The Research Lifecycle Programme has been working with research finance to implement a new digital timesheet system.

This digital solution is designed to be used by research projects who are currently required to submit timesheets, as per their funder terms and conditions.

In September 2022, Vidatum were selected to supply the University of Manchester. After scoping and development work, the system was first rolled out to a group of early adopters in March 2023. Humanities followed in September 2023, with the Faculty of Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health joining the system in November 2023 and February 2024 respectively.

The goal of the new system was to deliver:

• Increased user satisfaction and ease of use
• Less labour-intensive processes for researchers
• Less manual labour-intensive set up and data entry processes
• Fulfilled needs of larger research groups with multiple funding streams
• Compliance with funder requirements EU and UKRI auditors
• Reduced risk of research funding having to be returned because of non-completion of timesheets

The system now has more than 800 users across 253 research projects at the University.

How has the new system benefitted the University’s academic community?

We spoke to Doctor Kate Vaughan, a Senior Research Programme Manager in the Division of Cancer Sciences, about her experience of using the system.

‘I work at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust where I support a number of research projects focussed on adolescent oncology.’

‘In my role I support Principal Investigators and researchers across a number of areas, including ethics, recruitment, study logistics, finance, and ultimately the delivery of the research. One of the projects in the research portfolio is funded by UKRI which requires the completion and submission of timesheets to comply with funder auditing.’

‘The system has ensured we can submit timesheets in a much more efficient manner.  The old spreadsheet format was clunky and required too much administration – a lot of time was spent contacting people for signatures and approval, which was often hard to manage and monitor.’

‘Now, it takes us a matter of minutes to complete and review timesheets, and it’s great knowing they are automatically sent to the approver for me once they are submitted – it’s all done for me!’

‘I am a real champion of this system, and I would recommend it to anyone.’

You can find out more about the system, how it works, additional features and benefits and how to access help and support in a case study.

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