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Timesheet errors creating added burden
for Financial Services
Extra care urged when filling out separate weeks

Some ITD employees have been shocked to receive their paycheck and discover it is only half the amount they expected. They are equally surprised to learn they have 40 hours or more of unexpected compensatory time.

The culprit? Failure to advance to the second week of the two-week time period and enter hours worked under the second week. Entering all 80 hours incorrectly in the first week tells ITD Advantage to pay only one week; it considers the additional 40 hours as overtime and thus accrues comp time.

That ranks among the most common – and most burdensome – mistakes employees make when filling out their electronic timesheets, explains Dana Bailey of Financial Services. If the error is not detected until after a paycheck is issued, FS staff must void the first check and manually issue a second one for the correct amount.

The good news, according to Bailey, is that employees who make that mistake don’t do it a second time. The down side is, however, that each pay period others make the same error, and it causes paycheck delays and results in additional, avoidable work for FS staff members.

Bailey said an upgrade to the Advantage system will make it easier for employees to distinguish between the first and second weeks of the electronic form. But she encourages employees and approvers to use extra care in checking the hours entered for each day, the total for each week and the final two-week total.

Unless it’s been an extremely long day, employees shouldn’t see a 16-hour total for a single date.

Perhaps the second most-common error in the timesheet process is related to the first… approvers aren’t scrutinizing the timesheets carefully enough to catch the errors before electronically approving them.

Approvers should reject any timesheet that appears to be incomplete or inaccurate and notify the employee it needs to be changed and resubmitted. Bailey also reminds employees that approvers should wait until the following Monday to approve the timesheets. If primary approvers cannot check and approve timesheets on that Monday, contact a designated backup approver or contact Financial Services.

A little extra care in the timesheet entry and approval process can help prevent unnecessary problems for Financial Services and unexpected delays or shortages in employee paychecks.

Published 3-16-07