PaySauce has very flexible timesheeting options which will give you everything you need to make capturing your employees’ time super easy. You can get your employees recording their own time worked in the PaySauce app, removing the need for you to have a separate time and attendance option, or you can import timesheets that meet our specifications.
We cover timesheet imports in separate articles: in this guide we’ll focus on using PaySauce’s timesheeting options.
You can choose to set up managers or team leaders in your business to have the option to approve timesheets without them seeing sensitive information like pay rates. Because employees can submit their time worked on the go, it makes pay day really easy without the need for emails, texts or paper forms that you need to type into payroll yourself. You can even set up timesheets in a way that allows employees to enter their hours against specific jobs, locations or any other way that you want to track costs in your business.
If you want to enter timesheet data yourself, you can do this on any PaySauce plan. If you want to have employees submitting their own timesheets to make things really easy for yourself, you’ll need to be on our Standard or Premium plans.
Create a timesheet template
Before we get started setting up timesheets for your individual employees, we need to create the type of timesheets you want at a company level. You can have more than one timesheet type set up for your business if you need, and then for each employee you can just select the right type.
Go to your company settings by clicking on your company’s name in the top left hand corner of your screen.
Select the ‘Settings’ tab and then choose ‘Templates’ on the left hand side menu.
Click on the plus symbol in the top right hand corner to create a new timesheet template.
Give your timesheet a name. Most people usually just call it ‘timesheets’, but if you have multiple types of timesheet templates you may want to give it something more identifiable!
In ‘Template Type’, select ‘Timesheet’ in the dropdown.
You have three options to select from for time capture:
Timeband: allows employees to create multiple time entries (or timebands) throughout the day, for example 7:00-12:30 then another entry for 3:00-5:30.
Timeband (minus break): allows start/stop times as above but with a space for an unpaid break to be recorded in minutes.
Hours only: allows employees to enter a total of hours for each day, without specifying start and finish times.
Check on the ‘Allow Narration’ option if you want staff to be able to submit notes with their timesheets.
In the ‘Type’ drop down, select Simple.
Allow costing - set to yes if you have or want to have a costing template that you set up with, otherwise select no. Using custom costing templates is only available on our Premium plan.
If you want to edit or update your timesheet template, return to the company settings and click on the pencil to edit. The pencil is on the right hand side. To delete a timesheet template, click on the cross.
Apply your timesheet template to employees
Once you have created your timesheet template at a company level, you’ll need to enable it for each employee that you want to be able to timesheet.
Set up a timesheet for a waged employee
These set up steps are for when you want an employee to submit timesheets and be paid an hourly rate for each hour they work.
Go to the ‘Employees’ section on the left hand side menu.
From the employee list, select the employee that you wish to set up a timesheet for and then click on the ‘Payments’ tab.
If they already have an hourly rate that you wish to enable timesheets for, click on the title of the payment to begin editing it. If you want to create a new hourly payment, click on the plus icon no the right hand side of your screen.
In the ‘Rule’ field, select hourly.
The title will default to Hours / Rate, but you can give the payment another name by typing in the title field.
Apply the correct option for if the payment is taxable or not. Most payment types you set up in this way will be taxable.
Set the frequency to variable.
Select ‘Yes’ for use template.
From the dropdown, select the timesheet template that you have set up in your company settings.
Leave the ‘reduce by leave taken’ check box off.
The hours field should be set to zero, as your employee will be submitting their hours for each pay.
The ‘rate’ field should either have the hourly rate that the employee will be paid for each hour worked, or you can select the ‘zero-rated’ check box if this timesheet is to enable recording of time worked only (this is used as part of our Top Up feature or when you want salaried staff to record time worked without affecting their payment).
Click Ok at the bottom to save your work.
The screenshot below shows the correct settings for the payment to be set up to enable the employee to timesheet. In this example, the name of the payment that the employee sees is ‘Timesheet hours’, and their rate is $30 per hour.
Set up a timesheet for recording hours only
These set up steps are for when you want an employee to timesheet to record their actual hours worked, but they are on a salary (or another payment) and you do not want the timesheeted hours to pay the employee.
This setup is particularly useful when an employee on a salary needs to track additional hours worked (e.g., overtime, extra shifts) without altering their standard salary pay.
Go to the ‘Employees’ section on the left hand side menu.
From the employee list, select the employee that you wish to set up a timesheet for and then click on the ‘Payments’ tab.
Click the + icon on the right-hand side of the page to add a new payment line.
Configure the Payment Line:
Rule: Select Hourly from the dropdown menu.
Title: Enter Actual Hours Timesheet to clearly label this payment line.
Taxable: Set this to No, since the actual hours worked are not subject to tax (their salary payment is)
Frequency: Select Variable to allow flexibility in the number of hours worked each period.
Use Template: Tick the box to enable templates.
Template: Select Timesheet from the dropdown menu. This ensures the employee will be able to track and log their hours accurately.
Hours: Set this to 0, as the actual hours worked will be manually entered.
Zero Rated: Tick the box for Zero Rated, as this hours record does not pay the employee.
Save the Payment Line:
Once all the fields are correctly set up, click Ok to save the new payment line.
The 'Actual Hours' timesheet will now appear as a separate line on the employee’s pay slip, alongside their regular salary line.
The hours recorded will not affect the employee's base salary but will provide a clear record of actual hours worked.
Timesheets in the pay run
Now that you have created your timesheet template and set employees up to use it, you will be able to see and manage timesheet information in your pay run.
In the Run a Pay area, you'll see a clock icon next to the employee's pay rate. This means the employee has timesheets enabled for this payment.
To view or edit timesheets for one employee, click on this clock icon in the employee's pay card. You will be able to see the hours entered for each day. You can edit or make changes here by clicking the plus icon.
To view or edit timesheets for all employees in this pay run, click the timesheet view button in the top left corner of your screen while in the pay run. It is a clock icon, furthest to the left as shown in this screenshot:
Each employee will have a pencil icon. You can click this to bring up the same view you would have for a single employee from the pay run, and you can click on the plus icon to edit the timesheets.
Save the hours when you have finished editing.
If you are in the timesheet view for all employees in the pay run, you can return to the pay card view by clicking the icon on the far right (four horizontal lines).
Download a timesheet report
To download a report of your timesheets before processing your pay, select the timesheet icon at the top right hand corner in the Run a Pay area, then click the down arrow to download a report.
More about timesheeting
If you want to set up team leaders or managers to approve timesheets, please contact PaySauce Support so we can give you a hand.
If you don’t have managers or team leaders approving your timesheets, then by default employee timesheets submitted in the PaySauce app will appear in your pay run ready to be paid.
We have a powerful timesheet import tool for customers using time and attendance software to capture employee time worked. Read more about our timesheet import feature in our article here.