Did you know that time tracking templates can help businesses and employees keep track of how their time is being utilized at work? These pre-built spreadsheets, worksheets, folders, or lists act as overlays to different time management tools, helping teams use software more efficiently and comprehensively.
We all find ways to track our time throughout the day, whether it’s by closely watching the clock, scheduling our time in hourly increments, or even shouting, “Alexa! Set a 25-minute timer!” These methods might work in a pinch, but they’re not the most productive way to use our time and can end up costing more in the long run! Moreover, different industries have different ways of using time management techniques, making customized time-saving processes crucial for the efficiency and profitability of any business.
The challenging part is actually building these customized processes the right way. It requires research, trial and error, attention to detail, and, most importantly, a lot of time. That’s why you need a time tracking template in your life.
Time tracking templates are the perfect resource to help teams track task duration, the amount they have accomplished, the total cost, and more. They are also customizable for any use case! Whether you’re a lawyer, freelance writer, consultant, or stay-at-home parent, your time tracking template will cater to your specific needs.
Continue reading to learn more about time management using templates, how to find the best templates, and the 10 best time tracking templates for ClickUp, Excel, and Google Sheets.
What is a Time Tracking Template?
Time tracking templates are pre-built spreadsheets, worksheets, folders, or lists that help businesses and employees keep track of how their time is being utilized at work. Like a cookie cutter, these templates overlay different time management tools, assisting teams in using software more efficiently and comprehensively.
These templates can already be tailored to a specific use case or easily customized to align with your team’s existing processes. Just like timesheets or other planning templates, time tracking templates gather key information about the time you spend at work, different tasks, whole projects, or clients, making it easier to identify areas for improvement and visualize your productivity over time.
Project time tracking is an essential part of productivity management for any business, regardless of its size or industry. However, time tracking templates offer much more than just a timer – they allow you to add notes, labels, edits, and additional data to your entries effortlessly.
The best templates will even include automated formulas to calculate wages based on time or billable hours. But what else should you look for in a top-notch time tracking template?
The Criteria for a Good Time Tracking Template
Even if you’re the team’s time management expert, there are many other elements to consider for proper project time management, and your template is there to help you! Here are the key features to look for in your next time tracking template:
- Multiple views to see your calendar, tasks, projects, and time from all angles.
- Flexible time tracking that enables you to manage the time you spend in different applications, tasks, and windows.
- Custom fields to keep key time-related information at your fingertips and accurately calculate invoices.
- Time reports for an overall view of your daily, weekly, or monthly productivity.
- Integrations to extend the functionality of your template and gather your upcoming meetings, events, and appointments in one place.
It might seem like a lot, but these five features just scratch the surface when it comes to the number of time tracking templates available to managers today! The key is to find a template that includes all of them and is designed to help you use them most effectively.
The 10 Best Time Tracking Templates
Your time tracking template will serve as a knowledge base for all time-related information – and time is money! So, this decision is significant. But you’re not alone; we’re here to help.
We scoured the web for the best time tracking resources for different use cases and are thrilled to share 10 of our favorites with you! Whether you work solo or in a team, here are the 10 best time tracking templates for ClickUp, Excel, and Google Sheets.
1. ClickUp Consultants Time Tracking Template
Ideal for: All consultant-related work
Consultants track the time they spend on client services to accurately bill their clients and keep a record of completed tasks. This task can be tedious if done manually, but luckily, several tools are available to streamline the process!
One such tool we want to highlight is the ClickUp Consultants Time Tracking Template, specifically designed to capture tasks, meetings, and all client-related activities.
ClickUp allows consultants to track time via the web, desktop app, or mobile app. It also enables them to gather data and insights into how they use their time, allowing them to adjust their strategies accordingly.
For project managers, they’ll have a comprehensive view of all ongoing tasks and projects. (Bonus: if your accounts payable department needs a digital trace to verify consultant invoices, they’ll have a list view to check task details!)
2. ClickUp Time Allocation Template
Ideal for: Setting time estimates to meet deadlines
Time allocation is essential as it helps individuals and organizations work within a given timeframe. It motivates you to finish tasks faster and ensures that nothing is overlooked or forgotten.
Before starting a task, set goals and determine how much time each task will take, along with the deadline. This ensures that tasks don’t remain unfinished for too long, allowing them to be completed more quickly and efficiently.
The ClickUp Time Allocation Template makes this strategic process easier. Download it as an integration tool for managers to set work expectations or provide recommendations on time to dedicate to daily tasks, such as:
- Sales teams: prospecting, sales plan preparation, and sales meetings
- Marketing teams: contractor management, content creation, and competitor research
- Software development teams: report generation, code writing, and requirements gathering
3. ClickUp Personal Time Management Template
Ideal for: Time allocation to achieve productivity goals
Use the ClickUp Personal Time Management Template to do more in less time and avoid feeling overwhelmed. Organize categories of your life (Fitness, Family, Personal Care, Work, Break, Social, and Finances) into individual tasks. Then, add custom fields to capture the most important information: start and due dates, time estimates, tracked time, etc.
This timesheet template also doubles as time tracking and a task list, all in one place. With the task you’ve created, switch to the Calendar view to see the daily or weekly breakdown.
As you complete tasks, check them off to stay focused and on track. Review your list regularly to ensure you’re making progress and adjust your schedule if needed.
Pro tip: All ClickUp templates are fully customizable. Set it up once and make changes to the template along the way without starting from scratch!
4. ClickUp Gantt Time Tracking Template
Ideal for: Gantt chart enthusiasts and time tracking for complex project schedules
Gantt charts help monitor complex projects by providing a quick representation of the project timeline, dependencies, and milestones. They make it easy to identify potential scheduling conflicts, delays, and areas where additional resources may be needed.
Static Gantt chart spreadsheets overlook a critical component of project planning – automated time tracking!
If you’re a lover of Gantt charts, you’ll love the ClickUp Gantt Time Tracking Template. The template offers three distinct views (weekly, monthly, and yearly) to display one or multiple project schedules at any given time. You can start the task timer or manually record tracked time without leaving your Gantt chart!
5. ClickUp Time Planning Template
Ideal for: Any time in your time management journey
The ClickUp Time Planning Template is designed to help you make it a habit to estimate your time. With this data, you can make adjustments to your schedule and create space for meaningful work and experiences.
By prioritizing your work, you can manage your time more effectively by first focusing on the most important and urgent tasks. Completing them before moving on to less important tasks will also help preserve your creative energy and critical thinking abilities for work that moves the needle.
This timesheet template has three different views in ClickUp to kickstart your time management journey:
- Activity Log List summarizes all your activities per day.
- Workload View shows all your time estimates.
- Daily Activity Board View groups your categories by activity type.
6. ClickUp Hourly Time Tracking Template
Ideal for: Time tracking for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and hourly employees
The ClickUp Hourly Time Tracking Template is designed to help managers ensure that employees and contributors are paid for their regular and overtime hours. With a visible payroll schedule in ClickUp, managers and contributors have complete transparency into payroll activities.
In the getting started guide, find tips for customizing your template. Then, explore Calendar and List views, and choose the one (or ones) that seems most useful for day-to-day visibility.
Pro tip: Reduce clutter in your ClickUp Calendar view by modifying task card settings to display only the most relevant information at a glance!
7. ClickUp Fillable Timeline Template
Ideal for: Building a customized project schedule from scratch
A blank timeline is a great tool for establishing the sequence of your project, event, lesson, or activity. Especially for projects that don’t fit perfectly into your workflows and processes.
The ClickUp Fillable Timeline Template offers multiple views and custom fields to allow you to visualize tasks and track time as you complete them. Here are a few features included in this template to inspire you:
- Timeline View: A linear way to visualize and plan your tasks.
- Table View: An agile tool with a drag-and-drop interface to easily move task cards across columns.
- Money Custom Field: An amount formatted in any currency to see allocated and actual costs.
- Progress Bar Custom Field: An automatically calculated progress bar that tracks subtasks, checklists, and assigned comments’ progress.
Creating a customized project schedule involves several steps. First, gather as much information as possible about the project – goals, tasks, resources, budget, and timeline. Then, organize all tasks that need to be accomplished into phases and create tasks. Next, determine how tasks are interdependent and which tasks must be completed before the next one can be done.
As soon as a rough schedule is established, the schedule can be refined as you make progress!
8. ClickUp Lawyers Time Tracking Template
Ideal for: All lawyer-related work
Busy lawyers’ time tracking can be done at the end of the week, month, or upon closing a case. But with powerful time tracking software, it becomes easier to make a habit of tracking time daily.
If you’re tired of application fatigue, try the ClickUp Lawyers Time Tracking Template. This tool makes managing weekly, biweekly, and monthly timesheets in organized views a breeze.
The folder template also comes with suggested custom fields to get you started:
- Weekday: A dropdown field with options, including weekdays.
- Lawyer Name: A people field to specify which lawyer, paralegal, or legal assistant tracks billable hours.
- Case Number: A text field to input the case number that a lawyer or group of lawyers is working on.
- Client Name: A people field to specify the client.
- Hourly Rate: An money field to enter the hourly rate.
Pro tip: Track time, create tasks, and view your schedule on the go with the ClickUp mobile app!
9. Excel Time Tracking Template
Ideal for: Freelance work and small project contracts
Time tracking templates in Excel are best used if you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur who wants to track your clock-in, clock-out, and meal breaks every day of the week.
This timesheet is beautifully designed. It features organized sections for personal details, client details, and task tracking summaries. It doesn’t have an automated time tracking tool, so you’ll need to allocate an extra thirty minutes to gather your data and calculate the total hours.
Once you’ve tracked your hours, you can use this information to create invoices for your clients. These invoices will indicate the number of hours dedicated to their project and the total amount due.
Discover alternatives to Excel for personal and team productivity enhancement!
10. Google Sheets Time Tracking Template
Ideal for: A user-friendly experience better than Excel
If your client needs additional information like task descriptions and project deliverables, an Excel timesheet might look cluttered. The Google Daily Timesheet Template is perfect for getting a detailed view of all hours worked on tasks and projects.
The template can be used to help individuals and organizations understand how they’re using their time. In addition to fixed costs, estimated hours, and actual hours, it also provides a dedicated section that can be used to identify areas where efficiency, resources, and productivity can be improved.
Discover alternatives to Google for project management!
Take Back Control of Your Productivity with ClickUp Time Tracking Templates
There’s much more to consider in project time tracking than a simple timer can handle – that’s why you need a time tracking template to handle the heavy lifting! But not all time tracking templates can offer you the same functionality…
Your industry, use case, team size, and work style are decisive factors in finding your next template. Luckily, there are enough time management resources in the market to allow you to make no compromises in your template search! The research itself may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be – especially if you choose a template from today’s highest-rated productivity platforms: ClickUp.
With hundreds of time-saving features, an extensive template library, and over 1,000 integrations, ClickUp is the only software powerful enough to bring all your time, projects, and team together in one centralized workspace.
Sign up for ClickUp and let it take care of time tracking for you.
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