From Excel or paper timesheets to a time clock app – in a single day

Why move away from Excel timesheets

Spreadsheets are great for sums but weak as a time clock. Hours are often typed in at the end of the day or week by a supervisor, from memory. There's no proof the person was there, and formulas break as soon as someone moves a column.

• Time: someone collects, adds up and corrects hours every month.
• Errors: one wrongly copied cell goes straight into someone's pay.
• Buddy punching: typed-in hours can't be checked. See how to stop buddy punching.
• Several sites: each site or shop sends its own file in its own format.
• Records: UK and Irish law expects records that actually show compliance with working time rules, and the CJEU (C-55/18) requires an objective, reliable system. A sheet filled in after the fact is hard to defend.

What to prepare first (30 minutes)

• Employee list from your spreadsheet or payroll software: name, phone or email, main site, contracted hours or shift pattern.
• Site list: office, shops, sites, client addresses, with exact addresses.
• Working hours and break rules from your handbook or contracts.
• Who approves: the manager or team lead for each site.
• Last month's timesheet in Excel, so you have something to compare against.

The migration in 6 steps, in one day

1. Create the account (5 minutes). No card needed. The 7-day trial covers up to 10 employees – enough to test with one team lead and two colleagues before adding everyone.
2. Add your sites (15 minutes). For each: the address or GPS point and the radius of the clock-in zone. Start with a generous radius and tighten it after the first week.
3. Add employees (15–30 minutes). Name, phone or email, site and schedule. Name your team leads: they use the team-lead app and see only their own people.
4. Print the QR codes (10 minutes). One code per site, at eye level by the staff entrance. Where you have a tablet or screen, use the rotating QR code that changes every few seconds.
5. Activate phones (one 15-minute briefing). Each employee opens their activation link and adds the app to the home screen. No app store needed. For staff without smartphones, set up an entrance tablet with PIN or printed badge.
6. First clock-in, together. Everyone scans the QR code once while you watch. You see straight away on the dashboard who has clocked in and who hasn't.

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The parallel week: Excel and the app side by side

For the first week, keep the old system running too. No longer than that, but no less either: you'll spot differences before they affect anyone's pay.

• Daily: check missing punches and the queue of flagged punches (outside the GPS zone, odd times).
• After 3 days: adjust the GPS radius where punches consistently land just outside the zone.
• End of week: compare app hours with spreadsheet hours. Big gaps show either old spreadsheet errors or people who still forget to clock in.

Don't panic if the app shows fewer hours than the old timesheet. It's a common finding after switching: the sheet showed the scheduled hours, the app shows actual arrival and departure times.

Month one: export to payroll

1. Fix what's missing. Every correction is saved with a reason and who made it.
2. Close the month. Employees confirm their hours on their phones, and that confirmation appears in the report.
3. Export to Excel, CSV or PDF. The report shows start and finish times per day, breaks, overtime, night and weekend hours, and totals per employee.
4. Send it to payroll or your accountant as an Excel or CSV file, instead of scanned sheets.

Keep the PDF for your records. Retention is two years for UK working time records and six for National Minimum Wage and holiday records; three years in Ireland. Many employers simply keep six years. For what a timesheet should contain, see our timesheet template.

Common mistakes when leaving Excel

• Launching without explaining. If staff hear about the app in a group message, they'll assume they're being tracked. Explain first, then switch on.
• GPS radius too tight on day one. Inside buildings and near tall ones GPS is less precise. Start wide, tighten after a week.
• No plan for staff without smartphones. Have the entrance tablet ready before day one.
• Dropping Excel too soon. One parallel week saves you payroll surprises.
• Nobody reviews flagged punches. Decide who checks the queue and how quickly.
• Copying every old habit. What you did by hand (rounding, breaks added "by default") should now be set explicitly in the schedule – or dropped.

What to tell your employees

A short briefing and a written notice are enough. The message can be as simple as this:

From Monday we clock in on our phones by scanning the QR code at the entrance. The app reads your location only at the moment you clock in or out, never in between. Nothing to install from the app store, and no fingerprints. You can see your own hours on your phone and confirm them at the end of the month. If you don't have a smartphone, use the tablet at the entrance.

• What is collected: the time, your location at clock-in, optionally a selfie (deleted automatically after 30 days).
• What isn't: no location tracking during the day, no fingerprints or face templates stored.
• What they gain: their hours and overtime visible on their phone, fewer arguments on payday.

A written privacy notice is required under the GDPR and UK GDPR, and the ICO expects monitoring of workers to be transparent. QRtimetrack includes an employee information template and a DPIA template. Data is hosted in the EU (Frankfurt).

What it costs after the trial

€1.99 per active employee per month, minimum 5 employees billed, excluding VAT. Billed monthly by card, no long contract. Details on the pricing page and in the time tracking app overview. Not sure which system fits? See our time clock comparison.

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Frequently asked questions