A timesheet is just a timesheet, isn’t it?
Not so much.
What we’ve found here at HMS since 1984 is that timesheet requirements seem to be all the same until you put different departments who need them into the same room. Suddenly, the requirements seem quite different.
In 1984 when we were working on the very first mandate as HMS Software, we had to create a timesheet that would encompass the requirements of payroll and project management at the same time. The design requirements were so different, we ended up almost doubling the effort we had estimated in doing the work originally.
We needed a Time and Attendance timesheet for payroll with numerous requirements from the Finance department.
We also needed a task-based project tracking timesheet with the ability to update the project management schedule.
And, that was complex enough. The project was delivered successfully but the seeds had been planted for what would ultimately become the commercial TimeControl 10 years later.
As we did design on the out-of-the box multi-function TimeControl we realized there were more types of timesheets than just those two.
How about Time and Billing? What about Job Costing? How about timesheets for R&D tax credit compliance and so on.
We’ve created a short white paper identifying some of the timesheet types that we are most commonly asked about but this is not a theoretical exercise. If no one intervenes in what kind of timesheet to select, the most likely result is that multiple timesheets will be implemented. Payroll and HR will want a Time and Attendance timesheet. Finance may require a Time and Billing timesheet or a Job Costing timesheet or both. There may be requirements from Sales or Contracts to comply with government regulation timesheets in order to successfully comply with a new order or contract.
In some organizations we arrive to find 2, 3, 4 or even more timesheets all deployed at the same time. In a worst case scenario, employees must fill in 2 or 3 timesheets every week to accommodate all the requirements.
The best solution for this dilemma, as we discovered over 3 decades ago, is to create a multi-function timesheet that has a single interface in the front end so it is easy for end users, yet has all the controls that each of these requirements demands in the back end so Administrators can fulfill the different needs from a single source.
You can read the Timesheet Types and TimeControl white paper at: TimeControl.com/pdf/whitepapers/tc_timesheet_types.pdf. To see our complete list of white papers, visit TimeControl.com/resources/whitepapers.
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