Never calculate employee time data by hand again. This free time card calculator fulfills the needs of managers and hourly employees. After employees track time for the week, insert their hours worked to calculate their expected pay. Include their overtime and breaks to ensure their hours and wages meet Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations.

What is a time card?

A time card, sometimes called a timesheet or a time card calculator, enables you to track and analyze employee work hours. Information is power. When you track data like employee hours, overtime, vacation days, and even lunch breaks, your decisions become data-driven and more informed.

Start driving productivity with free printable timesheet templates

How to use the time card calculator

Here are the step by step instructions on how to use the time card calculator:

1. Select your time card details

First, you’ll need to set up the calculator. For each employee, select the type of time card and the number of days in their week. Select five days to see Monday through Friday. Or select seven days to see Monday through Sunday. Use the weekly time card to see one week of time entries. Or use the bi-weekly time card to see two weeks of time entries.

 2. Add hourly and overtime rates

Next, select the employee’s overtime rule—whether they receive overtime pay for hours worked over eight in a day or 40 in a week. If the employee is not eligible for overtime, select “Exempt.” Then add the employee’s base hourly pay rate, and select their overtime rate.

3. Add times worked—don’t forget overtime and breaks

For each day the employee worked, add their clock in and clock out times. Those should include overtime hours. For each day the employee took an unpaid break, add those minutes in the box provided. Unpaid break minutes are subtracted from the total time. As you fill in the clock in and clock out times, the tool calculates the employee’s total hours (regular and overtime) and total gross pay.

4. Download and save or print the data

Enter your email address in the box provided to download a CSV of your employee’s times worked. Then open the file in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or another application.

Automate your timesheets

Accelerate timesheet management by automating the workflow. Get the right data into the hands of the right people automatically, so your teams can maintain momentum.

Learn more about the advantages of Quickbooks Time

Common issues calculating time cards

Paying employees accurately is crucial to running a reputable business. Employee time cards don’t just show an employee’s productivity. They also show workers are being paid according to their classification. Not paying the federal minimum wage or overtime to eligible employees puts you at risk of a labor law violation. As you’re calculating employee time cards, look out for these common issues.

1. Misclassified employees

Most often, employees are classified as exempt from overtime because they’re paid a salary. But not all salaried employees are exempt automatically. If you’ve misclassified an employee, you may not be paying them the overtime they’re eligible for. Misclassifying employees leaves you vulnerable to unpaid back wages, in addition to potential attorney fees.

2. Failure to pay overtime

Labor lawsuits rose 417% between 1997 and 2017. And 79% of wage and hours infractions resulted in back wages paid to employees. Any nonexempt employee who works in excess of 40 hours per week or eight hours in a day must be paid overtime. Managers can discipline employees for not following company overtime policies. But business owners can’t deny nonexempt employees overtime pay.

3. Mismanaged employee breaks

Federal law doesn’t require lunch breaks, but 21 states have their own meal and rest break rules. Typically, the DOL considers breaks under 20 minutes to be paid time. Meal and rest breaks over 30 minutes are not paid time. If you’re not tracking breaks in your employees’ time card calculations correctly, you’re at risk for a wage and hour lawsuit.

TimeSheet Calculator FAQ

Who is this timesheet calculator for?

Timesheet calculators are used across all industries. 

Whether you’re a professional services firm or a freelancer, when it’s time to bill clients by the hour, you need detailed and accurate records. Restaurants, small retail businesses, construction companies, payroll departments, and cost center managers also use timesheet calculators to manage projects and processes on an everyday basis. 

Timesheet calculators can be used in any number of ways, from overseeing employee, team, or department progress on internal or external initiatives to understanding where employee burnout might be contributing to turnover.

How are employees' timesheets calculated?

To calculate an employee’s time and pay, multiply their weekly hours worked by their base hourly rate. Include breaks under 20 minutes as paid time. If an employee takes an unpaid lunch break, exclude those minutes from the calculation. If an employee is eligible for overtime pay, multiply any hours worked over 40 in a week or eight in a day by 1.5 or 2 times their base hourly rate. 

An employee’s overtime rate depends on your state’s overtime rules. For even simpler calculations, use an automated online timesheets to do the math for you.

What is 15 minutes on a timesheet?

Tracking time in a timesheet calculator seems simple enough, but mistakes often occur because everything is represented in hours, not minutes. 

15 minutes on a timesheet equates to a quarter of an hour, so it should be entered as .25. Since 30 minutes is half an hour, employees should enter .5 and since 45 minutes is three-quarters of an hour it equates to .75 on a timesheet. 

The above examples are straightforward and easy enough. But here’s where some math is required. For 50 minutes, you’ll divide 50 by the 60 minutes in an hour to determine what number to enter in the timesheet calculator (.83). 

Luckily, with QuickBooks time card calculator, employees simply enter a start time and an end time and the automated software does the rest, so your time sheets are error-free.