Timesheet Calculator

Work five 9-to-5 days with a 30-minute unpaid lunch and you have logged 37.5 hours for the week - not 40. At a $20 hourly rate that is $750 in gross pay. Add a couple of long days and you might cross 40 hours into overtime, where each extra hour is worth $30 instead of $20. Those small differences - the half-hour lunch, the late finish, the line between regular and overtime - are exactly what this timesheet calculator is built to handle, so the number on your time card matches the number on your paycheck. If you just need the premium on the overtime portion, the Overtime Calculator is the focused tool; this page handles the whole week.

How daily hours are calculated

For each day, the calculator converts your clock-in and clock-out times to minutes, takes the difference, subtracts your unpaid break, and converts back to decimal hours:

If clock-out is earlier than clock-in - say you start at 10:00 PM and finish at 6:00 AM - the shift is assumed to cross midnight and 24 hours are added so the result is a positive 8 hours, not a negative number.

How weekly hours and overtime work

The seven daily figures are added into a weekly total, which is then split at the overtime threshold:

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), nonexempt employees earn overtime at 1.5× their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a workweek. So gross pay is regular hours at your rate plus overtime hours at one-and-a-half times your rate. You can change the threshold if your job uses a different weekly standard.

How to use this timesheet calculator

You only need your clock times and an hourly rate to get a complete picture. Work through it in order:

1. Clock in / clock out: for each day you worked, enter the start and end times. Leave a day blank if you did not work it.
2. Break: enter the number of unpaid break minutes (a 30- or 60-minute lunch). Leave short paid rest breaks out.
3. Hourly rate: type your pay rate. The calculator multiplies it by your regular hours and applies 1.5× to overtime.
4. Overtime after: keep this at 40 for the federal weekly standard, or change it if your workplace uses a different threshold.

The results update instantly. Read the weekly total at the top, check the regular-vs-overtime split, and review the daily breakdown table to spot any time you entered incorrectly.

Who this calculator is for

• Hourly employees double-checking that their pay stub matches the hours they actually worked.
• Shift workers with variable start and end times, including overnight shifts.
• Freelancers and contractors totaling billable hours for an invoice.
• Small-business owners and managers tallying a team member's week before running payroll.
• Anyone who wants to know whether they crossed into overtime this week.

Minutes-to-decimal conversion table

Payroll uses decimal hours, not hours and minutes. This reference shows the most common conversions:

Worked example 1: a standard 40-hour week

You work Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, with a 30-minute unpaid lunch. Each day is 8 hours and 30 minutes of presence minus 30 minutes of lunch, or 8.0 hours worked. Five days gives a 40.0-hour week - all regular, no overtime. At $18 an hour, gross pay is 40 × $18 = $720.00.

Worked example 2: a week with overtime

Now suppose two of those days run until 6:30 PM instead of 4:30 PM, adding 2 hours each. Three days stay at 8 hours and two days are 10 hours, for a weekly total of 44.0 hours. The first 40 hours are regular: 40 × $18 = $720.00. The extra 4 hours are overtime at 1.5×: 4 × $27 = $108.00. Gross pay is $828.00 - the 4 overtime hours added $108 instead of the $72 they would have earned at the regular rate.

Worked example 3: an overnight shift

A security guard clocks in at 11:00 PM Tuesday and out at 7:00 AM Wednesday, with a 45-minute unpaid meal break. Because clock-out is earlier than clock-in, the calculator wraps past midnight: 8 hours of presence minus 0.75 hours of break equals 7.25 hours for that shift. Without the overnight handling, the math would wrongly read as −16 hours.

Key timesheet terms

• Workweek: a fixed, recurring period of 168 hours (seven consecutive 24-hour days). The FLSA figures overtime per workweek, not per pay period.
• Nonexempt employee: a worker entitled to minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA. Exempt employees (certain salaried roles) are not.
• Regular rate: the hourly rate used as the base for overtime. It can include certain bonuses, not just the stated hourly wage.
• Time-and-a-half: 1.5× the regular rate, the standard federal overtime premium.
• Double time: 2× the regular rate, required by some states (e.g., California after 12 hours in a day) but not by federal law.
• Decimal hours: hours expressed as a decimal (7.50) rather than hours and minutes (7:30), the format payroll systems use.

Tips for an accurate timesheet

• Record actual times. Enter the real clock-in and clock-out rather than rounding in your head; let payroll apply any official rounding.
• Only deduct unpaid breaks. Short rest breaks of 5-20 minutes are paid time and should not be subtracted.
• Check the overtime line. If your total nudges over 40, confirm the extra hours are paid at 1.5× on your stub.
• Keep each week separate. For a biweekly check, total each workweek on its own - overtime does not carry between weeks.
• Save your numbers. Keeping your own running tally makes it easy to catch a payroll error early.

Limitations and assumptions

This calculator is a planning and verification tool, not a payroll system:

• It estimates gross pay only and does not withhold federal or state income tax, Social Security, or Medicare.
• It applies a single weekly overtime threshold; it does not model daily overtime or double time that some states require.
• It assumes you enter unpaid break minutes; it cannot tell which of your breaks are paid.
• It uses the exact minutes you enter and does not round the way an employer's timeclock might.
• It does not handle shift differentials, tips, commissions, or PTO accrual.

Daily overtime, double time, and how states differ

The federal FLSA only counts overtime by the week: anything past 40 hours in a single workweek is paid at 1.5×, and there is no federal daily-overtime or double-time rule. Several states layer extra protections on top, and they can change your pay even when your weekly total stays under 40. The clearest example is California, which pays 1.5× after 8 hours in a single workday, double time (2×) after 12 hours in a day, 1.5× for the first 8 hours of a seventh consecutive workday, and double time beyond that. So a California worker who logs a single 13-hour shift earns overtime that day even if the rest of the week is light. Alaska, Nevada, and Colorado also have daily-overtime provisions, each with its own thresholds and exceptions.

This timesheet calculator applies one weekly threshold, so it will match federal pay and the pay of most states accurately, but it does not split out daily overtime or double time. If you work in a daily-overtime state, treat the calculator's overtime line as a floor: your actual overtime may be higher once daily rules are applied. To model the premium on those extra hours directly, the dedicated Overtime Calculator lets you set custom multipliers, and your state labor department publishes the exact daily and seventh-day rules that apply to you.

From timesheet hours to take-home pay

A timesheet answers two questions - how many hours, and what are they worth in gross pay. Your actual deposit is smaller because payroll subtracts taxes and other withholdings from that gross figure. The usual deductions are federal income tax (based on your W-4 and tax bracket), state income tax in most states, and FICA - 6.2% for Social Security plus 1.45% for Medicare, totaling 7.65% of your wages. On top of that come any pre-tax benefits like a 401(k) contribution or health-insurance premium, which actually lower the income tax you owe.

That is why the weekly total here will not equal the bottom line on your pay stub. Use this page to confirm the hours and gross pay are right, then estimate the deposit with a tool built for withholding: the Paycheck Calculator turns gross pay into net pay after federal, state, and FICA taxes. If you are paid a salary instead of by the hour, the Salary Calculator works the other direction. Independent contractors do not have FICA withheld at all and instead owe self-employment tax at filing - the Self-Employment Tax Calculator covers that case.

Reading the daily breakdown table

Beyond the headline weekly total, the per-day table is where you catch errors. Scan it for three things. First, look for a day that reads far higher or lower than you expected - usually a typo in AM/PM or a transposed clock-out time. Second, check that each day's break matches reality; a forgotten lunch deduction is the single most common timesheet mistake and quietly inflates your hours. Third, confirm that any overnight shift shows a sensible positive number rather than a near-zero or negative one, which would mean the midnight wrap did not trigger. Because every figure is reported in decimal hours, a day that should be seven and a half hours shows as 7.50, not 7:30 - if you see 7.30 you have likely entered minutes where decimals belong. Catching these on the timesheet is far easier than disputing them after a paycheck has already been cut.

Related concepts and calculators

This page answers "how many hours did I work and what is it worth?" For related questions, a sister tool fits better:

• To dig into overtime premiums and time-and-a-half on specific hours, use the Overtime Calculator.
• To turn an hourly rate into an annual salary (or back), use the Hourly to Salary Calculator.
• To see your pay after a percentage increase, use the Pay Raise Calculator.
• To estimate your deposit after taxes, use the Paycheck Calculator.
• To add up an elapsed span between two times, use the Hours Calculator.
• For business-side margins on the work you bill, see the Margin, Markup, and Profit Margin calculators.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division: hours worked, overtime, and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).