How to fill in the card
Pick your pay period and the first day of it. The rows fill themselves with dates and weekday names — a monthly card gets the real number of days in that month, and a semi-monthly card runs to the 15th or to the month end. Then type each clock in and clock out.
If you left the site during the day, press + on that row and enter the second pair. There is no limit. A day with three pairs — in at 7:00, out at 11:00, back at 11:30, out at 2:00, back at 2:30, out at 6:00 — totals ten hours, and every pair is shown so you can check it against your own memory of the day.
The unpaid break column is for time that is deducted without a punch, which is how most employers treat a fixed thirty minute lunch. Enter it in minutes. If you punched out for lunch instead, leave the break column empty — the punches already account for it. Entering both is the most common mistake people make on a time card, and it costs half an hour of pay a day.
Which overtime rule to choose
Federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act pays overtime after forty hours in a workweek. Daily overtime is a state rule, not a federal one, and only some states have it.
| Rule | When to pick it |
|---|---|
| Over 40 in a week | The federal default. Right for most of the United States. |
| Over 8 in a day | Some union contracts and public sector schedules pay by the day. |
| Over 8 a day and 40 a week | Alaska, Nevada and Colorado work broadly this way. |
| California 8 / 12 | Time and a half after eight hours, double time after twelve, and the seventh straight day of a week paid at time and a half for the first eight and double after that. |
| No overtime | Salaried or exempt work, or you only want the raw hours. |
The calculator counts each seven day block of the period as its own week, so a two-week card with nine hour days shows eighty regular hours and ten of overtime, not ninety regular.
Hours and minutes, or decimal?
Payroll systems almost always want decimal. Eight hours and five minutes is
8:05 on a clock but 8.08 on a pay run, because five minutes is
0.083 of an hour, not 0.05. Both columns are shown for every day so you never have to convert
by hand, and both go into the download. To convert a single figure, or a whole column of
them, use the time to decimal converter.
What the download contains
The download is a real Excel file (.xlsx), which also opens in Google Sheets,
Numbers and LibreOffice. It carries every day, every in and out pair, the break minutes, both
hour formats, and the regular, overtime and total lines at the bottom. The hours are stored as
numbers, not text: the h:mm column adds up as time and the decimal column adds up as a plain
number. The total line is a formula, so if you correct one day's hours in the sheet the total
follows. If you entered a rate, the rate and the gross pay are on the sheet too, and the pay is
a formula off the rate. Regular and overtime are fixed figures, because the split depends on the
rule you chose. Print gives you the same card on paper, or save it as a PDF from the print
dialog — that is usually the format a payroll department wants attached to an email.
Questions people ask
Can it handle a night shift that ends the next morning?
Yes. Enter 10:00pm and 6:00am and it counts eight hours. Any clock out earlier than the clock in is treated as the following morning.
How many in and out pairs can one day have?
As many as you need. Two are shown to start with, and each press of + another in / out adds one more. Split shifts, several site visits, or clocking out for the school run are all fine.
Does it round to the nearest quarter hour?
No. It counts the exact minutes you enter. Employer rounding rules vary and rounding that always favors the employer is not lawful under the FLSA, so this calculator leaves your times alone and lets you see the true total.
Can I print a blank time card to fill in by hand?
Yes. Pick the pay period and the first day, leave the times empty, and press Print. You get a dated card for that period with empty in and out columns, on one sheet, to pin up or hand out. Fill it in during the week and type it back here on payday.
Is my time card sent anywhere?
No. Everything is worked out inside your browser. What you type is saved in this browser only, so the card is still here if you close the tab and come back, and it is gone if you press Clear or clear your browsing data. Nothing reaches a server.
Is this legal advice on my pay?
No. It is arithmetic. Overtime law varies by state and by contract, and your employer's rules may differ from the options here. Use it to check your own hours, then raise anything that looks wrong with whoever runs your payroll.