Dashpivot article – Daily timesheet excel formula

Daily timesheet excel formula
How do Excel Formulas Automate Daily Timesheets?
Excel formulas can significantly help calculate the core components of a daily timesheet format that require computations, such as total hours worked, overtime hours, break time, billable hours, regular pay, overtime pay, and total pay. Organisations may use different terms depending on their usage, or may add conditions and additional data. Daily timesheet excel formula can dramatically reduce timesheet errors and streamline the entire timesheet process.
It’s essential to understand what the calculations are for, and which formulas perfectly fit the uses.
Excel also has a collection of formulas and functions used for non-calculations that help streamline the entire daily timesheet tracking and make it exceptionally helpful for organisations to organise working hours' data for payroll processing, collect essential employee data for performance tracking, retrieve information from collected data, and generate reports and analysis.
See below for some daily timesheet excel formula:
Formula | Syntax | Description |
---|---|---|
SUM | =SUM(RANGE) | This sums all the values in the range |
TIME | =TIME(HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND) | This automatically converts the time into a time value in that order |
IF | =IF(CONDITION, VALUE_IF_TRUE, VALUE_IF_FALSE) | Returs a value if it is true, and then returns another value if false |
TEXT | =TEXT(VALUE, "FORMAT") | Converts numbers, date, or time cells into text strings in a specific format |
NOW | =NOW() | It returns the current date and time |
DATEDIF | =DATEDIF(START_DATE, END_DATE, "UNIT") | Calculates the difference between the two dates chosen |
VLOOKUP | =VLOOKUP(LOOKUP_VALUE, TABLE_ARRAY, COL_INDEX_NUM, RANGE_LOOKUP) | Runs through and looks for a value in the first column range and returns the value in the same row from another column range |
ROUND | =ROUND(NUMBER, NUM_DIGITS) | Rounds the number to the specified number of digits |
COUNTIF | =COUNTIF(RANGE, CRITERIA) | Counts the number of cells that meet the condition or criteria |
HOUR | =HOUR(TIME) | Extracts the hour from the time value |
MINUTE | =MINUTE(TIME) | Extracts the minute from the time value |
SECOND | =SECOND(TIME) | Extracts the second from the time value |
AVERAGE | =AVERAGE(RANGE) | Calculates for the average of the values in the range |
Small businesses or organisations often rely on manual calculations for time sheets, but more and more have been shifting to Excel and other digital tools for their daily timesheets. Even when there are 50, 100, or 500 employees in an organisation, for as long as there’s a workflow, and a proper and standardised Daily Timesheet format fully leveraging features and tools, the transition will be made easy. This shift can save time and efforts, as compared to manual entry and calculations, and can even reduce errors and inconsistencies in the daily timesheets.
Which Core Components of a Daily Timesheet Require Timesheet Excel Formula?
Total Hours Worked
The total hours worked computed is the difference between the start and the end times, minus the break hours. The break hours are subtracted from the actual total time worked, because usually break hours are not paid. Unless otherwise specified, then it’s not included in the equation, meaning break hours are paid.
The total hours worked may or may not even include the overtime hours, meaning that overtime hours are calculated separately. If the organisation is strict that the regular working hours are up until 8 hours, then beyond that are already overtime hours. They may be calculated separately, as the rates may differ.
For example, Worker A works from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM, has a break between 12:00 until 1:00 PM. Using the formula,
TOTAL_HOURS_WORKED = END_TIME - START_TIME - BREAK_TIME
Then, the Total Hours Worked is 8 hours.
(NOTE: Make sure your time format is in HH:MM:SS; Total hours worked is in number format, and multiply by 24 in order to get the value in hours)

Daily Timesheet Excel Formulas for Overtime Hours
If the total hours worked exceed a certain number set (let’s say 8 hours a day), then the hours after that are considered as the overtime hours. Oftentimes, organisations set a certain threshold for the total overtime hours as well.
For example, a Worker B works from 8:00 AM until 8:00 PM, has a break between 12:00 until 1:00 PM. Beyond 8 working hours is already considered overtime. Using the formulas,
TOTAL_HOURS_WORKED = END_TIME - START_TIME - BREAK_TIME
OVERTIME_HOURS = IF(TOTAL_HOURS_WORKED > 8, TOTAL_HOURS_WORKED - 8, 0)
Breakdown:
If the TOTAL_HOURS_WORKED is greater than 8 hours, then display TOTAL_HOURS_WORKED - 8, otherwise display '0'.
Then, the Overtime Hours is 3 hours.

Total Billable Hours
Take note that Total Billable Hours is the time that is billed to clients or projects, for example client invoicing and revenue tracking. It only includes client-billable hours, meaning resource allocations that generate revenue.
For example, Worker C is a freelancer that works for multiple clients and this is their schedule:

Using the formula,
TOTAL_BILLABLE_HOURS = SUMIF(RANGE, CRITERIA, SUM_RANGE)
Then, the Total Billable Hours is 6 hours.
(NOTE: The RANGE is E:E, the CRITERIA is "Yes", and the SUM_RANGE is D:D)
Daily Timesheet Excel Formula for Regular Pay
This is the pay for the standard working hours of workers. With our example as Worker A, their Total Hours Worked is 8 hours, and the company has set the hourly rate as $25, then using the formula,
REGULAR_PAY = TOTAL_HOURS_WORKED*HOURLY_RATE
Then, the Regular Pay is $200.
(NOTE: Format the cell unto currency.)

Overtime Pay:
This is the pay for the overtime working hours of workers, usually at a higher rate compared to the hourly rate. With our example as Worker B, their Overtime Hours is 3 hours, and the company has set the overtime pay rate as $35, then using the formula,
OVERTIME_PAY = OVERTIME_HOURS*OVERTIME_PAY_RATE
Then, the Overtime Pay is $105.
(NOTE: Format the cell unto currency.)

Total Pay
The Total Pay is the sum of both the Regular Pay, the Overtime Pay (only if applicable), and the additional earnings (if applicable). With our example as both Worker A and Worker B, using the formula,
TOTAL_PAY = REGULAR_PAY + OVERTIME_PAY
The, the Total Pay for Worker A is $200, and for Worker B is $380.

What are some Daily Timesheet Excel Formula Limitations?
Excel’s formulas and automation capabilities are powerful and flexible, however there are notable challenges if it’s used as a tool for timesheet tracking.
It’s essential to understand these limitations for businesses to gauge whether Excel is the right tool for daily timesheets or if a more specialised or focused digital tool may work to cater complex needs.
With all its features, Excel is still prone to errors and formula misplacement. Excel is usually accessed on a laptop or a personal computer, meaning logging in and logging out will still be manual in a single computer. Oftentimes, workers log their hours on a physical paper and an employee manually inputs the data unto Excel. With this manual input dependency, there are chances of workers and employees deleting formulas and ruining automated calculations. If there are no protections on the cells, users will likely unknowingly overwrite cells. Tracking all these mishaps would be tedious, so managers have to constantly save back up files.
Another limitation is users cannot retrieve data across multiple Excel files. They’re all stored separately on their own, and when data is needed for analytics, employees would need to run through each file and create a separate spreadsheet for the summary.
Excel is also not designed for workflow management, real-time collaboration, and approval processes. It’s not suitable for dynamic set-ups where users can easily access the files using their own mobile phones or tablets and collaborate with team-members in real time.
Excel is one of the most suitable tools for timesheet tracking, but with these limitations and challenges, organisations will have difficulty handling even larger teams and ensure data accuracy. What if there is a digital tool that incorporates Excel-like features, without the limitations and with additional features?
What is Dashpivot, and how does it differ from Excel in managing formulas?
Dashpivot is a cloud-based information management system that streamlines operations, and is a specialised tool for timesheet templates and timesheeting processes.
Think of it like this: instead of cells, columns, and rows, it’s an actual daily timesheet document where you can standardise the structure to suit your organisation’s look and needs, there are pre-filled texts like “Employee Name”, “Department”, “Project”, a timesheet table with date, number, formula, and text fields, and an e-signature section for approvals. You can use formulas in Dashpivot too, with almost similar syntax with Excel.
Behind the scenes, Dashpivot's templates also have an excel formulas engine, meaning you can build daily timesheet excel formula into timesheet tables within the system itself.
You can easily drag and drop sections like prefilled texts, tables, dropdowns, checklists, date fields, text boxes, signature fields, and many more unto your daily timesheet document, and you’ve got yourself a timesheet. There’s a feature to set sections and fields as ‘required’, meaning if the workers miss out on filling out a section, there’s a prompt that reminds them they’re missing information. Unlike in Excel, it’s easy to accidentally delete contents in a cell, even deleting a row or column.
It’s like Excel, but in actual document form stored in a centralised database. It has features where you can retrieve data from multiple daily timesheet documents.
You have a single standardised daily timesheet format that your workers will fill out and that automatically creates an entry in your database.
It’s not like excel where it’s a file system in your desktop, which can be easily accessed and deleted. Dashpivot stores everything in the cloud, and features a flexible folder system so you can organise your documents and layered permissions.
With real-time data entry and access, it promotes real-time collaboration in dynamic team set-ups and is suitable for approval processes.
Workers can simply use their mobile phones or tablets to log in their hours, and employees in the office have real-time access to the documents.
In addition to those, you can create reports from all your daily timesheets and create dashboards for advanced analytics and employee performance tracking.
Dashpivot is mostly used as a timesheet app for construction companies, as well as other industrial companies who have complex timesheet requirements due to the distributed nature of their operation/s.
Why Might Someone Choose Dashpivot Over Excel for Tracking Daily Work Hours?
Dashpivot is more user-friendly by incorporating a document-type fill-out type of look. Workers can easily use their mobile phones and tablets to log their hours, and there’s no need for an employee to manually input data on Excel. While being a user-friendly digital tool, it also incorporates formula fields with similar syntax as Excel. It can do daily timesheet calculations like Excel too. Furthermore, Dashpivot generates reports and summaries, unlike Excel.
Dashpivot facilitates collaboration, which users can’t do in Excel. With this on-the-go time tracking, employees on site can see in real-time workers' logs and progress.
Daily timesheets made in Dashpivot can be customised and catered on the organisation’s needs and roles. Just simply drag and drop sections, whichever is needed. This ensures that the daily timesheet structure is standardised and the management only gets information relevant to payroll, resource allocation, and performance tracking.
Overall, Dashpivot is a special digital tool that caters complex needs in daily timesheets, and can further improve and enhance your daily timesheet excel formula/s.

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