A timesheet is the primary record of working time: for every employee and every day it states how much was worked and, for an absence, on what grounds. Employers are required to keep records of time actually worked, and the timesheet doubles as the basis for calculating pay.
Why timesheets nearly always disagree with reality
Because in most companies they are filled in at the end of the period rather than as things happen. The data is taken from the schedule instead of from clock records, then adjusted from memory or by phoning the site manager. The result describes what was supposed to happen, not what did.
That discrepancy costs in two places. In pay, because planned hours get paid instead of actual ones. And in analytics, because absenteeism, overtime and shift coverage cannot be computed from such a timesheet: by construction it matches the schedule.
What makes a timesheet trustworthy
Trustworthiness comes not from careful filling-in but from where the data originates.
- Actual clock records as the source: FaceID, access control or a mobile app with geofencing instead of manual entry.
- Matching against the schedule: with no plan, facts do not become lateness, shortfalls and overtime.
- Processing rules: breaks, rounding, permitted lateness, first entry and last exit per shift.
- Corrections with a history: exceptions are inevitable, but each needs an author, a reason and an approval.
How this works in Verifix
In Verifix a timesheet is not filled in — it is assembled. Records from terminals and from the mobile app are matched against the shift schedule by configured rules, and hours worked, overtime and absences appear in it by themselves.
The payroll sheet is computed directly from the closed timesheet, so pay and absenteeism reports rest on the same data. Corrections go through approval and stay in the history rather than overwriting the original fact.
In short
A timesheet filled in from the schedule always agrees with the schedule — and is therefore useless for both pay and analytics. Only an actual clock record makes it trustworthy.