I'm Office Manager at a small company; 12 employees now, but we are continuing to grow. As many of our employees work in the field, they do not always check in at the office daily, and we therefore do not have a timeclock for punch-in/punch-out--instead, everyone fills out an Excel spreadsheet and turns it in to me at the end of each week.

The problem is not so much the way the time is tracked, as our guys are pretty reliable, and most are on salary anyway, so the specific hours & descriptions only really matter on the administrative end. After I get the Excel sheets, I am supposed to manually enter them into QuickBooks--and another solution to this would be GREAT, we are not set up to run payroll through QB so I don't know too much about it. I "Use Weekly Timesheet" to do so; I noticed there is a "Let Employees Enter Time" option, but again, I don't know much about it and I feel my boss would be very against allowing the employees into our QB unless she could be convinced that it was completely secure.

The further problem is that I am continuously having to ask for time sheets. We're paid bi-weekly and I often have to ask for one or both weeks' worth. My boss has said "we won't pay them if they don't turn it in," but she has NOT gone that route despite threats, and I honestly wouldn't want to find my paycheck not going through because I made a mistake and forgot to turn in my hours--so it's in part because I check before I pass on the hours to call in for payroll, and ask them to fill out their hours. They all work hard and excel in their fields, and I respect them for the work they do that supports all of us.

On the other hand, even though most of our employees are younger--they're still grown men and the weekly/bi-weekly big sister routine is starting to wear on me. Is it so hard to remember to, at the very least, send an e-mail or make a phone call and say "I had 40 hours and 2 overtime this week, I'll fill out my timesheet on Monday."

Yeah, I like you guys, and I don't want you to have to learn by NOT getting paid, but it seems like it would make more of an impact--since you apparently don't realize that I am looking out for you--than me continuing to ask politely all the time. It DOES disrupt my schedule, maybe not by a LOT since I just have to send a quick e-mail, but I have things to do, too!!

This may have turned into more of a rant than anything. Am I just being too lenient, and should the boss and I just make good on threats of not paying people who can't be bothered to turn in their hours? Or is there some middle ground we could reach with no extra expense--for example, a good, free, downloadable time tracking program? Something in QuickBooks? Some way to make our Excel sheets compatible with QB so I can import the time info, instead of re-entering EVERY DAY of EVERY EMPLOYEE'S time manually?

Any help would be appreciated, even if it's just to tell me I should stop coddling them and make them do their jobs, lol... ;)

Do you have a payroll vendor? They may have an online solution. Also check with Intuit, they may also have a solution where employees can enter their time at a Web site and you can download it directly to QuickBooks.

We do have a payroll vendor--it never occurred to me that they may directly have a solution available, so I'll check into that with them, as well as Intuit. I'd been kind of led to believe (by my boss) that Intuit doesn't really give you anything valuable in the way of payroll assistance unless you actually pay for the service, but it definitely won't hurt for me to check.

Thanks for your help--I at least feel a little better from venting. ;) If I end up getting a good, workable solution, I'll post back here and let you guys know.

-tmk

I would suggest Replicon's Employee Time Tracking Software (http://bit.ly/time-and-attendance). This is one of its kind simple to use interface and hassle free application. It has intuitive time management tracking features and also integrates with Quickbooks and MS project built in.

Also I would say, talk to your boss, stop chasing after payroll info. If they don't turn it in ( after maybe being reminded once) just don't pay them, perhaps have a official notice sent out. But after one missed check, I bet they remember from then on

Thank you all for answering--I'm checking out some of these solutions, and I appreciate your suggestions. And Chuck, you're right--I bet they remember after once, too. ;)

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it) and a great week otherwise!

-tmk