The Hidden Cost of Inaccurate Timesheets in Your School

For many Business Managers, timesheets are seen as a simple admin process, whether paper-based or digital, it’s just something that needs to get done each payroll cycle. But what’s often overlooked is the true cost of that process. Small errors, casual rounding-up, or unverified hours might seem harmless, but across dozens of casual staff, they can quietly add up to tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary payments each year.

There’s a good chance your staff might be overpaid for hours they didn’t actually work. Not out of dishonesty, but due to human error, misaligned systems, and lack of real-time session tracking.

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At Clipboard, we’ve built an Extracurricular Management System (EMS) that directly connects staff attendance at scheduled sessions with digital timesheet submission, giving administrators real, actionable oversight before payroll is processed.

Let’s break it down:

• A school with 50 casual staff across sport, music, and co-curriculars might easily have each person over-report by just 15 minutes per shift.

• Over a year, that can equate to over $17,500 in avoidable costs, and that’s a conservative estimate.

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Cameron Anderson, Head of Sport at Barker College, put it simply:

“Clipboard’s digital timesheets save us north of $50,000 a year.”

Other schools like St Catherine’s and Lauriston Girls’ School have also reported time savings of up to a full day per payroll cycle, streamlining workflows and reducing back-and-forth with Finance teams .

And it’s not just about cost. With Clipboard:

• Casual hours are pre-filled based on actual attendance.

• Admins can flag discrepancies instantly.

• Pay scales are automatically applied, so there’s no more manual calculation of penalty rates or rounding.

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If your school still relies on paper-based timesheets or disconnected systems, you’re not just behind on efficiency—you’re likely leaking money without realising it.

Clipboard gives Business Managers the tools to confidently forecast costs, ensure accountability, and prove ROI on every dollar spent in co-curricular staffing. With integrated approvals, audit trails, and real-time data, you’ll reduce risk, gain oversight, and avoid the compounding financial drag of overpaid hours.

It’s time to stop treating extracurricular admin as “just part of the job” and start treating it like the strategic investment it should be.

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