Staff costs are the largest part of most claims and the easiest to challenge, and a percentage assigned in hindsight is the usual reason they are reduced. This workbook captures time as the work happens, by project code and activity, and turns it into a monthly apportionment that finance can reconcile to payroll. It is the record the guide to what reviewers look for describes under "who did the work".
Download the timesheet template (XLSX)
What the template is for
| Sheet | Contents | Who maintains it |
|---|---|---|
| How to use | Six instructions and the note that the workbook is country-neutral | Nobody; read once |
| Projects | Project code, name, technical owner, finance owner, status (candidate, claimed, excluded) | Finance, from the workshop output |
| Entries | Date, person, project code, activity, R&D or routine flag, hours, a note of what was tried or found | Each person, weekly |
| Summary | Person, project, month, R&D hours, routine hours, total, R&D share (computed) | Finance, monthly, confirmed by the team lead |
How to use it
- Use the project codes finance uses in the ledger, so time and cost meet on the same key.
- Record time at least weekly and no later than month end; monthly confirmation by the team lead is the minimum that holds up, and quarterly estimates are already reconstructions.
- Mark each entry R&D or routine. The routine hours inside a claimed project are what the boundary section of the narrative excludes.
- Keep the note column honest and short: "benchmarked approach B, failed at 40 requests a second" is evidence; "development" is not.
- Add rows month by month and keep the file with the project evidence. Do not overwrite earlier months.
- Your scheme may expect a particular method or additional detail; the country documentation and eligible expenditure pages say what each authority looks for.
Related pages
- In-House Finance Team Program, module 3: Staff time apportionment
- Startups and Scale-ups, module 2: Setting up from day one
- Contemporaneous documentation: what reviewers actually look for
- Documentation checklist
- All templates
Educational material, not advice. Apportionment rules and the records each scheme expects are on the country pages.
Educational content only, not tax advice. See the disclaimer.