Invoicing Against Timesheets

Can a company back track on invoiced timesheets.

The contract I am currently completing, required us to invoice on a weekly basis against signed, approved timesheets. I have done this over an extended period. As I am working in one company's building for a partner company, the timesheet system consisted of 1 paper agency time sheet, 1 paper company timesheet and 1 electronic partner time sheet. The paper timesheets and a paper copy of the electronic timesheet are provided for signature. The electronic timesheet is approved by a member of the partner company's management.

Because I work for a partner company, I was instructed not to use the timeclock, then they changed the building entry system to include the clock system.

However, as I was not on the clock, I was not given access to the clock records and am unable to check them.

Now the agency claim there are discrepancies in the hours booked and the hours recorded, and want to claim against records going back 2 years, which I am unable to verify but which were originally checked and approved on a weekly basis. Also these records do not include for working away from the office as agreed on an ad hoc basis. This would be reflected in the approval of the timesheets but not necessarily recorded elsewhere.

Is the agency's claim, based on records of entry and exit times on a system I was excluded from using but apparently still recorded, a pursuable claim or are they just trying to bully their way. Also on a wider scale, if the contract states that payments are to be made against signed, approved timesheets and this is adhered to, then can they legitimately claim that approval was invalid at a later date and reclaim the payments. As this tends to be the whole basis of payments to agency workers it could seriously impact the whole agency / contract system.

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DavidG