Timesheets. Yuck. No-one likes them and they often seem like a waste of time.
As a freelancer you’ll find the level you’re asked to account for your time varies massively from one agency to the next. Some may not even ask you to at all. Most recruitment agents will also ask you to complete a timesheet for them. Sometimes when you start at a new agency they may forget to ask you to complete a timesheet and then ask you to remember last week’s time! And we all know that can be seriously challenging.
To make life much easier I developed a simple tactic to deal with this early on in my freelance career, and now I don’t hate timesheets or feel burdened by them the way I used to. It’s simple – I got into the habit of doing timesheets continuously, as I was working, every day.
Now, before you say “that’s not much of a tip” or “some people don’t find that so easy”, well the answer lies in my secret weapon. I made myself a PDF form in Acrobat that I can fill in on screen while I’m working. It makes it so easy. Why’s that better than a piece of paper? Paper’s a hassle for one thing. We all have too much of it, and it easily gets lost, dirty, or you make mistakes etc. And besides, it doesn’t calculate your week’s total hours for you, which is sooo useful when you’re invoicing.
So I dig out my PDF timesheet (which you are free to download from the Documents page) as soon as I start work somewhere. I start adding in time as I go. If I’m then given a timesheet by the agency I can easily transfer the hours over when I’m ready. If not, then I’m on my way to having a complete record of my time anyway, with a week’s running total.
Now if you’re thinking “Why bother if no-one asks me to fill in a time sheet?” or “I’m on a daily rate so I just need to keep track of my days, not hours”, let me tell you it’s great peace of mind to have the information just in case. What if an agency’s accounts department queries your invoice from a month ago, or whether you really spent that long on that job last month? Doesn’t happen often, but when it does it’s so satisfying to be able to quote your time back which you know is right because you filled it in as you were working!
If anyone has any other tips on timesheets please add them to the comments.
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Yep, I fill in personal timesheets too. I find them invaluable to be able to know how long projects have taken.
However, they can be disastrous when in the wrong hands though: I often charge per project and not be the hour and try to keep these timesheets to myself – if someone asks to see them I often end up padding them out a little to bunk it up to however many hours that client likes to work per day. I know what works for me and if I do 7 hours one day and 5 the next and the project gets done then so what – sadly not everyone thinks like this and if you come across a workaholic client who puts in a 10 hour day – you’d better make sure those timesheets get near to ten hours or else.
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