Guides for people who run a team's time
Practical pieces on timesheets, schedules, time off and payroll, with worked examples. Written by the ClockinBee team.
A five-minute timesheet approval routine
What to check before you approve a week of hours, in what order, and which checks you can safely leave to software.
6 min readFor managers and owners
Read the guide →- Read the exceptions, not every line. Most weeks look like the schedule and need no more than a glance.
- Five checks cover almost everything: missing time, typed-in time, long days and breaks, overtime, and location.
- Send a wrong week back with a note instead of fixing it yourself, so the record shows who changed what.
- Approve on a fixed day each week. Approving at the end of the pay period is where mistakes get through.
23 guides
- Scheduling
Covering sickness at short notice: a calm plan
Someone calls in sick an hour before their shift. Here is a plan to prepare in advance, and the first fifteen minutes done in order.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Payroll
Overtime when a week is split across two pay periods
A 45-hour week that straddles month end can look like no overtime at all. Here is why, and how to count it properly.
6 min readFor payroll, owners and managers
- Timesheets
Timesheet reminders that work (without nagging)
When to send timesheet reminders, what they should say, and how to set up a rhythm so you stop chasing people by hand.
6 min readFor owners, managers and payroll
- Payroll
Public holidays and pay: the questions your policy must answer
Seven questions that settle who gets a public holiday off, what working one pays and how holidays mix with leave, with worked examples.
7 min readFor owners, payroll and managers
- Scheduling
Publish schedules earlier: why it pays and how to do it
Late schedules cause no-shows, swaps and stress. Here is a step by step way to move from a few days' notice to two weeks.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Getting started
Clock in, or fill in a timesheet? How to choose
Two ways to record working time, who each one suits, and why many teams end up using both side by side.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Timesheets
Billable vs non-billable hours: a plain guide
What counts as billable, how to work out your billable share and real hourly income, and how to act on the answer.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Scheduling
How to plan a week's schedule in ten minutes
Start from last week, change only what is different, let the gaps fill themselves and publish. A routine with a time for each step.
6 min readFor managers and owners
- Time off
Keeping time off balances right without a spreadsheet
The five places a leave spreadsheet goes wrong, a worked balance for a part-time employee, and what to set up instead.
7 min readFor owners, managers and payroll
- Payroll
A payroll export checklist: 12 checks before you send hours
Twelve checks to run on hours, overtime and time off before they go to payroll, plus a quick way to spot a wrong total.
7 min readFor payroll, owners and managers
- Scheduling
Staff availability: how to collect it and actually use it
Stop scheduling from memory. A simple way to collect availability from your team, keep it current and build the week around it.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Timesheets
Project time tracking basics for small teams
How to start recording hours by project without drowning your team in admin, and what to do with the numbers once you have them.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Payroll
Pay periods compared: weekly to monthly, and how to choose
What weekly, two-weekly, four-weekly, twice-monthly and monthly pay mean for workload, cash flow, overtime and your staff.
7 min readFor owners and payroll
- Timesheets
Geofenced clock-in explained: flag, block or leave it off?
What a location check at clock-in really does, how accurate phones are, and how to set one up without upsetting your team.
7 min readFor owners and managers
- Scheduling
Rest between shifts: how to plan enough of it
How to work out the gap between two shifts, set a sensible minimum for your team and stop late finishes running into early starts.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Time off
Pro-rata leave for part-time staff, with worked examples
How to work out a fair leave allowance for part-time staff in days or hours, including mid-year starters and people who change their hours.
7 min readFor owners, managers and payroll
- Timesheets
Missed clock-outs: how to fix them and stop them happening
A simple routine for fixing forgotten clock-outs the same day, plus the settings and habits that make them rare.
6 min readFor owners, managers and staff
- Scheduling
Shift swaps without chaos: a simple policy that works
A short shift swap policy you can copy, the checks every swap should pass, and how to stop finding out about changes on the day.
6 min readFor owners and managers
- Time off
Carry-over rules: what happens to unused leave at year end
The four carry-over choices, a worked example with a limit and an expiry date, and a year-end routine that avoids surprises.
6 min readFor owners, managers and payroll
- Timesheets
Timesheet rounding rules: what's fair and what's risky
How rounding clock-in times really changes pay, which methods are fair, and how to decide whether you need rounding at all.
6 min readFor owners, managers and payroll
- Time off
Leave accrual explained: monthly, yearly or per pay cycle
Three ways leave can build up, what each one means for new starters and leavers, and how to pick the one that fits your business.
6 min readFor owners and payroll
- Scheduling
Open shifts explained: fill gaps without the phone calls
What an open shift is, when to post one instead of assigning it, and five simple rules that get gaps filled fairly and fast.
6 min readFor owners and managers
Browse by topic
- Timesheets7 guidesRecording, checking and approving hours without the weekly chase.
- Scheduling7 guidesPlanning shifts, covering gaps and publishing a schedule people can rely on.
- Time off4 guidesAllowances, accruals, carry-over and requests, without a spreadsheet.
- Payroll4 guidesPay periods, overtime and getting clean hours into your payroll system.
- Getting started1 guideThe first decisions when you move a team's time off paper and spreadsheets.
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