Labor is the biggest number on your P&L and the easiest one to lose track of. This weekly timesheet captures hours by employee, job, and cost code with daily columns, overtime, and a proper approval chain — so payroll stops being a Monday-morning reconstruction project.
Or skip the spreadsheet
Gradelog crews clock in and out on their phones — hours land against the right job and cost code automatically, with supervisor approval built in.
Each block of hours should be recorded against the cost code for the work actually performed — mass excavation, fine grade, pipe, restoration — rather than a single job-level bucket. Cost-coded hours are what let you compare actual production against your bid assumptions and find out which activities make or lose money.
The FLSA requires employers to keep accurate records of hours worked each day and week, wages paid, and overtime. On prevailing-wage and certified-payroll jobs (Davis-Bacon and state equivalents), requirements are stricter — classifications and hours must match certified reports. Signed weekly timesheets are the foundational record for all of it.
Studies of self-reported time consistently show accuracy collapsing after 24 hours. A foreman filling in Friday what happened Tuesday rounds to the nearest half-day and forgets the two hours spent moving the crew between sites. Daily entries take two minutes and routinely recover 2–4% of labor cost that weekly reconstruction loses.
Best practice is a two-step chain: the foreman who watched the work prepares and signs, and a supervisor or PM who knows the budget approves. The preparer catches hour errors; the approver catches coding errors. One signature means nobody actually checked.