Timesheet calculator with breaks

What this timesheet calculator works out

For each day the calculator takes the finish time, subtracts the start time and the unpaid break, and shows the hours worked. It adds the days up to a weekly total in hours and minutes and in decimal hours, the format most payroll systems ask for. Enter contract hours and it shows how far the week is over or under them. Enter an hourly rate and it multiplies the decimal hours by it, so you see the pay for the week before tax, National Insurance and other deductions.

A shift that ends after midnight counts on into the next day. You enter 22:00 to 06:00 as it is, without splitting the shift over two dates.

How to use the timesheet calculator

1. Enter the start and finish time for each day you worked, on the 24-hour clock.

2. Enter the unpaid break for each shift in minutes. Leave paid breaks out, because they stay part of the hours.

3. Working the same hours Monday to Friday? Fill in Monday and use "Copy Monday to all weekdays".

4. Check the contract hours and add an hourly rate if you want the pay for the week.

The calculator works in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved, so a reload starts with the example week again.

A worked week: from clock times to hours and pay

This is the week the calculator shows when it opens: four day shifts and a Friday evening shift in a bar that runs past midnight.

The week comes to 40:00, or 40.00 in decimals. On a 37.5-hour contract that is 2:30 over. At a rate of £14 an hour, used here only as an example, the pay for the week before deductions is £560.

Minutes are where hand-written totals go wrong. A shift from 08:15 to 16:45 with a 45-minute break is 7 hours 45 minutes, which is 7.75 in decimals and not 7.45. The minutes-to-decimal table is on our page about the timesheet, with the rest of what a timesheet records.

Breaks, overtime and what the calculator leaves out

Only unpaid breaks come off. If your staff are paid for a 15-minute break, enter 0 for it, or the calculator takes paid time away.

Hours over the contract show up as the difference, but the calculator applies one rate to every hour. Whether extra hours earn a higher rate depends on the contract: UK employers do not have to pay a premium for overtime, as long as average pay across all hours stays at or above the National Minimum Wage. If your overtime is paid at time and a half, work out the extra hours separately.

The calculator covers one week at a time. For a fortnight or a month, run each week and add the totals, or keep the weeks in the Excel timesheet template, which adds them up for you.

When a calculator is not enough any more

For one person checking their own week, a calculator is quick. For a manager doing it for fifteen people, it means copying times from a punch clock, a message thread or paper sheets every week, and chasing the shifts that have a start and no finish.

In Shiftbase the hours come from clocking in and out in the app or on the Kiosk, a web page on a shared PC or tablet where each person enters their own PIN. Breaks are part of the registration, managers approve or decline each one, and the payroll report exports the approved hours to Excel or CSV.