How to use the time card calculator
- For each day worked, enter the time in and the time out from the time card.
- Enter any unpaid meal break as a whole number of minutes, such as 30. Leave it blank if the break was paid or there wasn’t one.
- Read each day’s hours in hours and minutes (h:mm) and in decimal hours, with the week total at the bottom.
- Use Copy as CSV to paste the week into a spreadsheet, or Print to keep a paper copy.
Overnight shifts work too. If someone clocks in at 10:00 PM and out at 6:30 AM, enter it just like that and the calculator counts the hours across midnight.
Hours and minutes or decimal hours
Time cards show hours and minutes, but most payroll systems and spreadsheets want decimal hours. They aren’t the same number: 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5 hours, not 7.3. To convert, divide the minutes by 60 and add them to the whole hours. The calculator shows both side by side so nothing gets mixed up when you copy hours over.
| Minutes | Decimal hours |
|---|---|
| 5 | 0.08 |
| 10 | 0.17 |
| 15 | 0.25 |
| 20 | 0.33 |
| 30 | 0.50 |
| 40 | 0.67 |
| 45 | 0.75 |
| 50 | 0.83 |
Decimals here are rounded to two places from the week’s total minutes, so the week total always matches the minutes worked.
Rounding: what the federal rule says
This calculator doesn’t round. It uses the exact times you enter. If your business rounds punches, the federal rule in 29 CFR 785.48 accepts rounding to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest tenth or quarter of an hour, as long as it averages out over time so employees are paid for all the time they actually work. Rounding that always favors the employer doesn’t meet that standard. Some states are stricter, so check yours.
What counts as hours worked
Under the Labor Department’s Fact Sheet #22, short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are hours worked and stay paid. A bona fide meal period, usually 30 minutes or more with the employee completely relieved from duty, doesn’t count. That’s why the break box is for unpaid meal breaks only. For state rules, see break laws by state and California break laws.
Getting hours to payroll
A calculator is fine for one card. For a whole crew, the hours should add up themselves. In the PunchOutPayroll time clock, employees clock in and out from their phones, breaks go on the record, and you review and approve each person’s week with timesheet approval. Approved hours export in a file for the payroll provider you already use. See payroll-ready hours. If a punch is missing, our guide to fixing missed punches covers what to do before you total the week.