Automated timesheet reminders and templates for managers

Even the most well-intentioned of employees might forget to submit their timesheets on time, and a friendly reminder can go a long way. Even if your team is small, the best option is timesheet reminders that you can automate, whether that be a calendar alert, SMS, Slack message, or email. Below are some timesheet reminder templates that might help.

Of course, the frequency of these messages will depend on when employees at your company are required to submit their timesheets. However, it can also depend on your company culture and time tracking policies, which likely stem from your decision to implement it in the first place. In a timesheet reminder, it can be difficult to strike a tone that’s firm but not cold. If time tracking is part of an employee’s job responsibilities, it should be taken seriously, but an overly formal email might not mesh with your team’s culture.

Formal timesheet reminders

If you are a manager at a large corporation or supervise remote contractors whom you don’t personally know, a straightforward and formal timesheet reminder might be your best bet. What’s more, for non-salaried contractors or employees, their paycheck could depend on submitted hours. For everyone’s sake, it may be good to remind them that no timesheet means no paycheck.

Dear [First Name],
This is a reminder that your timesheet is due today, [Date]. Please complete and submit your timesheet before the end of business hours. Failure to submit your timesheet on time may result in late payment. If you have any questions, please contact your supervisor.
Best Regards

It should never come to this, but realistically there will be times when employees need a second reminder. In this case, you can follow up with something along the lines of:

Dear [First Name],
I am notifying you that your timesheet due on [Date Due] is overdue. Failure to submit your timesheet may result in not being paid or in loss of accrued leave. Please complete and submit your timesheet as soon as possible. If you have any questions or problems submitting your timesheet, please contact your supervisor.
Best Regards

Informal timesheet reminders

In most cases, you’ll be sending a timesheet reminder to employees who you know and work with, and a more casual message will be more appropriate.

Hi there [First Name],
Please don’t forget to submit your timesheet before the end of business hours today!
Thanks

Short and sweet! Hopefully, your team is already well aware of the time tracking policies and obligations, and won’t need more than this friendly reminder, but just in case, you can follow up with:

Hi there [First Name],
Your timesheet that was due on [Date Due] is late. Please fill out and submit your hours as soon as possible, and if you have any problems or questions, let your manager know.
Thanks and best

Reminders for resubmitting timesheets

If a timesheet is rejected, don’t forget to remind the employee that they need to edit and resubmit those hours. For resubmitted hours, you can send a reminder like this:

Hi [First Name]
Some or all of your submitted hours from [Date Submitted] were not approved. Don’t forget to modify and resubmit these hours as soon as possible. If you’re unsure why the hours weren’t approved, speak to your manager.
Thanks and best

With Beebole’s multi-level approval workflows, managers can attach a note directly to a rejected entry explaining what needs to change, so the resubmission request and the reason for it live in one place — no separate email required.

When not to send reminders

Whether your timesheet reminder is formal or informal, you should put some thought into when it is sent. The most effective reminder is sent when the person can act on it right then. If employees should submit their timesheets before the end of the day on Friday, send a reminder near the end of working hours, while employees are still at their desks and are finishing up the week’s final tasks. Or try sending reminders first thing in the morning, when many employees get simple administrative tasks out of the way.

More importantly, you should consider employees’ own well-being and mental health when sending reminders, and emails in general. While some companies and countries are protecting the “right to disconnect”, correspondence sent outside working hours is still commonplace. Even when there is no expectation to act on an email right away, these messages can be difficult to ignore. It becomes impossible to totally switch off, which leads to stress, burnout, and is generally detrimental to your employees’ health.

Beebole’s automated reminders and alerts

With these challenges in mind, Beebole’s reminder settings let you decide exactly when a nudge goes out — at the end of the current period or the start of the next one — and lock in the time it’s sent. Beebole’s reminders are ideal because they only trigger for people who still need to submit, so employees who are already on time never get pinged.

And it’s not just employees: you can also set Beebole to remind approvers after a set number of days if a submitted timesheet still hasn’t been approved, so a bottleneck on the manager’s side gets flagged automatically instead of sitting unnoticed. When rejecting submitted hours, you can leave a note on the entry explaining what needs fixing, so the resubmission request and the reason for it live in one place.

Note that while all notification templates in Beebole (including reminder emails) come with default templates, you can edit and personalize them to fit your team’s style and branding.

Getting all of your employee timesheets in on time is a tricky business, but these reminders can be a big help and are an important part of keeping employees — and approvers — accountable. If you’d rather reduce how often reminders are needed in the first place, Beebole’s Auto Timesheet from Tasks feature turns planned work into ready-made time entries, and you can set timesheets to auto-submit after a set number of days so a period closes itself out once it’s due. Timesheets can prove invaluable when it comes to business intelligence and reporting. For more tips on incentivizing employees to track their time, read our post on “Seven steps to motivate employees to track their time“.

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Photo by @AbsolutVision on Unsplash

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Helen Poliquin

Managing Inbound and Customer Success at Beebole. Connecting with teams and managers worldwide, identifying their obstacles, and communicating the creative solutions that Beebole can offer. Working remote from the Canary Islands.