How the time card calculator works
New to tracking your own hours? How to calculate hours worked walks through the same steps by hand.
- Enter each shift. Type the clock-in and clock-out times for each day you worked. Use “Add a split shift” when you clocked out and back in on the same day.
- Add unpaid breaks. Enter unpaid break minutes, such as a 30-minute lunch, for each day. Leave the field blank for paid breaks.
- Choose your overtime rule. Open “Pay and overtime settings” to set the weekly limit, an optional daily limit, the multiplier, and the day your workweek starts.
- Read the totals. The calculator updates as you type. It shows each day and the week in hours and minutes and in decimal hours, split into regular and overtime hours.
- Copy or print. Copy a plain-text summary for an email or a message, or print the week for your records.
Time card formula
The calculator works in whole minutes and converts to decimal hours only at the end, the same way a careful payroll clerk would.
Worked example: a 45-hour week
Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM, 30-minute unpaid lunch, $20.00 an hour
- Each shift is 9 hours 30 minutes (570 minutes). Minus the 30-minute lunch, that leaves 540 minutes, or 9 hours a day.
- Five days give 2,700 minutes: 45h, or 45.00 decimal hours.
- With a 40-hour weekly limit, Monday through Thursday and the first 4 hours of Friday are regular time. The last 5h of Friday are overtime.
- Regular pay: 40.00 × $20.00 = $800.00. Overtime pay: 5.00 × $20.00 × 1.5 = $150.00.
- Estimated gross pay for the week: $950.00, before taxes and deductions.
Overtime, breaks, and rounding: what the calculator assumes
The calculator applies the rules you choose. The defaults follow common federal rules, but your state law, union contract, or employer policy may differ, so treat each setting as an assumption to check.
- Weekly overtime. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, covered nonexempt employees earn at least time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek. A workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period that can start on any day, and hours cannot be averaged across two or more weeks. That is why the calculator asks which day your week starts.
- Daily overtime. Federal law does not require overtime for long days on their own, but some state rules and employer policies do. Choose “Over a daily and weekly limit” if yours does.
- Breaks. Federal rules generally treat short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes as paid work time. A bona fide meal period, usually 30 minutes or more when you are fully relieved of duty, generally is not. Enter only unpaid break minutes.
- See how to calculate lunch breaks on a time card and how overtime pay is calculated for worked examples.
- Rounding. Some employers round punches to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour (6 minutes), or quarter hour. Federal rules allow this only if it does not, over time, underpay employees for time actually worked. Leave rounding off unless your employer rounds.
Minutes to decimal hours
Payroll systems often record time in decimal hours. To convert, divide minutes by 60. Common values, rounded to two decimal places:
| Minutes | Decimal hours | Minutes | Decimal hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 min | 0.08 | 30 min | 0.50 |
| 10 min | 0.17 | 40 min | 0.67 |
| 15 min | 0.25 | 45 min | 0.75 |
| 20 min | 0.33 | 50 min | 0.83 |
For any value, including seconds, use the decimal hours calculator.
Before you submit your time card
- Check that every shift has both a clock-in and a clock-out time. Rows with a missing time are flagged and left out of the total.
- Confirm that night shifts show “Ends the next day,” and that a long day is not two shifts entered as one.
- Make sure break minutes cover only unpaid time.
- Set the workweek start day to match your employer’s payroll week, or overtime may land on the wrong days.
- Keep a copy. Use “Copy result”, “Download CSV”, or “Print summary”, or turn on “Remember on this device”. To keep every week, use the weekly pay tracker; to write times by hand, print a blank time card.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate the hours on my time card?
For each shift, subtract the clock-in time from the clock-out time, then subtract any unpaid break. Add the days together for the week. Work in minutes so you never mix up 7:30 (seven and a half hours) with 7.30 decimal hours, then divide by 60 to get decimal hours.
How do I enter a night shift that ends after midnight?
Enter the clock-out time as it appears on the clock, for example 22:00 in and 06:00 out. When the clock-out time is earlier than the clock-in time, the calculator treats the shift as ending the next day and shows “Ends the next day.” Those hours count on the day the shift started.
Is my lunch break subtracted automatically?
Only the break minutes you enter are subtracted, and only while “Subtract unpaid breaks” is on. Leave the break blank or turn the setting off for paid breaks. Under federal rules, short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are usually counted as paid time, while a bona fide meal period of 30 minutes or more usually is not.
How is overtime worked out on a time card?
With the weekly rule, hours are counted in order from the first day of your workweek. Once the total passes your weekly limit (40 by default), the remaining hours are overtime. With the daily and weekly rule, hours over the daily limit become overtime first, and the weekly limit then applies to the remaining regular hours, so no hour is counted twice.
Why is my total different from my paycheck?
This tool estimates gross pay before taxes and deductions. Paychecks can also differ because of time rounding, paid leave, shift differentials, bonuses that change the overtime rate, or a pay period that does not match your workweek. Compare your entries with your employer’s time records.
Does the calculator save or send my hours?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing you type is sent to our servers. Refreshing the page clears your entries, so copy or print the summary if you need to keep it.
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How this calculator was built. The formula, defaults, and edge cases are documented in a research record and covered by automated tests. It estimates gross amounts from your inputs; it does not determine legal entitlements, taxes, or take-home pay. Read our methodology and disclaimer.
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