Timesheets: A Guide

This article will provide you with a comprehensive guide to Timesheets in LMN [Desktop] for your convenience! 

Select from the list below to jump to its spot within the article!

Settings

• Timesheet Settings
• Equipment Tracking

Timesheet Tab

• Understanding the Daily Review tab
• Reviewing Notes and Time/Payroll Warnings
• Understanding the 'Approve' Screen In LMN
• How To Review Timesheets
• Approving Timesheets

Admin Resources

• How to Clock Staff Out of a Job From the Office
• Manually Create a Timesheet from the Office
• Manually Edit a Timesheet from the Office
• How to Submit a Timesheet from the Office
• Marking Staff as Late or Absent
• Add or Remove A Lunch Break/Deduction To A Timesheet
• User Timesheet View
• How to Add Files/Photos to Timesheets

Timesheet Settings

The purpose of this guide is just to give you a quick overview to help you configure your LMN Timesheet settings.

 

To edit your LMN Timetracking Settings, follow the steps below.

• Click on the settings menu at the bottom-left of your LMN account > Timesheets > Timesheet Settings 
• To edit each setting, select your desired selection.
• Each section will feature a button next to each section; hover your mouse over this button to view a description/explanation.

JOB SETTINGS:

When creating short names for jobs, we have the option to choose the project name, jobsite address, or the customer name. When you create a job in LMN, it automatically creates a job short name, which is an abbreviated name for your job. So when your crews punch in from their phone, the name shows up properly. Make sure to select the option in relation to how your crews identify your customers. Typically, the job address is the easiest because your crew might not know the customer’s name, but they can always find a job based on the address:

Right below, you’ll have the option to show Job IDs or not. You can simply toggle this button here to select yes or no. Job IDs are automatically created every time you create a job in LMN. For companies with many jobs, job ids help as a unique identifier so field staff punch in to the right job & office staff enter data to the correct job. Sometimes it’s easier to go by job number vs just the job name.

You can also use GPS to suggest jobs for foremen, so when they go punch in on their phone, LMN will suggest the closest job to them based on their GPS location.

By default, you can choose whether you want to track hours on jobs by work areas/services, or by cost codes. You can choose work areas/services if you’re looking for more detailed job costing information or if you’re syncing your payroll to QB. When your crews go to punch into a job, they will track their time against the work area or service name you’ve enter on your estimates or manually created in LMN as your task names. If you’re only looking to track time against a division, like maintenance or installation, then you can choose to track against cost codes. When your crews go to punch into a job, they will only see the cost code name. LMN recommends to track your time against work areas & services so you have more detail in your job costing & reporting.

We can also ensure that every job task is assigned an accounting cost code. This setting will force all jobs to be assigned an accounting cost code. We strongly recommend this setting to be set to yes if you want to do cost code accounting or if you intend on exporting time data to QB for payroll & job costing. If you select no, then you won’t be forced to assign a cost code to a job task.

FOREMAN PERMISSIONS:

Next, we'll look at our foreman permissions.  You also have the ability to allow foremen to punch out at times in the future. When set to allow, foremen will be able to override their device time, & punch in or out in the future. For example, if I have a crew that finishes working at 4PM, this would allow them to manually set their punch-out time to 5PM. We don’t necessarily recommend using this feature but it’s there if you have a case where it’s needed.

Next, you have the option to import crew notes from estimates. If you create an estimate with crew notes in LMN, these crew notes will pop up when your foreman go to punch into a task from their phone. We recommend setting this setting to yes if you have entered crew notes on your estimates.

You can allow foremen to leave timesheet notes blank, or not. When crews punch out of a jobsite, if you want to make the note mandatory, then select “no, tasks require notes”:

Next, you have the option to allow foremen to update the status of schedule visits via timesheets. If set to yes, your field staff will be able to mark visits complete when punching out of associated tasks. Choose no if you only want admin users to make changes to your visit statuses.

If you want your foremen to be able to delete timesheets, you have the option to choose yes or no here. Having this set to yes when you’re first training your field staff on how to use LMN can be very helpful. They might create more than one timesheet for the same day by accident, so this allows them to delete any duplicates – just make sure to come back in there & set it to no if you want the administrator to have full control in deleting timesheets.

You also have the option to raise a payroll alert when a foreman’s daily hours exceed the daily number of hours you type in here. So if my crews are supposed to be working 10 hour days, you can type that number here, & if they go over 10 hours on their timesheet, you’ll see a warning in the payroll alerts screen under timesheets. This setting can be changed at any time to accommodate seasons with longer or shorter working hours.

WORK SCHEDULE SETTINGS

Next we have our Work Schedule Settings. You’ll want to enter in the average working hours per day for your employees. You can do that by simply typing in the hours in here.

Down below, you can set your default lunch time for all of your staff that clock in and out by simply clicking these arrows. They can also override this default lunch time on their timesheets on any given day.  Below the default lunch time, we can enter in the default lunch duration, so if all your field staff takes lunch for 30 min, this will set the account default for them:

You also have the option to raise a payroll alert when a foreman’s daily hours exceed the daily number of hours you type in here. So if my crews are supposed to be working 9 hour days, you can type that number here.  If they go over 9 hours on their timesheet, you’ll see a warning in the payroll alerts screen under timesheets. This setting can be changed at any time to accommodate seasons with longer or shorter working hours.

OTHER SETTINGS

The last section is your Other Settings.  We’ll also have you choose your time zone settings, so you’ll want to set this setting to the time zone that your company operates in. This controls how times are saved & displayed in LMN.

When we scroll down, we can also set a distance display format, so whether that’s in miles or kilometers.

To view a video tutorial about Timesheet Settings, click HERE

Equipment Tracking

Your Foreman or Team Leads can track Equipment that has been pre-populated in the Equipment Settings. 

To add equipment and track in the field, follow these simple steps:

1) Prompt your equipment notes for your job types to track them by going to:

• Settings > Jobs > Job Types > Press into a Job Type > “Equipment Comments” = Yes, Prompt

2)  Click on the Settings > Timesheets > Equipment

• • Add your list of field equipment to be tracked by pressing on +Add New (green button at the top right corner)

3) When creating a LMN Timesheet (via the Time App or web), crews will need to type in the name of the equipment to record it during their clock outs, it will appear like so:

Check out the "Timesheet Equipment by Job" report located under Reports > Jobs > #15 !

To view a video tutorial about Equipment Tracking, click HERE

Understanding the Daily Review tab

LMN Timesheets allow crews to leave notes and pictures on any job or task they work on... and sometimes these notes are important.  We've made it easier to review crew notes each day with our Daily Review screen.

1. Press the timesheets menu in LMN
2. Choose the Daily Review menu option in the left-hand side menu
3. Select the date you want to review 
4. Filter by Staff Group (optional - if you want to look at a narrower list of timesheets that day)
5. Click View button to load the notes on-screen

Notes will be organized by foreman name.  Click any foreman name to expand their section and show all the timesheet notes and photos they've entered for each jobsite.

 

Reviewing Notes and Time/Payroll Warnings

As an LMN Admin, you have the ability to review Notes and Time/Payroll Warnings attached to timesheets.  To do so, follow the instructions below:

Daily Review (Previously Notes Review)

LMN Timesheets allow crews to leave notes on any job or task they work on... and sometimes these notes are important.  We've made it easier to review crew notes each day with our Daily Review screen.

1. Press the timesheets menu in LMN
2. Choose the Daily Review menu option in the left-hand side menu
3. Select the date you want to review  (will default to today's date)
4. Filter by Staff Group (optional - if you want to look at a narrower list of timesheets that day)
5. Click View button to load the notes on-screen

Notes will be organized by foreman name.  Click any foreman name to expand their section and show all the timesheet notes they've entered for each jobsite.

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Payroll Alerts: Timesheets Alerts & Staff Alerts (Previously Time Warnings)

Timesheet Alerts in LMN help to ensure your timesheets are more accurate. It will look for two main issues:

• Timesheets that have NOT been Approved yet;
• Whether or not a Lunch Break was skipped by an employee. 

Staff Alerts (Previously Payroll Warnings)

Staff Alerts in LMN help to ensure your timesheets are more accurate. It will look for three main issues:

• When an employee EXCEEDS the daily hours set up in Settings;
• When an employee has been clocked into MULTIPLE Timesheets;
• When an employee is NOT PRESENT on any Timesheet.

To access Staff Alerts:

1. Click on Timesheets at the top of the screen.
2. Click on Payroll Alerts on the left-hand menu.
3. Click on Staff Alerts
4. Toggle the Date you wish to view by clicking on the arrows or by clicking directly on the Date field and selecting the date.
5. Click on the Review Time buttons to be redirected to that Timesheet in question

 

Understanding the 'Approve' Screen In LMN 

Before Approving Timesheets in LMN, you have the ability to Audit and Review your employee's timesheets. To do so:

1. Login to LMN.
2. Click Timesheets on the left-hand menu of the page.
3. Click Approve on the left-hand menu.

EXPEDITED APPROVAL

If you wish to Approve or Un-Approve a Timesheet(s) in a quick manner, checkmark the timesheet(s) in question and then select the Update Timesheets dropdown to 'Approve Time' or 'Change Status'.

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UNDERSTANDING THE ACTIONABLE ITEMS (refer below to screenshots)

• Audit: if you see 'Edited' next a Timesheet, this is flagging the timesheet for manual data entry and for you to Audit the timesheet. Previously the red pencil
• Drop Down Arrow to Review: a summary view of their start/end times, total hours by employee and by Job/Task and whether a lunch break was taken or not.

• Edit: will bring you back into the Timesheet in question to make any adjustments you may need to make

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 AUDITING TIMESHEETS

When you click the timesheet listed record, you will then see an Employee Summary and Job & Task Summary

Click anywhere inside the screen below to review time. 

On the Review Time page, you will see their ACTUAL time of clock-in/out highlighted in red and what time they changed it to under the CLOCK IN/OUT header.

You will also have the ability to view their exact GPS location of where they were when they clocked in/out by selecting the  button. (NOTE: if this button is unable to be selected, your employee's Location Services was disabled on their smartphone at the time of clock in/out).

Reviewing Timesheets

You also have the ability to approve timesheets directly on the screen by pressing Approve.

How To Review Timesheets

As an LMN Admin, you have the ability to review all timesheets and the information associated to them for your company.  To do so, follow the instructions below.

You have multiple options for reviewing timesheets: the Timesheets List screen and the Approve screen. We will review your options below.

Timesheet List

• From this screen you can click on the timesheet that you wish to review.

• When the timesheet opens, at the very top, you'll see a readout of that crew's Efficiency Score for the work done on that timesheet, contrasted against the Efficiency Goal set for this timesheet's Crew Lead. 

  • The Efficiency Score represents the percentage of time that the crew spent on working on Jobs with 'Production' set as the Job Category, such as Mowing.

  • Time spent on jobs with a category of 'NonProduction,' such as 'Loading/Unloading,' contributes negatively to the Efficiency Score.

• Click on any Gray bar showing a job name, to review the time logs for that job.

• Click on the initial circles next to 'Timesheet Crew List' to bring up the Timesheet Staff view, from which you can view each crew member's logged time, any instances of absent/late, and the reasons provided for those instances by your crew leads. 

Approve Time

• From this screen, you will have three options for reviewing timesheets: Audit, Review and Edit.
• The word 'Edited' in red will indicate any timesheets which were edited by the person who created the timesheet.

Audit Time 

• Click the row with the employee's name to see all-time records within the timesheet, along with Clock In/Out time (the time the staff member said they were clocking in) and Actual (the time they actually clocked in/out).
• Any times that were not accurate will be shown in red font.

Review Time

• You can review your timesheet in detail by clicking on the timesheet to drop down a summary to review. 
• If you accept the timesheet as is, you can click Approve from this page.

Edit

• Click on Open to review the timesheet - from here you will be able to review the time logs for this job.
• Then, you can click edit which will bring you to the timesheet to further edit if required.

Approving Timesheets

It is very important to keep track of your crews timesheet submission daily. This allows you to monitor whether timesheets are being submitted or not and if they are being filled out correctly. You can do all of this by using the Approve screen in LMN as shown below:

You have the ability to check each timesheet that has been submitted and approve them for payroll.

Approve Selected:

By clicking on the checkboxes beside the date on each timesheet you can approve multiple timesheets at once. 

If you see a red 'Edited' beside the timesheet then that means your foreman has clocked into a site and changed the time from the time that it actually was when they clocked in to an earlier time. Click on the timesheet, then click into the Employee Summary to see the changes that the foreman made to the timesheet.

To view a video tutorial about Timesheet Review & Approvals, click HERE

How to Clock Staff Out of a Job From the Office (as an Admin)

You can clock a crew or employee out of a job from the office as well as a smart phone.  To clock out of a job in LMN as an Admin, use the steps below.

1. Click Timesheets and select the Timesheet you wish to clock out of
2. Click the Punch-Out button 
3. Choose the employees you wish to punch-out 
4. Select the services completed and if any tracked materials.
5. If you have notes defaulted within your Job Type / Settings, enter them.  Same goes for Activities.

Manually Create a Timesheet from the Office (as an Admin)

If a Timesheet needs to be created manually, this can be achieved from the Administrator login via a browser.

1. Click Timesheets | Timesheet List
2. Click + New on the top-right corner of the screen
3. Change the Date by pressing the calendar icon > click ok
4. Click Punch In to add the Employees you wish to punch-in > select employees > click Next
5. Select the Job you wish to clock into > click Next
6. Assign Tasks to each employee that you had selected for punch-in. 
7. You will be able to Confirm Date/Time. If you wish to edit the Start Time/End Time, click on the Edit button located on the right of the time.               
8. Select Task > Click Next
9. Review Punch-in Summary
10. Click Finish on the bottom right corner
11. The Timesheet has now been created and you should be back on the Timesheet Admin page
12. Click Save at the top-right of the page
13. Click Submit button to Submit the Timesheet

 

Manually Edit a Timesheet from the Office (as an Admin)

1. Click Timesheets > Timesheet List
2. Select the Timesheet you wish to edit. 
3. On the Timesheet page, ensure that the Status is listed as IN PROGRESS. NOTE: If the status is In Review, Submitted, or Approved, once you click 'edit' you will be prompted the status of the timesheet will change to 'in progress'
   
4. Click on the Job/Task to expand the Employee's clocked-in below
5. Click on the Employee you wish to edit.  
6. Click on the respective field you wish to edit and make your changes (Job, Task, Date, Time).
7. Click OK to Save.
8. Repeat the same process for each Employee that require editing.
9. If all edits have been completed, click the Submit button to Submit Timesheet. 

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How to Edit a Timesheet if Foreman Clocked into the Wrong Job or task?

Your admin staff can submit timesheets from the 'office' of view of LMN too.  To submit a timesheet from the office in LMN, follow the steps below.

1. Click Timesheets and select the Timesheet you wish to Submit.
2. 
3. On the task bar, click the submit button (as shown below).
4. To Submit the Timesheet, you will need to indicate if the staff on the timesheet took lunch.  You can adjust the Lunch Time, Duration(minutes) and you will indicate who did and did not take lunch.  If one or more of your staff did not take lunch, select their name (un check green checkmark) to indicate that lunch was not taken.
   Please note: the time in the Lunch Time field will need to match the time within the timesheet (ie. if your staff worked from 1pm to 5pm, you would need to select the lunch time to fall within this time period).                                             
5. Make sure to Review the Timesheet prior to submitting by toggling between the Staff, Tasks and Rates tabs (as highlighted below). 
6. If everything looks good, click the Submit Timesheet button

Marking Staff as Late or Absent (as an Admin)

There is an option to mark your employees late or absent in your timesheets. This is accomplished by clicking the edit button within a timesheet > then Staff List which brings you to an area where you will be able to see who took a lunch or not, who was late as well as who was absent (and make changes).

Alternatively, you can also mark them absent by clicking edit > add absent then select the employee you'd like to mark absent followed by the reason. Here you may also (optionally) input a written note to provide any context in addition to the dropdown selection:

It is important to mark employees as late and absent when it happens, as you have the ability to run an "Employee Attendance Report" (under payroll/staff in reports)". This is essential in order to keep track of how often as well as why an employee is not at work. 

When you set someone to late they are still paid for their clock in. It is for your record keeping because if an employee is frequently late or absent you may want to apply discipline or look further into why it is happening in order to improve business efficiency. 

 

Add or Remove A Lunch Break/Deduction To A Timesheet (as an Admin)

If your foreman/supervisor forgets to log that a lunch was taken, no sweat! Adding a lunch break/deduction can be done in a matter of clicks.

How to Add a Lunch Deduction on a Timesheet

1. Log in to LMN.
2. Select Timesheets > Timesheet List
3. Select the Timesheet you wish to add a Lunch Break/Deduction for > Click Edit if already submitted and not in progress.  
4. Once status is 'In progress' > Click Edit drop down menu >Click Deduct Lunch 
5. On the Apply Lunch Deductions page, here is where you can make your adjustments.
6. Press OK on the bottom-right corner when you are done.  

How to Remove a Lunch Deduction on a Timesheet

1. Select the Timesheet you wish to remove the Lunch Break/Deduction for.
2. On the Timesheet page, ensure the Current Status is set to IN PROGRESS. If it is not, click on the Edit button to change it to In Progress. 
3. Click the Edit button to view the edit drop down menu
4. 
5. Click Staff List
6. Click the edit icon on the staff you wish to remove lunch deduction for
7. Deselect the employee(s) you wish to remove the Lunch break from (their names will now display 'Not Taking Lunch').
8. Click OK on the bottom-right corner and then Save Changes when you are done.

 

User Timesheet View

LMN Admins have the ability to see what timesheets an employee was on most recently, as well as for a specific date range via the staff profile. To view what timesheets an employee is on follow the steps below:

1. Click the Manage Users & Staff button in the main Settings menu you wish to view timesheets for.
2. Find the Staff mwember you wish to view timesheets for
3. Click the Edit Staff Member button in the bottomo right corner
4. Click the Time Tracking & Payroll option in the left menu
5. Select the timesheets tab along the top.
6. Make any modifications to the search parameters as necessary.
7. Select the timesheet to view and modify accordingly. 

 

How to Add Files/Photos to Timesheets [Admin]

This article will showcase the Jobsite Files and Photos feature within Timesheets. This feature can be used to add files/photos directly into Timesheets while in the field using the LMN Crew Mobile App or  from the office using the LMN web browser. (Note: The Jobsite Files/Photos feature is only available with a Professional/Enterprise subscription).  Timesheet files/photos are useful in a variety of ways, including:

• Photos:
  
  • Job completion / quality assurance
  • Enhancement opportunities
  • Liability / damage reports
  • Marketing material
  • Jobsite reference
• Files:
  • Property diagram
  • Site specifics
  • Materials list
  • Site maps
  • Snow relocation maps

By following this guide you will learn how to use files/photos in Timesheets.

Timesheet Files/Photos in LMN Web Browser (Timesheet List)

Step 1:  Log in to your LMN Account and click Timesheets > Timesheet List

Step 2:  Click into the Timesheet which you would like to view

Step 3: Click into the jobsite which you would like to view, then click > Task Info

Step 4:  In the Job & Task Details window, click the Photos tab

Timesheet Files/Photos in LMN Web Browser (Daily Review)

Step 1: Log in to your LMN Account and click > Time > Timesheets > Daily Review

Step 2: Click the Foreman whose files/photos you would like to view (Note: If the foreman's name is in red text, it indicates that a critical file/photo was added and needs to be reviewed)

Step 3: From here, you will be able to see all of the jobs with files/photos attached to them (Note: If the text is red, it indicates that it is a critical file/photo)

Step 4: Click > View Photos 

Step 5: From here, you are able to see the file/photos that have been added, and you can download the photo by clicking > Download Image

 

If you require further assistance, please contact our Support Team via email at support@golmn.com or reach out to us through our Live Chats feature or by Phone: (888) 347-9864!