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AboutRead In 9 Minutes
The Real Value of Timesheets in Construction
Nobody likes doing their timesheet.
But tracking time is critical on construction projects. Labor timesheets provide a wealth of information that feeds into multiple places and purposes. Such as the following 7 purposes of tracking labor time:
- Project cost
- Project revenue
- Customer reporting – such as for a field ticket or LEM
- Payroll
- Project progress
- Real-time project performance
- Labor productivity
For these exact purposes, most construction contractors will require that their self-performed labor submit a timesheet every day. At the end of a hard day on the jobsite, however, it’s truly the last thing anyone wants to do; and every construction manager knows the pain of chasing down timesheets. It has to be done of course, so it’s worth making it as efficient and painless as possible. Using spreadsheets or paper for time tracking from the field may seem like a cheap and straightforward way to go, but it always requires duplicate entry, and is riddled with errors, omissions and makes it very tricky to create reports. So, in the interest of making the process efficient and painless, that’s not a very good option. I’ll point out why that’s the case a bit further down but first let’s underscore the importance of time capture for the purposes of project management and project controls.
The first five timesheet purposes in that list I highlighted above are perhaps obvious. So for this article I’d like to zero in on the last two: project performance and productivity. These are the benefits of timesheet entry that often fly under the radar but are equally as important. They directly influence your ability, for example, to analyze your project in real time.
Real-Time Project Performance
Understanding how well a project is performing in real time provides valuable insight into whether and where the project manager may need to take corrective action. Accurately capturing labor hours provides cost, time, and progress information that will lead to key metrics on how well each task is performing. EVM metrics, for example, such as CPI, ETC, and CV, indicate whether the task is on track; and if not, why. The ‘real-time’ element of this gives project controls the early warning of issues that can be corrected quickly and at minimal disruption or cost.
We’ll refer to this as Time-To-Insight (TTI) as the measure of how efficiently the capture of time from the field will show up in project reporting and analytics. Ideally, TTI is immediate. Like, less than a second. The larger the delay, the higher the risk for the project.
Learn More About Timesheet Software
Labor Productivity
On most major construction projects, the cost of labor accounts for 20% – 40% of the total cost of the project. This is normally the single highest component cost of a project. Monitoring labor productivity, therefore, is clearly instrumental in ensuring labor time is efficiently utilized to control the cost of the project. To do this, it’s important for project managers to check Productivity Metrics, such as:
- Hours-per-unit
- Estimated versus actual hours
- Estimated versus actual dollars-per-hour
- Estimated versus actual units completed, etc.
These are examples of key productivity indicators for how well labor is performing. Getting this data in real-time provides time-to-insight for effective project management.
Reduce The Strain of Jobsite Time Tracking
There are a few common ways construction teams collect and process daily timesheets. Which method is being used will have an effect on:
- Time to insight
- Foreman efficiency
- Total processing cost
Three Approaches to Construction Timesheets
The following are the 3 most common ways that self-performing contractors have field time captured into a daily timecard.
Approach #1. Paper Timesheets
Using paper to track field crews is still common with contractors of all sizes. It’s quickly disappearing on bigger projects on bigger projects where there is a lot at stake. But they’re still out there because they’re so simple. There are obviously drawbacks.
Challenges:
- Delays in getting data from field to office
- High error rates in crew hours, cost codes, and classifications (no data integrity checks at point of entry).
- Paper is easily lost
- Manual re-entry into payroll or project systems
- Impossible to tie to earned value or cost forecasts in real time
Impact:
Paper timesheets provide no visibility into the project until long after the work is done. Superintendents can’t report progress daily, and project controls teams are left piecing together history instead of managing performance in real-time.
Approach #2. External Timesheet System or Mobile App (Payroll-Focused)
Many contractors have graduated from paper timecards to a timesheet or field tracking app (for example, ADP, Fieldwire or Payworks ) that allows staff to enter time on a daily or weekly basis into an app. This upgrade is typically driven by the need to more efficiently get labor hours to payroll. They bring increased digital structure, but they are not built for project control, or project costing. Order of operations matters. Every additional system (handoff) the timesheet has to travel through before being compared against the project budget and planned progress simply slows down the time to project insights.
Challenges:
- Lack of integration with project work packages or cost codes.
- Duplicate entry into project systems for costing, progress or EVM reporting
- Missing data for equipment, materials, and third-party costs
- Limited visibility into budget versus actual versus earned performance
Impact:
Payroll gets what it needs, but project managers are still blind to true productivity.
Field engineers spend hours reconciling time data to cost reports – often too late to correct course.
Approach #3. Timesheet & Field App Integrated into a Project Cost System
Modern solutions (like 4castplus) connect daily field data directly to your project cost structure, budgets, and earned value setup. While still integrating with your payroll system to achieve seamless payroll processing.
Advantages:
- Fast time to insight: Labor, equipment, and materials automatically roll up to project performance dashboards.
- Minimal field effort: Simple entry screens and pre-configured work packages reduce foreman time and errors.
- Pre-coded Time Entry: Time is automatically coded to the correct budgetary areas of the project. Project controls has immediate visibility into budget versus actual.
- Strong Data Validation: Systems have robust data validation rules at point of entry – resulting in fewer errors and omissions
- Single-click Reporting: Systems like 4castplus have many prebuilt reports, charts, dashboards and analytics that can be run at any time.
- Lower total processing cost: Fewer handoffs. one entry flows through approvals, cost reporting, and payroll.
Impact:
Teams see real-time progress, cost, and productivity metrics daily. Executives gain confidence in forecasts, and foremen get instant feedback on how their crews are performing.
The Journey of a Timesheet: From Field to Forecast
In any construction project (especially those using Earned Value Management principles), a timesheet goes through several stages:
- Foreman enters crew hours, equipment, and progress.
- Superintendent reviews and corrects any errors in codes, work packages, or OT classification.
- Superintendent approves and reports daily earned vs. burned.
- Payroll/Admin finalizes and pushes data to HR or finance systems.
- Project Manager pulls the cost data into project cost reports and forecasts
Now imagine the difference in that process depending on your approach:
- Paper: Each stage adds a day (at least).
- External Payroll System: Each stage adds a spreadsheet (along with potential errors and overhead).
Integrated Project System: Each stage adds value.
Mobile Jobsite App for convenient entry of time, cost, and progress.
Dashboard reports showing “Approvals Bottleneck Details” visibility at every approval stage
Turn Timesheets into Insights, Not Admin Work
“If your team spends more time collecting timesheets than analyzing them, your system isn’t helping you manage projects, it’s just recording history.”
4castplus brings speed to insights through field-tested, integrated workflows that connect foremen to project management approvals to finance, automatically linking daily work to real-time project performance insights.
Discover how a streamlined timesheet flow based on industry best practices can turn your data into decisions, not delays.
Learn More
Want to see how 4castplus can help your teams work smarter together? From real-time field reporting to integrated cost control and streamlined change management, 4castplus connects every part of your project in one platform. Explore how our solution improves collaboration, boosts profitability, and gives you the visibility to keep projects on track—schedule a demo or learn more today.
