Location: NJ TL;DR: My former employer doesn't want to pay me in full because they believe I didn't fulfill my obligations as an employee when I, in fact, did. I've never taken someone to court, what do I do? I was recently terminated by my employer for cause and received my last paycheck. They're a digital marketing agency, B2B with around 50 or so clients. I was a Jr. Digital Account Manager - basically in training. All accounts were kept in an excel spreadsheet and there were work logs for each month that would get pulled into your timesheet. I started on 9/24 and was terminated 10/14 and had never worked in a digital marketing agency before or in a situation where I had to track my time for clients (or track my time at all really; I worked for a library, I was a teacher before that). Employees are required to bill 6.5 hours of client work a day in your 9-5 eight-hour work day. Which I did, in fact, fulfill after I finally got the hang of tracking my time using Toggl. My employer paid me last Thursday for 74 hours. I worked 80, fulfilling my 6.5 obligation. They are now saying that since I didn't fulfill my 6.5 obligation, I am being paid accordingly. I have my time logs, browser history, and have requested access to my timesheet to refute this. I don't have access to my email or my zoom workplace chats any longer, but I am able to see the client logs and took screenshots of every single October log I entered. I noticed I missed a few entries for 10/14, but I'm not sure if I should send them that. I'm not sure that I should even *have* access to the excel spreadsheets still lol. They have yet to respond. My email that you'll see below was sent on Friday at 3:30pm. I sent an email today requesting timesheet access and requested they respond by EOD; basically my last olive branch before I move forward. **My question is: what are the next steps? How long do I give them? Do I tell them that I may take legal action if this isn't resolved?** *Here is what the accountant sent:* Regarding the total of 80 hours, the discrepancy arises from the fact that, as you are aware, you haven’t consistently billed 6.5 hours per workday, which impacts the total hours processed for payroll. I’m attaching a detailed breakdown of the hours billed per day for your reference: Date Stephanie 10/01/25 4.6 10/02/25 4.9 10/03/25 5.3 10/04/25 Weekend 10/05/25 Weekend 10/06/25 6.4 10/07/25 6.4 10/08/25 6.2 10/09/25 6.8 10/10/25 6.6 10/11/25 Weekend 10/12/25 Weekend 10/13/25 6.0 10/14/25 4.0 *Here is what I sent (sans a large chunk in which I said "hey, your excel script is effed up"):* I'll admit, 10/1 & 10/2 were light because I was still getting used to tracking time. I would refresh my timesheet and client list and I would check back on it myself (without going into client folders of course), but I don't have access anymore so I can't! So, instead I give you my toggl information. I'm not trying to be annoying, but I *did* work these hours and I should be compensated accordingly. I highlighted the inconsistencies with what you sent with what I recorded on my toggl. **10/3 was 6.4 - just a little shy of what I should have** **10/6: 6.57** 10/7: 6.4 - again, a mistake on my end! Learning curve. **10/8: 7.04** **10/9: 7.0** 10/10: 6.6 **10/13: 6.54** **10/14: 6.59** I've attached the full report from Toggl in .csv and pdf form for 10/1-10/14 and the pdf files of each of the days that were inconsistent. \----------------------- Thanks all! Any advice, recommendations, etc. :)