diff --git a/src/API/TimesheetController.php b/src/API/TimesheetController.php
index 68f3a0d8..4acde9df 100644
--- a/src/API/TimesheetController.php
+++ b/src/API/TimesheetController.php
@@ -660,7 +660,6 @@ class TimesheetController extends BaseApiController
             ->setActivity($timesheet->getActivity())
             ->setProject($timesheet->getProject())
         ;
-        $this->service->prepareNewTimesheet($copyTimesheet);
 
         if (null !== ($copy = $paramFetcher->get('copy'))) {
             if (\in_array($copy, ['rates', 'all'])) {
@@ -686,6 +685,12 @@ class TimesheetController extends BaseApiController
             }
         }
 
+        // needs to be executed AFTER copying the values!
+        // the event triggered in prepareNewTimesheet() will add meta fields first. Afterwards
+        // setMetaField() will merge meta fields and if we merge in the existing ones from the copied record,
+        // it will fail, because they do not have a type assigned
+        $this->service->prepareNewTimesheet($copyTimesheet);
+
         $this->service->restartTimesheet($copyTimesheet, $timesheet);
 
         $view = new View($copyTimesheet, 200);