Bosses requesting me to misrepresent the hours in the timesheet

Prior to the question, I have read multiple questions and answers about misrepresented timesheets on this page, but all of them were about different situations than the one I am in. I work as a software developer. This is my first job. I've been in the company for a few years. Recently, the company has started requiring us to track our worktime in timesheets. At the end of each day, we have to enter the amount of time we've spent working on each project we've worked on. For now, we've been instructed by our bosses (my boss and his boss) to enter the time spent working on each project factually, we should enter the time we've really spent working on those projects. But here starts the reason for my question. Each project we are working on has a specific number of days which can be spent working on it each year. The number of days is determined by the price the project was sold for. ADDED UPON COMMENTERS' REQUESTS: The policy of number of days allowed to be allocated to a project is a new policy set by the new CEO, who is above the mentioned bosses. We've recently had a change in top level management. The customers are charged generally for the entire project for the price that is agreed upon before the project realization. Our bosses have mentioned that after we have used up all the allowed hours on a project, if there is still more work to be done on the project, we (the developers) might be required to enter in the timesheet those hours spent working on those projects as if they were spent working on some other project whose allowed time for the year hasn't been used up. We also might need to enter some of those hours as administrative hours, education hours or similar. Since it is the beginning of the year, we still haven't used up all the hours for any of our projects. But we might in a month or two. The thing is, some of our projects were sold for less money than they should've been. And it was done intentionally, because some of the higher-ups were desperate to sell anything. So when the time on some projects runs out, it won't be a matter of an unlucky estimate guess. And then there are projects that won't have all of their time used up. My colleague developers, both those on the same level and more senior than me, are all ready to enter the "fake" hours as required by our bosses. Specifically, my boss and his boss are on it, their higher-ups don't know about "the fake hours request". ADDED UPON COMMENTERS' REQUESTS: The customers are charged generally for the entire project for the price that is agreed upon before the project realization. Bids are based on combination of guesses of what the market will pay and how long it will actually take. So NONE of the customers will be charged more depending on the times we enter into the timesheets. I am pretty sure the purpose of this measure is to cover up the fact that some projects have been undersold from the upper management of the company. The lower of the mentioned two bosses is likely scared he will be fired for underperformance if the hours were to be reported truthfully. Me and some of my colleagues might also be fired since a part of our working hours allocated to projects losing money. We are also working on profitable projects, but from the talk going around the company, it seems that it will matter more to the upper management that there are no projects losing money than having profitable projects covering for the unprofitable ones. Since it is my first job, I am unexperienced with such situations. It seems unethical. It's a nice job which I wouldn't like to lose. But I am considering leaving if this turns out to be an uncommon behavior in the corporate world. I just don't want to leave if this is something commonly found in most corporations and not considered an employee's responsibility but that of a manager. Confronting my bosses about it doesn't seem like an option. The country is Croatia, a rather small EU country. My (edited, since the first one was closed as not focused) question is: what is a proper response on my part?

Feb 2, 2025 - 11:24

Prior to the question, I have read multiple questions and answers about misrepresented timesheets on this page, but all of them were about different situations than the one I am in.

I work as a software developer. This is my first job. I've been in the company for a few years. Recently, the company has started requiring us to track our worktime in timesheets. At the end of each day, we have to enter the amount of time we've spent working on each project we've worked on.

For now, we've been instructed by our bosses (my boss and his boss) to enter the time spent working on each project factually, we should enter the time we've really spent working on those projects.

But here starts the reason for my question. Each project we are working on has a specific number of days which can be spent working on it each year. The number of days is determined by the price the project was sold for.

ADDED UPON COMMENTERS' REQUESTS:

The policy of number of days allowed to be allocated to a project is a new policy set by the new CEO, who is above the mentioned bosses. We've recently had a change in top level management.

The customers are charged generally for the entire project for the price that is agreed upon before the project realization.

Our bosses have mentioned that after we have used up all the allowed hours on a project, if there is still more work to be done on the project, we (the developers) might be required to enter in the timesheet those hours spent working on those projects as if they were spent working on some other project whose allowed time for the year hasn't been used up. We also might need to enter some of those hours as administrative hours, education hours or similar.

Since it is the beginning of the year, we still haven't used up all the hours for any of our projects. But we might in a month or two.

The thing is, some of our projects were sold for less money than they should've been. And it was done intentionally, because some of the higher-ups were desperate to sell anything. So when the time on some projects runs out, it won't be a matter of an unlucky estimate guess. And then there are projects that won't have all of their time used up.

My colleague developers, both those on the same level and more senior than me, are all ready to enter the "fake" hours as required by our bosses. Specifically, my boss and his boss are on it, their higher-ups don't know about "the fake hours request".

ADDED UPON COMMENTERS' REQUESTS:

The customers are charged generally for the entire project for the price that is agreed upon before the project realization.

Bids are based on combination of guesses of what the market will pay and how long it will actually take.

So NONE of the customers will be charged more depending on the times we enter into the timesheets. I am pretty sure the purpose of this measure is to cover up the fact that some projects have been undersold from the upper management of the company. The lower of the mentioned two bosses is likely scared he will be fired for underperformance if the hours were to be reported truthfully. Me and some of my colleagues might also be fired since a part of our working hours allocated to projects losing money. We are also working on profitable projects, but from the talk going around the company, it seems that it will matter more to the upper management that there are no projects losing money than having profitable projects covering for the unprofitable ones.

Since it is my first job, I am unexperienced with such situations. It seems unethical.

It's a nice job which I wouldn't like to lose. But I am considering leaving if this turns out to be an uncommon behavior in the corporate world. I just don't want to leave if this is something commonly found in most corporations and not considered an employee's responsibility but that of a manager.

Confronting my bosses about it doesn't seem like an option.

The country is Croatia, a rather small EU country.

My (edited, since the first one was closed as not focused) question is: what is a proper response on my part?