This printable week-by-week monthly template will automatically calculate the total hours worked and show you how much you need to pay an employee.
Get your FREE monthly time tracking spreadsheet for Google Sheets or Excel below.
Pros and Cons of Using a Timesheet Template
Advantages of using templates
Whether you’re a freelancer, contractor, or managing a team, templates can prove beneficial in several ways:
- Faster payroll processing. A template is primarily used to determine how much you need to pay your employees in a given period. These templates have built-in formulas that automatically calculate the amount of time a team member spends working. They also let you compute the total amount earned by hourly employees.
- Project management. Apart from showing you when a worker started and finished work, templates can be used to manage projects. Managers can use the time data to assign tasks and ensure even workload distribution.
- Proof of work. Clients want to know where their money is going, and a template provides the data that shows billable time and how time was exactly spent on the project. The timesheets provide a record of data that can help resolve discrepancies and disputes
- They allow contractors to provide potential clients with budget estimates. Over time, the data recorded on the timesheets can be analyzed to determine the profitability of projects, in relation to how much time was spent on each.
- Monthly timesheets can help you improve work efficiency. The data you collect every month gives you insights into your or your employees’ work patterns. You can then analyze the data and determine if there are areas that can be improved.
Downsides of using templates:
- Time-consuming. Manually trying to modify data on a spreadsheet can be time-consuming and tedious, especially for the weekly or monthly time-tracking spreadsheet templates.
- Makes it harder to measure productivity. While timesheets give you data on time usage, you can’t measure productivity and performance accurately. There’s no way of telling exactly what employees did during the recorded time. In addition, the process can be prone to errors given the large amount of data that needs to be analyzed.
- Risk of losing data. You will need to print templates to fill them out, increasing the risk of misplacing the records. An online timesheet is stored in the cloud, which reduces the chances of losing historical data.
- Rampant inaccuracies. Several studies have shown that almost 90 percent of spreadsheets are erroneous, most of which were human errors. Usually, with manual timesheets, you have to rely on estimates, and mistakes can be hard to detect.
- Poor reporting. Pulling reports from large amounts of data can be complicated, not to mention time-consuming and inconvenient. Plus, you don’t have the convenience of real-time reports, which are hugely insightful.
Automate Payroll Process with Software
While using free templates can be useful for some companies, they have significant limitations. If you manage a large team, it may not be practical even. You’ll end up losing lots of time that you could use to grow your business.
If you’re looking for a more reliable alternative to payroll processing, consider Traqq time tracking software. Not only is it suitable for tracking time for teams of all sizes, but it also simplifies payroll management, so you don’t have to deal with complicated Excel formulas.
Traqq automatically captures all your activities when working, and neatly organizes them on an online timesheet. You can then access the dashboard to view and analyze your daily, weekly, or monthly performance.
The Traqq time tracking system lets you:
- Add an hourly rate for each worker
- Automatically generate invoices for an individual or entire group
- Schedule timesheet reports and share them with clients
- Export timesheet reports in CSV or PDF formats to facilitate payment
Online Timesheet App with FREE Trial
If you’re wondering how to improve productivity and performance levels, while limiting distractions, Traqq is the answer. This free app is laden with useful features that will ensure maximum efficiency in the workplace.
For starters, it shows exactly how each team member spends their hours. In addition, the intentionally blurred screenshots allow you to monitor work progress in the background, without interrupting employees.
Traqq also monitors web usage and time spent on apps, making it easy to identify sources of distraction during work. Among other things, the Traqq time tracker lets you:
- Automatically track and log work hours
- Manually add and edit time
- Monitor team members’ activity without micromanaging them
- Discover overworked or underworked employees and distribute workload accordingly
- Automate payroll processing and ensure accurate pay every single time
Try Traqq for free and enjoy unlimited features for up to 21 days. If you manage a small team of less than three, you can enjoy all premium features absolutely free.
Online Timesheet Reports
Unlike templates, Traqq automates the process of time tracking and reporting. That means you can generate reports at any time and for any period for your analysis. Historical data is easier to extract since it’s all safely stored in the cloud.
Traqq offers numerous reports, all of which are highly detailed and easy to interpret:
- Weekly Summary report for checking on your team’s overall performance for a selected week
- Time and Activity report to check the activity levels and total hours worked by you or your team for a selected period
- Apps and Websites report to view internet usage habits
- Manual Time Adjustments report show if any time was manually added for a selected period
- Amounts Earned report gives a summary of amounts earned by you or your team for the selected period
- Idle Time report captures how much time you or your team members were idle during a given period
- Deleted Tracked Time report shows how much tracked time you or a team member deleted during the selected period
Once you’ve generated the report you want, you can have it exported in a .csv or .pdf format. You can save the reports on your computer for future reference or share them with different departments in your organization.
Traqq’s robust reporting feature can be used to analyze the overall performance and productivity of the entire team and company. What’s more, the data can help you with project estimation and budgeting.
Free Templates FAQ
Does Excel have a template?
Microsoft Excel allows you to create a template that you can use to track employee hours and manage their off days and payroll. Users can enter worked hours manually and calculate pay at the end of a period.
Does Word have a template?
A Word timesheet template lets you track employee work hours for different projects. The templates are editable and easy to use. They can be used by businesses of any size.
How do I create an employee timesheet in Excel?
First, you must decide the type of data you need in the Excel timesheet. Usually, a template consists of:
- Employee’s name
- Date of coverage (day, week, or month)
- Company’s name or department
- Manager’s name
You’ll then proceed to add labels as per your needs, such as “Start time”, “End time”, “Lunch break”, etc. Once you’re done with the labels, you’ll need to create formulas to calculate daily worked hours and pay.
Our free printable templates come with formulas, and all you have to do is feed them with the necessary data.
How do I create a timesheet in Word?
Starting from scratch can be a complicated and confusing exercise. We recommend downloading a free template and customizing it to your needs.
How do I create a template in Google Sheets?
We have shared severa templates for daily, weekly, or monthly usage. Simply pick an option and adapt it to your needs.
Automate Time Tracking and Boost Productivity
A printable template may be affordable and easy to use, but it can be impractical in certain situations. Furthermore, it’s prone to errors and inaccuracies. Traqq offers the convenience of automated time tracking and payroll processing.
The tool doesn’t leave any room for error – all the captured data is accurate. The best part is that it automatically generates detailed reports that are straightforward and insightful.
You don’t have to endure the tedious and painful exercise of manual time tracking with templates. Automate the entire process with Traqq today!
