Time Tracking for Your Business

Time Tracking for Nonprofits

Sandtime.io is already used by nonprofit and NGO teams that need simple time tracking for grant-funded work, volunteer hours, nonprofit timesheets, and donor-ready reports without enterprise overhead. Eligible organizations get full access to Sandtime.io for free, without per-user pricing pressure. If your organization qualifies, see our nonprofit offer.

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Nonprofits: why they choose Sandtime.io

Grant and funded hours reporting

Track funded hours by grant, program, donor, or restricted budget so reporting stays clear when funders ask how work was allocated.

Volunteer hour tracking

Track volunteer hours by program, campaign, event, or location without burying coordinators in enterprise workflow settings.

Simple nonprofit timesheets

Use simple nonprofit timesheets that staff, contractors, and volunteers can actually complete without training.

Program and field visibility

See where time goes across field work, humanitarian projects, program delivery, administration, and fundraising in one place.

Free for eligible nonprofits

Eligible nonprofits and NGOs get free access to Sandtime.io, so you can add staff and volunteers without per-user pricing pressure eating into your mission budget.

Built for mission-driven teams

Sandtime.io is already used by nonprofit and NGO teams that need lightweight reporting without surveillance-heavy software.

How a nonprofit sets up Sandtime.io

A nonprofit sets up Sandtime.io with a project for each grant, program or event, so every staff and volunteer hour is logged against the funding it belongs to. Coordinators approve timesheets and past periods lock, which keeps the hours in a funder report from changing after it is submitted.

  1. Match projects to your fundingCreate one project per grant or restricted budget, named the way your funder names it, plus projects for programs and events. Fundraising and administration get their own projects, which shows the split between program and overhead time.
  2. Invite staff, contractors and volunteersEveryone signs in with email, Google, Microsoft or Apple, at no per-user cost. Program leads can be Project Administrators for their own programs, and volunteers join as Users who see only the projects they are assigned to.
  3. Let volunteers log from their phonesVolunteers tap the timer on the iPhone or Android app at an event, or enter the shift afterwards with its start and end time. Fill-timesheet reminders by email every Friday prompt staff to fill in any day left empty.
  4. Build the funder report from locked hoursAt the end of the reporting period, staff submit timesheets and an Administrator approves them. Past periods lock, and a report grouped by project and member exports to Excel or CSV for the grant report, the audit or the board.

Step by step in the help center: invite the team with the right role, approve a week from the email, and turn on auto-locking.

Set up your first grantFree for unlimited users. No credit card required.

Common use cases

  • Preparing nonprofit timesheets for staff, volunteers, and contractors
  • Tracking volunteer hours by program, event, or location
  • Tracking funded hours for grants, donors, and restricted budgets
  • Running time tracking for humanitarian projects and field teams
  • Separating direct program time from admin time
  • Creating clean exports for finance, audits, and board reporting

Key features

Grant, program, and event structure

Organize work in a way that matches how nonprofits and NGOs actually operate, including grants, programs, campaigns, events, and internal initiatives.

Volunteer and donor reporting

Export clean data for donor reporting, volunteer hour summaries, payroll support, or finance workflows without rebuilding everything in a spreadsheet.

Low-friction time entry

Let teams log time from the web, desktop, mobile, browser extension, or Slack, depending on where they already work.

Where Sandtime.io stops

Better to know before you invite the team. These are the gaps people in this line of work ask about most.

  • No project budgetsThere is no budget field or budget alert. A report grouped by project shows hours, cost, and revenue so far, and you compare them with the estimate yourself.
  • No leave managementHolidays, sick days, and leave requests are not managed in Sandtime.io. Keep them in your HR tool, or start from the free leave policy template.
  • Reminders are a weekly emailThe fill-timesheet reminder is one email, sent on Friday at 6 PM while auto-locking is on. It is off by default, so each member switches it on in their notification settings.

Common questions

Is Sandtime.io free for nonprofits?

Yes. Sandtime.io is free for unlimited users, so staff, contractors and volunteers can all track time without a per-user fee. Registered nonprofits and NGOs can also ask for a custom offer.

Can we track hours per grant or program?

Yes. Create a project for each grant, program or event, and every entry is logged against it, so reports show the hours each one received.

Can volunteers log hours from their phones?

Yes. Volunteers can use the iPhone and Android apps, the web app or the Chrome extension, and their hours appear in the same reports as staff time.

Can we export hours for funder reports and audits?

Yes. Custom reports group hours by project, member, activity or date and export to Excel or CSV for grant reports, audits or payroll.

Can a coordinator approve timesheets?

Yes. Staff and volunteers submit their timesheets, an Administrator approves or rejects them, and past periods can lock automatically so reported hours stop changing.

Free templates for this workflow

Use a practical file now, then move to Sandtime.io when collecting, approving, locking, and reporting records becomes ongoing work.

Daily, weekly, and monthly timesheets

Start with an editable daily, weekly, or monthly timesheet when a simple file still fits the process.

Timesheet approval and correction policy

Set clear submission, review, approval, correction, locking, and escalation rules before the workflow becomes inconsistent.

PTO and leave policy

Set clear rules for paid time off, sick leave, unpaid leave, requests, and approval in an editable Word policy.

Project staffing and capacity planner

Plan available hours, billable and non-billable work, leave, remaining capacity, utilization, and workload review in Excel.

Weekly status report

Share what is done, in progress, planned next, and blocked in a simple, repeatable weekly report.

Client onboarding and project setup checklist

Confirm the client, scope, billing, communication, access, staffing, time-recording, risk, and readiness decisions before work begins.

Keep exploring

Continue with the most relevant Sandtime.io pages for this topic.

Is Sandtime.io open source?

No. Sandtime.io is free and cloud-hosted, not open source, though recognized for open innovation. Compares open-source alternatives to Clockify and Toggl.

Open page

Free Plan

A pricing tier that gives access to a product at no cost. Sandtime.io is entirely free - unlimited users, no seat limits, no per-user fees.

Open page

Is Sandtime.io free?

Sandtime.io is free for unlimited users: no seat limits, no per-user fees, and no credit card required. Registered nonprofits can ask about a custom offer.

Open page

Nonprofit / NGO

A non-governmental, non-profit organization that operates independently of government. NGOs and nonprofits use time tracking to report on grants, manage volunteers, and demonstrate accountability.

Open page

Create a project for reported time

Create projects that people can report against, mark them billable or non-billable, and keep reporting tidy.

Open page

Open Innovation

A model where organizations build and share products openly with the wider community, often free of charge, rather than keeping everything proprietary.

Open page

Choose the best next step

Use this workflow page as the starting point, then move to the route that answers the next buying question - proof, product fit, pricing, or immediate setup.

Start with a timesheet template

Download a free daily, weekly, or monthly timesheet for Excel or PDF when a simple file is the right starting point.

Measure lost billable hours

Estimate how much forgotten client work may already be missing from invoices before you change anything else.

Explore time tracking software

See the main commercial overview built for teams that bill, budget, and report against time.

See pricing and plan details

Review the free plan, unlimited-user model, and trust-first approach before you invite the team.

Go straight to free time tracking

Start with the free product if the problem is already clear and you want to capture work immediately.

Compare Sandtime.io with other tools

See how Sandtime.io compares with Clockify, Harvest, Toggl, Jibble, and more, with each vendor's prices checked on its own site.

Related guides

Not quite the right fit? These pages cover the situations teams most often compare before choosing.

Timesheets for EU-Funded Projects

What Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ auditors expect from project timesheets, from the 215-day ceiling to monthly signing and retention.

Free Volunteer Hours Log

A free Excel and printable PDF log for volunteer shifts, with hours per program or grant and a coordinator sign-off.

Time Tracking for Small Business

See how growing service teams handle cleaner billing, project visibility, and shared accountability.

Sandtime.io vs ClickTime

ClickTime sells nonprofit pricing per user. Compare it with Sandtime.io, which is free for unlimited staff and volunteers.

10 Best Time Tracking Apps for Nonprofits

Compare the tools nonprofits actually shortlist for grant reporting and volunteer hours before you commit to a rollout.

Billable vs Non-Billable Hours

Learn which hours you can bill, why the split drives utilization and your real rate, and how to track it without surveillance.