Why timesheets go wrong
- They live apart from the work, so filling them in means remembering the week.
- Every entry needs too many fields.
- Nobody looks at them until billing day, so nobody trusts them.
Log time where the work is
A timer on the task, or a quick "1h 30m" typed against it, takes seconds when it happens and is accurate. The week's timesheet then fills itself in.
Make billable time obvious
Decide per project whether time is billable to a client, and let people change it per entry when needed. Then billing is a report, not a negotiation.
Keep the weekly step small
- People check their week and submit it with an optional note.
- Managers approve, or return it with a reason.
- Approved weeks are locked, so reports do not change after the fact.
Project Tracker's timesheets work this way on every plan, and a weekly reminder ("every Friday 4pm submit timesheet") takes one line to set up.