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Timesheets might not be your team's idea of a transformative business solution but hear us out on this one. When leveraged correctly, a timesheet for employees can help improve your business's bottom line. By tying timesheet data to SAP, project managers can gain insights into project progress and resource allocation, and identify any roadblocks or areas that need more/less attention so teams can pivot quickly in response. However, to ensure timesheets benefit your team, it is essential to select the best tool and ensure it aligns with your business processes. Here is our guide to improving timesheet management as a part of a greater services procurement transformation.
What is Timesheet Management?
Let's start with the basics. A timesheet is a tool used by employers to view how much time employees have worked and determine the allocation between different tasks, projects, cost centers, and clients. When timesheets first came into existence, they were intended to track the number of times people were working on an hour-to-hour basis. In some settings, this can have negative connotations such as the creation of a workplace culture where the amount of time spent working is seen as more valuable than the work being completed. As a result, timesheets are now seen to be more useful when a company works on a project-by-project basis and must allocate resources accordingly. A timesheet for project management can be tracked in a few ways, such as by using paper, a timesheet in Excel, or an online tracking system. In scenarios that require more in-depth analysis, connecting an automated timesheet management system to an organization's ERP system can further improve how teams are managed by providing analytical insights, leave management tools and other manager self-service tools.
With the proper timesheet management system, your business can equip project managers with the following information:
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Which team members are working on what projects
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Which tasks need to be completed
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Which tasks do not have enough time allocated to them
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Which team members are at capacity
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Which team members have availability and can be assigned to new projects
Unfortunately, many businesses are not equipped with the right timesheet management tools, resulting in revenue leakage. If not corrected, this can result in errors in client billing and payroll processing. To ensure no errors occur, a solution that collects the right information is required.
Elements of an Effective Project Timesheet
Any automated time entry tool will generally require the collection of some standard information:
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The name of the team member and who they report to
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The date of the time entry sheet (although this can be customized, this will typically be tracked in a week-to-week or month-to-month view)
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The tasks or projects that the team member has been allocated to work on (if projects are the same over multiple weeks, a useful automation tool will allow you to save the details and copy them to the next week)
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The progress towards task completion and hours allocated
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Ability to submit time directly to the approver
When is it Time for My Business to Deploy Timesheet Software?
Some of the most common business objectives that can be met with timesheet management are:
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Identifying opportunities to optimize processes or save money since time tracking tools allow your team to analyze how much time your team is allocating to non-billable activities and if those hours are justified.
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Forecasting recruitment, position backfilling, and the shifting of resources to cover priorities early since ERP systems can give you an insight into time-off requests and provide trends when specific roles are required when team members are at capacity.
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Identify potential issues in project completion such as extra time being billed for a project.
For an automated timesheet solution to be effective, a timesheet for project management must be filled out regularly, your team must be aware of the benefits of completing their timesheets, areas of concern need to be brought up early and often, and the solution should be intuitive to use.
Determining Time Sheet Requirements
With a large team, there are certain capabilities that a viable solution will require. To help identify what these capabilities are in the context of your business, some initial questions to consider are:
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Are members of my team tracking time to many different clients, projects or tasks?
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Is the current solution being used by team members, or are they actively seeking workarounds such as informing their project manager directly of time spent on a project?
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Is a solution needed to manage time off, vacation requests and other self-management functions?
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Will my solution need to be integrated with existing systems (such as my SAP backend) or other SAP Fiori applications?
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Does the time entry tool for employees show a simplified interface that is easy for employees to use and for managers to access any visualizations they need?
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Is the tool flexible, allowing employees and managers to access web portals and mobile devices?
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Are managers equipped to make quick corrections that can be viewed by the employee? Or will follow-ups need to be done manually?
After reviewing these questions, your team will be well equipped with a list of requirements to start your search for the best timesheet management solution.
Why Your Timesheet Management Tool Should Be Part of Your Overall ERP System
We agree that even with these features in place, few people will enjoy filling in their timesheets. Most timesheet management solutions need to be integrated with SAP which creates overhead, potential delays, errors, and risks during upgrades. SAP has its own transaction for time entry, CAT2, and a simple out-of-the-box Fiori application that is effective for allocating your time on a simple basis. For example, if your employees allocate time to the same place on a 5-day week 8-hour-a-day basis. If your team requires a more comprehensive solution for allocating time to multiple projects, maintenance activities and investments a partner application can prove to have a higher return on investment.
Our SAP certified ConvergentIS simplified timesheet management application does not need to be integrated with SAP. Rather, it is part of SAP once installed. Therefore, all information is entered and reflected in your SAP system with the rest of your critical enterprise data. To learn more about our Time Entry application available for ECC and S/4HANA, we encourage you to check out our app page.
