RL Marine — Timesheet & Job Management System

The problem

RL Marine has around thirty workers — machinists, fabricators, engineers — based out of a workshop in Queensland. A lot of the work happens away from the main site: vessels out of commission on a slip, boats in dry dock at a shipyard, or jobs elsewhere in Queensland.

For years, timesheets were paper. Workers filled them out by hand, and however they made it back to the workshop, they ended up on the admin's desk. That meant chasing people who hadn't handed them in, deciphering handwriting, and keying everything manually into the payroll system. When someone was working at a shipyard an hour away, a paper timesheet wasn't always coming back the same day.

"The pile on the desk was never quite under control. Someone was always missing, always late, always on a job somewhere."

What was built

A web application that workers access from any device — phone, tablet, laptop — wherever they happen to be. They log in, see their jobs, and record their hours against them. The system is straightforward enough that it doesn't need a manual: if you can fill out a paper timesheet, you can use this.

Jobs are pulled automatically from the existing work order system, so workers always have an accurate, up-to-date list to select from. This turned out to matter more than expected. On paper, workers had to remember or look up the correct job number themselves — a small friction that led to errors, guesses, and the occasional timesheet booked against the wrong job. With the list in front of them, they just pick. That alone made the transition easier than it might have been — workers found it genuinely simpler than the paper process, not just a digital version of the same hassle.

Management can see in real time who has submitted for the week and who hasn't.

The SMS reminders

This turned out to be one of the most useful features. If a worker hasn't submitted their timesheet by a set time, the system sends them an SMS. Not an email that gets buried — a text message to their phone.

For office staff this is mild encouragement. For someone who's been working at a dry dock all week and mentally checked out by Friday afternoon, it's the difference between submitting on time and the admin chasing them the following Monday.

Late and missing submissions dropped significantly after reminders went live. Payroll processing became more predictable — the data was there when it was needed, not trickling in across the following week.

Access from anywhere

The system runs on-premise at RL Marine's site, which keeps their data where they want it. Workers away from the workshop access it through a secure web interface — no VPN, no special software. It works on a phone at a shipyard the same as it does on the office network.

What changed

• Paper timesheets eliminated — no more manual data entry into payroll
• Admin time spent chasing missing submissions dropped substantially
• Management has a live view of submission status at any point in the week
• Workers on remote jobs submit on time because they get a reminder
• Payroll processing is more predictable — the data arrives when it's supposed to
• The system runs quietly on-premise with minimal maintenance