Timesheet Readiness Test

Assess Your Company's Readiness for a Timesheet Management System
with this Free Test

This Test will help you assess your organization's readiness for rolling out and adopting a timesheet management system. The test is divided into four sections: Preparing for deployment, integration, reporting and establishing the right culture for time and expense reporting.

The test has been designed based on years of experience in working with hundreds of companies who have rolled out timesheet management systems. Over time, essential factors and best practices were identified to maximize the probability of a positive outcome for such an initiative.

The Timesheet Readiness test has the following objectives:

1. To provide your organization with a quick assessment of its “effort tracking” maturity level. Effort tracking is defined as the actual amount of time people spend doing the work, whether it is administrative, training, project-related or billable.
2. To highlight some of the key areas, you should be aware of, before you jump into a potentially disruptive and expensive enterprise software initiative.
3. To provide you with the basic information you need to create awareness and “buy-in” about a timesheet project in your organization.
4. To serve as a checklist to help you prepare for a successful implementation of a timesheet system.

The test will show you and your company whether you are ready for this type of project. Anything less than very high marks in this test will indicate that more preparation and planning are necessary in the analysis, selection and pre-implementation phase of this project.

It is recommended that you ask several individuals in your company (including all of the key project stakeholders) to complete this test independently so you can then meet and discuss the results together to compare your score and responses. If there are areas of conflict then the lowest score should be assumed.

Every “Yes” answer scores 3, “Somewhat” scores 1 and “No” scores 0.

Deploying Timesheet Software

Q 1 - You have executive sponsorship for a timesheet software project

The company's senior executives must be aware of and fully engaged in the company-wide rollout of such a solution. If this is a departmental or business unit initiative, then the same comments apply to the line-of-business manager. Without such sponsorship, the project is likely to face budget threats and other obstacles such as internal resistance to change.

Q 2 - You have clearly identified a budget range and agreed to the target return on investment with the desired tangible and intangible goals for rolling out a timesheet system

Clearly establish written quantitative and qualitative objectives and share them with the vendor; agree to milestones and timelines for achieving such objectives.

Q 3 - You have designated a single person as the project owner for your timesheet management initiative

A single solution champion who is held accountable for the success or failure of the project is absolutely essential. The solution champion must allocate ample time to this project, especially for the first few initial phases.

Q 4 - You have designed an Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS)

OBS consists of the hierarchy of the company's business units, groups, teams and users. Reporting is one of the most critical aspects of a timesheet system. If the OBS is too deep then it takes longer and gets more cumbersome for people to choose the right activities to work against. A deep OBS substantially improves analysis and reporting. A shallower OBS is much easier to maintain but reduces the amount of detail that is available in reports and analytics. You have to strike the right balance between OBS depth and simplicity for your organization.

Q 5 - You have designed a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

WBS consists of the hierarchy of the company's customers, projects, sub-projects and tasks. Reporting is one of the most critical aspects of a timesheet system. If the WBS is too deep then it takes longer and gets more cumbersome for people to choose the right activities to work against. A deep WBS substantially improves analysis and reporting. A shallower WBS is much easier to maintain but reduces the amount of detail that is available in reports and analytics. You have to strike the right balance between WBS depth and simplicity for your organization.

Q 6 - You have a written company Time expense reporting policy

A documented and written time and expense reporting policy that everyone has agreed to (and possibly signed off on) is essential. Timesheet software will substantially facilitate the enforcement of your time and expense reporting policies.

Q 7 - You have a written company-wide leave time policy

A documented and written leave time policy for sick leave, personal day, and other types of paid and unpaid time-off. Timesheet software will substantially facilitate the enforcement of your leave time policies.

Q 8 - You have identified the government regulations that you must comply with. You have communicated to your executives how the timesheet system helps your company comply with the regulations that relate to your organization

Regulations that are impacted by a timesheet system include Sarbanes-Oxley (sections having to do with effective internal controls), DCAA (cost accounting and reporting for government contractors), SOP 98 (capitalized software costs), FMLA (family leave act), and FLSA (fair labor law pertaining to work time, leave time and overtime rules) that you must comply with.

Q 9 - Your internal teams have mutually agreed on the format and content of timesheet views for various employee types

Every company (and even every department) has its own preferences and needs for time and expense reporting. For example, one team may prefer to enter % of effort spent against a project on a weekly basis, where other companies may ask their employees (or consultants) to enter the actual number of hours against a specific task; other details include identifying billable work, overtime, leave time, requiring notes for certain types of time entries, and other exceptions. Your timesheet initiative must ensure that all user requirements and team specific needs have been documented prior to the timesheet system rollout.

Q 10 - Your internal teams and management have agreed on the timesheet approval process

Depending on the department or the type of time being traced, the timesheet approval process may or may not include administrative staff, project managers, and billing or payroll managers. The company must have documented and agreed to time and expense approval processes before the timesheet software is configured.

Q 11 - You have clearly documented time and billing rules and an explanation of any special cost and billing scenarios

Every company has a few types of cost and billing rules such as hourly paid employees (or hourly billed consultants), fixed cost employees, milestone-based projects, cost plus projects. These rules need to be clearly documented, along with any exceptions and examples.

Reporting

Q 12 - You have identified and defined what common time and expense reports are needed by all managers and executives

Defining the reports required, and the overall format and details of the reports you need is necessary in order to ensure the timesheet system's OBS, WBS design and other timesheet configurations are done accordingly.

Q 13 - You have identified and defined what key performance indicators (KPIs) and executive dashboards are necessary for your top executives

Defining the KPIs and executive dashboards required, identifying data sources to be aggregated into the dashboards (possibly includes information from other enterprise systems), and the overall format and details of the dashboards you need is necessary in order to ensure the timesheet system's OBS, WBS design and other timesheet configurations are done accordingly.

Integration

Q 14 - You have timesheet software structures mapped to general ledger accounts in the accounting system

The operational part of the company (such as COO, project managers) should work with the finance team to establish a mapping between project work and the company's accounting system. Most companies prefer to keep a lot of details outside of their financial system and map multiple projects into a single general ledger account (such as a cost center) for financial reporting purposes.

Q 15 - There is a clear strategy to link time tracking data to the payroll system

The operational part of the company (such as COO, project managers) should work with the finance team to establish a mapping between project work and the company's payroll system. Pay codes can be associated to groups, users or specific tasks. The timesheet system will use the pay code mapping to determine what data is exported to the payroll system.

Establishing a Culture of Project-Based Time and Expense Tracking

Q 16 - Management is completely on board and has committed to using the timesheet software

The company's executives have committed to using the reports and information from the timesheet system in their decision-making process.

Q 17 - You have a plan with full executive sponsorship to ensure minimal resistance to timesheet entry and approval

The solution champion has a plan to educate the user based on the benefits of the system; and the company's executives have expressed their full support in case there are any resistances or internal politics that emerge during the rollout process.