What is a Timesheet? Meaning, Types and Example

Timesheets versus attendance

Attendance tells you when someone was at work: punch-in, punch-out, breaks and the status of the day. A timesheet tells you what they worked on during that time. An IT consultant may have nine hours of attendance on a day and a timesheet splitting it into five hours on one client, three on an internal project and one on training. Many companies need both: attendance for pay and compliance, timesheets for billing and project cost.

Who uses timesheets in India

For hourly paid staff, the approved timesheet is the basis of pay, so it needs a clear approval trail. For salaried staff it is mainly a costing and billing tool, and an unapproved timesheet should not change anyone's salary.

IT services and consulting firms that bill clients by the hour or day
Architecture, engineering and law firms tracking fees by project
Contract professionals and freelancers paid for hours worked
Internal teams charging time to departments or projects

Keeping timesheets honest

Timesheets filled in at the end of the month from memory are unreliable. Ask for daily or weekly entries, compare total timesheet hours with attendance hours, and question gaps in either direction. Teams that need project-level time usually keep timesheets in a project tool and compare totals each month with the attendance day log; in ZeniaHR the day log can be downloaded as CSV for up to 92 days.

Example: Arvind Menon, an ERP consultant at a Bengaluru IT services firm, logged 42 hours in the week starting Monday, 14 September 2026: 30 hours for a Chennai client, 8 hours on an internal upgrade and 4 hours of training. His attendance for the week showed 45 hours between punches, including breaks. His manager approved the timesheet, and the firm billed the client for 30 hours.

See it on your own data

A 30-minute demo on a video call. We set up your departments, shifts and leave rules and show attendance, leave and payroll running for your team. Free for your first 50 employees.

Book a free demo See pricing

Frequently asked questions

What is a timesheet in a job?

A timesheet is a form, on paper or in software, where you record how many hours you worked each day and on which project, client or task. Your manager approves it. Companies use timesheets to bill clients, cost projects and, for hourly paid roles, to calculate pay for the period.

Is a timesheet the same as an attendance register?

No. An attendance register records presence: which days you came to work and, in modern systems, your in and out times. A timesheet records how your working time was spent across projects or tasks. You can be fully present on the attendance register and still have an incomplete timesheet, because the two serve different purposes.