The 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. For others, it’s a micro-managing tool. Then you have companies and individuals who log hours to improve efficiency. Especially with the upsurge of remote working, online timesheets are a 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 organisations that invoice for their time, like accountants, legal teams, project managers, media agencies, recruiters, and so on.
Most HR systems aren't comprehensive enough to handle sophisticated requirements in this sense. However, for logging time worked against another slice of time monitoring, such as what kind of work or project was carried out during a given time period, many small business HR systems can help—this is where productivity can truly be optimised.
These kinds of HR systems, which include online timesheets, can perform all necessary tasks, such as absence management, annual leave booking, HR document distribution, assigning, monitoring, and recording training records or continuous professional development (CPD), recruitment, and have solid reporting functionality for all of these 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.
How Do You Create Online Timesheets?
The best answer is: don’t try to create them or recreate your current spreadsheet versions online—use a suitable, dedicated system instead.
The Best Timesheet Systems for Small Businesses
- Easy for staff to use and saves them time on admin.
- Feature an approval process.
- Record and calculate breaks.
- Provide an additional layer, such as time spent on projects, not just the total time worked.
- Allow access for remote workers, from multiple device types including, smartphones. Ideally, a location-specific identifier can be an option too, such as an IP address-specific or GPS location login.
- Can be assigned to both full-time employees and 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.
