Connect the HR Record to the Timesheet So Capacity Is Not Guesswork
An agency's most important people number, utilisation, usually lives in a timesheet or project tool that has no connection to HR. Leave is approved without sight of the pitch calendar, and new joiners and leavers are entered in three places. We help you decide what to keep in which system, how people data should flow between them, which approvals to move off chat and which routines are worth automating, and then we configure workflows, records, approvals and self-service on your own system or on the GullyHR platform.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Does Your HR Data Talk to Your Project Data?
Many agencies run on a project or time-tracking tool, a finance package, a messaging app and a set of spreadsheets, with HR information scattered across all of them. Each does its job, but the connections between them are made by hand, by whoever has the time.
We help you choose and set up the few connections that matter most, before buying anything new.
You may be experiencing:
- People entered separately in the HR sheet, the timesheet tool and the finance system, with details that disagree.
- Leave approved by one person without the resourcing lead seeing a pitch or deadline that week.
- Utilisation and billable data kept apart from the employee record, so reviews and planning use different numbers.
- Approvals for hires, expenses and freelance spend running on chat, with no record of who agreed.
- Skills and specialisms known informally, so staffing choices depend on who remembers them.
- Freelancers tracked on a separate sheet, if at all.
- A tool bought for one purpose and used for none because nobody configured the workflows.
What we can help with
Our HR Technology and Automation Services for Agencies
Systems and Data Map
List the tools you use for HR, time, projects, finance and communication, and where each piece of people data is created, changed and read. Mark the gaps, the duplicates and the manual transfers.
Single Employee Master
Decide which record is the source for each field and how changes in it reach the project, time and finance tools, so that a person is created once and corrected once.
Utilisation and Record Link
Plan how billable and non-billable data from the time or project tool is shown against the individual record for planning and reviews, without turning hours into the only measure of a person.
Leave Visible to Resourcing
Configure leave requests so that the approver and the resourcing lead can see existing commitments and the pitch calendar before approving, and so approved leave appears in resourcing.
Approval Workflow Design
Move approvals for hires, increments, expenses, freelance engagement and exits from chat to defined workflows with limits, escalation and a record.
Skills and Specialism Tags
Set up skill and specialism fields on the employee and freelancer record, so that staffing decisions can find the right person without relying on memory.
Self-service for Staff and Managers
Decide what people can see and request for themselves, such as balances, letters and claims, and what managers can approve and view for their teams.
Data Migration and Implementation Sequence
Plan the clean-up and move of existing data, the order in which modules go live, the training needed and the point at which the old sheets are retired.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, your engagement can include:
- A map of current systems and data flows.
- A decision on the source record for each type of data.
- A design for linking utilisation data to the employee record.
- A leave and resourcing view design.
- Approval workflow designs with limits and escalation.
- A skills tagging structure.
- A data migration plan and implementation sequence.
- Configuration of workflows, records, approvals, reminders and self-service on your system or on GullyHR.
Step by step
How We Work
Trace the People Data
We follow a new joiner, a leave request and a leaver through your tools, to see where details are typed again and where they go missing.
Decide What Belongs Where
With the founders, finance and resourcing leads, we agree which tool is the source for each field, and which workflows are worth automating.
Design the Workflows
We draft each workflow on paper first, with steps, approvers, limits and records, and test it with the people who will use it.
Configure and Migrate
We configure the chosen system, clean and load data in agreed stages and run a short trial with one team.
Go Live and Review
We train users, retire the old sheets on a stated date and review against the baseline we recorded of how long routine requests and approvals took.
The difference
Enter People Once, and See Capacity Before Deciding
A better-connected set of HR tools helps your agency to:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering where each type of people data is entered, how long routine approvals take and how many records disagree between systems, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Hold one record for each person, used by every tool.
- See leave alongside commitments before approving it.
- Plan resourcing with skills and availability in view.
- Replace chat approvals with a record of who agreed.
- Give staff and managers self-service for routine requests.
- Move to a new tool without losing data.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Agencies Running on Spreadsheets
Move to a structured record without disturbing client work.
Agencies with a Timesheet Tool and No HR System
Connect the two so that capacity and people decisions use the same facts.
Hybrid Teams and Multiple Offices
Give everyone one place to request and approve, wherever they sit.
Agencies Preparing to Scale
Set up workflows before headcount makes manual routines unworkable.
How it usually shows up in marketing, advertising and creative
Agencies are heavy users of software for work and light users of software for people. Project and timesheet tools record hours, creative teams use shared drives and chat, and finance holds payroll. The HR record is a spreadsheet kept by one person. Leave is requested through messages and approved by project leads, and the pitch calendar is a separate document. Utilisation reports come from the timesheet tool, and headcount comes from finance, and the two seldom reconcile. Freelancers are tracked in a different sheet or in the project tool alone. Skills and specialisms are in people's heads. Appraisals are held in documents. When the person who keeps the spreadsheet is away or leaves, the records are hard to reconstruct. Approvals run on chat and are lost.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in marketing, advertising and creative
Hours and people live apart
The timesheet tool and the HR record do not share an employee ID, so utilisation and cost cannot be matched.
Leave is invisible to resourcing
Project leads staff work without seeing who is away.
Freelancers sit outside the system
Their terms, rates and work history are in separate sheets.
Approvals run on chat
Requests and decisions scroll away and cannot be shown later.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Start with one employee master
A single record for staff and freelancers that other tools read from. The HRMS is the usual home.
- 02
Link time and utilisation
Timesheet data tied to the employee record so utilisation, cost and leave can be viewed together.
- 03
Make leave visible
Leave and availability shown in the resourcing view before approval. See attendance, shift and leave.
- 04
Move approvals into workflow
Leave, expenses, freelancer bookings and hiring requests approved in one place, with a trail.
- 05
Migrate and test
Clean the data, move it in stages, and run old and new in parallel for a month before switching.
What to check this week
- Ask who maintains the HR spreadsheet and what happens when they are away.
- Check whether the timesheet tool and HR records share an ID.
- Find out how a project lead knows who is on leave.
- List approvals that still happen on chat.
- Look at where freelancer terms and rates are stored.
What this looks like in marketing, advertising and creative
The parts of hr technology and automation that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Time, Utilisation and the HR Record
Where the HR system has to speak to the timesheet.
What this coversHide
Time, Utilisation and the HR Record
Where the HR system has to speak to the timesheet.
What this coversHideAn agency's core people metric is utilisation, which lives in a timesheet or project system rather than in HR. Keeping the two disconnected means capacity planning happens on instinct.
- Single employee master feeding project and time systems
- Utilisation and billable data linked to the individual record
- Capacity and availability visible for resourcing decisions
- Freelancer and contractor records held alongside staff
- Leave visible in resourcing before it is approved
- Skill and specialism tagging for staffing decisions
- Appraisal linked to more than recorded hours
Making leave visible to resourcing before approval prevents the most common agency scheduling failure, which is a person approved for leave during a week they were already committed to a pitch.
Questions on this, in marketing, advertising and creative
Not always. Often the first step is to decide what each existing tool should hold and to connect them properly. If nothing suitable exists, we can configure records, approvals and self-service on the GullyHR platform, or help you assess other options.
In many cases, yes, through imports, shared identifiers or the connections your tools offer. We design what should flow, in which direction and how often, and the technical connection depends on the tools you use.
By showing it alongside craft, client and development information on the record, and by writing in the review process how it should be weighed. A system can display numbers, but how they are used is a management decision.
Keep what the agency needs to run HR and to plan work, and limit access to what each role needs. We help you decide fields and permissions, and confirm with a qualified professional which data-protection rules apply to you.
It depends on how many modules you want and how clean your data is. We agree an order, usually starting with the record and leave, and phase the rest, so that the team has time to absorb each stage before the next.
Often yes, once records, leave and approvals are held by one person. A simple system that links to timesheets removes most of the manual work.
By using one employee ID across tools, so hours, leave and role can be matched. Many project tools can share data with an HRMS.
In the same system with a separate status, rate, terms and work history. This helps with rehire and with payment.
Leave and approvals, since they take the most time and create the most disagreement. Payroll inputs follow.
Make the People Record Work With the Rest of Your Tools
If the same person is entered in three places and leave is approved without looking at the plan, a few well-chosen connections can help.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an HR Technology Consultation
Tell us about your agency and the tools you use today.
The general method — what hr technology and automation covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the hr process automation page. What is above is the part that differs for marketing, advertising and creative.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see gullyhr software.
Other HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.