This is from a "90% Contract Work, 10% T&M Work, 0% Service Work" point of view, sprinkled with a mixture of "Project Manager / Foreman / Designer / Journeyman" approaches
For projects which exceed 3 consecutive work days in a single week, weekly time sheets is common.
These are distributed to the individual employees with their weekly paycheck (or included with the payment receipt for those whom prefer direct deposit).
Each employee is responsible for filling out their own time card and submitting it to a designated person / location at the end of the work period.
Submission may be to the Foreman of a project, to the P.M., delivered personally to the Office, or faxed in.
Turning in time typically is done no later than the end of the workday on the following Monday (or by noon of the following Tuesday).
Supervision personnel may tally overall production per week, for logistics reasoning and such, or they may take the weekly employees' time tally instead of / in conjunction to, the individual employees' records of work hours.
With my Project Manager Hat On:It's much easier to compile and place my signature of verification to standardized weekly time sheets - where the Supervising employee (Foreperson, for example) has compiled a single sheet for all personnel on that job for that _Entire Week_.
When workers are "Bouncing Around" projects, its better to tally individual time sheets - since they will be applied to different jobs and task codes.
With my Foreman Hat On:I have more than enough paperwork to deal with to deal with individuals' time and task codes allotments each week - especially if the project happens to include FWOs and other C/Os done exclusively on a T&M basis.
When it comes to a person's paycheck, I really do not want to cause any delay in payment at all!
If I have to collect the time cards for everyone and turn into the Office, this is done well before the end of the day (like within the last hour latest), verified by me, signed, allocated / recorded to personal records, then submitted in person to the Office that day.
With my Journeyman Hat On:I really do not want to deal with filling out "Over Detailed Time Cards" - and would rather have the Project Foreman do this stuff instead of me.
Keep in mind the last thought entry above - the
With my Journeyman Hat On: one.
This includes Journeypersons, Apprentices and Helpers.
Try to keep the amount of data they have to fill into the time card to a minimum.
If you wish to include "Task Codes", make them simple to comprehend, and even easier to fill into time sheet cells.
Otherwise you will get highly erroneous time sheets, and disgruntled field personnel.
When jobs are done as T&M, I have normally been required to fill out "T&M Tickets" for total materials used that day/days / week; and the time accrued per employee.
Each employee still fills out their own personal time card, and normally they will submit on their own (including me).
Not being involved with very much Service type work, I have no idea what is best here.
To sum things up:
If you create weekly and individual time cards / time sheets, make them easy for the field personnel to fill out - in all terms relevant (understandable codes, ample field / cells areas and sizes to legibly write stuff in, etc.), and also contain the necessary information for the Project Manager to tally for the given job, along with making it relevant for Book Keeping / Controller and related Officers to use.
If the forms are difficult for the employees to fill out correctly and legibly, when it gets to the Office, time gets wasted calling that / those persons to verify everything!
Use this as a primary consideration of the format for your time record documents.
Scott35