What’s the best online timesheet system?

Simple answer: the one your employees find easiest to use.

Why do you need online timesheets?

For most companies in most jurisdictions, logging hours worked, and using records such as timesheets is a legal obligation. (Compliance, yawn. But necessary … ) For others, it’s a micro-managing tool. Then you have companies and individuals that log hours to improve efficiency. (Yay!)

Especially with the upsurge of remote working, online timesheets are a definite must!

Online timesheets come in many forms. Searching for the right one involves filtering out the vast range of uses in the marketplace.

There are solutions specifically for accountants, legal teams, project managers, media agencies, recruiters and so on. Organisations that invoice out their time.

Most HR systems are not comprehensive enough to handle sophisticated requirements in this sense. But, for logging what time was worked against another slice of time monitoring –  such as what kind of work (projects) was carried out during a given time period – then many small business HR systems can help.

This is where productivity can truly be optimised.

Plus these kinds of HR systems that include online timesheets can do all the other necessary work such as absence management and annual leave booking, HR document distribution, assigning/monitoring and recording training records or Continuous Professional Development (CPD), recruitment and have solid reporting functionality on all of those modules.

You’ll find millions of options and providers online. But our advice is to select one that your team find the easiest and most convenient to use.

Being able to clock in and out of work easily, (especially when your workforce is distributed) you can track project hours worked from any device or location and focus on important work is the most important criterion for selection.

How to create online timesheets?

The best answer is: don’t try to create them or recreate your current spreadsheet versions online – and use a suitable, dedicated system instead.

The best timesheet systems for small businesses

• Are easy to use for your staff – and save them time as your admin
• Feature an approval process.
• Record and calculate breaks.
• Give an added layer such as time spent on projects, not just the total time worked
• Allow access for remote workers. From multiple types of devices such as smartphones. Ideally, a location-specific identifier can be an option too. E.g., IP-address-specific login or GPS location
• Can be assigned to both full-time employees or contractors. Perfect for construction companies or organisations with a lot of drivers on the road for example.
• Allow you to report on or process hours worked to payroll. You should not be able to print timesheets for Data Protection purposes.
• Free you from the inaccuracies, security hazards and hassle of managing spreadsheets or physical documents.
• Assist in optimising time management and efficiency.
• Allow secure login and access control. Perfect for organisations with Single Sign-On services such as Microsoft Active Directory or Okta.