Time Card Calculator

DateMath works out each day on its own: time out minus time in, with a time out earlier than the time in counted on the next day, minus that day's unpaid break. It adds the exact minutes of every day, converts the total to decimal hours only at the end, and multiplies the exact hours by the rate, so no rounding builds up from day to day.

• US hours-worked rules. DateMath counts exact minutes and subtracts only the breaks you enter. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act rules count rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes as work time but not bona fide meal periods (ordinarily 30 minutes or more), and allow rounding clock times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth or quarter of an hour only if employees are still paid for all the time they work. Source: 29 CFR 785.18, 29 CFR 785.19, 29 CFR 785.48.

DateMath's date math is tested against more than 100 cases worked out by hand. Every worked example and table on the site is computed with the same code the calculators run, so a page and its calculator can't disagree.

The time card calculator adds up the hours you worked over a week or a two-week pay period. Enter each day's time in, time out and unpaid break, and it works out the hours and minutes worked per day, the total for the week, and the same total in decimal hours for payroll. It is a free work hours calculator: no account, nothing to install, and the times you enter stay in your browser.

What you enter

• Time in and time out for each day you worked, to the minute. A time out earlier than the time in is on the next day, for shifts that end after midnight.
• Break: the unpaid minutes that day, such as a lunch break. Leave it empty or 0 when there was none.
• Hourly rate (optional), for the gross pay.

Days you leave empty count as days off. A day with only one of the two times, or with a break longer than the shift, is left out of the total and named under the result, so a typo never slips into your hours.

What you get

Each row shows that day's hours as hours:minutes with decimal hours in brackets. The result gives the week's hours and minutes worked, the decimal hours, the days worked and, with a rate, the gross pay. In the two-week view you also see each week's total. To add up amounts of time, such as 7:45 + 8:20, instead of clock times, use the Add up hours tab.

A week with a different break each day, a half day on Thursday and a night shift on Friday that ends the next morning:

The week comes to 36 hours, 25 minutes, or 36.42 decimal hours. Friday's shift is 7 hours, 50 minutes after its break even though its time out is the smaller number, because DateMath counts a time out earlier than the time in on the next day.

1. Work out each day. Subtract the time in from the time out on the 24-hour clock, adding 24 hours to the time out when the shift passes midnight. The hours calculator shows this step for one shift.
2. Take off the unpaid break in minutes.
3. Add up the days, hours and minutes separately, then turn every 60 minutes into an hour.
4. Convert to decimal hours at the end: divide the minutes by 60.

For the sample week, 8:00, 8:05, 8:00, 4:30 and 7:50:

• Hours: 8 + 8 + 8 + 4 + 7 = 35.
• Minutes: 0 + 5 + 0 + 30 + 50 = 85, which is 1 hour, 25 minutes. Carry 1 hour.
• Total: 35 + 1 hours and 25 minutes = 36 hours, 25 minutes.

In decimal hours that is 36.42, because 25 ÷ 60 = 0.4167.

Subtract only the breaks you are not paid for. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act rules, rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as hours worked, while a bona fide meal period, ordinarily 30 minutes or more and free of all duties, does not. Many states have their own break rules, and your employer's policy decides which breaks are paid, so enter what your time card shows as unpaid.

The same 5-day week of 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM shifts with different lunch breaks:

With more than one unpaid break in a day, add them up and enter the sum in that day's Break field.

Adding times is the step where most timesheet mistakes happen, because minutes carry over at 60, not at 100. Add the hours and the minutes in separate columns, then carry. Example: 6:40, 8:15, 7:55 and 9:10.

• Hours: 6 + 8 + 7 + 9 = 30.
• Minutes: 40 + 15 + 55 + 10 = 120, which is 2 hours. Carry 2 hours.
• Total: 30 + 2 hours and 0 minutes = 32 hours.

You can also convert each amount to decimal hours, add the decimals and convert back. Round only at the end: the four amounts rounded to two places add up to 32.01, while their exact total is 32.00. The hours to decimal calculator converts each amount, and the time card calculator adds exact minutes for you.

Add up hours and minutes with the calculator

For amounts of time rather than clock times, switch the calculator to Add up hours: type the hours and minutes of each amount, up to eight, and it adds them, carries the minutes into hours and gives the total as hours and minutes, hours:minutes and decimal hours, with the gross pay when you enter a rate. It works as an add hours calculator for anything you track in hours and minutes, not only shifts.

How many hours do you work a week? Multiply the hours of a day by the days you work, or let the calculator add your real days. For a biweekly pay period, switch to two weeks: the result shows each week and the period's total. These are common schedules, with breaks already taken off:

A 40.00-hour week therefore adds up to 80.00 hours in a two-week period and 2,080 hours over 52 weeks, before any paid time off is counted.

Gross pay is the decimal hours times the hourly rate. Enter a rate and the calculator multiplies the exact hours, then rounds the pay to the cent. For the sample week of 36 hours, 25 minutes at $17.50 an hour that is $637.29. Rounding the hours to 36.42 first gives $637.35, so a payroll system that rounds hours before it multiplies can differ by a few cents.

The result is gross pay only: no taxes, deductions, tips or overtime premium are applied. Overtime and pay rules depend on federal and state law and on your contract, so check those for anything beyond hours × rate.

DateMath counts exact minutes. Some employers round each clock punch instead, to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or quarter hour. The federal rules accept this only if it averages out so that employees are paid for all the time they actually work (29 CFR 785.48). This is how a few punches round to the nearest step:

To check a rounded time card, enter the rounded times; to see what you actually worked, enter the real punches.

• Hourly employees checking a pay stub against their own hours.
• Managers and small business owners totaling a team's weekly timesheets.
• Freelancers and contractors turning a week of sessions into billable decimal hours.
• Caregivers, babysitters and shift workers whose days include nights or split breaks.

For a single shift, the hours calculator is quicker; to convert a total between hours:minutes and decimals, the hours to decimal calculator; and to count the working days in a pay period, the business days calculator.