1.  Entering Timecards

Virtual Time+Expense is designed to allow you to have users login and submit their own timecards, or if you need to still accept paper timecards for some or all of your projects (if the customer requires it, or you are ramping up users logging in themselves slowly to minimize changing your current system), you can enter the timecards yourself.

There are two ways to quickly enter a timecard on behalf of an employee:

a)     From the Review area, view the unsubmitted timecards for a given week by selected the Unsubmitted Timecards tab, and click on the arrow button next to the user name and click Edit.  This is the easiest way since you get to see what timecards still need to be submitted.

b)     Click the Edit a Timecard link at the top of the Review area, then select the user and date.

Once you are editing the correct timecard for the user, enter the data and save the timecard.  This will be initially marked as unapproved in the system, but since you potentially have the paper signatures for approval, when you process the timecard it will be auto-approved.

2.  Processing Timecards

By processing timecards, they become read-only for the employees, and are bundled together for easy invoicing or payroll (each is assigned is a number).  This is done from the Review area.  The default is to process all approved timecards, but you may process an unapproved timecard if you want.

You may process timecards as often as you like.  Usually, timecards are processed at a certain interval of time (once a week) just prior to generating invoices.

3.  Generating Invoices

After you process your timecards, go to the Billables area.  Invoices are automatically created from the processed timecards for you.  From here, you can export the invoices into your accounting software.

You may process invoices as often as you like.  These exported invoices are grouped together and assigned a unique ID, so it makes sense to processed at a certain interval of time when a grouping of invoices needs to be sent (once a week).

4.  Generating Payroll

After you process your timecards and export your invoices, go to the Payables area.  Payroll is automatically created from the timecard data for you.  This includes gross W2 payroll information (you still need a service to calculate taxes), and bills to pay 1099 and Corp-to-Corp (Agency) contractors.

You may process payables as often as you like.  Payables should be exported in the same payroll cycle interval that your company uses (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.).