Employee Time Log

What is an employee time log?

An employee time log is a complete, task-level record of every hour each team member works — including which task, which project, start time, stop time, and whether the time is billable. Unlike a timesheet that employees fill in at the end of the week from memory, a task-based time log is built up in real time as work happens.

Melororium's Employee Time Log template uses the built-in task timer to record every work session automatically. When a team member starts a task, they press start. When they stop, they press stop. The log entry writes itself: task name, project, time in, time out, duration. The Work Reports module aggregates these entries into daily, weekly, and monthly views per person and per project.

Why manual timesheets fail and what replaces them

The fundamental problem with end-of-day or end-of-week timesheets is that human memory is unreliable over an 8-hour workday. Studies on self-reported time tracking show an average accuracy of 40–60% for weekly timesheets. The problem gets worse as the week progresses — by Friday, most people can reconstruct Tuesday's work only approximately.

For agencies billing by the hour, a 30% error rate in time tracking isn't a rounding issue — it's directly subtracted from revenue. A 10-person team billing at $80/hour that loses 3 hours per person per week is losing $2,400 per week in unbilled work. Over a year, that's $124,800.

How teams build accurate time logs without friction

Timers that run where the work happens

The timer lives inside the task — not in a separate tab, not in a separate app. When a designer opens their task card, there's a Start button. When they close the task, they press Stop. The time logs to the correct project and client automatically. No context switch, no name lookup, no manual project selection.

Live Timers page for real-time visibility

The Live Timers page shows every currently running timer across the team, updated in real time. If a timer has been running for 11 hours because someone forgot to stop it, it's visible immediately. Managers don't need to interrupt anyone to check if work is in progress.

Per-person log with full audit trail

Each team member's time log shows every entry: date, task name, project, start time, end time, duration, billable/internal flag. The audit trail is complete. When a client questions an invoice — "we were charged 14 hours for the landing page, can you break that down?" — the answer is in the log, task by task.

Export for records, payroll, or client billing

Export the time log as PDF or Excel. Filter by team member, project, or date range. The Excel export includes all fields for payroll processing, contractor billing, or client-facing timesheet submission. Agency and Studio plans include Excel export; Starter includes PDF.

Employee time log vs. Time Doctor

Time Doctor costs $7/user/month ($840/year for 10 users) for basic time tracking. The Pro plan ($10/user/month, $1,200/year) adds activity monitoring and screenshots. Most teams don't need screenshot surveillance — they need accurate task-level time data connected to client billing.

Melororium Agency plan covers 10 users for $59/mo. Time tracking built into every task, Work Reports for aggregated logs, Live Timers for real-time visibility, and invoice generation from the same data — no separate time tracking app needed. After year one the saving exceeds $541 vs. Time Doctor basic plan.