Labour time
Start and finish times, less the recorded break, establish working time. Review travel separately when it is entered. The timesheet displays working, travel and total payable hours.
Field & crews · Timesheets
Construction Timesheet App for NZ Civil Crews
A drainage crew can work across two jobs in a day and use several machines along the way. Fieldlink keeps the worker’s time, job allocation and plant usage in the same record, ready for office review.
Record the day on site. Review the hours in the office. Keep payroll preparation and job costs connected.
01 / Construction timesheets
A construction timesheet needs more than a weekly total.
For earthworks, roading and utility work, the office needs to know which job used the labour, what happened during the shift and which plant was used. A total on a Friday spreadsheet leaves those questions open.
Fieldlink records the worker, date and job with start and finish times, breaks, notes and plant usage. Separate entries can keep work on different jobs distinct. Travel segments have their own times and locations where that entry type is used.
02 / Construction timesheets
Worker hours and plant usage are different measures.
Worker hours represent labour and payable time. Plant usage records equipment use alongside the shift. An excavator can be used for only part of a worker’s day; those machine hours are not extra paid worker hours.
Plant utilisation
Record equipment and its usage separately. The office can inspect the recorded plant hours without changing the worker’s paid labour hours.
A simple example
If a worker has 8 payable hours and records 5 hours using an excavator, that is 8 worker hours and 5 plant hours — not 13 paid hours. This is an illustrative calculation, not a customer result.
03 / Construction timesheets
From the site entry to the pay period.
Choose the job and date
Record the work against the job it belongs to. Use a separate entry when work needs a different job allocation.
Record the shift
Enter start, finish, breaks and useful notes. Add plant usage and any supported travel segments, keeping those measures distinct.
Submit for review
The crew submits the entry. The office can filter by worker, job, date and status to find pending or rejected entries.
Review before approval
Check the job, payable hours, break and plant details. Resolve an incorrect entry before including it in payroll preparation.
Prepare the payroll hand-off
Review approved hours for the relevant period. Xero Payroll NZ requires a connection and employee, earnings-rate and calendar mappings. Check sync results before relying on the hand-off.
04 / Construction timesheets
Give the office the detail behind the total.
The Timesheets register brings pending, approved and rejected entries together. Office users can filter the records and inspect individual entries, including breaks, notes and plant information.
Weekly summary cards and filtered register totals answer different questions. Check the period and filters before using an export. Approval is an office decision; a planned shift alone is not evidence of hours worked.
05 / Construction timesheets
Field entry on a phone, with a clear offline boundary.
Workers can open Fieldlink in a mobile browser or add the PWA to their home screen. The timesheet entry supports work recorded against a job, with the office able to review the submitted record.
Supported timesheet writes can queue if the network fails, and previously loaded data can be cached. Reconnect to send queued work and review failures. This does not mean every screen, clock action or newly opened job works without a connection.
06 / Construction timesheets
Move one crew and one pay period first.
Agree the job names, who approves entries and how to record work that crosses jobs. Check worker rates and payroll mappings with the person responsible for payroll.
For a first pay period, compare the submitted and approved entries with your existing records. Check breaks, travel and machine usage separately. Resolve discrepancies before moving the rest of the crew away from paper or spreadsheets.
Who it suits
NZ civil contractors, drainage crews, earthworks operators and construction teams that need job-linked hours and office approval.
When to look more closely
If you only need a personal timer, the wider job workflow may be more than you need. If you need a standalone payroll engine or a particular award/compliance guarantee, confirm that requirement with your payroll provider.
Before you start
Common questions
Can a worker record more than one job in a day?
Yes. Use separate job-linked entries for the work on each job. The office should check those entries together so the day’s labour and any travel are allocated correctly.
Do plant hours increase the worker’s pay?
No. Plant utilisation is recorded separately from paid labour hours. Equipment usage can contribute to job costing without becoming extra payable time for the worker.
How are breaks and travel shown?
Working time uses the recorded start, finish and break. Supported travel entries record their own start, finish and locations; no working break is deducted from a travel segment. The office reviews whether travel should be billed to the customer.
Does a crew assignment automatically become approved time?
No. Scheduling is the plan. A timesheet records the work and has its own submission and approval process.
Can approved hours go to Xero Payroll NZ?
Yes, with Xero Payroll access and the relevant employee, earnings-rate and pay-calendar mappings configured. Review the selected period, approved hours and sync outcome before finalising payroll.
Does the app guarantee payroll compliance?
The timesheet and payroll-preparation workflow supports recording and review. Your organisation remains responsible for employment arrangements, payroll settings and the final pay run. Check your specific requirements with your payroll adviser.
Keep the work connected.
For the full office-to-field workflow, explore Fieldlink job management. Find practical tools and guides in the Civil Hub.
Bring your next pay period into view.
Use the existing trial to work through job-linked entry, office review and your payroll hand-off.