How to Track Employee Time Across Multiple Projects in Microsoft 365

When employees work across several projects, tracking their time accurately can become difficult very quickly.

An employee may spend three hours on Project A, two hours on Project B, and another hour supporting Project C. If those hours are recorded in separate spreadsheets, emails, or disconnected systems, it becomes harder for managers to know where project time is actually being spent.

Microsoft 365 can provide a more structured approach.

By combining SharePoint, structured timesheets, approval workflows, and reporting, organizations can create a process where employees record time against the right projects and tasks, managers review submissions, and project teams can use the resulting data for reporting.

This guide explains how to set up that workflow and what to consider when choosing a Microsoft 365-based time-tracking solution.

Why tracking time across multiple projects is difficult

Tracking time becomes more complicated as employees work on multiple projects simultaneously.

A simple timesheet may ask an employee to enter their total hours for the day. But for project-based organizations, the important question is often:

How many hours did each employee spend on each project and task?

Without a structured process, organizations may encounter problems such as:

Employees recording time against the wrong project
Project hours being entered inconsistently
Managers following up manually for missing timesheets
Hours being consolidated from multiple spreadsheets
Difficulty separating billable and non-billable time
Limited visibility into how employee time is distributed across projects
Delays between recording time and reporting on it

The goal isn’t simply to collect hours.

The goal is to collect structured project time data that can be reviewed and used for reporting.

What should a multi-project time-tracking process look like?

A practical workflow usually has five stages:

1. Assign employees to projects

Employees should have access to the projects they actually work on.

This creates a controlled list of projects rather than requiring employees to type project names manually.

2. Record time against projects and tasks

Employees enter their working hours and select the relevant project and task.

For example:

Employee	Project	Task	Hours
Employee A	Project Alpha	Design	4
Employee A	Project Beta	Client meeting	2
Employee A	Project Alpha	Documentation	1
Employee A	Project Gamma	Research	1

Now the eight hours worked that day are connected to specific project activities.

3. Submit the timesheet

Once the employee has completed their timesheet, they submit it for review.

This creates a defined point at which the employee’s time record moves from entry to approval.

4. Manager reviews the submission

The manager reviews the submitted hours and can approve or reject the timesheet.

If changes are required, the employee can make the necessary corrections before resubmitting.

5. Use the approved data for reporting

Once project time has been collected and reviewed, the organization can use the data for reporting.

Reports can help answer questions such as:

How many hours were spent on each project?
Which employees are working on a project?
How is time distributed across tasks?
How much time is billable versus non-billable?
Which timesheets are missing or still awaiting approval?

This is where structured time tracking becomes useful beyond payroll or attendance.

How Microsoft 365 can support project time tracking

Organizations already using Microsoft 365 may not need to introduce a completely separate ecosystem for collecting project time.

SharePoint can provide the foundation for storing structured project and timesheet information, while Microsoft 365 provides the environment employees and managers already use.

A Microsoft 365-based approach can help organizations:

Keep project and timesheet information within their existing Microsoft environment
Control access through Microsoft 365 and SharePoint
Create structured project and task information
Manage employee submissions and approvals
Connect collected data to reporting tools such as Power BI

However, SharePoint by itself does not automatically create a complete project timesheet workflow.

Organizations still need to define how employees enter time, how projects and tasks are assigned, how managers approve submissions, and how the resulting data is reported.

Using Timesheet Pro 365 for multi-project time tracking

Timesheet Pro 365 provides a structured timesheet workflow within Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.

Employees can record hours against assigned projects and tasks, submit their timesheets, and track their submission status.

Managers can then review submissions and approve or reject them before the information is used for reporting.

The workflow can be summarized as:

Employee
Record project and task hours

→

Submit
Send timesheet for review

→

Manager
Review and approve/reject

→

Reporting
Analyze structured project time data

This approach helps organizations move away from collecting project hours through disconnected spreadsheets and manual follow-up.

What to look for in a multi-project timesheet solution

If you’re evaluating ways to track employee time across multiple projects, don’t focus only on whether a tool has a timer or timesheet.

Look at the complete workflow.

1. Project and task tracking

Can employees record time against specific projects and tasks?

2. Employee-project assignments

Can administrators or managers control which projects employees can select?

3. Timesheet submission

Can employees formally submit their completed timesheets?

4. Approval workflow

Can managers review and approve or reject submitted hours?

5. Reporting

Can you analyze time by project, employee, task, or other relevant dimensions?

6. Billable and non-billable time

Can your organization distinguish between different types of project hours?

7. Microsoft 365 compatibility

If your organization already relies on Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, can the timesheet workflow operate within that environment?

8. Reporting integrations

Can the collected time data be connected to tools such as Microsoft Power BI for additional analysis?

These questions are often more important than whether a product has the longest feature list.

Common mistakes when tracking time across projects

1. Letting employees enter project names manually

Free-text project names can create inconsistencies.

For example:

A structured project list reduces this problem.

2. Collecting time without a review process

If employees enter hours but nobody reviews them, errors can remain in the data.

An approval workflow creates an additional validation step.

3. Treating all hours as the same

Project teams often need to distinguish between billable and non-billable work.

The reporting process should preserve that distinction.

4. Using spreadsheets as the final reporting system

Spreadsheets can be useful for analysis, but manually consolidating timesheets from multiple employees and projects can become difficult as the organization grows.

A structured timesheet system can make the data collection process more consistent before the information reaches Excel, Power BI, or another reporting tool.

5. Tracking hours without considering the reporting goal

Before implementing a timesheet process, determine what questions the organization needs to answer.

If the goal is project reporting, the timesheet should capture information that supports that reporting.

How to make multi-project time tracking easier for employees

The best timesheet process is not necessarily the one with the most fields.

Employees should be able to answer three basic questions quickly:

What project am I working on?

What task am I working on?

How much time did I spend?

Everything else should support the organization’s reporting, approval, and management requirements without making daily time entry unnecessarily complicated.

A clear project structure, relevant task lists, simple time entry, and a defined approval process can make adoption easier.

From employee time entries to project reporting

The value of project time tracking doesn’t stop when a timesheet is submitted.

Once time is consistently connected to projects and tasks, organizations can use that information to understand how work is being distributed.

For example, project reporting can help teams examine:

Hours spent by project
Hours spent by employee
Hours spent by task
Billable and non-billable hours
Submitted and missing timesheets
Approved and rejected submissions

For organizations using Microsoft Power BI, Timesheet Pro 365 can connect structured timesheet data to Power BI dashboards for additional analysis.

This creates a simple progression:

Capture → Review → Structure → Report → Analyze

Key takeaways

Tracking employee time across multiple projects works best when the process is structured from the beginning.

The key elements are:

Assign employees to the appropriate projects.
Record hours against projects and tasks.
Submit timesheets through a defined workflow.
Have managers review and approve submissions.
Use structured data for project reporting and analysis.
Choose a solution that fits your existing Microsoft 365 environment.

For organizations already using Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, a Microsoft-based timesheet workflow can provide a practical foundation for collecting project hours without creating another disconnected process.

Track project time within Microsoft 365

If your employees work across multiple projects, a structured timesheet process can make it easier to collect, review, and report on project hours.

Timesheet Pro 365 provides project and task-based time tracking, timesheet submissions, approval workflows, reporting, and Microsoft Power BI integration within the Microsoft 365 and SharePoint environment.