Importance of Timesheet Approval

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For every organization, recording and approving work hours for employees is a significant process. There were different methods for recording time in the old days, like using spreadsheets, punch cards, or paper documents.

Even today, some people use templates to record time. But all these methods have disadvantages like:

• For larger organizations, maintaining paper documents will be a costly and time-consuming process.
• On an average, organizations spend $20 per paper to file it.
• Searching for relevant documents for approvals will be a complex process.
• It is challenging to validate an employee’s accuracy of hours worked with punch cards and paper documents.
• Email spreadsheets have their own set of problems.
• Sending spreadsheets via email in large organizations will clutter your manager’s inbox.
• Maintaining and retrieving all the spreadsheets as and when required will be a tedious process.
• There are chances of downloaded templates getting misplaced.

All the disadvantages mentioned above will lead to incorrect billing and mismanagement of all the employees’ data.

Why use Online Timesheet software?

Nowadays, there are multiple Online Timesheet software available that will automate most of your work process.

Using a timesheet software will help to:

• Keep track of what your employees are working on.
• Record accurate work hours spent by employees on a project.
• Show the project status.
• Prioritize the projects you are working on.
• Increase accuracy in billing and invoicing the clients.
• Automate the timesheet approval process.
• Reduce paperwork and waste of time.
• Analyze project actuals and budget, and employee work summary with Reports.
• Evaluate team performance and determine employee efficiency and productivity.
• Track time on any device from any place.
• It will organize all the employee’s timesheet data which will be easy for retrieval.
• Identify discrepancies while working on a project, accordingly managers can take corrective actions to speed up work.

Timesheet Processing:

The below image shows the timesheet lifecycle:

 

1. At a given point in time, a user may work on different projects.  After finishing the work for the day, the user fills up the timesheet by selecting the project they have worked on, the work details, and the number of hours worked on.
2. At the end of the week, the user submits the timesheet to the supervisor/manager.
3. The supervisor validates the timesheet by checking the work details, the number of hours worked, and project completion status.
4. After validation, the timesheet is either approved or rejected and further sent for payroll processing.

Why is Timesheet Approval important?

 

• While working on a project, it is crucial to keep an eye on what your employees are working on. The managers also need to keep track of how much time the employee is spending on a particular task.
• With an efficient timesheet management system, an employee will be able to select the project and task they are working on and enter time and work details. Then, at the end of the week, the employee submits their timesheet to the manager.
• While validating the timesheet, the manager will be able to identify the work hours and work done on a project. While validating or approving employee timesheets, if the manager finds any inadequacy in work or if the project work is not on track, then they can allocate more resources or labor to complete that project on time.
• Timesheet approval will  keep an accurate record of hours spent on a project.
• For payroll processing, a proper approval process is a must. Without an appropriate approval process, things would go wrong with incorrect billing to clients, the improper record of time entries, project completion, and work allocation.
• A company also invests in a project and employees. In the absence of an efficient approval system, the employees will be either overpaid or underpaid. In addition, the billing to clients may not be accurate, which will amount to huge losses to the company.

How OfficeClip will help to create a workflow for Timesheet Approvals?

The Timesheet approval automation process needs to flow smoothly to save time and get validation for timesheets quickly.

OfficeClip Free Timesheet has a multi-level workflow process for approval, where the approver validates the timesheet entries and makes a decision on whether to approve/reject the timesheets. This process ensures that the work is carried out as per the company policy and also ensures proper invoicing and billing.

OfficeClip has two types of routing:

Manual Routing: In this routing, users can submit the timesheet to any concerned authority in the organization. When the user submits the timesheet, they have to select an approver from the dropdown list and submit it.

Automated Routing: This  type of timesheet approval routing is set up by the Administrator and has up to three levels of automated routing. Once the user clicks on the submit button, the timesheet is automatically routed to the approver. If it is a two-level routing, when the first approver approves the timesheet, the timesheet is automatically routed for the final approval.

Rejected Timesheets are routed back to the user with the comments.

The Administrator can also set up the communication options, where the user will receive notification for approved or rejected timesheets.

The benefits of the OfficeClip Timesheet approval process are:

• Multi-level approval system.
• Accurate billing of Invoices.
• Reduces payroll errors.
• The approver can review the timesheet details within no time, and approve or reject the timesheets.
• There is a feature to add comments while approving or rejecting timesheets. In case of rejected timesheets, the employees can discuss the matter with higher management. 
• Timesheets can also be created, submitted, and approved/rejected through a Mobile app.
• The users can also view their timesheet approval history through Reports.
• Users receive notifications for approval or rejection of timesheets.

With changing times, it is essential to automate some of the processes to save time and money. If you are looking for a solution to accurately manage employees’ time accurately and automate workflow approval process, then get started with OfficeClip Timesheet.