Physician Timesheet & Administrative Burden Study
Understand how physicians and medical office staff currently handle timesheets, activity logging, contract compliance, and payment tracking - including pain points and ideal solutions
Research group: 20 participants (US/Canada) spanning operations, legal/compliance, supply, frontline hourly staff (EVS, unit clerks, community health), and managers; mix of salaried exception-based and hourly badge/punch workflows, producing 140 responses across 7 prompts.
What they said: Timesheets are quick, but fragmented systems create outsized admin burden; salaried staff log exceptions and keep personal ledgers, hourly staff badge in/out and fix edge cases, and nearly everyone reconciles pay stubs against personal records due to frequent approval bottlenecks, timeouts, duplicate entry, and brittle rules (meals, differentials, cost centers, DST). Main insights: Compliance is self-policed via personal trackers + conservative coding + attached evidence, then validated by layered manager/payroll/finance checks; payment status is a “black box” after approval, so staff rely on previews and bank alerts and escalate with screenshots for off‑cycle fixes when needed.
What they want: A single source-of-truth that is calendar/schedule-first, offline-first, integrated (EHR/HRIS/payroll/AP), with delegated approvals and visible SLAs, plain‑language rule math, paycheck preview before payday, immutable history/one‑click audit packets, and strong privacy/localization (e.g., FR-CA, data residency). Takeaways: Minimize risk to adoption by guaranteeing day‑one payroll parity, robust offline/mobile behavior, real integrations, clear data export/ownership, privacy guardrails (no background GPS), and same‑day payroll remediation SLAs-while avoiding hidden costs or rework.
Decision: Run a 2‑cycle parallel pilot with explicit rollback; ship a single‑entry, API‑first layer (calendar sync, offline capture, delegated approvals, paycheck preview, audit exports); measure admin time saved, approval SLA, payroll accuracy, offline sync success, and off‑cycle adjustments to confirm value before broad rollout.
Neil Mejorada
Neil Mejorada, 39, is a healthcare operations manager in Aurora, IL. A separated co-parent to an 8-year-old, Hindu, budget-savvy, and mobile-first, prioritizes reliable, privacy-respecting products. Walks to work, cooks plant-forward, runs, and volunteers l…
Eric Vazquez
Eric Vazquez, 40, San Francisco–based, married with one child, is a Spanish–English bilingual Central American immigrant and Operations & Quality Manager for community health clinics. Budget-conscious and mission-driven, he values reliability, privacy, and…
Amber Ruiz
1) Basic Demographics
Amber Ruiz is a 39-year-old White (Non-Hispanic) woman living in Lakewood, Colorado (urban). She is married with no children, a U.S. citizen, and speaks English at home. She identifies as female (sex at birth: female). Educa…
Robert Bolt
Robert Bolt is a capable, quietly generous 40-year-old healthcare operations pro in Rochester. A widower without kids, he keeps his world humming: reliable car, tidy bungalow, a dog who insists on sunrise walks, and a garage table dusted with sawdust from l…
Alexandre Roy
Summary
Alexandre Roy, 44, married father of one, healthcare operations manager from Québec City, QC, Canada (residence_context: Lives in Germany); Francophone DIYer with household income $100k–$149k.
Siobhan O'Neill
Siobhan O'Neill is a 63-year-old Canadian woman in urban Hamilton, ON — a married, childfree health‑services administrator (management) earning $75–$99k, employed, pragmatic and community-minded, valuing quality, privacy, and local impact. (Residence noted:…
Daniel Kowalski
Daniel Kowalski (he/him), 50, widowed father in Selkirk, Manitoba; Clinic Operations Coordinator in healthcare, rents with one teen daughter, budgets tightly, values reliability, community, outdoors, and practical tech.
Zoe Li
Zoe Li, 36, married part-time health unit clerk in Grande Prairie, AB, Canada. Personal income under $25k; owns a three-bedroom townhouse. Budget-conscious, coffee enthusiast, amateur genealogist and pragmatic tech user.
Nicole Griego
Nicole Griego, 34, is a bilingual healthcare office coordinator in rural Pennsylvania, married with two kids. Practical and warm, she budgets carefully, values trust and community, and favors durable, time-saving solutions with clear, bilingual support.
Brian Boyd
47-year-old Black hospital operations director in rural Virginia. Married with one child, Yoruba-English bilingual, church-involved, pragmatic and data-driven. Optimizes for reliability, time savings, and total cost of ownership across work and home.
Courtney Schoen
Courtney Schoen is a rural Colorado hospital operations manager, 42, married with one child. Faith-driven, practical, and community-minded. Prefers durable, evidence-backed solutions; skeptical of hype. Balances demanding shifts, family routines, outdoor li…
Jennie Bellamy
1) Basic Demographics
Jennie Bellamy is a 50-year-old Jewish woman living in Olathe city, KS, USA. She is married to Mark (52) and they have no children by choice. She is White, born in the United States, and speaks English at home. She holds a g…
Becky Kim
Becky Kim is a fifty-year-old rural Ohio hospital materials manager. Married, childfree, pragmatic and evidence-driven. Values reliability, privacy, and local support. Lives simply, gardens, quilts, cooks Lebanese family dishes, and prioritizes durability,…
Melissa Fawcett
Navajo Catholic mother, 50, in rural Arizona. Full-time community health worker. Cash-based, no internet, values reliability and family. Chooses durable, offline solutions with clear pricing, service support, and community references.
Ashley Taylor
Ashley Taylor, 29, is a hospital legal assistant in Orlando. Frugal, community-oriented, and witty, she balances night classes, bus-and-scooter commutes, and family ties—choosing privacy-forward, time-saving options that fit a careful budget.
Hope Smith
Hope Smith, 44, a patient access coordinator in West Philly, blends faith, pragmatism, and humor. Budget-smart and community-focused, she values transparency, durability, and convenience while balancing early shifts, church life, meal-prep, and family ties.
Donnell Spiker
Orlando hospital operations director, married with two kids, high household income, renting for flexibility. Data-first, time-poor, and pragmatic. Prioritizes reliability, family routines, and evidence-backed convenience. Moderate politics, community-minded…
Valerie Bray
Valerie Bray — Age 30; female (she/her). White. Married, no children. Lives in Huntsville city, AL, USA. Born in the United States; English at home. Religious practice: attends a Black Protestant (Missionary Baptist) church with her husband. Graduate edu…
Danae Hunt
1) Basic Demographics
Danae Hunt is a 56-year-old White woman living in a sparsely populated area listed as Rural, PA, USA. She was born in the United States and speaks English at home. She is married, has no children, and identifies as Mainline…
Crystal Montana
Crystal Montana, a 44-year-old LDS hospital EVS shift lead in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Married, no kids, mortgage, carpool commute, uninsured. Frugal, routine-driven, community-focused. Chooses durable, cash-price, low-maintenance solutions with transparent pol…
Neil Mejorada
Neil Mejorada, 39, is a healthcare operations manager in Aurora, IL. A separated co-parent to an 8-year-old, Hindu, budget-savvy, and mobile-first, prioritizes reliable, privacy-respecting products. Walks to work, cooks plant-forward, runs, and volunteers l…
Eric Vazquez
Eric Vazquez, 40, San Francisco–based, married with one child, is a Spanish–English bilingual Central American immigrant and Operations & Quality Manager for community health clinics. Budget-conscious and mission-driven, he values reliability, privacy, and…
Amber Ruiz
1) Basic Demographics
Amber Ruiz is a 39-year-old White (Non-Hispanic) woman living in Lakewood, Colorado (urban). She is married with no children, a U.S. citizen, and speaks English at home. She identifies as female (sex at birth: female). Educa…
Robert Bolt
Robert Bolt is a capable, quietly generous 40-year-old healthcare operations pro in Rochester. A widower without kids, he keeps his world humming: reliable car, tidy bungalow, a dog who insists on sunrise walks, and a garage table dusted with sawdust from l…
Alexandre Roy
Summary
Alexandre Roy, 44, married father of one, healthcare operations manager from Québec City, QC, Canada (residence_context: Lives in Germany); Francophone DIYer with household income $100k–$149k.
Siobhan O'Neill
Siobhan O'Neill is a 63-year-old Canadian woman in urban Hamilton, ON — a married, childfree health‑services administrator (management) earning $75–$99k, employed, pragmatic and community-minded, valuing quality, privacy, and local impact. (Residence noted:…
Daniel Kowalski
Daniel Kowalski (he/him), 50, widowed father in Selkirk, Manitoba; Clinic Operations Coordinator in healthcare, rents with one teen daughter, budgets tightly, values reliability, community, outdoors, and practical tech.
Zoe Li
Zoe Li, 36, married part-time health unit clerk in Grande Prairie, AB, Canada. Personal income under $25k; owns a three-bedroom townhouse. Budget-conscious, coffee enthusiast, amateur genealogist and pragmatic tech user.
Nicole Griego
Nicole Griego, 34, is a bilingual healthcare office coordinator in rural Pennsylvania, married with two kids. Practical and warm, she budgets carefully, values trust and community, and favors durable, time-saving solutions with clear, bilingual support.
Brian Boyd
47-year-old Black hospital operations director in rural Virginia. Married with one child, Yoruba-English bilingual, church-involved, pragmatic and data-driven. Optimizes for reliability, time savings, and total cost of ownership across work and home.
Courtney Schoen
Courtney Schoen is a rural Colorado hospital operations manager, 42, married with one child. Faith-driven, practical, and community-minded. Prefers durable, evidence-backed solutions; skeptical of hype. Balances demanding shifts, family routines, outdoor li…
Jennie Bellamy
1) Basic Demographics
Jennie Bellamy is a 50-year-old Jewish woman living in Olathe city, KS, USA. She is married to Mark (52) and they have no children by choice. She is White, born in the United States, and speaks English at home. She holds a g…
Becky Kim
Becky Kim is a fifty-year-old rural Ohio hospital materials manager. Married, childfree, pragmatic and evidence-driven. Values reliability, privacy, and local support. Lives simply, gardens, quilts, cooks Lebanese family dishes, and prioritizes durability,…
Melissa Fawcett
Navajo Catholic mother, 50, in rural Arizona. Full-time community health worker. Cash-based, no internet, values reliability and family. Chooses durable, offline solutions with clear pricing, service support, and community references.
Ashley Taylor
Ashley Taylor, 29, is a hospital legal assistant in Orlando. Frugal, community-oriented, and witty, she balances night classes, bus-and-scooter commutes, and family ties—choosing privacy-forward, time-saving options that fit a careful budget.
Hope Smith
Hope Smith, 44, a patient access coordinator in West Philly, blends faith, pragmatism, and humor. Budget-smart and community-focused, she values transparency, durability, and convenience while balancing early shifts, church life, meal-prep, and family ties.
Donnell Spiker
Orlando hospital operations director, married with two kids, high household income, renting for flexibility. Data-first, time-poor, and pragmatic. Prioritizes reliability, family routines, and evidence-backed convenience. Moderate politics, community-minded…
Valerie Bray
Valerie Bray — Age 30; female (she/her). White. Married, no children. Lives in Huntsville city, AL, USA. Born in the United States; English at home. Religious practice: attends a Black Protestant (Missionary Baptist) church with her husband. Graduate edu…
Danae Hunt
1) Basic Demographics
Danae Hunt is a 56-year-old White woman living in a sparsely populated area listed as Rural, PA, USA. She was born in the United States and speaks English at home. She is married, has no children, and identifies as Mainline…
Crystal Montana
Crystal Montana, a 44-year-old LDS hospital EVS shift lead in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Married, no kids, mortgage, carpool commute, uninsured. Frugal, routine-driven, community-focused. Chooses durable, cash-price, low-maintenance solutions with transparent pol…
Sex / Gender
Race / Ethnicity
Locale (Top)
Occupations (Top)
| Age bucket | Male count | Female count |
|---|
| Income bucket | Participants | US households |
|---|
Summary
Themes
| Theme | Count | Example Participant | Example Quote |
|---|
Outliers
| Agent | Snippet | Reason |
|---|
Overview
Key Segments
| Segment | Attributes | Insight | Supporting Agents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare administrators & middle managers (salaried/exempt) |
|
These users treat timesheet workflows as orchestration problems: they accept occasional manual fixes but demand a single source-of-truth, robust integrations (HRIS/EHR/payroll/scheduler), visible SLA/delegation for approvals, bulk editing, and pre-paycheck reconciliation to reduce last-minute firefighting and payroll cutoffs. | Eric Vazquez, Jennie Bellamy, Amber Ruiz, Neil Mejorada, Brian Boyd, Donnell Spiker, Neil Mejorada, Amber Ruiz, Jennie Bellamy, Brian Boyd, Courtney Schoen |
| Frontline hourly / shift workers & EVS / Facilities / Community Health |
|
Operational reliability and minimal friction trump bells-and-whistles. These workers rely on badge/kiosk capture, photo evidence, printed packets and cached offline queues; recurring hardware/terminal failures, auto-lunch deductions and mileage paperwork drive defensive, paper-first workarounds that create duplicated back-office effort. | Crystal Montana, Robert Bolt, Melissa Fawcett, Zoe Li, Hope Smith, Nicole Griego, Becky Kim |
| Legal / Compliance / Counsel & Grants/Finance-adjacent |
|
These stakeholders reframe timesheets as primary documentary evidence. They require immutable, versioned logs, effective-dated codebooks, WORM-style export capability, retention/legal-hold controls and transparent citations for pay math-features that shape vendor selection and acceptance more than superficial usability gains. | Danae Hunt, Ashley Taylor, Alexandre Roy, Eric Vazquez |
| Physicians & duty-hour sensitive clinicians (residents/trainees) |
|
Physicians separate clinical documentation (charting) from duty-hour/timekeeping. Their primary needs are schedule-first entry, live compliance meters, safe-harbor previews and integrations with on-call/scheduling tools to avoid punitive downstream consequences for honest reporting. | Valerie Bray, Courtney Schoen, Valerie Bray |
| Rural, cold-climate & bilingual/regional-language users |
|
Connectivity, device fragility and language trust dominate adoption. These sites demand robust offline-first behavior, queued sync with conflict resolution, glove-friendly hardware UI, French-language UI/support and data-residency assurances (Canadian hosting) before they will replace paper workflows. | Daniel Kowalski, Zoe Li, Crystal Montana, Nicole Griego, Siobhan O'Neill, Alexandre Roy |
| Younger mobile-first individual contributors |
|
This cohort prioritizes fast mobile UX (Face ID, minimal MFA friction), big tap targets, digestible notifications and the ability to complete end-to-end workflows on a phone. They are more likely to adopt solutions that minimize friction while preserving control over personal data. | Ashley Taylor, Nicole Griego, Ashley Taylor |
Shared Mindsets
| Trait | Signal | Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Single source-of-truth over point-tool convenience | Across roles the dominant wish is to enter data once and have it flow reliably to payroll, HR, scheduling and EHRs. Duplicate entry is tolerated only when necessary; elimination of manual crosswalks is seen as the highest ROI for admins and managers. | Siobhan O'Neill, Neil Mejorada, Amber Ruiz, Jennie Bellamy, Nicole Griego, Brian Boyd, Courtney Schoen, Donnell Spiker |
| Offline / low-bandwidth reliability is mandatory for field and rural work | Respondents working in rural, cold or mobile contexts uniformly prioritize queued local caching, conflict resolution and hardware resilience; without it, paper-first processes continue and adoption stalls. | Zoe Li, Robert Bolt, Becky Kim, Crystal Montana, Melissa Fawcett, Alexandre Roy |
| Visible paycheck previews and reconciliation reduce anxiety | Seeing a pre-cutoff paycheck preview and a reconciliation view that flags differences is a simple trust-building feature that reduces the frantic end-of-week rituals managers and staff perform today. | Siobhan O'Neill, Zoe Li, Amber Ruiz, Neil Mejorada, Robert Bolt, Nicole Griego, Brian Boyd |
| Plain-English rule transparency | Users want error messages, tooltips and click-through explanations for triggers (meal deductions, OT thresholds, shift differentials) so they can correct entries proactively rather than chase explanations through payroll. | Siobhan O'Neill, Neil Mejorada, Zoe Li, Daniel Kowalski, Alexandre Roy |
| Approvals need delegation, escalation and SLA visibility | Approval bottlenecks are a recurrent root cause of late pay and stress; automated delegation, visible owner and escalation timers are considered essential by managers to avoid payroll cutoff failures. | Siobhan O'Neill, Neil Mejorada, Amber Ruiz, Jennie Bellamy, Courtney Schoen, Hope Smith |
| Documentation-as-evidence for legal/finance stakeholders | Compliance-oriented respondents view auditability as the primary product requirement-immutable histories, exportable packets and governance controls are non-negotiable features that shape acceptance across organizations. | Danae Hunt, Robert Bolt, Neil Mejorada, Jennie Bellamy, Nicole Griego |
Divergences
| Segment | Contrast | Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Managers / Admins vs Frontline hourly staff | Managers prioritize integrations, bulk edits and reconciliation tools; frontline staff prioritize hardware resilience, offline capture and simple evidence (printed receipts/photos). Managers focus on orchestration, frontline workers focus on single-event capture reliability. | Neil Mejorada, Jennie Bellamy, Amber Ruiz, Crystal Montana, Melissa Fawcett, Robert Bolt |
| Legal / Compliance vs Feature-focused product teams | Counsel and compliance elevate immutable, governance-first constraints (WORM logs, legal holds) that can restrict flexible UX changes; product/ops stakeholders prefer more agile integrations and UX improvements that may not satisfy strict governance needs without added controls. | Danae Hunt, Alexandre Roy, Ashley Taylor |
| Paper-first rural users (Melissa Fawcett) vs rural users seeking digital offline queues | Some rural respondents want durable paper-as-primary workflows that are scanned later, while other rural users prefer robust offline-digital queues. This signals two adoption pathways: complementing paper (scan-first) versus replacing it with resilient digital capture. | Melissa Fawcett, Zoe Li, Crystal Montana |
| Desktop-first senior admins vs mobile-first younger staff | A minority of senior admins insist on keyboard-first desktop workflows and complex bulk operations, while younger contributors prefer end-to-end mobile workflows with low-friction auth-solutions must support both power-desktop and mobile-light modes. | Jennie Bellamy, Brian Boyd, Ashley Taylor, Nicole Griego |
| Physicians (duty-hour focus) vs non-clinical staff | Physicians emphasize duty-hour meters and schedule integrations to protect trainees and compliance, whereas non-clinical staff emphasize pay accuracy, shift differentials and mileage. The product must treat duty-hour compliance and payroll accuracy as parallel but distinct requirements. | Valerie Bray, Courtney Schoen, Becky Kim, Hope Smith |
Overview
Quick Wins (next 2–4 weeks)
| # | Action | Why | Owner | Effort | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cutoff countdown + delegated approver alerts | Approvals stall at payroll cutoffs; visible timers and auto-delegation prevent late pay. | Product PM + Payroll Ops SME | Low | High |
| 2 | One-tap No‑meal attestation + unit-aware cost centers | Auto-deducted lunches and wrong cost centers are top causes of short pay. | Engineering Lead | Med | High |
| 3 | Weekly digest + 24h/1h cutoff reminders | Replace noisy pings with predictable nudges to raise on-time submission/approval. | Product PM | Low | Med |
| 4 | Pay period Audit Packet (PDF/ZIP) export | Screenshots are the current safeguard; a one-click packet builds trust and speeds audits. | Engineering Lead | Low | Med |
| 5 | Autosave drafts + token keep‑alive on activity | Session timeouts nuke work; autosave removes rework and frustration. | Engineering Lead | Med | High |
| 6 | Stub preview prototype (changes since last cycle) | Early visibility reduces off-cycle fixes and anxiety. | Product PM + Payroll Ops SME | Med | High |
Initiatives (30–90 days)
| # | Initiative | Description | Owner | Timeline | Dependencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unified Time + Activity API with Calendar Sync (MVP) | Build a single-entry layer that pulls schedule/events (Outlook/Google) and posts time, activities, and codes once; include plain-language validations and type-ahead code search. Expose via APIs to HRIS/Payroll and expense/AP. | Product PM | 0–90 days (design 0–30, build 30–75, internal UAT 75–90) | HRIS/Payroll API access (e.g., UKG/Workday), Calendar OAuth (Google/Microsoft), Codebook crosswalk (cost centers, premiums, grant tags) |
| 2 | Offline‑first Mobile & Kiosk Reliability | Implement queued local storage with conflict resolution, big-tap UI, dark mode, and unit-aware defaults (workstation/Wi‑Fi hints). Kiosk and BYOD flows should work without VPN; sync when online. | Engineering Lead | Parallel 0–120 days (alpha 45, beta 90, hardening 120) | Device storage encryption policy, Network/location hint strategy (SSID/workstation IDs), QA on cold/rural connectivity scenarios |
| 3 | Approvals Orchestration (Delegation + SLA + Escalation) | Route to backup approvers when OOO, show owner/SLA clocks, enable batch approvals, and push Teams/Email digest notifications. Maintain immutable approval history. | Product PM | 45–75 days | Org chart/OOO signals, Notification integrations (Teams/Email), Immutable change log service |
| 4 | Paycheck Preview + Discrepancy Workflow | Calculate a draft stub 48–72 hours pre-pay with a Changes since last cycle callout; one-tap Request Fix opens a ticket with evidence and off-cycle runbook. | Payroll Ops SME | 60–90 days | Payroll rules engine parity, Ticketing integration (HRIS/ITSM), Off-cycle ACH/Same-day wire SOP |
| 5 | Auditability + Effective‑Dated Codebook | Ship WORM-style history (who/what/when/why), seven-year retention, and a human-readable codebook with effective dates; one-click Audit Packet export (timecard, receipts, approvals, diffs). | Compliance Lead | 60–120 days | Legal retention policy, Secure PDF/CSV export service (UTF‑8), Access logs/telemetry |
| 6 | Pilot: 2‑cycle Parallel Run + Rollback | Select 2–3 mixed teams (hourly + salaried + field). Run old/new in parallel for 2 pay cycles with explicit success gates and a written rollback. Capture baseline vs post metrics. | Program Manager | Prep 30–45 days, pilot 30 days, go/no-go at day 75 | Pilot cohorts + union/policy sign‑off, Data migration script (PTO balances, banks), Training + quick reference guides (EN/ES/FR) |
KPIs to Track
| # | KPI | Definition | Target | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Payroll accuracy | Share of paychecks with no corrections (hours, premiums, PTO, reimbursements) per cycle | >= 99.5% per pay cycle | Per pay cycle |
| 2 | Approval SLA | Median/95th time from employee submit to final approval | Median <= 24h, P95 <= 48h | Weekly |
| 3 | Admin time saved | Average minutes/week spent on timekeeping, approvals and corrections vs baseline | -30% by day 60 of pilot | Monthly |
| 4 | Duplicate entry rate | Percent of entries retyped in >1 system (sampled audits) | -80% vs baseline | Monthly |
| 5 | Offline sync success | Percent of mobile/kiosk entries queued and synced without user retry | >= 99.0% | Weekly |
| 6 | Off-cycle adjustments | Number of off-cycle payments per 100 employees | <= 1.0 per cycle | Per pay cycle |
Risks & Mitigations
| # | Risk | Mitigation | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HRIS/Payroll integration delays or brittle mappings (codes, premiums, cost centers) |
|
Engineering Lead |
| 2 | Payroll rule parity misses causing short/late pay |
|
Payroll Ops SME |
| 3 | Offline sync conflicts or data loss in rural/cold environments |
|
Engineering Lead |
| 4 | BYOD privacy pushback (GPS/background tracking concerns) |
|
Compliance Lead |
| 5 | Change fatigue and training burden for managers/frontline |
|
Program Manager |
| 6 | Localization/data residency gaps (FR-CA parity, Canadian hosting) |
|
Product PM |
Timeline
30–60 days: Calendar sync MVP, approvals orchestration (delegate/SLA), mobile offline alpha.
60–90 days: Paycheck preview + discrepancy flow, kiosk hardening, pilot prep/training.
90–120 days: 2-cycle parallel pilot with rollback; measure KPIs; fix blockers.
120–180 days: Broaden rollout, add integrations (AP/expenses), compliance hardening (WORM + retention).
Objective and context
Physician Timesheet & Administrative Burden Study (Claude, analysis stage) explored how physicians and medical office staff handle timesheets, activity logging, contract compliance, and payment tracking-pinpointing pain points and ideal solutions. The core finding: timesheet entry is quick; the surrounding ecosystem is not. Administrative burden stems from fragmented systems, brittle authentication, approval bottlenecks, and opaque payroll status-not the checkbox of “timesheets” itself.
What we heard across questions (evidence-backed)
- Admin dominates, timesheets are minor: Non-clinical roles are overwhelmingly administrative (Daniel Kowalski: “95% admin-ops…”), while clinicians split varies; many said the actual timesheet takes minutes (Nicole Griego: “10 minutes a week”).
- Fragmentation drives rework: Duplicate entry across HRIS/EHR/grants/expenses is universal (Eric Vazquez: “Same info, five places.”). Session timeouts and brittle SSO erase work (Siobhan O’Neill).
- Two tracking models + personal safeguards: Salaried staff log exceptions and keep ledgers; hourly staff badge/punch and fix misses. Everyone keeps screenshots/spreadsheets and reconciles on payday; managers carry approval and correction load.
- Compliance is layered and conservative: Personal SOW matrices and weekly “evidence packets” (Robert Bolt) feed manager approval, payroll/finance checks, and audits. Ambiguity defaults to conservative codes.
- Payment status is a black box: After approval, visibility drops; bank alerts are the only trusted signal (Neil Mejorada). Misses trigger formal escalation and off-cycle payment requests.
- Magic-wand system asks: One single source of truth anchored in the calendar, offline-first with autosave, delegated approvals, paycheck previews with visible math, receipt OCR/mileage privacy, and immutable history. Expected savings: ~20–120 minutes/week and fewer disputes.
- Adoption barriers: Day-one payroll parity, offline reliability, exportable history (no lock-in), real integrations, strong SLAs around pay cycles, and privacy assurances (BYOD/GPS).
Persona patterns and nuances
- Admins/managers (salaried): Need integrations (HRIS/payroll/scheduling/EHR), delegation/SLA on approvals, bulk edits, and pre-pay reconciliation.
- Frontline hourly/field (EVS, community health): Prioritize kiosk/mobile reliability, offline queues, big tap targets, simple photo/print evidence; pain from auto-lunch deductions and cost-center errors.
- Legal/compliance/finance: Treat timecards as evidence; require immutable version history (WORM), effective-dated codebooks, exportability, retention/legal hold.
- Physicians/residents: Schedule-first duty-hour compliance, safe-harbor previews, and on-call tool integrations.
- Rural/cold/bilingual sites: Demand offline-first, glove-friendly UX, French parity, and data residency assurances.
Recommendations
- Ship a single-entry, calendar-first layer: Two-way Outlook/Google sync; type-ahead code search; plain-English validations. Integrate to HRIS/payroll and expenses to kill duplicate entry.
- Offline-first capture with autosave: Queued local storage, conflict resolution, long session/keep-alive; big-button mobile/kiosk UI and dark mode.
- Approvals that don’t stall: Auto-delegation when managers are OOO, SLA timers, batch approvals, immutable approval history.
- Paycheck preview + fix flow: Draft stub 48–72 hours pre-pay with “changes since last cycle,” and one-tap Request Fix that supports off-cycle remediation.
- Auditability and trust: One-click Audit Packet (timecard, receipts, approvals, diffs), WORM-style change log, effective-dated codebook.
Risks and guardrails
- Integration brittleness: Stage read-only sandboxes and crosswalk tests for cost centers/premiums; contractual API SLAs with CSV fallback.
- Payroll parity misses: Side-by-side preview vs payroll calc during pilot; written off-cycle ACH/wire runbook; go/no-go at ≥99.5% accuracy.
- Offline sync failures: Local WIP cache, visible sync queue, battery/thermal testing for cold/rural conditions.
- BYOD privacy pushback: Location only at punch-time, opt-in, transparent retention/access logs; kiosk alternatives.
Next steps and measurement
- 0–30 days: Codebook crosswalk; autosave + session keep-alive; cutoff countdown and delegated approver alerts; Audit Packet export.
- 30–60 days: Calendar-sync MVP; approvals orchestration (delegate/SLA); offline mobile alpha; kiosk hardening.
- 60–90 days: Paycheck preview + discrepancy workflow; pilot prep/training (EN/FR); define off-cycle SOP.
- 90–120 days: Two-cycle parallel pilot (hourly, salaried, field) with explicit rollback; measure and remediate.
- KPIs: Payroll accuracy ≥99.5%/cycle; approval SLA median ≤24h (P95 ≤48h); admin time −30% by day 60; duplicate entry −80%; offline sync success ≥99.0%.
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In your most recent pay period, approximately how many minutes did you spend on each of the following tasks? • Entering time • Correcting exceptions/missed punches • Following up for approvals • Reconciling pay against personal records • Submitting tickets for fixesmatrix Quantifies time cost by sub-task to size ROI and prioritize automation focus.
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In the past 90 days, how often did you encounter each issue? • Missed or incorrect punch • Incorrect meal deduction • Missing/wrong differential • Wrong cost center/project code • Late approval causing off‑cycle pay • Expense/reimbursement delaymatrix Quantifies error hotspots to direct rule logic, UI safeguards, and training.
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Which systems must a new time and activity tool integrate with on day one at your organization? Select all that apply: HRIS, Payroll, EHR/EMR, Scheduling/Rostering, Expense, Finance/GL/Grants, SSO/Identity, Calendar, Messaging/Notifications, None of the above.multi select Identifies must-have integrations to scope MVP and sales qualification.
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What is the maximum acceptable elapsed time (in hours) from employee submission to payroll‑ready approval for routine entries in your team?numeric Sets design targets for approval SLAs and escalation/auto‑approval rules.
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Before full cutover, what minimum parallel‑run duration (in weeks) would you require to validate accuracy and operational readiness?numeric Informs deployment planning, pilot length, and risk mitigation.
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When selecting a new time and activity system, rank the following decision criteria from most to least important: Payroll accuracy; Integration coverage; Reliability/uptime; Ease of use (mobile and offline); Implementation effort/migration risk; Total cost of ownership; Vendor support/SLAs.rank Prioritizes roadmap and messaging to match buyer decision drivers.
Research group: 20 participants (US/Canada) spanning operations, legal/compliance, supply, frontline hourly staff (EVS, unit clerks, community health), and managers; mix of salaried exception-based and hourly badge/punch workflows, producing 140 responses across 7 prompts.
What they said: Timesheets are quick, but fragmented systems create outsized admin burden; salaried staff log exceptions and keep personal ledgers, hourly staff badge in/out and fix edge cases, and nearly everyone reconciles pay stubs against personal records due to frequent approval bottlenecks, timeouts, duplicate entry, and brittle rules (meals, differentials, cost centers, DST). Main insights: Compliance is self-policed via personal trackers + conservative coding + attached evidence, then validated by layered manager/payroll/finance checks; payment status is a “black box” after approval, so staff rely on previews and bank alerts and escalate with screenshots for off‑cycle fixes when needed.
What they want: A single source-of-truth that is calendar/schedule-first, offline-first, integrated (EHR/HRIS/payroll/AP), with delegated approvals and visible SLAs, plain‑language rule math, paycheck preview before payday, immutable history/one‑click audit packets, and strong privacy/localization (e.g., FR-CA, data residency). Takeaways: Minimize risk to adoption by guaranteeing day‑one payroll parity, robust offline/mobile behavior, real integrations, clear data export/ownership, privacy guardrails (no background GPS), and same‑day payroll remediation SLAs-while avoiding hidden costs or rework.
Decision: Run a 2‑cycle parallel pilot with explicit rollback; ship a single‑entry, API‑first layer (calendar sync, offline capture, delegated approvals, paycheck preview, audit exports); measure admin time saved, approval SLA, payroll accuracy, offline sync success, and off‑cycle adjustments to confirm value before broad rollout.
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