Timesheets
Operational guide to clocking time, scheduling worker shifts, approving timesheet entries, and using approved hours as patronage inputs.
Labor Tracking & Timesheet Operations
For worker-owned cooperatives, labor hours are the standard measure for democratic participation and surplus distribution. The Timesheets module records clocked hours, schedules shifts, tracks labor cost, and produces the hour totals you need for patronage.
1. Logging Hours & Shift Calendars
Time is recorded as clock-in / clock-out entries, from the Timesheets page or the mobile Worker Console:
- Time Entries: Each entry records the member, date, clock-in and clock-out times, break minutes, hourly rate, and optionally the project or work order the time belongs to.
- Worker Shifts: Schedule shifts for crew members, post open shifts that members can claim, and approve shift-trade requests between members (common in field service or retail cooperatives).
2. Approval Workflow
Completed entries follow a simple review pipeline:
- Clock Out: When a member clocks out, the entry's hours and labor cost are calculated (net of breaks).
- Operations Review: An operations lead approves the entry or rejects it with a reason. Nobody can review their own timesheet.
- Ledger Posting: Approving an entry posts its labor cost to the general ledger (Dr. Direct Labor, Cr. Accrued Payroll). Approved entries can't be approved twice.
Finance users can export approved entries for a date range (up to one year) as a payroll CSV. OwnFold does not run payroll or connect directly to payroll providers; import the CSV into your own payroll system.
3. Using Hours in the Patronage Engine
At the end of the fiscal year, total each member's approved hours (the payroll CSV export is a convenient source) and enter them in the Patronage Engine's worker model:
Worker Model Allocation Weight:
Member Weight = (Hours Worked × Role Multiplier) + (Job Margin Bonus % × 5)
Member Share % = (Member Weight / Total of All Weights) × 100
With every role multiplier at 1.0 and no margin bonus, each member's share is simply their hours divided by total cooperative hours, so every hour worked counts toward the member's patronage dividend.