Replacing paper timesheets and spreadsheets on site
The paperwork isn't the problem. The problem is that you find out about it on Friday afternoon, when the person who could explain it has gone home.
Why the paper timesheet survives
Paper works. That's why it's still here. It costs nothing, needs no signal, and every worker on every site already knows how to use it. Any honest case for replacing it has to start there.
What paper can't do is tell you anything before Friday. A shift written down on Tuesday is invisible until the docket comes in, which means an overrun you could have questioned on the day gets questioned four days later, by which time the only two accounts of it are the worker's memory and yours. Most timesheet disputes aren't dishonesty. They're two people recalling the same Tuesday differently, with nothing between them.
What replaces each part of the paper process
- The docket in the ute — a clock-on from the worker's phone, timestamped and checked against the job site.
- Deciphering handwriting on Friday — hours that are already in the system by the time you look, in a weekly grid per worker.
- The scribbled correction in the margin — a correction request with the worker's proposed times, which you approve or reject, with a record of both.
- Re-typing the whole lot into a spreadsheet — approved weeks export as a summary CSV and a detailed CSV for your accountant, plus a per-worker pay summary PDF.
- The sheet you can't find in March — approved weeks lock and stay locked, so the record you exported is the record that's still there.
What you still have to do yourself
Structivo produces a pay summary from approved hours and the pay rates you configure. Switch overtime on and it flags hours past a weekly threshold at a multiplier you set — 38 hours and 1.5× by default. It does not interpret Modern Awards, calculate penalty rates, apply site or travel allowances, or handle RDO accrual — that's still your call, or your bookkeeper's.
If you were hoping to replace the person who knows your award, this isn't that tool, and you should know it now rather than in week three. What it replaces is the re-typing, the chasing and the arguing about Tuesday.
The Friday test
The way to judge any of this is the state of your Friday afternoon. Before: chasing four dockets, decoding two, and finding out someone worked back on Wednesday without telling you. After: opening a week that's already filled in, dealing with the two shifts that got flagged, hitting approve, and exporting.
The middle week — where half the crew is on the app and half is still on paper — is the worst of both. Move a whole site at once rather than a few workers at a time.
What it costs to find out
Fourteen days free, no credit card. Plans start at $49 a month for up to 10 workers and 5 job sites. If it hasn't saved you the Friday by the end of the trial, it wasn't going to.
Common questions
Will my workers actually use it?
The honest answer is that it depends on how it's introduced. It installs to the home screen from a link, so there's no app store step, and clocking on is one tap. The crews that struggle are the ones where the app was introduced as a check on the workers rather than as the thing that gets their hours right. Frame it as the second, because it is.
What if someone doesn't have a smartphone?
Structivo needs a smartphone per worker to clock on. If you have workers without one, they'll need to stay on a manual process and have an admin enter their times, which keeps the audit trail but loses the site verification.
Can I still keep paper as a backup?
You can, and for the first fortnight it's a reasonable safety net. Past that it tends to become the thing people default to, and you end up maintaining two systems. Pick a date and stop.
Does it export to Xero or MYOB?
Structivo exports summary and detailed CSVs plus per-worker PDF pay summaries, designed to be handed to whoever runs your payroll. There is no direct two-way sync with Xero or MYOB today.
Keep reading
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Try it on next week's crew
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