A bi-weekly timesheet template is a spreadsheet used in recording how much time an employee spent working on a specific task, project, or working for a specific client in two weeks. Timesheet templates enable employees to save valuable time and effort during their Company’s payroll process.
Keeping track of your employee performance can be incredibly helpful. Timesheets not only make the entire payroll process much more accessible but also fosters transparency and ensure that your employees are well organized.
Uses of Bi-Weekly Timesheet Template
There are many benefits of using a bi-weekly timesheet template other than just tracking hours. Here are some of the reasons why you should use timesheets:
Building a database
By tracking how long an individual takes to complete a task, you can be able to do a complete analysis of how such tasks shall be handled in the future. This analysis also provides you with an overall estimated completion time for similar projects.
To maintain records and resolve disputes
The primary use of a bi-weekly timesheet template is to maintain a record of how many hours an employee has worked and to log any overtime put in. Having a competent and reliable way to track how many hours an employee has worked helps in gauging their performance.
Bi-weekly timesheet templates also help in avoiding payroll disputes between the employer and the employee about their worked hours and any overtime worked. Having an accurate record available of the employee’s worked hours help in avoiding any issues.
Bill more accurately
Timesheets are a great way to assure your clients that their projects are being handled efficiently and efficiently and that their money has been put to good use. Using a bi-weekly timesheet template, you will be able to validate all your invoices and billed hours through solid, impartial reports.
Track prodjects costs
The most important benefit of using a bi-weekly timesheet template is being able to track whether you are making profits or losing money on a project. For prepaid projects, it is always important to track the time and money being spent on a project. This way, you will be able to make adjustments if needed to avoid losing money.
Increase efficiency based on powerful insights
Having an insight into how employees tackle specific tasks can help you make significant advances in the way you run your projects. You can organize your employees according to their strengths and weaknesses. This helps in having an easy time tracking:
- Who is working on what
- What tasks are still due
- Who is busy and logging lots of hours
- What tasks are going to throng their scheduled time
- Who isn’t recording many hours and may have the ability to pick more work
Save your company money through better HR
When you have a better understanding of your employees will help you in making informed decisions when it comes to employee appraisal. By comparing the time spent working on a specific task, you will be able to see which employee should be rewarded and which one costs you more money through poor performance and time-wasting.
Contents of Bi-Weekly Timesheet Template
- Name and ID number
- A row of each day of the week
- A task list that the user has been allocated to work on that are not yet marked as complete
- Date, start time and end time
- overtime hours and sick leave
- A section for both the supervisor and employee to put a signature to authenticate the accuracy of the information in the timesheet.
Free Templates
Following are free bi-weekly timesheet templates that can be edited after downloading them:
How to Streamline your Tracking Process
You can download our free templates. These templates are well-tailored to it easy for your employees to use, thereby making your work as a manager much more manageable. You can streamline your tracking process by focusing on:
Distribution
Most organizations nowadays use online bi-weekly timesheet templates for ease of delivery. You can easily upload and share an online spreadsheet on a shared workspace like google docs or Dropbox for them to access quickly. Also, you can personally email it to them if they are working on different projects and require different kinds of bi-weekly timesheet templates.
Collection
Have a deadline for which your employees should submit their bi-weekly timesheet templates. This will help you in making your work more organized, thereby avoiding any mix-ups that may happen during submission.
Ensure that they have signed the forms when submitting.
Use a standard format. You can download a well-formatted bi-weekly timesheet template form to send to all your employees. This will make it easier for you to process the payrolls as all the information shall be entered in the same format.
Track all activities
All activities undertaken by your employees are important for the success of your Company. If you assume that the slightest difference in your daily reports doesn’t make any difference to your Company, then you are wrong. It would help if you tracked down all the activities undertaken by your employees, including coffee and lunch breaks. Knowing how much time they spend on all their activities will enable them to make adjustments, if any, to utilize their time well.
Only let managers create projects and tasks
Having a standard form for your employees is a good way to avoid any confusion or mix-ups that may occur during the submission of the bi-weekly timesheet templates. Allowing only managers to allocate projects and tasks ensures that no one task is allocated twice. It also ensures that all the tasks are distributed equally based on the strengths and weaknesses of your employees.
Make one person responsible for time tracking
Appoint one person to be in charge of time tracking implementation. This will not only make it easier for employees to submit their bi-weekly timesheet templates but also help them in resolving any disputes that may arise with regard to their bi-weekly timesheet templates.
How Do You Make Employees Fill Out Timesheets On Time?
Here are a few considerations for you to make employees fill out timesheets on time:
Start from the top
Create a top-down approach and decree that all of your top-level employees start using bi-weekly timesheet templates for every workday. By starting with your top-ranking employees first and afterward, continuing the practice to the rest of your employees will make them have a positive attitude towards using the timesheets.
Make the entry process as easy as possible
The entry process should not take more than 5-10 minutes per week on average. Our templates are designed to make the whole process as easy as possible. Timesheets are supposed to save time and increase efficiency; therefore, the process shouldn’t take longer than the time taken to perform the task.
Be transparent
Build a culture of transparency in your workplace. You can share the bi-weekly timesheet templates with every worker. This way, they will all be aware of what everyone is doing. Sharing the timesheet among your employees also fosters competition, which is healthy for your organization.
Don’t punish honesty
To foster honesty among your employees, inform them that it is okay to enter the exact hours they’ve worked. Don’t scold your employees for reporting on their inefficiency. Instead, it would be best if you used this as a way of analyzing and looking for improvement areas.
Be careful with schedule-related punishments and rewards
At times, you may want to set an example by punishing those who are always late and rewarding those who are in 5 minutes earlier. But do be careful. The human psyche doesn’t always act rationally, and all penalty/reward systems are sooner or later going to cause an impact on the company culture.
In the case of starting such an initiative, you should do a proper orientation for employees to make sure that they understand the logic and mechanisms once the majority of employees are okay. You can then proceed to roll it out. However, you should expect resistance from employees who are generally against rules and transparency. It’s time to ask whether they are the right match for your company or not.
Follow the company’s rules on time tracking
Make sure to follow your organization’s policy on managing employee time. In doing this, you will be establishing standards that will ensure all processes are smooth and highly efficient.
Some organizations require that all members, including managers, fill and submit their bi-weekly timesheet templates, while others require only the employees to file their timesheets. It is important to enforce the requirements as stipulated in your policies; this will not only improve efficiency but also help you avoid policy violations.
Show people the Benefits
Inform everyone in your organization about the benefits of using the timesheets. Make sure they understand why they are being asked to use the timesheets so that they may develop a positive attitude towards using them. To make it more efficient for them to use the bi-weekly timesheet templates, you can dedicate some time to teaching them how to fill in and submit their timesheets. This way, they won’t have any excuse not to file their timesheets. You may want to consider rewarding employees who have shown good time management skills and those whose productivity and results have increased.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if your bi-weekly timesheet is late?
Bi-weekly timesheets are required to be submitted by the employee after every two weeks. But if an employee fails to submit it on time, the employer has the legal right of withholding the payment amount of that particular employee. On the other hand, the employee may be warned by the official members that the payment might get delayed if all the progress regarding the assigned tasks is not submitted in the form of a bi-weekly timesheet on time.
Is it a legal requirement to fill the timesheet?
Timesheets are a legal document as it has been specified in the timesheet policy. As the timesheets serve various purposes, from keeping the record of an employee’s working hours to the transactions of payment, the process of filling timesheets is a legal requirement. It has a legal status so that the worker might not enter any incorrect information, and it also makes the employer pay the workers according to the available data.
How do electronic timesheets work?
Electronic timesheets are also known as online timesheets. These are appropriate to have the record of those persons who are working remotely for a particular organization. The person can enter the information about his / her working hours by staying at the same place from where he/she is working. The employer will also automatically get notified about their working duration.
Why is it so important to fill the timesheet correctly?
Timesheets are an essential document for employers and employees as well. The employees need to give all the information correctly and avoid any mistakes because it will help the employer track the number of tasks assigned and completed by a particular consultant. It also allows checking whether the task got completed within the specified deadline and ultimately finalized the payment of all the workers according to their performance.