In this article, you'll learn how a timesheet is structured, which actions you can perform per working day or for the whole month, and what to watch out for with absences and public holidays.
The feature at a glance
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Note on time tracking:
Time tracking in project b. serves as legal protection under Section 16(2) of the German Working Hours Act (ArbZG) and for maintaining overtime accounts.
The recorded hours can already be used manually for payroll (for example, for working students or mini-jobs). Automated handover to payroll is coming soon.
Prerequisites
Time tracking is activated for your company. You can find instructions in the article Activating time tracking.
Your employees have submitted at least one working day or a complete timesheet. However, you can also fill in and approve working hours entirely yourself, without input from employees.
Finding submitted timesheets
As soon as employees submit individual working days or their entire timesheet, you receive an email notification.
Open the Time Tracking section in the left navigation. You'll see an overview of all employees with time tracking activated.
Submitted timesheets are marked with a no icon in the Status column. Timesheets that have already been fully confirmed appear with a green icon.
Click on a row to open that person's timesheet for the selected month.
Layout and use of the timesheet
A timesheet refers to time tracking for one whole calendar month for a single employee or a single employment contract.
Overview bar
At the top of the timesheet, you'll find four key figures for the selected calendar month.
These key figures are:
Monthly overview (Worked / Expected hours):
A comparison of expected hours with the hours actually logged, for the entire calendar month. Expected hours are calculated from the contractual weekly working time, applied to the calendar month. Working days that fall on public holidays aren't included in this calculation.
Absences:
The number of contractual working hours in the month that fall on absences. For simplicity, half-day absences are calculated as half of the expected working time.
Current month balance as of […]:
The working time account (overtime account) for the current calendar month up to the current calendar day. This means the running month doesn't use the full month for this calculation.
Total cumulative balance:
The complete working time balance since time tracking was introduced. This includes the monthly balance of all past months, up to the current calendar day.
Calendar overview and working hours
Below this, you'll see a table for the calendar month listing all calendar days. These let you enter or review working hours. Each calendar day shows status, date, working time, break, recorded (working time), and deviation (comparison of expected vs. actual).
Navigating between months and employees
Use the arrow buttons at the top right to switch between calendar months.
The earliest available month is the month in which time tracking was activated as a feature.
Use the arrow buttons next to the name to switch to the timesheet of the next or previous person with time tracking activated. The counter (e.g., 1 of 3) shows you where you are in the list.
Timesheet status display
A timesheet can be in one of the following states: "In progress," "Submitted," or "Confirmed." Depending on the status, entering working hours is either locked or possible.
Once a timesheet has been submitted, this is indicated by a colored marker. All calendar days with working hours that haven't yet been confirmed switch to "submitted" status.
The "confirmed" status is indicated consistently with green markers.
The state of a timesheet affects whether the working hours can be edited:
In progress
The timesheet has neither been submitted nor confirmed. All individual calendar entries can be edited. The timesheet still needs to be submitted, confirmed, and closed out.Submitted
The timesheet has been submitted as a whole by the employee. This means all individual calendar entries are also considered submitted. Calendar days (unless confirmed) can still be edited. However, HR admins and managers can be confident that the timesheet is ready to be reviewed and confirmed.Confirmed
The timesheet has been confirmed as a whole by an HR admin or manager. This means all individual calendar entries have been confirmed. The timesheet can no longer be edited and is considered closed.
Approving the whole timesheet
Use the Confirm month button at the top right to confirm the entire timesheet at once, closing out time tracking for the calendar month.
No further entries or changes are possible for this calendar month. Confirming a timesheet can't be undone afterward.
If individual contractual working days haven't been filled in with working hours for no apparent reason, a warning appears. You can still close out the month regardless.
After closing out, all calendar days with logged working hours are considered confirmed. The employee is informed of the closure by email shortly afterward.
Calendar view in the timesheet
Recognizing regular working days
Regular working days are indicated by Start and End in the input fields.
In this example, you can see that the first regular working day in May 2026 is Monday, May 4, 2026.
Recognizing public holidays and weekends
Statutory public holidays, as well as company-specific holidays set individually by the company, are indicated by a purple background.
Hovering your mouse over the date reveals the name of the holiday (here: May 1, Labor Day).
Weekends are indicated by a gray background.
Recognizing irregular days
Irregular days are calendar days where it's unclear whether they're a working day:
The weekday wasn't set up as a contractual working day, or
It's a contractual working day that falls on a public or company holiday.
Irregular working days are indicated by dashes "–" in the input fields. Entry is still possible.
Recognizing absences
Pending or confirmed absences
Pending or already confirmed absences are indicated by colored icons to the right of the date.
The color coding for absences is the same as in the absences menu.
Green signals absences that have been confirmed by the HR admin or manager.
Yellow signals absences that haven't yet been confirmed by the HR admin or manager. Confirmation is still pending.
Absences marked green (confirmed) are automatically shown as confirmed working hours. Entering working hours for full-day absences isn't possible.
Absences marked yellow (confirmation pending) still need to be confirmed. Entering working hours remains possible until the day is confirmed.
Full-day or half-day absences
Full-day and half-day absences should also be distinguished.
For half-day absences, entering working hours is possible, since the employee is expected to come to work.
For full-day absences, entering working hours is blocked, since the employee is assumed not to come to work, or time tracking isn't required.
Status display for individual working days
Individual calendar days can also be submitted or confirmed independently of the entire timesheet. This allows for day-by-day review.
The state of individual working days is shown in the Status column. The system distinguishes between 3 different states.
Unknown or draft
The status display is empty. It's unclear whether the employee has already logged working hours as a draft for this calendar day and only needs to submit them, or whether no working hours have been recorded yet.
Submitted
The status display shows a yellow clock icon. The employee has already submitted this individual calendar day, or an HR admin or manager has logged these times.
Employees and HR admins can still adjust submitted working hours. Editing is only locked once the calendar day or timesheet has been confirmed.
The system notifies you by email of every new change, summarizing all changes for the day.
Confirmed
The status display shows a green icon. An HR admin or manager has already confirmed these times, or even logged them directly themselves.
Warnings (guidelines)
The system alerts you and your employees to any possible violation of the Working Hours Act (ArbZG). You can still always enter, submit, and confirm working hours regardless.
You can recognize warnings by the red marker in the Notes column. Hovering your mouse over the warning shows more information.
For detailed information on warnings and violations, see: Guidelines and notes (workflows, labor law)
Entering or adding working hours retroactively
As an HR admin, you can enter working hours directly in the timesheet - for example, if an employee forgot a day or hours need to be logged retroactively.
Click on a field to open editing mode. Enter working time and break times.
A working day can be submitted and confirmed as soon as a complete work block or break block has been entered.
A complete time block always consists of a start time and an end time.
If one of these values is missing, validation fails and the day remains incomplete (red icon in the Status column).
Entries are saved automatically once you leave the field, and are then considered submitted. The relevant person sees them immediately in the employee portal.
Copying and pasting working hours
You can enter working hours for multiple days at once. To do this, copy the working hours from a single day and paste them into selected calendar days.
To copy working hours and paste them into any number of other calendar days:
Select a filled-in working day and click the copy button, which appears on the right when hovering. After copying the row, it appears with a dashed blue border.
Now select the working days you want to paste the working hours into. Click the selection buttons on the left to do so.
After selecting at least two calendar days, a blue button appears at the bottom of the screen. Click "Paste hours" to enter the working hours.
Pasting is only possible into empty calendar days. You need to adjust already filled-in calendar days manually.
Deleting working hours
You can remove working hours for multiple days at once. Select the working days and click the delete icon. Deleting confirmed working days is only possible if the confirmation has been undone beforehand.
To remove working hours:
Select the working days whose working and break times you want to remove.
Click the trash can icon in the blue action bar. All time entries are then removed one by one. Note that only submitted working hours can be removed. If they've already been confirmed, you need to undo the confirmation first.
Editing working hours
As long as a working day hasn't been confirmed, you can edit any entered value.
Click on an input field and change the value. The value is saved immediately once you leave the field. If you make changes as an HR admin, the working hours are immediately considered submitted.
To delete existing working hours, remove some or all values from a row.
An edit can't be undone. If you want to restore an earlier state, enter the original values again.
Approving working hours
Confirming closes out a working day or an entire timesheet. Confirmed entries are frozen and can't be edited by you or by employees.
Approving a single day
Hover your mouse over the row for a working day. The Approve button appears on the right. Click it, and the status of the calendar day changes to confirmed.
Approving multiple days at once
Select the checkboxes on the left of the desired calendar days (rows). An action bar appears at the bottom of the screen with the options Approve and Remove approval. Click Approve to release the selection.
Removing approval
If you want to edit a confirmed day again, you first need to undo the confirmation. There are two ways to do this:
For a single calendar day, hover your mouse over the calendar day. The Remove approval button appears on the right. Click it, and the status of the calendar day changes back to "submitted."
For multiple calendar days, select the checkboxes on the left of the desired calendar days (rows). An action bar appears at the bottom of the screen with the option to remove approval. Click it, and the status of the calendar days changes back to "submitted."