Your company is funded by a federal award, so it needs a daily record of how everyone's time is spent. With the Forge Slack bot, it takes a minute a day.
Getting email reminders instead? See Team members: How to log your time by email.
Why you're logging time
Each timesheet answers three questions: who did the work, what it was for, and how long it took. That record is how your company shows the government what its award paid for. Everyone on the award logs time, founders included.
Log your time
At 5pm each workday, the Forge bot sends you a message in Slack.
Your usual hours are already filled in. If your day matched, click Submit.
If your day looked different, change the hours, then submit.
Make sure your hours add up to everything you worked that day, not just 8.
Pick the right job
You'll see a short list of jobs. Your admin chooses which ones you see.
Your project: work on the funded project. R&D, building and testing, and NSF workshops or program officer meetings all count.
G&A: general company work, like all-hands, performance reviews and meetings with accounting, HR or legal.
B&P: winning new work and funding, like proposal writing, fundraising, investor meetings and morale events.
Holiday, PTO and Sick Pay: if you're full-time, log your days off too so every week is complete.
Not sure which one to use? Ask in your team's Slack channel before you submit.
Tips
Submit every day. Same-day entries are the most accurate.
Splitting your day is normal. If you spend half your time on the project, log half to the project and the rest to whatever else you did.
Log all your hours. If you worked 10 hours, log 10.
Fix a mistake
I submitted the wrong hours
I submitted the wrong hours
Ask your approver to send the timesheet back to you. Make the change in the Forge app, add a short note explaining why, and resubmit. Always fix your own time. Your manager shouldn't edit it for you.
I missed a day
I missed a day
Open the Forge app, scroll back to the day, fill it in, and add a note that it's a late entry.
I need to log time from before I was set up
I need to log time from before I was set up
You can still enter it in the Forge app. Your admin will tell you which dates to backfill and by when.
Common questions
Do NSF workshops and program officer meetings count as project time?
Do NSF workshops and program officer meetings count as project time?
Yes. Log them to your project.
Where does writing the next proposal go?
Where does writing the next proposal go?
B&P, not your current project.
My hours don't match my paycheck. Is that a problem?
My hours don't match my paycheck. Is that a problem?
No. If you're salaried, your pay is split by the share of time you log to each job. Just log what you actually worked.
I'm not getting the 5pm message
I'm not getting the 5pm message
The bot only messages people with a Forge account. Ask your admin to check that you've been invited to Forge.