Working with your bookkeeper on staff timesheets without sharing your login
Your bookkeeper probably needs staff hours to prepare payroll records, but that does not mean they need your password. Many café and retail owners end up handing over a shared login, or emailing a spreadsheet every Friday night, and both approaches cause problems. This guide explains a simpler way to work together: a short weekly handover, clear roles, and a checklist you can use from this week.
Why sharing a login causes problems
A shared login makes it hard to know who changed what. It also means your bookkeeper has the same access as you, including access to settings and billing that they do not need. If a staff member leaves or a bookkeeper changes firms, you may have to reset everything.
Emailing spreadsheets creates a different problem. Each copy becomes a version that can drift out of date, and nobody is quite sure which file is the latest. Staff hours end up split across notebooks, texts and workbooks.
A better approach is to keep one source of staff-hour records, give your bookkeeper their own access, and agree on a routine for reviewing and sharing the information.
What to share and what to keep
Before you start, agree on what your bookkeeper needs:
- Hours worked for each staff member in each pay period
- Breaks taken, including unpaid breaks
- Overtime or unusual shifts, with a short note explaining them
- Any corrections you have made, and why
Your bookkeeper usually does not need to manage rosters, staff passwords or your subscription. Keep those with you.
A weekly handover for owners and bookkeepers
The routine below is general workflow advice, not a legal or payroll requirement. Adjust it to suit your business and your bookkeeper's process.
- Set a fixed review day. Many owners choose a day shortly after the week closes, such as Monday morning.
- Review the week's hours and breaks. Check for missing clock-ins or clock-outs, unusually long shifts and breaks that do not look right. Make any corrections before you share the records.
- Export or copy the summary. Once you are happy with the week, prepare the summary for your bookkeeper.
- Send it through a shared channel. Give your bookkeeper access to the records, or send the summary through the method you already use together.
- Agree on questions and sign-off. Your bookkeeper should be able to ask about any unusual entry. Record the answer in your notes so the same question does not come up again.
- Start the next week clean. Use the same routine each week so the process becomes predictable.
Consistency matters more than perfection. A simple routine done every week beats a complicated one done occasionally.
Example: a fictional café (Demo data)
The following example is fictional and labelled Demo data. The café, names and hours are invented for illustration.
Maya runs a small café with four staff, Demo data: Sam, Priya, Leo and Ava. Her bookkeeper, Daniel, prepares the business's payroll records each fortnight.
Previously, Maya photographed paper timesheets on Friday and sent them to Daniel by email. Some sheets were hard to read, and a missed break on a Wednesday shift took a week to sort out.
Now Maya follows a weekly handover:
- Monday, 9:00 am: Maya opens the week's staff hours in ClockHQ and checks each shift. She finds that Leo forgot to clock out on Thursday, so she confirms the correct finish time with him and makes the correction.
- Monday, 9:20 am: She checks the breaks for each staff member against the café's rules.
- Monday, 9:30 am: She exports the Excel workbook for the week and copies the weekly summary into the shared Google Sheet that Daniel uses.
- Monday, 9:45 am: She sends Daniel a short message: "Week ending Sunday is ready. Leo's Thursday finish time was corrected after checking with him."
Daniel can now see the hours and ask questions without needing Maya's login. Maya still controls the subscription and staff settings.
What ClockHQ does and does not do
Here is what ClockHQ supports today, based on verified product features:
- Staff clock in and out by scanning the workplace QR code and entering their PIN in a mobile browser. There is no staff app to download.
- You can invite a bookkeeper to use their own login for each business.
- Each business keeps its own staff, schedules, timesheets and exports, so separate businesses stay separate.
- Billing stays with the owner.
- You review hours and breaks, then download an Excel workbook or copy the weekly summary into Google Sheets for payroll preparation.
ClockHQ does not process payroll. It helps you organise staff-hour records so you or your bookkeeper can prepare payroll. Check award rates, tax and payroll obligations with your bookkeeper or accountant.
Checklist for your next handover
- Choose a fixed weekly review day and time
- Invite your bookkeeper to their own login
- Agree on what hours, breaks and notes they need
- Review each shift for missing or unusual entries before sharing
- Export the Excel workbook or copy the summary into Google Sheets
- Send the week's summary through your agreed channel
- Record any questions and answers for next week
Start your 14-day free trial
If you want organised staff-hour records to share with your bookkeeper, you can visit clockhq.app to start your 14-day free trial. No card is required to start. You can also compare plans on the pricing page.