Glossary
Timesheet
Also called: time sheet · time card
A timesheet is a structured record of the hours a person worked over a period, typically broken down by day and by client, project, or task. It is used to calculate pay, bill clients, and show evidence for an invoice.
Last updated October 13, 2026
What a timesheet contains
At minimum: the person, the period, and hours per day. A professional-services timesheet adds the client and project for each block of time, a short description of the work, whether it is billable, and the rate or total. Weekly grids (projects down, days across) are the most common layout; daily logs with start and end times are more precise and better for disputes.
Timesheets for billing versus payroll
A payroll timesheet answers 'how many hours do I owe this person'. A billing timesheet answers 'what did this client receive'. The second needs more detail — descriptions a client can understand, consistent rounding, and no internal notes — which is why many teams generate a client-safe timesheet automatically from tracked time instead of sharing the raw log.
Attaching a timesheet to an hourly invoice reduces questions and speeds up payment: the client can see what the hours were for before approving.
Decimal hours versus hours and minutes
Timesheets record time as hours and minutes (7:45) but bill in decimal hours (7.75) because rates are per hour. The conversion is minutes ÷ 60. Rounding rules — to the nearest 6 or 15 minutes, up or to nearest — should be applied once, consistently, and stated on the invoice.
Worked example
7 hours 45 minutes = 7 + 45 ÷ 60 = 7.75 hours. At $80/hour that is $620.
In Hoursmith
Hoursmith keeps a weekly timesheet per person and can attach an auto-generated, client-safe timesheet to an invoice as a supporting document, alongside receipts for billed expenses.