How projects, timesheets, and time off work together

Projects, timesheets, and time off are three connected pieces of how work and time are tracked on Flamingo. Here’s what each one is and how they fit together.

The three pieces

• Projects — the *what*. A project organizes a body of work (a client engagement, an initiative, an area of focus). It has a name and a code so hours can be grouped against it.
• Timesheets — the *how much*. A timesheet records the hours worked, tied to a specific project (and contract) on a given day.
• Time off — the *when away*. A time-off request records days a contractor isn’t working — vacation, sick leave, parental leave, and more.

How they relate

The simplest way to picture it:

• Every timesheet entry is logged against a project, so a project is really the sum of all the time logged to it.
• When a timesheet is approved, its hours roll up to that project’s total and can feed billing where work is billed by time.
• Time off sits alongside these as time *not* worked — it doesn’t log hours to a project, but it completes the picture of someone’s availability and attendance.

So projects are the buckets, timesheets fill those buckets with approved hours, and time off marks the gaps when no work is happening.

A typical flow

1. A client sets up a project for the work.
2. A contractor logs timesheets against that project as they work.
3. The client reviews and approves those timesheets; approved hours count toward the project and can feed billing.
4. When the contractor needs a break, they submit a time-off request, which the client approves.

Learn more

If you manage a team:

• Create and manage projects
• Review and approve timesheets
• Review and approve time-off requests

If you’re a contractor:

• Log and submit your timesheets
• Request time off
• Projects and how you log time to them