Last updated November 6, 2026
Rules and figures from other sources checked on November 6, 2026. They change, so confirm with the source before you rely on them.
General information, not tax or legal advice. The rules depend on your country and your situation, so check anything with a tax or legal consequence with your accountant.
A timesheet policy for a project firm says who logs time, in what unit, by when, against which codes, who approves it and how errors get fixed. It fits on one page. The example below is ready to copy: change the bracketed words, and check the working time points against your own country's law.
What should a timesheet policy cover?
A timesheet policy should cover the decisions people would otherwise make differently from each other. These defaults suit a firm of about 5 to 20 people, and the example further down uses them.
| Decision | Sensible default |
|---|---|
| Who logs | Everyone, directors included |
| Unit | 15 minutes, or 6 if a client contract requires it |
| When it's logged | Daily |
| When it's submitted | 10:00 on the first working day of the next week |
| Who approves | One named approver for each person |
| Changes after approval | Only with a recorded reason |
If you're still making the case for logging time at all, start with why every person on the team should log time.
Timesheet policy example you can copy
This timesheet policy example is written for an invented firm. Replace the brackets, delete what doesn't apply, and have someone who knows your employment law read it before it goes out.
1. Who this applies to. Everyone who works for [Firm], including directors and part-time staff. Contractors who bill us by the hour follow clauses 3 to 6.
2. What to log. Log all the time you work, billable or not, against a project code or an internal code. If you worked it, log it, including time beyond your contracted hours.
3. How to log it. Log to the nearest 15 minutes. Each line has a code, a task and the hours. Don't round a day up or down to reach a target.
4. Descriptions. On billable lines, write something the client could read: "Revised level 2 layout after client comments", not "drawings".
5. Deadlines. Log daily. Submit your week by 10:00 on the first working day of the next week. If you'll be away, submit before you go.
6. Internal codes. Use ADMIN, SALES, TRAINING or LEAVE. Ask [name] before adding a new one. Never put internal work on a client's code.
7. Overtime. Agree overtime with your manager before you work it. If it happens anyway, log it. An unagreed hour is still an hour you worked.
8. Approval. [Approver] checks your timesheet by the end of [day]. If it comes back, the note will say why. Correct it and resubmit within one working day.
9. Corrections. Change your own lines freely until you submit. After approval, ask [Approver]. We record the old figure, the new figure, the reason and the date, and nobody changes your hours without telling you.
10. How we use timesheets. We use them to bill clients, to cost and price projects, to plan workloads and to keep working time records. Your approver, the project leads and [finance] can see your hours. We keep them for [period]. We don't use them to watch how you spend each minute of the day.
11. Late timesheets. We'll remind you the same day. Repeated lateness is a matter for your manager. A late timesheet doesn't stop your salary being paid.
The approval and correction clauses are a process in their own right, and the timesheet approval process sets out how to run them week to week.
Is a timesheet the same as a working time record?
A timesheet isn't automatically a working time record, though one document can do both jobs if it's designed to.
In the EU, the Court of Justice ruled in Case C-55/18, CCOO v Deutsche Bank (14 May 2019) that member states must require employers to set up "an objective, reliable and accessible system" measuring the time each worker works each day. Each member state decides the form that system takes, so the detail is in your national law.
In Great Britain, regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 requires records adequate to show compliance with the working time limits, kept for two years. Since 1 January 2024 an employer need not record each worker's daily hours if it can show compliance without doing so.
The practical test is simple. A project timesheet can serve as a working time record only if it captures all the hours actually worked, including overtime nobody will ever bill. A sheet capped at 8 hours a day, or pre-filled to contracted hours, fails it. That's why clause 2 says to log everything.
Timesheets are also personal data under the GDPR. Staff have to be told why you collect their hours, who sees them and how long you keep them, which is what clause 10 is for. Retention periods vary with the purpose, because tax and client-contract rules can run longer than working time rules, so ask your accountant before you fill in that bracket.
How strict should a timesheet policy be?
A timesheet policy should be as strict as your billing requires, and no stricter. The firm that sends hours to clients needs far more detail per line than one that only costs its own jobs.
| How you bill | Unit | Line detail | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly, client sees the hours | 6 or 15 minutes | Client-readable | The timesheet backs up the invoice |
| Fixed fee by stage | 15 or 30 minutes | Stage and task | You need cost by stage, not a narrative |
| Monthly retainer | 15 minutes | Client and task | You're checking hours against what the fee covers |
| A mix of these | The strictest of them, for everyone | Client-readable | People won't change habits job by job |
For the unit, the billing increment chart shows what each choice does to an invoice. For the billing model, see consultant hourly vs retainer billing.
Which timesheet policy mistakes cause the most trouble?
The timesheet policy mistakes that cause the most trouble are the ones that make the numbers wrong without anybody noticing.
- Exempting directors. Their hours are often the costliest in the firm, and everyone else notices the exemption.
- "No timesheet, no pay." It feels like an effective deterrent, and in many countries it's a legal problem. Chase the timesheet and pay the wages.
- Forty codes. People pick the first one that looks close, and the report means nothing. Add a code only when you can name the decision it will change.
- Treating an overrun as misconduct. People respond by shaving hours, and your job costs are wrong from then on. An overrun is information about the quote.
- A policy nobody enforces. If timesheets go unread for a month, the firm has told people they don't matter. Use a simple team timesheet template and check it weekly.
Running a timesheet policy alongside ERPFlow
ERPFlow doesn't have a timer or timesheets today. Time tracking, including converting tracked time into invoices, is coming soon. ERPFlow has no timesheet approvals either, so this policy runs on a spreadsheet, and it doesn't depend on any particular software.
A few things in ERPFlow sit next to it. A card in Projects has a time spent field typed as hours and minutes, which totals per project and per customer but doesn't record who spent the time or when. Vacations handles time-off requests and approvals, so you can check a LEAVE line against an approved request. Bookmarks gives the team one shared place to keep the link to the policy. Hours you bill go on the invoice as a quantity and a rate that you enter yourself.