Expert guide

Staffing Agency Timesheet Tracker in Excel

One set of hours driving payroll, client invoices and margin, with approvals that do not hold up pay day

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Short answer: record every shift in one Time Entries table linked to a Placements table that holds pay rate, bill rate, overtime rules and client contact. Calculate hours, weekly overtime, pay, billing and burden-adjusted margin with formulas; only approved weeks flow to payroll and invoicing. Build weekly views per client and per worker from the same table. For payroll calculations themselves, see the Excel employee payroll manager.

In a staffing agency, the timesheet is the business: it determines what you pay the worker, what you bill the client and what you earn. Agencies that run on a mix of emailed spreadsheets, paper sheets and re-keyed payroll files lose money in small ways, an unbilled hour here, overtime paid but not billed there, and lose time every Monday reconciling. A single, structured tracker removes most of that.

The Tables

TableKey columns
tblWorkersWorkerID, Name, PayrollID, Classification
tblClientsClientID, Name, ApproverEmail, InvoiceTerms
tblPlacementsPlacementID, WorkerID, ClientID, Role, StartDate, EndDate, PayRate, BillRate, OTPayMultiplier, OTBillMultiplier, BurdenPct
tblTimeEntryID, PlacementID, WorkDate, Start, End, BreakMins, Hours, Source (app, paper, client file), Notes
tblApprovalsPlacementID, WeekEnding, ApprovedBy, ApprovedOn

Hours and Weekly Overtime

Hours per entry (handles overnight shifts):
=ROUND((MOD([@End] - [@Start], 1) * 24) - [@BreakMins] / 60, 2)

Week ending (Sunday):
=[@WorkDate] + 7 - WEEKDAY([@WorkDate], 2)

Weekly hours per worker (across all placements, if your rules require it):
=SUMIFS(tblTime[Hours], tblTime[WorkerID], [@WorkerID], tblTime[WeekEnding], [@WeekEnding])

Overtime hours for the week:
=MAX(0, [@WeeklyHours] - Settings!OTThreshold)

Overtime rules vary by jurisdiction (weekly thresholds, daily thresholds, double time) and by contract. Keep the threshold and multipliers in settings and placements, and confirm the rules that apply to your workers with your payroll provider or adviser.

A Weekly Summary per Placement

On a weekly table (PlacementID, WeekEnding):
Total hours:   =SUMIFS(tblTime[Hours], tblTime[PlacementID], [@PlacementID],
                       tblTime[WeekEnding], [@WeekEnding])
OT hours:      =MAX(0, [@[Total hours]] - Settings!OTThreshold)
Reg hours:     =[@[Total hours]] - [@[OT hours]]

Pay:           =[@[Reg hours]] * PayRate + [@[OT hours]] * PayRate * OTPayMultiplier
Bill:          =[@[Reg hours]] * BillRate + [@[OT hours]] * BillRate * OTBillMultiplier
Burden:        =[@Pay] * BurdenPct
Gross margin:  =[@Bill] - [@Pay] - [@Burden]
Margin %:      =IF([@Bill] = 0, "", [@[Gross margin]] / [@Bill])

Approved?:     =COUNTIFS(tblApprovals[PlacementID], [@PlacementID],
                         tblApprovals[WeekEnding], [@WeekEnding]) > 0

PayRate, BillRate and the multipliers come from tblPlacements with XLOOKUP on PlacementID. If one worker has two placements in a week, decide whether overtime is calculated per placement or across both, and which client bears it; the formula above assumes per placement.

Approvals Without Delaying Payroll

  • Monday morning: list of unapproved weeks by client, with hours, sent to each approver.

  • Client approval by reply email or a signed timesheet logged in tblApprovals.

  • Payroll export includes only approved weeks; unapproved weeks show on an exceptions list.

  • Disputed hours get a note and are excluded until resolved, so the rest of the week still pays.

Exports to Payroll and Invoicing

ExportContentsFormat
Payroll filePayrollID, regular hours, OT hours, rates, weekYour payroll provider's import template
Client invoice linesWorker, role, week, hours, rate, amountAccounting software import or invoice report
Margin reportBill, pay, burden, margin by client and recruiterPivotTable or dashboard

Capturing Hours From Different Sources

  • Client spreadsheets

    Power Query imports each client's file format and maps it to tblTime.

  • Paper or photographed timesheets

    AI extraction reads worker, dates, times and signatures; the tracker recalculates and flags mismatches with the written total.

  • Time clock or app exports

    CSV import on a schedule, matched to placements by worker and client.

Multi-source consolidation is exactly what Excel data consolidation automates. Reading paper timesheets uses the approach in scanning documents with AI.

Margin Dashboard

  • Gross margin and margin % by client, by recruiter, and by role type.

  • Placements below a minimum margin, often caused by overtime not billed at the multiplier.

  • Hours and revenue trend by week.

  • Unbilled hours: approved hours not yet on an invoice.

For agencies with many recruiters editing the same data, or hundreds of active placements, a shared database avoids file conflicts; our custom spreadsheet work often becomes an Access front end at that point. Similar logic for salons and service businesses is in the salon commission tracker.

FAQ

Staffing timesheet tracker FAQ

Hours, overtime, approvals and margin

The reliable approach is a single table of time entries (worker, placement, client, date, start, end, break, hours, approved by), a placements table holding pay rate and bill rate, and formulas that calculate pay, billing and margin per entry. Weekly views then feed payroll and client invoices from the same data.

Sum each worker's hours for the workweek, then overtime hours = MAX(0, weekly hours − the overtime threshold), regular hours = total − overtime. Apply the overtime multiplier to pay and, where the client contract allows, to the bill rate. Thresholds and rules depend on the jurisdiction and contract, so keep them in settings.

Gross margin = billed amount − (pay + employer burden such as payroll taxes, insurance and benefits). Margin % = gross margin ÷ billed amount. Including burden matters: a margin calculated on wages alone overstates profitability.

Add Approved By and Approved On columns per week per placement, and only include approved weeks in payroll and invoicing. A list of unapproved weeks by client, sent to client contacts each Monday, keeps approvals from delaying payroll.

Yes. AI vision models can read signed paper timesheets or photos and extract worker, dates, times and the signer's name for review. Totals should be recalculated by the spreadsheet, and any mismatch with the written total flagged.