Timesheet software for research grants: the options compared
The tools universities use for research grant timesheets, who each is for and what it costs, checked against each vendor's own pages and written for department grants administrators. UniTimesheet is ours, so its section also says what it doesn't do.
Checked against each vendor's published pages · 21 October 2026
The short answer
If your university is choosing a research management system, its timesheet module is the natural choice: Worktribe Timesheets and Vidatum Timesheets both send reminders and route approvals, and both are bought by the institution as part of a wider system.
If your department needs grant timesheets sorted now, on its own budget, UniTimesheet is built for that: published prices, set up from the spreadsheets you already have, and leave in the same app. Groups that coordinate EU consortia should also look at EMDESK and Kronis.
At a glance
| Who buys it | How time is recorded | Leave | Price published | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UniTimesheet | A department or research group | Monthly, with hours pre-filled from allocations | Yes, on every plan | Yes: £2,000 to £15,000+ a year |
| Worktribe Timesheets | The university, with Worktribe's research management suite | Pre-filled from research allocations | Not mentioned on its page | No. The core suite is £8,550 a licence a year on G-Cloud |
| Vidatum Timesheets | The university, with Vidatum Academic | Day by day | Not mentioned on its page | No. Vidatum Academic is £25,000 a licence a year on G-Cloud |
| Kronis | Teams running EU-funded projects | One timesheet per person per month | Not mentioned on its page | Yes: €208 to €500 a month billed yearly, up to 15 users |
| EMDESK | An EU consortium's coordinator | Weekly, monthly or yearly views | Yes, tracked with time | No, by quote |
| Your finance system | The university | However IT and finance configure it | Depends on the set-up | Part of the university's contract |
| A spreadsheet template | Anyone | Typed in by hand each month | Typed in by hand | Free |
"Not mentioned" means the vendor's own page doesn't say; ask them. G-Cloud figures are list prices for the whole research management suite, not for timesheets alone.
Worktribe Timesheets
A timesheet module in Worktribe's research management suite for universities. Its page names Edinburgh Napier University as an example and says it helps meet UKRI and European Commission timesheet requirements. What it lists:
- Timesheets pre-populated from current research allocations
- Reminder and submission windows, deadlines, and automatic escalation when a timesheet gets stuck
- Approvals routed to the right people, with support teams to collect and collate timesheets
- A full audit history, summarising who reviewed, signed and countersigned each timesheet
- A reason recorded when a timesheet isn't completed, and non-project categories you configure
No price is published for the module. Better fit when your university already runs Worktribe for costing and awards, so timesheets share that data.
Vidatum Timesheets
A module of Vidatum Academic, a research management system. The University of Manchester chose it to replace paper printouts and Excel spreadsheets. What its page lists:
- Day by day entry of project hours, separating productive and non-productive time
- Forms that reflect institutional rules and funder-specific requirements
- Multi-level approvals, automated reminders and validations
- Printed outputs suitable for finance review and sign-off
- Time data linked to projects, awards and financial systems
Better fit when a large university wants timesheets wired into its HR and finance systems as part of a wider research system.
Kronis
A suite for organisations running EU-funded projects, with grant reporting alongside timesheets. One timesheet covers one employee's time for one month, recorded in hours, person-months or day-equivalents, with automatic reminders for missing timesheets.
Prices are published in euros and grow with users and projects: the largest plan is 15 active users and 10 projects. Filling timesheets in automatically is an add-on at €150 a month. Better fit when your portfolio is mostly EU programmes and you want reporting in the same tool.
EMDESK
Project management for EU collaborative projects, typically run by the consortium's coordinator. It tracks time, availability, overtime and leave across projects in the categories your funder requires, and generates timesheets for signature, exported as PDF or Excel. Pricing is by quote.
Better fit when you coordinate a whole Horizon Europe consortium and timesheets are one part of running it.
Your finance system
Some universities record grant time in the finance or ERP system they already run, such as Unit4 (Agresso), SAP or Oracle. The University of Twente, for example, runs time registration in Unit4 with a deadline for each period.
Better fit when policy says time must live in the finance system of record, and IT and finance will configure and support it.
A spreadsheet template
Still the default in many research offices. The University of Dundee, for example, publishes one timesheet template for UKRI, Innovate UK and European Commission grants, submitted to Research Finance monthly. It is free and needs no procurement, but someone works out every person's hours, chases every signature and files every month by hand.
Better fit when you have a handful of grant-funded staff and no budget.
How UniTimesheet fits
UniTimesheet does one job, grant timesheets, for the department that has to produce them:
- Bought by one department: prices are published, invoiced once a year on one purchase order, from £2,000 for up to 25 staff, with a free trial
- Set up from what you have: projects, funders and allocations import from CSV, including an allocation export from AllocBoard, our sister product for grant staffing
- Little for staff to do: each month's hours arrive worked out from their allocations and days off, they write a line per project and submit, even from a phone
- Chasing done for you: daily reminders after your deadline, and the principal investigator hears about anything still missing two weeks on
- Evidence you can hand to an auditor: every approved month is a PDF on your letterhead with both signatures, locked once made, with bulk export and an audit log
- An overview for the administrator: who submits on time, how fast each approver signs, and which projects risk closing with months unapproved
- Leave in the same app: staff request leave, their timesheet approver decides, and approved leave updates the open timesheets. It is included on every plan
What it doesn't do: it doesn't connect directly to HR or finance systems, so data comes in by CSV. It records hours by week, not by day, so it doesn't produce Innovate UK's daily records. It has no single sign-on yet. And it isn't a research management system: costing, awards and consortium management stay where they are.
AllocBoard's export imports as it is, with two edits: remove the Planned rows, and add a Funder column when a project has more than one funder. A direct connection isn't built.
Sources
Facts about other products come from their own published pages and their G-Cloud listings, checked on 21 October 2026, and may have changed since. Ask each vendor for current details and prices.
- Worktribe, Worktribe Timesheets, published 13 October 2026
- G-Cloud 14, Worktribe Research (Worktribe Ltd)
- Vidatum, Vidatum Timesheets
- G-Cloud 14, Vidatum Academic (Vidatum)
- University of Manchester, Researcher timesheets: delivering a new approach, 25 July 2022
- Kronis, Finance: features and pricing
- EMDESK, features
- EMDESK, pricing
- University of Twente, periodic closure of time reporting periods, 15 November 2024
- University of Dundee, Timesheet requirements, process and template, updated 11 July 2023
Run next month's timesheets in UniTimesheet
Tell us about your group: how many staff, which funders, how you sign timesheets today. We'll set up your organisation and import your projects and allocations with you.