What is a Time Card or Timesheet

Timesheets and time cards, often used interchangeably, are actually different. We can thank lawyers for timesheets who began using them in the early 1900s to track billable hours by client. This idea of tracking hours by client spread to independent contractors, freelancers, service companies, and any business with hourly workers who wanted job cost reporting. Time cards (or punch cards) were adopted in 1894 when a New York inventor, Daniel M. Cooper, created the first punch card machine to track time for hourly factory workers, hospital staff, and other shift workers.

Companies with hourly employees still track time with timesheets to calculate payroll. They also use timesheet templates to track attendance, productivity and ensure their businesses comply with labor laws.

The Details of a Timesheet

Timesheets record when an employee starts and stops working and include the total number of hours worked each day. Some timesheet templates have the time spent on specific tasks or at a location for job cost reporting.

For example, if a security guard firm employee works a nine-hour shift across two locations, he would likely record two entries for his workday. For location A, he would list 8:30 AM as the start time and 1:00 PM as the stop time, totaling four and a half hours. For location B, he would list 1:30 PM as the start time and 6:00 PM as the stop time, totaling another four and a half hours. Finally, he would record nine hours for the total hours he worked that day. 

*As a side note, if your handwritten employee timesheets are always this clean and "on the dot", you have a problem.

The details needed on a time card report depend on what the employer needs to know, from payroll and invoicing to attendance and productivity tracking. You can customize your own timesheet template in Google Sheets as long as you accurately record the time card hours. 

The Advancement of Timesheets

Companies with remote, hourly employees still use handwritten timesheets, but the advancement in technology has made this wasteful time-tracking practice inefficient and unnecessary. 

Time cards are essential for managing employee hours, tracking attendance, and job cost reporting, but it's time to move on from 100+-year-old technology and adopt more efficient GPS time clocks. Everyone has a mobile device. Now is the time!

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