What Is a Timesheet? A Simple Guide + Free Template
A timesheet is a record of how much time someone spends on work — broken down by day, task, project, or client. It can be a paper sheet, a spreadsheet, or a feature inside an app, but the job is always the same: capture where the hours went, so they can be paid for, billed to a client, or simply understood.
For an employee, a timesheet is usually about getting paid for hours worked. For a freelancer or a small service business, it's bigger than that — it's how you turn time into an invoice, see which clients are actually profitable, and stop money leaking out through hours you forgot to record. This guide covers what a timesheet is, what goes on one, the main types, how to make your own (with a free template you can copy), and when a spreadsheet stops being enough.
What is a timesheet?
A timesheet is a structured record of working time. At its simplest, it answers three questions: who did the work, when, and on what. A traditional timesheet logged clock-in and clock-out times for payroll. A modern one — especially for people who bill clients — also ties each block of time to a specific task, project, and client, and marks whether it's billable.
That last part is the difference between a timesheet that just tracks attendance and one that runs a business. If two hours are logged against "Client A — website redesign — billable," that single entry can feed payroll, an invoice, and a profitability report at once.
What is a timesheet used for?
Timesheets do more work than people expect. The main uses:
- Payroll — paying employees correctly for hours worked, including overtime.
- Client billing — turning billable hours into invoices, with a record of what was done.
- Project budgeting — comparing hours spent against hours quoted, so you catch overruns early.
- Profitability — seeing which clients and projects actually make money once you account for the time they eat.
- Capacity planning — understanding how much work a person or team can realistically take on.
For a freelancer, the billing and profitability uses are the ones that pay for themselves. Forget to log an hour and you've literally given it away.
What's on a timesheet?
Most timesheets share the same core fields:
| Field | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Date | The day the work happened |
| Person | Who did the work |
| Client / project | What the work was for |
| Task | The specific activity |
| Start and end time (or duration) | How long it took |
| Billable? | Whether the client is charged for it |
| Rate | The hourly rate, for billing |
A payroll timesheet might only need date, person, and hours. A timesheet built for billing needs the client, task, billable flag, and rate — because those are what turn into an invoice.
Types of timesheets
Timesheets are usually grouped by the period they cover:
- Daily timesheet — one row per task, per day. Good for detailed client work.
- Weekly timesheet — the most common format; days across the top, tasks down the side.
- Biweekly or monthly timesheet — used mainly for payroll cycles.
- Project timesheet — organised by project rather than by day, to track a budget.
There's also the difference between manual timesheets (you type the hours in) and automatic timesheets (a timer or app records the time as you work). Manual is cheaper but leaks hours, because people fill them in from memory at the end of the week. Automatic captures time as it happens, which is far more accurate.
Billable vs non-billable hours
Any timesheet used for client work has to separate two kinds of time (covered in depth in our guide to billable hours):
- Billable hours — time a client pays for: the actual design, development, consulting, or delivery.
- Non-billable hours — time you spend but can't charge for: admin, proposals, internal meetings, learning.
Tracking both matters. Billable hours become your invoices. Non-billable hours tell you the real cost of doing business — if 40% of your week is non-billable, your hourly rate has to cover that, or you're working at a loss without noticing.
How to make a timesheet (step by step)
You can build a basic timesheet in a spreadsheet in a few minutes:
- Create columns for Date, Client/Project, Task, Start, End, Hours, Billable, and Rate.
- Add a formula for Hours (End − Start) so it calculates itself.
- Add a column that multiplies Hours × Rate for billable rows, to get the amount.
- Total the billable amount at the bottom — that's roughly your invoice.
- Fill it in as you go, not at the end of the week. Memory is where billable hours disappear.
Free timesheet template
Here's what a filled-in weekly timesheet looks like. Copy the structure into Excel or Google Sheets and swap in your own work:
| Date | Client / Project | Task | Hours | Billable | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Acme — Website | Homepage design | 3.5 | Yes | $80 | $280 |
| Mon | Internal | Admin & email | 1.0 | No | — | — |
| Tue | Bloom Co — Brand | Logo revisions | 2.0 | Yes | $80 | $160 |
| Wed | Acme — Website | Developer handoff | 1.5 | Yes | $80 | $120 |
| Total | $560 |
Two simple rules make it add up on its own in a spreadsheet:
- Amount = Hours × Rate (fill this in only for billable rows)
- Total = the sum of the Amount column — and that number is the basis for your invoice
Set your own hourly rate, add a row each time you start a task, and mark whether it's billable. At the end of the week, the Total is what you invoice.
A template like this is a fine place to start. Its weakness is the same as every manual timesheet: it only works if you actually fill it in — which is exactly where most billable time gets lost.
Spreadsheet timesheets vs timesheet software
A spreadsheet timesheet is free and works fine until the moment you forget to update it — or until you're copying its numbers into an invoice by hand every month. That's the point where timesheet software earns its keep.
The difference is connection. With a tool, a timer records the hours as you work, the entry already knows the client and rate, and turning a week of billable time into an invoice is a click instead of an afternoon. Heyweek does this for freelancers and small teams — tracked time flows straight into invoicing, so the hours you log are the hours you actually bill.
Frequently asked questions
What is a timesheet in simple terms? A timesheet is a record of how many hours someone worked, broken down by day, task, project, or client — used to pay people, bill clients, and see where time actually went.
How do you fill out a timesheet? For each block of work, add a row with the date, the client or project, the task, and the hours. Mark whether it's billable, and fill it in as you go rather than from memory at the end of the week.
How do you write minutes as decimals on a timesheet? Divide the minutes by 60. 15 minutes is 0.25, 30 minutes is 0.5, and 45 minutes is 0.75 — so 7 hours and 45 minutes is entered as 7.75. Recording time as decimals is what lets a spreadsheet or tool multiply hours by your rate automatically.
How do you track billable hours? Log each block of work against the client and task it belongs to, and mark it billable as you go. At the end of the week, add up the billable rows — that total, times your rate, is what you invoice. Tracking as you work, rather than from memory, is what stops billable hours slipping away.
How do I make a timesheet in Excel? Create columns for date, client, task, hours, billable, and rate. Use a formula to multiply hours by rate for billable rows, then sum that column to get the week's total.
What's the difference between billable and non-billable hours? Billable hours are time a client pays for; non-billable hours are time you spend on work you can't charge for, like admin and proposals. Tracking both shows your real cost and profit.