How Do Employees Use Timesheets in the Online Portal?

Before your employees can use timesheets, they need to be set up in the Online Portal with timesheet editing enabled, and you need to have created the shifts they can record time against. See our FAQs on setting up the Online Portal and setting up shifts.

Employees sign in through the Employee Login on our website, then open the Timesheets tab. The page lists the shifts already recorded for the selected period.

Viewing recorded shifts

Use the From and To date filters at the top to choose the period to view. The left and right arrows beside the dates step backwards and forwards one pay period at a time, and Reset to current pay run returns the filter to the current pay run dates. Recorded shifts appear in the Timeclock history table, showing the date, start and end times, break, shift, and when each entry was created.

Adding a shift

If your business has enabled timesheet editing and set up shifts for the employee, an Add timesheet option appears beneath the table. Select it, then:

1. Choose the Shift from the dropdown. This pre-fills the usual start time, end time and break for that shift.
2. Set the Date, and adjust the Start time, End time and Break minutes if they differ.
3. Save the entry. It is then available to sync into the Pays screen of Lightning Payroll.

While timesheet editing is enabled, employees can also edit or delete existing entries directly in the table. Entry dates must fall within the allowed editing window (roughly the last two months through to one month ahead).

If no shifts have been set up for the employee, the portal shows a message asking the employer to create employee shifts first. If timesheet editing has not been enabled for the employee, the editing options will not appear.

Once shifts are saved, the payroll officer can sync them into the Pays tab of Lightning Payroll for more efficient pay processing.