Guide · Paper timesheets

How to switch from paper timesheets

To switch from paper timesheets, list what your sheets do today, choose a method by how often crews change sites, run it beside paper for one full pay period, compare the totals by cause and retire paper only when every difference is explained. Keep the old sheets: federal rules require payroll records for at least three years and basic time cards for two.

Last updated October 29, 2026By ZeroBadge

This is general information, not legal advice. Laws differ by state and change over time. Check the primary sources below and talk to an employment lawyer about your situation.

What should you write down before you change anything?

Write down every job the paper sheet does today, who touches it and what breaks. A sheet is rarely only a record of hours. It is also the foreman's note that someone left early, the job code the office relies on and the signature that makes a week feel approved. If you replace the sheet without listing those jobs, one of them quietly stops happening.

Pick one finished pay period and trace it backward, from the last payroll entry to the sheet it came from. Note each handoff. The places where someone had to ask a question are the places the new method has to answer on its own.

What a paper sheet carries, and where each field comes from afterward
Field on the sheet	Who writes it now	Where it comes from after the switch
Worker name and date	The worker	The assigned device or login. Confirm every active worker has one before day one.
Start and end time	The worker, often from memory	The method's own timestamps. Decide who may correct them and with what reason.
Job or cost code	The worker or foreman	Location, a code picked at the time, or the foreman's end-of-day entry. This is the field most often lost.
Lunch	The worker	Your written deduction rule, or a recorded break. Pick one.
Drive and supply house time	Usually missing	A separate line or location. Paper hides this, so expect hours to appear that nobody wrote down before.
Notes such as "left early" or "sent home"	The foreman	A reason field on the correction. Make sure the new tool has one.
Foreman signature	The foreman	A weekly approval step with a named approver.

The last column is your requirements list. If a row has no answer, the method is not ready to replace paper for that crew.

How do you choose what replaces the paper sheet?

Choose by the failures your inventory found, not by the feature list. If crews stay on one site for the whole job, a site clock or a careful foreman sheet may be enough. If workers change sites in a week or start at the shop and finish elsewhere, you need a record that travels with the worker, and the method follows from whether you want phones involved.

Most of the cost is office re-keying and callbacks: look at methods that produce an export, so nobody types the week again.
Hours land on the wrong job: look at methods that record location, not only a punch.
Workers do not carry company phones, or you do not want an app on personal ones: look at a company-issued device. See time tracking without phones.
One long job with one gate: a site clock is fine. See jobsite time clock alternatives.

The full comparison is in time tracking methods compared, and the decision order is in the construction time tracking guide. This guide assumes you have already picked.

How do you run the new method beside paper?

Run both for one full pay period with one crew, keep paying from paper, and compare the two totals worker by worker. Neither record is trusted yet. The point of the run is to explain every difference by a cause, not to prove one side right.

1
Pick one crew with a reliable foreman
A crew that moves between two or three locations tests the method harder than a crew on one site, which is why it is worth starting there.
2
Tell the crew what is changing and what is not
Pay still comes from the sheet this period. Say so, or people will worry that the new record is already deciding their check.
3
Collect both records for the same dates
Same workers, same Saturday to Friday week. Do not let anyone tidy the paper to match the new record.
4
Compare per worker, then tag each difference with a cause
Rounding on paper, a sheet written from memory, a drive nobody recorded, a device off or charged late, a real disagreement. Untagged differences are the ones to chase.
5
Fix the cause, not the number
A device that was off at start is a process problem. A sheet that was long is a record to correct. Different fixes.

One week, a 12-worker crew, compared by cause (illustrative numbers)

Paper total for the week: 478.50 h
New record total for the same week: 471.25 h
Paper is higher by: 478.50 − 471.25 = 7.25 h
Cause: start and end times rounded up to the half hour: 4.75 h
Cause: Thursday sheet written from memory, one worker: 1.50 h
Cause: a badge or phone was off for the first stretch of one shift: 1.00 h
4.75 + 1.50 + 1.00: 7.25 h explained, 0.00 h unexplained

6.25 h of the gap is paper running long. The other 1.00 h is a gap in the new record, and the fix is a start-of-shift habit, not an edit. Only when no hours are left unexplained for a full period is the new record ready to pay from.

How long should you keep the old paper sheets?

Keep payroll records at least three years and basic time cards at least two, which is the federal minimum, and longer where your state, a contract or a union fund requires it. The Department of Labor's own summary puts the same two periods in Fact Sheet 21, and the rules sit in 29 CFR part 516.

Federal minimums that apply to the sheets and what replaces them (29 CFR part 516)
Record	Federal minimum	Rule
Payroll records holding the required data, including hours worked each workday and each workweek, the regular rate, overtime premium and wages paid	At least 3 years from the last date of entry	29 CFR 516.5(a) and 516.2
Basic time and earning cards or sheets showing daily starting and stopping times	At least 2 years from the date of last entry	29 CFR 516.6(a)(1)
Tables or schedules of the rates used to compute straight-time pay	At least 2 years from their last effective date	29 CFR 516.6(a)(2)
Records kept at a central office instead of the worksite	Must be available within 72 hours of notice from the Wage and Hour Administrator	29 CFR 516.7

State rules can be longer, and certified payroll, union audits and your insurance carrier may ask for more. Treat the table as a floor.

Because the sheet shows starting and stopping times and also feeds payroll, a sensible rule is to treat every old sheet as a payroll record and keep it at least three years. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires no particular form for the records (Fact Sheet 21), so a system record can replace paper going forward. Whether a scan can stand in for a paper original in your state is a question for counsel or your accountant.

How do you retire paper for good?

Pick a date, tell everyone, stop printing sheets and keep a short written fallback for the day the new method fails. Retiring paper means no sheet is the record any more. It does not mean there is never a backup.

Set the last paper pay period and announce it to every crew and foreman at least a week ahead.
Stop stocking blank sheets on trucks and in the shop. A pad in a glovebox becomes the real record.
Write the fallback: write times down only for a dead battery or no signal, the foreman signs it, and the office enters it the same day.
Box the final paper periods by month, label the boxes with the destruction date and put them where the office can reach them within 72 hours.
Update the handbook and any offer-letter language that mentions a paper timesheet.
Name the person who owns corrections. Nothing is silently edited, and every change carries a reason.
Review exceptions daily for the first month, then weekly. Watch whether the count falls week over week.

What goes wrong when a contractor switches?

Most failed switches lose a job the sheet was quietly doing, or skip the crew conversation. The software is rarely the cause.

Common switch problems and the fix
Problem	How it shows up	Fix
Cost codes dropped	The week is right and every job report is wrong	List the code step in the inventory and give it an owner before day one
No crew conversation	Workers assume the record is used to discipline them	Say what is recorded, when and who sees it. See rolling out time tracking to crews
Everyone switched at once	Ten problems at the same time and no baseline	One crew, one pay period, then the next crew
Paper kept as a quiet backup	Two records that disagree and no rule for which wins	A written fallback rule and a retire date
Parallel run never ends	The office keys both forever	Set the gate in advance: no unexplained hours for one full period

How ZeroBadge handles this

ZeroBadge replaces the sheet with a company-issued badge: power on starts the shift, power off ends it, and every minute is classified on site, in transit or other and allocated to a jobsite. The office reviews exceptions and approves the week, and approved hours go to your payroll provider. Corrections keep an audit trail, and the weekly PDF is kept as an unchangeable version. The badge-specific 30-day plan is on replace paper timesheets.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to stop using paper timesheets?

Yes. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires no particular form for the records, only that the required information is kept, such as hours worked each workday and each workweek (DOL Fact Sheet 21). State rules can add requirements, so check yours.

How long should the parallel run last?

One full pay period with one crew is the minimum. Extend it if any difference is still unexplained at the end, and move to the next crew only when none is.

Do I have to keep the old paper sheets after I switch?

Yes, for the retention period. Federal rules set at least three years for payroll records and two for basic time cards, and state law, contracts or union funds can be longer. Keep each finished period in a labeled box until its destruction date.

Should I switch every crew at the same time?

No. Start with one crew that has a reliable foreman and moves between a few locations. You learn what the switch breaks while the rest of the company is still on a known process.

What if the new record shows people were underpaid on paper?

Stop and talk to employment counsel before you change anything. Rounding is acceptable only when it averages out so workers are paid for all the time they work (29 CFR 785.48(b)), and how to correct past pay depends on your facts and your state.

Sources

1.Fact Sheet #21: Recordkeeping Requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act · U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
2.29 CFR 516.2, Employees subject to minimum wage or minimum wage and overtime provisions · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (eCFR text)
3.29 CFR 516.5, Records to be preserved 3 years · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (eCFR text)
4.29 CFR 516.6, Records to be preserved 2 years · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (eCFR text)
5.29 CFR 516.7, Place for keeping records and their availability for inspection · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (eCFR text)
6.29 CFR 785.48, Use of time clocks and rounding practices · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School (eCFR text)