This is a glossary of timesheet terms that you might see on our website or elsewhere online. Each word has a link that will show you its definition, origin and more details.
A:
Absence Management:
Absence management is a strategic HR function that systematically tracks and manages employee absences to minimize business disruption, ensure legal compliance, and improve workforce productivity and well-being.
Accruals:
Accruals are a system where employees progressively earn paid time off credits, such as for vacation or sick leave, at a fixed rate over a period of time, which they can then use as a benefit to take leave from work.
Approvals:
Approval is the formal, often digital, authorization by a supervisor or designated authority to verify and validate timesheets, expense reports, or other submitted data, making them eligible for processing and payment.
Attendance Tracking:
Attendance tracking is the systematic process of monitoring and recording employee work hours, breaks, and absences to ensure accurate payroll, improve productivity, and maintain legal compliance.
Auto Approve Timesheets:
The auto-approve feature is an automated workflow that instantly approves an employee’s submitted timesheet, often based on predefined rules or thresholds, to streamline the payroll process and reduce administrative overhead.
Automated Timesheets:
Automated timesheets use electronic timesheet software to automatically capture and track employee work hours, project time, and tasks in real-time, eliminating manual data entry and providing accurate data for payroll, billing, and productivity analysis.
B:
Billable Hours:
Billable hours are the specific work hours employees spend on tasks for a client’s project that are tracked and directly invoiced to the client at a pre-agreed rate.
Budgeting Projects:
Project budgeting is the critical process of estimating, allocating, and controlling all financial resources needed to successfully complete a project on time and within an approved financial baseline.
Billing Rates:
Billable rates are the specific hourly or fixed prices charged to clients for services rendered by a team on their projects, directly impacting a company’s revenue and profitability.
Buddy Punching:
Buddy punching is a fraudulent act and a form of time theft where one employee clocks in or out for another, leading to inaccurate payroll, lost productivity, and potential disciplinary action.
Bulk Approve:
Bulk approval is a timesheet system feature that allows managers to efficiently approve multiple submitted timesheets at once, saving time and streamlining the approval process for payroll.
Burnout:
Burnout is a state of extreme physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion often caused by prolonged or excessive workplace stress that leads to feelings of cynicism, detachment, and reduced efficacy, significantly impacting one’s well-being and productivity.
C:
Check-in/Check-out:
Check-in and check-out are essential time tracking actions that mark the start and end of a work period, systematically recording employee work hours for accurate payroll, productivity analysis, and attendance management.
Customer Portal:
A customer portal is a secure, self-service online hub that allows customers to independently access personalized information, manage their account, track support requests, and find resources, thereby improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Custom Reports:
A custom report is a user-defined and flexible report that allows you to selectively combine and filter data to extract precise insights for answering unique business questions and supporting data-driven decisions.
D:
DCAA Compliance:
DCAA compliance refers to adhering to the rigorous regulations and auditing standards set by the Defense Contract Audit Agency to ensure government contractors have auditable systems for accurately tracking and billing project costs and labor.
DCAA Audits:
The Department of Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is the independent auditing arm of the U.S. government that conducts financial audits of DoD contractors to safeguard taxpayer dollars and ensure the integrity of contract costs and billing.
Delegation of Tasks:
Delegation of tasks is the strategic management process of assigning a task’s responsibility and the necessary authority to a team member, empowering them to complete the work and fostering their development.
E:
Employee Monitoring:
Employee monitoring is the practice of tracking and observing employee activity, often through digital tools, to analyze productivity, assess work patterns, and ensure security and compliance, particularly in remote and hybrid work environments.
Estimation of Time:
Time estimation is the process of predicting the duration required to complete a task or project, which is a critical practice in project management for setting realistic deadlines and effectively allocating resources.
Exporting Timesheets:
Exporting timesheet data is the process of transferring recorded work hours and project details from a time tracking system to a compatible file format or external software for purposes such as payroll processing, client invoicing, and in-depth reporting.
Expense Tracking:
Expense tracking is the systematic process of recording and monitoring all business-related costs and expenditures to maintain financial visibility, control the budget, and ensure accurate financial reporting and tax deductions.
Exempt Employees:
Exempt employees are salaried workers who, based on specific job duties and a minimum salary level, are classified under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and are therefore not eligible for overtime pay.
F:
Feature-based Software:
Feature-based time-tracking software is a comprehensive solution equipped with a wide range of functionalities, such as project and task tracking, reporting, and billing, to provide detailed insights into employee time utilization and productivity.
Filters for Timesheet:
Filters in timesheet screens are essential tools that enable users to segment and refine large datasets by specific criteria, such as date, project, or employee, to simplify data analysis and streamline reporting.
G:
Gantt Charts:
A Gantt chart is a project management tool that uses a bar chart format to visually represent a project’s schedule, outlining the duration, start and end dates, and dependencies for all tasks.
Guidelines for Time Tracking:
Guidelines are the formal rules and procedures established by an organization to ensure the accurate, fair, and consistent tracking of employee time, which prevents discrepancies and ensures legal and company policy compliance.
H:
Hosted vs Installed:
Hosted software is a cloud-based solution delivered and maintained by a third-party provider and accessed via a web browser, while installed software (also known as on-premises) is deployed on a company’s own servers, requiring in-house maintenance and administration.
Hourly Rate:
An hourly rate is the price charged for one hour of labor or service, used as a fundamental metric for calculating project costs, invoicing clients, and determining compensation for employees or contractors.
I:
Integrations:
Timesheet software integration is the process of connecting a time tracking system with other business applications to automate data transfer, eliminate manual entry, and streamline critical workflows like payroll and invoicing.
K:
Kanban Board:
A Kanban board is a visual workflow management tool that uses cards and columns to represent tasks moving through different stages of a process, providing transparency and helping teams track progress and identify bottlenecks.
L:
Labor Laws:
U.S. labor laws are a collection of federal and state statutes and regulations that establish minimum standards for wages, hours, and workplace safety, while also protecting employees from discrimination and ensuring their right to organize and collectively bargain.
M:
Manual Time Tracking:
Manual time tracking is the traditional process of logging and monitoring work hours for specific projects or tasks using non-automated methods like paper timesheets, spreadsheets, or punch cards, which is prone to human error but provides a hands-on approach to recording time.
Mobile App:
Mobile time tracking apps are portable, user-friendly tools that allow employees, especially remote workers, to accurately log their work hours from anywhere using their smartphones, often with features like GPS tracking and real-time data for simplified payroll and improved visibility.
N:
Non-Billable Hours:
Non-billable hours are the essential but unpaid work hours spent on administrative tasks, internal meetings, training, and business development that, while not directly chargeable to a client, are crucial for a business’s operations, growth, and long-term success.
Non-Exempt Employees:
Non-exempt employees are workers legally entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
O:
Overtime:
Overtime, as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), is the time a non-exempt employee works beyond the standard 40-hour workweek, for which they must be compensated at a premium rate of at least 1.5 times their regular pay rate (often called “time and a half”).
P:
Productivity:
Productivity is the economic measure of efficiency, calculated as the ratio of output (goods and services produced) to input (labor, capital, and resources used), and is a crucial indicator of performance for individuals, businesses, and entire economies.
Pomodoro Timer:
The Pomodoro Technique, a time management method to boost productivity and focus by breaking work into 25-minute intervals (called “pomodoros”) separated by short breaks, with a longer break after every four sessions to help prevent burnout.
Project Management:
Project management is the systematic application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to plan, execute, and monitor work, ensuring that a new initiative with a defined scope, timeline, and budget achieves its specific goals and deliverables.
Paid Time Off:
Paid time off (PTO) is a flexible employee benefit that provides a single bank of hours that employees can accrue and use for various reasons, including vacation, sick days, and personal time, without losing pay, thereby promoting work-life balance and serving as a key recruitment and retention tool.
Q:
Quickbooks Integration:
QuickBooks Integration for Timesheets is a software automation that allows for the seamless, automatic syncing of employee time-tracking data with QuickBooks, which streamlines payroll, invoicing, and job costing, thereby boosting accuracy and efficiency by eliminating manual data entry.
R:
Recurring Tasks:
Recurring tasks are routine activities that are scheduled to repeat at fixed, regular intervals (such as daily, weekly, or monthly) and can be automated using task management software to ensure consistency, save time from manual input, and prevent important duties from being forgotten.
Reports for Timesheets:
A timesheet report is a summary document that compiles and analyzes employee work hours, providing key insights for tracking productivity, ensuring labor law compliance, and enabling accurate client billing and payroll processing.
S:
Share Reports:
Sharing reports is the process of distributing a summarized document containing organized data and key insights to relevant stakeholders, typically in accessible formats like PDF or Excel, to ensure they are informed, facilitate data-driven decision-making, and enable collaboration and oversight.
Spreadsheets:
A spreadsheet is a powerful computer program that uses a grid of rows and columns to organize, analyze, and manage tabular data, with features for calculations, visualization, and data manipulation that make it an essential tool for businesses and individuals for everything from budgeting to data analysis.
T:
Time Blocking:
Time blocking is a powerful time management technique where you divide your day into specific, dedicated time segments for different tasks or activities, enhancing focus and productivity by visually organizing your schedule and minimizing distractions.
Time Management:
Time management is the strategic process of planning and controlling how you spend your time to maximize productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, ultimately helping to reduce stress and achieve a better work-life balance by prioritizing goals and tasks.
Time Management:
Time management is the strategic process of planning and controlling how you spend your time to maximize productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, ultimately helping to reduce stress and achieve a better work-life balance by prioritizing goals and tasks.
Timesheet Compliance:
Timesheet compliance is the practice of accurately recording employee work hours to adhere to both company policies and labor laws, which is essential for accurate payroll, fair billing, legal adherence, and improved operational efficiency.
Time Theft:
Time theft is the serious and costly issue of fraud, where employees are paid for hours they did not actually work, often through practices like falsifying timesheets, “buddy punching,” or taking excessive breaks, which directly impacts a business’s profitability and productivity.
U:
User Roles & Privileges:
A role or privilege is a defined set of permissions that an administrator assigns to a user or group, granting them specific access rights and control over a system or its resources based on their job function, authority, and responsibility, a core concept in Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) used to enhance security and efficiency.
V:
Validate Timesheets:
Timesheet validation is the critical process where a manager or supervisor reviews and verifies a submitted timesheet to check for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with company policies and labor laws before approving it for payroll or client billing.
W:
Weekly Timesheet Report:
A weekly timesheet report is an automatically generated summary that provides managers with a detailed overview of an employee’s work for the week, including projects, tasks, hours worked, and check-in/check-out times, to track productivity, workload, and project progress.
