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.
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.
This article covers:
Creating a timesheet template at company level
Applying the template to individual employees
Viewing and editing timesheet entries during a pay run
If you want to enter timesheet data yourself in the pay run, you can do this on any PaySauce plan. If you want to have employees submitting their own timesheets or to import timesheet files, you’ll need to be on our Standard or Premium plans.
Setting up and using Timesheets
Create a timesheet template
Before you can use timesheets for your employees, you need to create a template for your timesheets in your company settings. You can create multiple templates if your business needs different types of timesheets.
Select your company name at the top left of the screen to open company settings.
Go to the Settings tab, then select Templates from the left menu.
Select the + button above the Actions column.
Enter a Name for your Timesheet (most often called Timesheet but if setting more than one template use this area to differentiate, for example ‘Hours only Timesheet’.
In Template Type, select Timesheet from the drop-down menu.
Click on one of the three options below for Time captured:
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 to allow staff to add notes to their timesheets.
Select Simple in the Type drop down.
Set Allow Costing to No, then select Ok.
Note: If you use customised costing on our Premium plan, set Allow Costing to Yes and select the relevant code from the drop down.
Edit or remove a template
To edit a template, return to Settings > Templates, select the edit pencil icon next to the template, make your changes and select Ok.
To remove a template, select the x icon next to it, then select Save at the top right of the screen.
Apply your timesheet template to employees
Once you have created your timesheet template at a company level, you will need to enable it for each employee that you want to be able to record their hours.
Set up a timesheet for an hourly paid employee
Select the Employees icon and choose the employee.
Go to the Payments tab.
Select the + button above Actions.
Select Hourly in Rule.
Enter a Title for the payment (defaults to Hours/Rate but this can be overwritten if wanted).
Apply Taxable, Yes or No (generally this payment will be taxable but check with your tax advisor or IRD if unsure).
Set Frequency to Variable (Employees can’t enter data if it is set to Regular).
Choose Yes for Use Template.
Apply the Template you want from the drop down.
Do not tick on Reduce by Leave taken.
Enter Hours as zero.
Enter the hourly Rate.
Do not tick on Zero Rated.
Click Ok.
If you have an existing payment line that is hourly rate and you wish to enable timesheets for, click on the edit pencil of the payment to begin editing it using steps 7 to 12 above.
Setting up a Timesheet for Salaried employees
PaySauce has a unique feature for Salaried employees that work varied and seasonal hours to ensure compliance with Minimum Wage requirements. You can find step by step instructions in our article on Top ups here:
View and edit Timesheets in the pay run
Once you have created a timesheet template and applied it to employees their timesheet entries will appear in Run a Pay.
View entries on a pay card
On the employee’s pay card, you will see the payment line showing the total hours entered for the current pay period.
The hours field is greyed out; you can’t edit it directly. To see the daily hours or add entries:
Select the clock icon to the right of the rate value. The default view is of the total hours entered each day. You can swap to a full timeband view by clicking on the Hours dropdown and switching the view to Timebands. You can then see the start and stop times, any break minutes entered and any notes the employee has recorded.
To add an entry using the Hours view type the number of hours under the relevant day. If no boxes are visible click on the + symbol
To add an entry using the Timebands view:
click on the In box and select the start time hours and minutes,
click on the Out box and select the finish time hours and minutes.
Add the number of minutes taken for unpaid breaks in the Break minutes field if being used.
Click on the tick icon to the right-hand side.
Select Save to return to the pay card following changes or Close if no changes are made.
Note: If an error has been made by the employee, ask them to correct this via their app rather than editing it yourself.
View all timesheet entries
To see timesheet entries for all employees all at once:
In Run a Pay, select the timesheet clock icon directly below the word Processing.
This view shows all timesheet entries.
Select the edit pencil icon to the right of any employee to edit their timesheet.
To download a report of all entries, select the download arrow on the left.
To return to the pay card view, select Run a Pay or the menu icon (four horizontal lines) below Processing.
Timesheet troubleshooting
Employee can’t see timesheets in app
Check the following on the employee's payment line:
Frequency is set to Variable (not Regular)
Use Template is set to Yes and a template is selected.
The employee is in a current, open pay period.
The employee's pay card hasn’t been calculated yet - it must still be in the data entry stage (not moved to the Done area)
Employee entered the wrong Hours
Ask the employee to edit the entry themselves via the PaySauce app. They can correct entries for the current pay period before you calculate their pay.
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.