How to submit your timesheets

It has become a requirement for employees of a company to fill out timesheets to track time and performance. By doing so, supervisors and HR professionals can track how many activities have been conducted by an employee and how much time they have invested in a particular activity. Based on this both HR professionals and supervisors can form an analysis regarding an employee's performance and decide what type of activities need to be added or what type of activities need to be removed. Using OrangeHRM employees can create and submit timesheets easily. Also, admin users and supervisors can view and edit the timesheets of an employee. However, a normal ESS User can only enter his / her timesheet details.

Note: By default, weekly timesheets are available in the system. However, timesheets can be also configured to bi-weekly and monthly from the backend.

To access this feature go to Time Tracking -> My Timesheets. The following screens appear based on how the timesheet has been configured (weekly, monthly, bi-weekly).

Summary Timesheet

Monthly

Users can view the previous timesheets by selecting the timesheet from the timesheet dropdown.

Step 1: Click the 'Add Activity' (this option is available under each day of the timesheet) button to add timesheet details.

Step 2: Upon clicking the 'Add Activity' button the following details appear :

'Project' (optional. Name of the project. Common activities does not have projects specified)
'Activity' (Name of the activity. The user can select from the dropdown)
From Time (The time the work started)
To Time (The time the work ended)
Comment (Optional. The user can )

Field	Description
Project	The user can choose an already created project from the drop-down
Activity	The user can choose an already created activity relating to the project from the drop-down. The user can choose from: Meetings, presentations, discussions, Company Get together, and many more.
From / To	The specified time periods the user has worked on an activity relating to a particular project
Duration	The duration is automatically calculated once when the time periods have been defined.
Comment	The user can add a comment relating to the project which he/she completed.
Copy Activity	The user can use this feature to copy an activity if the user feels that he/she has done the same activity more than once for a particular day.
Remove Activity	The user can remove a previously created activity.
	The user can create a timesheet based on a previously defined timeline (weekly /bi-weekly)
	The user can create a timesheet for a week or bi-weekly.

Note :

*Time spent on the activity entered is calculated based on From and To times.

*Only the active projects and related activities will be available in the drop-down to select.

*Alternatively, the user can select a common activity that stands alone without a project to log time. Logged time would be tracked under the 'common activity' but not under any project.

*The user can also select a project of his /her preference, in front of the common activity and log time if required. Then, that time would be logged to the project selected for that particular chosen common activity.

*Refer to the Common Activities article for more information.

Step 3: Add the time spent on each activity under each day in hours. 90 minutes should be entered as 1.5. Repeat steps 2 – 3 until all the required data is entered.

Step 4: Click on the icon to add comments for the preferred activity (optional).

Step 5: Click 'Save' after entering the comment.

Detailed Timesheet

Weekly

Bi-Weekly

Note :

The user cannot create timesheets for future weeks.

To change between different weeks, click and select the preferred week which needs to be changed.

this field shows the staus of the time sheet as 'Submitted' or 'Not Submitted'. Non working days such as holidays, weekends and the potential employee leaves are marked in grey.

To remove a row linked to an activity for a specific day , click the button.

Click 'Submit' button once when the timesheet for a week / bi- weekly / month has been completed. Notifications can be configured and subscribed for Approval, Rejection and Submission of Timesheets. Reminder notifications for those actions can also be set and subscribed. Refer the following to get an idea as to how notifications and reminder notifications can be configured :

Add Subscribers to Email Notifications

Add Subscribers to Email Notifications [Video]

Edit Timesheets

The user can also edit their timesheets even after submitting or saving their timesheets.

Step 1 - By default, the ‘My Timesheets’ screen shows the timesheet for the current week. Click ‘Edit’ to fill out the timesheet. The edit behavior of the timesheet is shown below.

Function	Description
ADD ROW	This function allows the user to add one or more projects and activities for a particular day.
REMOVE ROWS	The user can remove a previously created row/row.
COPY ACTIVITIES*	Upon clicking this function the user can simply select the desired week which they want to copy from and copy to the current week.

*COPY ACTIVITIES - The ‘Copy Activities from Timesheet’ screen is shown upon clicking ‘COPY ACTIVITIES’.

Click ‘Copy’ after selecting the relevant timesheet from the drop-down.

Note - This improves employee efficiency in data entry when the people work on long-term projects and activities.

Click ‘SAVE’’after making all the necessary changes via the mentioned functions.

Important points for the edit behavior:

Under the ‘ Project Name’ title only the active projects and related activities will be available in the drop-down to select.
Alternatively, the user can select a common activity that stands alone without a project, to log time. Logged time would be tracked under the common activity but not under any project.
The user can also select a project of his / her preference, in front of the common activity. Then that time would be logged to the project selected under the common activity selected.
When entering the time spent on each activity under each day in hours. 90 minutes should be entered as 1.5.
To remove a row, select it by clicking the checkbox to the left of the row and clicking ‘REMOVE ROWS’.

Refer to the following article regarding common activities: How to Add Common activities

General important points to remember when creating timesheets :

The user cannot create timesheets for future weeks.
On the top, right next to the status of the timesheet is shown
The following days are marked in grey: Non-working days such as Holidays, Weekends and the absent days of the employee are marked in grey.
To remove a row, select it by clicking the checkbox to the left of the row and clicking Delete row.
Notifications can be set and subscribed for Approval, Rejection, and Submission of Timesheets. Reminder notifications for those actions can also be set and subscribed to.

Overlapping Times in Activities

The timesheet in detail view does not allow an overlapping time period of different activities for a day. As a result, the system displays a message highlighting the overlapping period when it detects it as illustrated below.

Copying already selected project and activity

Clicking on the icon duplicates an activity, therefore, it is easy for entering another activity that was already added before. The image below illustrates this.

When the timesheet is filled for a day, the total of the time registered is displayed only if the project has been entered. Also, the total time is not shown if the activity is chosen as a 'break' of any sort.