Staffing agencies: handling timesheets from dozens of clients without manual matching

A staffing agency has dozens or hundreds of people placed at different clients. Every month their hours turn into two things: payroll data and invoices to clients. Both rely on the same hours, yet they're often processed twice, from different sources and formats.

The typical problem: every client is different

• One client sends an export from their time system.
• Another sends an Excel file with its own columns.
• A third sends a scan of signed paper sheets.
• A fourth sends only a monthly total, and only after a reminder.

The office converts everything, matches names, chases missing days and only then can run payroll and invoicing.

Why it matters more here

Payroll has fixed dates. People expect to be paid on time.

The margin is in the detail. Every unbilled or wrongly billed hour comes straight off the margin.

Equal treatment. Under the EU Temporary Agency Work Directive (2008/104/EC), the basic working and employment conditions of agency workers, including pay, must in principle be at least those that would apply if the user company had recruited them directly; national laws implement this with specific rules and exceptions. Accurate hours, premiums and overtime are therefore also a compliance matter. Check your specific obligations with an employment law specialist.

Many parties. Agency, client, worker and often a coordinator at the client.

The goal: one format, one source

1. Workers record their own hours, in their own language, manually or by clocking in and out.
2. The client sees their placed workers' hours in their own access and approves them or disputes with a comment.
3. The agency sees the status across all clients at once.
4. After approval the period is locked, and payroll and invoicing data come from the same hours.

Control points for the agency office

The client's role in the system

• They see only their own workers and placements,
• approve individual entries,
• add a comment to disputes,
• install nothing.

Recruiting, placements and documents in one place

• Recruiting: candidates through to placement,
• Placements: who is at which client and since when,
• Documents: contracts and other paperwork from templates with e-signature,
• Documents and certificates: stored with each worker.

Rolling it out

1. Pick two or three clients with different ways of delivering timesheets.
2. Set up roles: agency, client, worker.
3. Train the client-side coordinators.
4. Run in parallel with the current process for one month and compare.
5. Roll out to more clients.

How MyAgent helps staffing agencies

MyAgent is built for supplying staff: on such an assignment the client sees and approves the hours of each individual worker. Workers log hours on their phone in English, German or Czech, the client approves or disputes them with a comment in their portal, and the agency sees the status across all clients. After month end the period is locked, and the invoice and monthly timesheet PDFs for payroll come from the approved hours. Recruiting, documents from templates, e-signature and an audit trail of every change are included.

Summary

• The same hours are often processed twice, for payroll and for invoicing.
• The fix: one system where hours originate with the worker and the client only approves.
• The client sees only their own workers, approves per entry and installs nothing.
• Recruiting, placements, documents and certificates belong in the same system.