Timesheet
A timesheet is your record of an employee’s hours and time events for a pay period, reviewed and approved before it feeds payroll.
A timesheet, also called a timecard, is assembled from clock events, schedule data, and manual edits. It is evidence that hours were worked and approved, not a schedule of hours expected. Hourly employees typically submit or confirm their own timesheet. Salaried exempt employees may only track PTOPaid time off (PTO). Paid time off (PTO) is a single bank of paid hours an employee draws from for vacation, illness, or personal reasons.Click to open the term, depending on your policy. An audit-ready timesheet keeps the original punches, edits, and approval history visible, not only the final total.
How does a timesheet reach payroll?
Approval means a manager reviewed the employee and period as a whole. Clicking through every timesheet without reading it is not approval. An unapproved timesheet at payroll cutoff is a common failure point. Hours you know were worked still have to be paid. So unapproved time is typically escalated and corrected around the cutoff, not dropped from the run. Any policy violation is handled separately from the pay decision.
- 01
Capture. Each clock-in and clock-out arrives as raw capture, not yet a payroll earning.
- 02
Correct. A manager or authorized administrator fixes each missed punch (a clock-in or clock-out the employee never recorded) with the real time.
- 03
Apply rules. Rounding, meal and break deductions, overtime calculations, and job or department coding are applied.
- 04
Approve. Time approval is your decision that the hours are accurate and payable: totals, edits, breaks, overtime, leave, and job allocation.
- 05
Lock. The approved timesheet is locked against silent edits, with a change log of who edited what and when.
- 29 CFR Part 516, Records to Be Kept by Employers
- U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #21: Recordkeeping Requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
General information, not legal or tax advice. Apply current federal and state rules with qualified guidance.