---
title: "Timesheets that arrive as a photo or an Excel file"
description: "Timesheets as a photo, text or Excel: Bombos reads them, finds the placement, and sets hour rows with the reason ready for your check and entry in BambooHR."
image: "https://bombos.ai/assets/og-en-v2.png"
---

# How do timesheets that arrive as a photo or Excel reach BambooHR?

![Piet Baudoin](https://bombos.ai/assets/team/piet.jpg)By Piet Baudoin, updated September 26, 2026

Timesheets that arrive as a photo, a text message or an Excel file are read by Bombos, matched to the placement and set ready as hour rows for your check and entry in BambooHR.

Works with BambooHR and however your hours come in.

Timesheets are the first task, then your office can handle more placements with the same team and teach Bombos the next task itself.

## This is how it goes now, and how it goes with Bombos.

**Now**

**Hours come in as an Excel file, a PDF, or a photo, and someone types them in for payroll or invoicing.**

Today someone at the office reads the photo, text message, or Excel file and manually turns it into rows per day per placement. A correction in a text gets checked against the original timesheet. BambooHR already supports timesheets entered by staff and approved by a manager, but loose submissions still need this groundwork. Only when every day is linked to the right candidate and placement can you finish the rows.

**Withbombos**

**The hour rows are ready per day per placement, with the reason attached and the doubtful ones flagged.**

Bombos reads the photo, text message, or Excel file, finds the placement, and prepares the hours as rows per day, with the reason attached. The reason shows why the hours belong to that placement, so you can compare the proposal with what the candidate or client submitted. An unclear day or doubtful placement comes back as a question. You check the rows, adjust them where needed, and enter the hours in BambooHR.

**After three months**

After three months, the hours are complete by the end of the week. Bombos knows your rules, the proposals are more often right, and you mainly check the exceptions. Time once spent retyping now goes to candidates and clients. The same office can handle more placements, and your team can set up the next task with Bombos itself.

## What's ready for you then

-   Hours complete by the end of the week
-   No more retyping photos, texts, or Excel files
-   Only exceptions still need your attention
-   Fewer payroll and invoicing errors

## Where do you see that?

The hour rows from photos, texts, and Excel files sit as proposals on one list in Bombos. Next to each proposal you see the reason and the status: "ready for you" or "waiting on your input." You do not need to have BambooHR open to see which hour rows are waiting for your check and which timesheet still has a question attached.

"Ready for you" belongs to the proposal you can check. With "waiting on your input," Bombos needs information or a decision. That way the list shows the difference between a prepared timesheet and work still waiting on your answer. The reason next to the proposal helps you judge the chosen placement.

Every action with an effect outside Bombos is kept in a log you can view. That log shows what happened; the list of proposals shows what is still waiting. You enter the hours in BambooHR after your check.

## How does it start?

In the first week we set up the hours task together, in a conversation of about an hour. We look at where the timesheets come in, which package you use, and which rules apply to preparing the hours. You show us the work you carry over from the group chat and the inbox into BambooHR. We also write down, in that conversation, the house rules for hours that up to now only existed by word of mouth.

Bombos then puts the first task live at the "proposing" level: the hour rows sit ready for your check. A correction from you becomes the rule for next time. Bombos learns your way of preparing hours only from your corrections. Checking the first proposals is therefore part of setting up your way of working.

You keep your existing package and nothing moves. We fill in the settings together; you do not need a course. Once a task type has gone well for a while, you set the level to "run after approval" or "run on its own." The fixed limits on messages and entries keep applying. Through the log you keep an eye on things afterward.

When an arrangement keeps coming back, Bombos proposes it to you as a standing rule, with the earlier timesheets as the reason. You read the reason and say yes or no.

The hours are the start, not the whole offer. We take you through the first step; after that your own office teaches Bombos the next task. After three months, the hours are complete at the end of the week without you having to chase them.

## From timesheets to greater capacity.

It starts with timesheets because they drain time every week. But this is about more than hours. Your staffing company is growing, placements are increasing, and you do not want to keep hiring office staff to keep up. With Bombos, the same team does more work, at a higher quality.

After hours, your team teaches Bombos the next task itself. You do not need to be technical: you correct a proposal, and that correction becomes the rule. Your people learn to work with AI as part of their daily work. We guide you through the first step, and we do not want you to keep coming back to us.

Bombos costs less than half a day a week of the person you would otherwise hire. Leave your number and we will call you back to talk through your situation.

## What Bombos does, in three steps

1.  ### It reads what comes in
    
    An email, a message, a photo or a PDF: Bombos reads it, looks up the client and the details in the systems you already have, and sees what is missing.
    
2.  ### It drafts the work, you approve it
    
    The proposal sits on one list with the reasoning next to it. You read it, adjust it and approve. Only then is anything sent, booked or filed.
    
3.  ### It remembers what you decide
    
    Every correction becomes the rule for next time. Once a kind of task has gone well for a while, you hand it over step by step, and you check the log afterwards.
    

## What can Bombos not do here today?

Bombos does not enter the hours in BambooHR without your approval; they go in only after you have checked the rows. The proposal gives you hour rows to judge. Rows without a question attached deserve that check too: a proposal can be wrong even when Bombos shows no doubt. The hours and the placement they belong to therefore belong to the same check.

Bombos only knows what is in the mail, the text message, or the package. A change agreed by phone or in person first needs to be written down somewhere. That is why Bombos can interview you: it asks which day was agreed and which placement it belongs to, so you can add the missing information to the timesheet.

Messages to the client or the candidate never go out without your approval. That also applies to a request for missing hours, on every channel. For messages about timesheets, that limit is technically enforced. Only Bombos can switch it off, at your explicit request and at your own risk.

A timesheet is only usable once every day sits against the right placement.

## Leave your number and we'll call you back to talk through your situation.

A few lines about how things go at your company is enough, or just your number. You won't get a sales pitch but a conversation: what stands out to us, which work could get lighter first at your company and what your team can take on after that. It costs nothing. If we see something worthwhile together, we start with that first piece of work.

## More use cases like this one.

From the same niche, and a few from others.

### [How do you handle interview scheduling within the hour of an application?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/applicants-waiting-a-week-for-a-reply/)

*Timesheets and hours in staffing and placement*

A personal reply ready for every applicant within the hour.

### [How do you keep the onboarding checklist for a new employee's first day?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/first-day-for-a-new-colleague/)

*Timesheets and hours in staffing and placement*

Everything arranged for the first day, while you stay in control.

### [How do you answer a time off request that arrives by email?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/leave-requests-by-email/)

*Timesheets and hours in staffing and placement*

Every leave request answered the same day, with a draft ready.

### [How do you answer a quote request within the hour, even late on Friday?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/quote-requests-after-hours/)

*Planning for installation and technical maintenance*

Every request gets a reply before the customer calls elsewhere.

### [How does three way matching flag an invoice that doesn't match the quote?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/invoices-that-do-not-match-the-quote/)

*Invoices against the project, in every trade*

Mismatched invoices spotted the same day, not at month end.

### [How do you rebuild the schedule for twelve technicians after a sick call at 6:58, with the messages to customers ready alongside it?](https://bombos.ai/en/use-cases/sick-call-reschedule-the-day/)

*Planning for installation and technical maintenance*

After a sick call, the new day plan is ready.


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