STEM: Steps Toward Exhibiting Mastery Program – Time Sheet Instructions (Revised Aug. 2012) Page 1 of 8

Time Sheet Instructions Created by: Ashley Martz, Senior Student Program Assistant;

Rebecca Makas, Peer Mentor/Tutor

Revised by: Welby Seely, TAC Co-Chair

Time Sheet Policies:

1. The Student Program Assistant or Budget Analyst will send out an email with an attached blank time

sheet on or around the first day of the pay period. Another reminder will be sent out a few days before

the time sheet is due.

2. Time sheets are generally due every other Thursday by 3 p.m. The Student Program Assistant or Budget

Analyst will notify you of any changes to the due date for and/or policies regarding time sheets.

3. Review the received time sheet to make sure the dates and pay rate are correct. Contact the Student

Program Assistant or Budget Analyst if you have received the wrong time sheet or a time sheet with

incorrect information.

4. If you have not received a time sheet after two days of the beginning of a new pay period and have not

received any explanation from anyone, contact the Student Program Assistant or Budget Analyst

immediately.

5. You must submit all time sheets before the deadline and make sure that your time sheets contain

minimal error (or ideally, no error) before submitting them.

a. Failure to submit time sheets in a timely manner may result in disciplinary action. You will be

written up if you submit late time sheets two (2) times in a row or more than three (3) times in a

semester.

b. If the Student Program Assistant or Budget Analyst emails you asking you to correct errors on your

time sheet or clarify any discrepancies and you do not email your revised time sheet or response

by 5 p.m. on the same day that the time sheet is due, your time sheet is considered late.

c. Time sheets received after the deadline will not be processed until the next payroll cycle and you

will then be paid in the next payroll cycle. There is absolutely nothing the Student Program

Assistant, Budget Analyst, STEM, or DMA can do to expedite payment for you if the late time sheet

submission is due to your own negligence.

d. Late time sheets mean a late paycheck and disciplinary action.

6. Time sheets will not be submitted for processing if there are outstanding tasks, e.g., you have not

updated activity logs for more than a week, have not contacted a new student within three days of

assignment, have not responded to emails requesting information from you, have not set bi-weekly

meetings, etc.

7. Make sure you log every activity (even those not included in the student activity logs) on your time

sheet. You will be compensated for most of the things that you do as part of your peer mentor

responsibilities. Examples of things that should be included are: updating database, contacting students

(by phone, email, or text message), preparing lesson plans for tutoring, responding to STEM-related

emails, STEM meetings, etc.

8. You may not volunteer to work any hours for free or omit any hours worked from your time sheets as

this goes against FLSA guidelines. Please do not get the STEM Program, DMA, or WMU in trouble. If you

STEM: Steps Toward Exhibiting Mastery Program – Time Sheet Instructions (Revised Aug. 2012) Page 2 of 8

are worried that you may go over the number of hours you are allowed to work per week, please contact

the STEM Director immediately. Refer to the Work Hours – Student Employment Policies section in the

“Policies and Procedures Manual” for additional information.

9. If you have not worked any hours during a particular pay period and do not have a time sheet to turn in,

please inform the Student Program Assistant or Budget Analyst so that he or she will know you have not

simply forgotten to turn in your time sheet and will stop asking you for one! You must inform the

Student Program Assistant or Budget Analyst every time this happens.

Filling out and Submitting Time Sheets – Step By Step:

1. Receive time sheet from STEM Student Program Assistant or Budget Analyst at the beginning of the pay

period.

2. Save file to your computer; do not change file name, file extension, or any formatting within the

document – time sheets are formatted and organized in a specific way for a reason.

a. To ensure the formatting of the document remains intact, please use Microsoft Excel to open the

time sheet. If you do not have personal access to a copy of Excel, use the computers in one of

WMU’s many computer labs or in the STEM office.

3. When opening the document, you may be prompted that macros are disabled. Click on the “Enable

Content” button to enable macros.

a. Macros add automation to the time sheet, correcting mistakes you make, adding up your hours for

you, and giving you useful prompts.

b. Some versions of Excel do not have the ability to use macros. Please use either a WMU or STEM

computer if you do not own a copy of Excel with macro capabilities.

4. Record your hours throughout the next two weeks as they happen to avoid guessing when/how long you

worked; fill out only cells highlighted with blue background.

a. Do not edit the “Total“ cell; an Excel formula calculates your total hours for you.

b. While recording hours, use only “a.m.” and “p.m.” to designate afternoon and evening. Do not use

“AM,” “PM,” or any other abbreviations.

c. If macros are enabled, correct formatting will be enforced. If a mistake is made, the sheet will

either give a prompt, deleting the offending entry, or it will correct it for you.

d. With macros enabled, the time sheet will highlight incomplete time pairs with red.

5. When turning in your time sheets, make sure of the following things:

a. All the information has been filled out correctly in the blue highlighted area.

i. You have put down your name on the top and signed at the bottom.

ii. You have marked (“X”) all relevant activities correctly:

� For “Tutoring Session,” indicate the number of tutoring sessions held that day. NOTE:

Each group tutoring session is only counted ONCE.

� All other activities completed are marked with an “X” for each day.

o To log hours spent on emails, simply add up all hours from the same day and log the

total hours at the end of the day IF there is not enough room on your time sheet to

log everything separately.

STEM: Steps Toward Exhibiting Mastery Program – Time Sheet Instructions (Revised Aug. 2012) Page 3 of 8

� Explain anything that falls under “Other” in your email. A common example of “Other”

would be a when you log 30 minutes for a no-show no-call or last-minute cancellation.

� Make sure that the hours logged on your time sheets match your approved emailing

schedule, all activity logs on the database, and all entries on you Webmail Plus Calendar.

� Use only capital (upper case) ‘X’s for marking relevant activities. Do not use lower case.

iii. If macros are enabled, the time sheet will prompt you if you leave any set of activities blank

when closing the time sheet.

b. Make sure that all time pairs are listed chronologically from left to right with no empty cells in

between them.

c. If you need to add or subtract hours from the previous pay period, include these hours in the text

of your email as you send in your time sheet. Do not “dump” your hours in a random time slot.

i. Include in the body of your email when your schedule changed, why it changed, and by how

many hours.

ii. Include the date(s), time(s), duration(s), and specific activity/ties when you submit your

current time sheet.

iii. Specify the total number of hours that need to be added or subtracted from the previous

time sheet rounded up to the nearest quarter-hour (15 minutes).

iv. This is the format you need to use:

Feb. 4, 2012: Tutoring appointment lasted 1.5 hour more than expected, +1.5 hours.

Feb. 5, 2012: Email/forum participation lasted 0.75 hour more than expected, +0.75 hours.

Feb. 5, 2012: Tutoring appointment lasted 0.5 hour less than expected, -0.5 hours.

Total: +1.75 hours

d. If you know you will be tutoring over the weekend, please estimate the hours and place them in

the appropriate slot as well as indicate the number of tutoring sessions. Please over-estimate the

hours rather than under-estimate. Pending approval of the STEM Director, these hours will then be

added to your time sheet.

e. When turning in the time sheet, do so by email:

i. Attach the time sheet.

ii. Include a short note in the email – do not send a blank email.

f. Submit time sheet by the designated deadline of 3 p.m. every other Thursday (unless otherwise

notified):

i. Sign your time sheet electronically by typing in your full name in the “Signature” cell:

STEM: Steps Toward Exhibiting Mastery Program – Time Sheet Instructions (Revised Aug. 2012) Page 4 of 8

Time Sheet Golden Rules – Consistency and Rationality:

1) Please make sure that the hours logged on your time sheets match your Webmail Plus calendar, activity

logs on the database, and Student Tutoring Sign-In Logs. Your time sheet will not be processed until you

have provided proper explanation and relevant documentation for any discrepancies found.

2) Be accurate and realistic when filling out time sheets. Demonstrate that you have good time

management and organizational skills. Please keep the following in mind when filling out time sheets:

a. It is not acceptable to log that you have spent three hours “updating database” when:

i. For example, you only have one or two assigned students with whom you have not even met

and you have a total of only four log entries within a span of two weeks.

ii. You do not even have a student assigned to you.

b. Likewise, it is unnecessary to log in to your email or the STEM Forum account daily, spend one

minute looking at your inbox, log out, and log 15 minutes on your time sheet for each time you log

in if you do not even have a student assigned to you, when you have mostly inactive students or

students with whom you do not meet regularly, or when the University is not in session.

i. Add up all minutes from the same day and logging the total time at the end of the day if you

only spend a minute or two each time you log in.

ii. Realistically, you should spend no more than five hours per week on communication and

documentation.

c. You do not get paid:

i. To fill out your time sheets as you are expected to fill out time sheets following each activity.

It should only take a couple of minutes to do this and each activity is rounded up to the next

quarter-hour anyway.

ii. To study for your peer mentor exam. The information is covered thoroughly during training

and the exam is open book. While a brief review of the information may be helpful, it is

unnecessary to spend a great deal of time memorizing any of the information.

iii. Double for tutoring two (or more) students at the same time. Since you are paid on an

hourly basis as laid out in your employment agreement, not per person you tutor, it is illegal

and unethical to “double bill” for the same hours worked. Technically, when you are tutoring

two students, you are dividing your attention between the two students, so neither student

gets your full attention anyway. Based on this logic, you would get “half pay” for each

student, which adds up to “full (regular) pay” for both students.

d. Do not multiply or add extra hours to your actual work hours. You will only get paid for your actual

hours worked for STEM. The only rounding up you are allowed to do is when you round up your

minutes to the next quarter-hour.

e. You may not log hours when you are out of town and/or away on vacation or during University

break times unless otherwise pre-approved by the STEM Director. If you are checking and

responding to emails – you must be able to prove this – log only your actual hours worked.

f. Please refer to the Professionalism and the Work Hours – What Constitutes Work sections of the

“Policies and Procedures Manual” for additional information.

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A few important things to keep in mind:

� Time sheets should be updated after every tutoring session or event. Do not wait until the last minute

to avoid “guessing” the days and hours worked. Inaccurately reported hours can result in the STEM

Program being audited by the funding agency (the State of Michigan).

� If you did not work at all during a pay period, you are still required to email the Student Program

Assistant to explain why you will not be turning in a time sheet. Do this before the time sheet

submission deadline.

� Use a version of Excel with macro capability, if at all possible, in order to minimize mistakes. If

absolutely unavailable, use the guidelines in these instructions to fill out the sheet with no errors.

� Please round your minutes up to the next quarter-hour and convert your minutes to decimal time.

When using macros, Excel automatically rounds for you. If macros are unavailable, refer to the

following conversion charts:

Minutes Round Up

13 15

27 30

41 45

Rounded Minutes Conversion

15 .25

30 .50

45 .75

STEM: Steps Toward Exhibiting Mastery Program – Time Sheet Instructions (Revised Aug. 2012) Page 6 of 8

Sample Blank Time Sheet:

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Example of an incorrect time sheet (with macros disabled):

Errors:

1 Name was not entered in the corresponding areas.

2 Job Code had been changed (made blank). Altered an un-highlighted area.

3 “a.m.” should be used, not “AM.”

4 Listed Time Began as 6 p.m. and Time Ended as 6:50 p.m. Total hours logged at the end is 1.50 hours.

Time ended should be rounded up to the next quarter-hour (7 p.m.) and converted to decimal time.

5 Marked instead of listing a number for the number of tutoring sessions. Moreover, lower case “x”

should never be used to mark any activities.

6 The number two is listed for emailing and/or calling when it should be an “X”.

7 Database activity is marked but no Time Began, Time Ended, or Total Hours have not been provided.

8 Total Hours should be converted to decimal time (0.50 hours).

9 An activity is marked and Total Hours logged, but the Time Began and Time Ended are not.

10 The font size for the “X” mark had been changed and was made too big; time sheet formatting

should not be altered.

11 Hours logged must be realistic; documentation needs to be provided if these hours were logged.

12 Forgot to sign time sheet.

13 The time pairs are placed randomly. Time pairs should be contiguous and chronological from left to

right, with no space between them.

STEM: Steps Toward Exhibiting Mastery Program – Time Sheet Instructions (Revised Aug. 2012) Page 8 of 8

Example of a correct time sheet: