Process of recording work time or leave data so payroll has usable inputs before approval, cutoff, and pay calculation.
Time entry is the process of recording work time, leave, or other payroll-relevant hours so they can move into payroll later.
Payroll starts with inputs. If the time never gets entered correctly, later payroll calculations can still be wrong even when rates, deductions, and employee setup are all correct.
Time entry matters because it affects:
It matters most in hourly environments, but salaried payroll also depends on time entry for leave, unpaid time, shift premiums, and exception handling.
Time entry happens before approval and before payroll calculation. In practice, employers use it to:
That makes time entry an upstream payroll step, not a paycheck output.
| Term | What it means in payroll |
|---|---|
| Time entry | The act of recording hours, punches, or leave |
| Timesheet | The submitted record of time for the pay period |
| Timecard | The punch-based record showing when work started and ended |
| Timesheet approval | The control step that clears recorded time for payroll use |
An hourly employee enters 8 hours on Monday, 8 hours on Tuesday, and 4 hours of paid sick leave on Wednesday.
Those entries build the employee’s timesheet. After manager approval, the approved hours move into payroll and help determine gross pay. If one of the days was entered as 6 instead of 8, payroll will likely underpay the employee unless someone catches the mistake before cutoff.