Engineering firm timesheets must connect labor to contracts, phases, and rates. Everhour adds structured team controls.
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Engineering firms need time records that show who worked, the client or contract charged, the project phase, the task performed, and whether the time was billable, direct, indirect, overhead, or non-billable. A civil design engineer's week may include preliminary engineering on one client project, internal QA review, proposal work, and training. Those hours belong in different buckets.
For U.S. payroll, covered employers must keep accurate records for nonexempt workers covered by the FLSA minimum wage or overtime provisions, including hours worked each workday and total hours worked each workweek. The FLSA does not require one specific timekeeping form or system. The method must be complete and accurate.
A useful engineering timesheet starts with client, project, contract type, phase, task, person, date, hours, billing status, and rate category. Federal-aid highway work often maps time to services such as program management, construction management, feasibility studies, preliminary engineering, design engineering, surveying, mapping, or architectural services.
Contract type changes the meaning of the same hour. Lump sum work still needs labor visibility for profitability and staffing. Cost plus, time-and-materials, and cost plus fixed fee work need cleaner links between labor, approved scopes, billing rates, and reimbursable cost treatment. A time entry labeled only "design work" leaves accounting to guess.
Engineering firms that support DOT-related audits need labor records that distinguish direct labor from fringe benefits, general overhead, and indirect cost pools. FAR 31.202 says direct costs of a contract must be charged directly to that contract. FAR 31.203 treats indirect costs as the remaining costs accumulated in logical groupings with an allocation base.
This distinction affects more than invoices. Under 23 CFR Part 172, consultant and subconsultant indirect cost rate proposals submitted for state transportation agency acceptance must certify that included costs are allowable under FAR 48 CFR Part 31 and exclude expressly unallowable costs. A sloppy timesheet classification can contaminate cost schedules and weaken audit support.
A one-off weekly total works for a quick internal check. Engineering firms need a managed workflow when time drives client billing, payroll review, utilization, indirect cost schedules, or approval evidence. The system should preserve who entered time, who approved it, which period is locked, and which project or contract received the charge.
Everhour fits that managed layer by giving admins team-wide time controls, approval workflows, locked periods, roles, project assignments, team groups, weekly capacity, and personal tracking limits. That structure turns individual entries into reviewable records before time reaches invoices, payroll checks, utilization reports, or accounting handoff.
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Engineering firm time records should identify the employee, date, hours, client, project, contract, phase, task, billing status, and labor category. U.S. employers with nonexempt workers covered by the FLSA minimum wage or overtime provisions also need daily hours worked and total hours worked each workweek.
Direct labor belongs to the specific contract or final cost objective that received the work. Indirect labor belongs in an appropriate overhead or indirect cost grouping. FAR 31.202 and FAR 31.203 make that separation important for contract charging, cost allocation, and federally funded engineering work.
The FLSA requires covered employers to keep accurate records for nonexempt workers, but it does not require a specific timekeeping form or system. A spreadsheet, timecard, or software system can work if it records the required hours completely and accurately.
Engineering and design-related services using Federal-aid highway program funds and leading directly to construction must follow 23 U.S.C. 112 and 23 CFR Part 172, along with 2 CFR Part 200 requirements for federally funded consultant services. Time records should support contract charging, indirect cost treatment, and audit review.
Utilization becomes unreliable when firms mix billable client work with internal administration, proposal time, training, or overhead without clear labels. The common formula is Billable Hours ÷ Working Hours Available × 100. A 75% utilization rate means 75% of available hours were billable and 25% were non-billable.
Everhour Team Management lets admins set lock rules, approve or reject submitted time, correct entries for team members, assign roles, group teams, and define weekly capacity. Engineering managers can protect closed periods and review project time before it feeds billing, payroll review, or reporting.
Everhour Reporting turns logged time, budgets, costs, and project data into customizable reports with columns, grouping, filters, date ranges, and exports to CSV, Excel/XLSX, or PDF. Engineering firms can review hours by project, client, member, billable status, labor cost, and budget progress.
Use Everhour Team Management to approve timesheets, lock closed periods, correct entries, and organize teams before engineering labor reaches billing, payroll review, and utilization reporting.
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