Time Sheet

Lu · May 2002

First of all let me say I am an Exempt Employee. Our company pay period is every other week and has a time sheet that I am required to put down 8 hours each day even though I would work many days in excess of 8 hours a day. My question is should I, as an exempt employee, be required to document 8 hours per day or should I record the true hours that I work???
Thank You!

moneyman · May 2002

I didn't think that you could "require" an exempt employee to track time via a timesheet. I thought that this put the company in jeopardy of losing the exempt status by treating the employee as non-exempt. In my practices, the only time a "timesheet" was required from exempt employees was for the purposes direct billing of time to clients, you know, how many hours did you spend in which client?

In any event, I believe that your company's practices would not be good as "accurate recordkeeping", which I thought was a requirement. A few years back, we used to pay 86.67 hours semi-monthly and make adjustments to actual time worked once a month. Also, everyone just put down 8 hours per day if they worked 40 hours within the week. We changed that practice to reflect better records so that you could tell when someone took a longer lunch and made it up the next day. Since we do not pay OT calculated daily, it doesn't matter on the records.

NaeNae55 · May 2002

We have a time sheet for our exempt employees, but it doesn't list hours like our non-exempt time sheets. Instead, the employee is required to fill out blanks designated for vacation, sick, holidays and other types of leave. If the exempt employee enters 0 in each blank, they are paid regular salary for the pay period (2 weeks). If an employee has 2 days vacation, they enter a 2 and they are paid 8 days regular pay and 2 days vacation, etc.

I don't think you need to sweat about entering your hours. Just enter 8 or your employer might think you are a trouble maker and it ultimately doesn't make any difference in how much you get paid pay period to pay period. If you are putting in a lot of extra time, your supervisor should be aware of it already and handle it more appropriately in your review. However, your employer might be asking for trouble from the DOL. The DOL frowns on employers treating exempt employees as hourly without paying overtime. If the DOL does an audit, your employer better have plenty of other documentation on hand to show they are complying with FSLA. (An hourly time sheet for an exempt employee is a poor indication of their compliance.)

dhnyct · May 2002

Most people view a time sheet as a method of tracking hours worked, so I wonder if your system would solve some of our problems. Would you please share more details?

How do your exempts feel about turning in a time sheet used only for tracking absences? What happens to the time sheets submitted each pay period? What constitutes the application of leave...Do you specify half-day leave, or just full day? (If the person only works a couple of hours, is it a full day at regular pay, or half regular and half leave?)

With our growing organization we find ourselves with many exempts following their own systems, which are often very subjective. We need to develop a fair, objective, and consistent policy for all to follow. One of our latest exempts has only been on board six months and has already taken off almost two weeks for various reasons. Her apparent sense of entitlement is creating ill will among the ranks, both exempt and non-exempt.

NaeNae55 · May 2002

Our exempt employees have never complained about turning in a time sheet. Tracking various leaves helps them as much as it helps payroll. Plus, our payroll system, purchased from a local accounting firm, will not automatically pay anyone. Time must be entered. Having a time sheet for every employee, exempt or hourly, insures that no one's check is overlooked. The time sheet, once entered, is kept with all other time sheets for the payroll as regular documentation. The difference between an hourly employee's time sheet and an exempt employee's time sheet is noticable, so we are not concerned that they might in any way be confused.

We currently only apply accrued leave on a full day basis for exempt employees, though we are considering the 1/2 day option. If you will give me a fax number or email address I will be happy to send you a copy of our form, which is currently in an Excel format.

dhnyct · May 2002

Thanks for sharing ! ! !

[email]honeycutt2@prodigy.net[/email]

TheCol · May 2002

Concur with the above, generally. Time sheets should be kept accurately on all employees, even exempt in my opinion. The main reason to me is that if the employee is reclassified non-exempt then overtime in arrears can be awarded. If the business does not have an accurate record of time worked, the employee's reconstruction would likely be used. Probably skewed. It happened to me just like that and my record keeping provided a hassle-free transition of the employee to a new category.

System · May 2002

Back to the fundamental question of whether or not a company should track time worked by exempt employees....could that cause problems with the DOL? Doesn't an exempt designation indicate that a person is paid for the knowledge and ability they bring with them and the job they perform, regardless of the time spent doing it?

TheCol · May 2002

Hi. My comment just above yours was generated at the time I was audited as a result of a complaint from a disgruntled employee. Passed the audit, sorta, but had a wonderful visit for a week with the DOL auditor for Greater Orlando, Florida. What I wrote here was part of that lifting experience!! The auditor talked to every active employee as well as asking for the phone number of all former employees for the past three years. I owed $238.60 for unpaid fractions of hours in overtime status, total (yaay) They waived the damages normally paid to the US Treasury.

Carol CA · May 2002

We also require our exempts to fill out a timesheet each week. We really only use it in order to be able to track vacation, sick, etc. We also say to just put a regular 8 hours each day because it really doesn't matter what you work. You could be working 7 or 9 hours. You get paid the same amount as an exempt. We've found that if people are in the habit of filling out the timesheet each week, we get a more accurate tally of vacation/sick days. If exempts only fill out the timesheet if they are absent, they often times forget, and unfairly do not have their vacation/sick banks docked when out a full day. I wouldn't sweat it and just fill out the timesheet as your employer requested.

Time Sheet

Comments