Time Card Calculator
Heather is a staff writer and payroll specialist with several years of experience working directly with small business owners. Her expertise allows her to deliver the best answers to your questions about payroll.
This article is part of a larger series on How to Do Payroll.
Time card calculators can be a great tool to help small business owners manage their employees’ hours. Our calculator will allow you to manually enter when your employees clock in and out each day, in addition to the total amount of breaks taken, to calculate the total hours they worked in a given week. It will also allow you to determine the breakdown between regular and overtime hours.
How to Use Our Time Card Calculator
To calculate your employees’ work time using our time card calculator, follow these steps:
- Enter the time that your employee clocked in for each day (Select Hour, Minute, AM/PM).
- Enter the time that your employee clocked out for each day (Select Hour, Minute, AM/PM).
- Enter the total hours and minutes that your employee took breaks for each day.
- Once the information is entered, click “Calculate.”
Not sure how to navigate breaks? Check out our article that breaks down everything you need to know about rest and lunch break laws.
Our calculator will provide you with the total hours worked in addition to the breakdown between regular hours and overtime hours. We provide you that breakdown using two different overtime methods so that you can choose which is applicable to you based on your state overtime laws.
If you need a faster way to calculate your employees’ work time without having to spend extra money, we recommend trying a digital time tracking solution like Homebase. It is free for businesses with one location—regardless of how many employees you have—and allows employees to clock in and out from anywhere. It sums hours worked and subtracts unpaid break time automatically. Start tracking work time free today.
What Our Time Card Calculator Is Not Useful For
Our time card calculator won’t be helpful for some of the more complicated calculations that are required when doing payroll. A few of those include:
- Calculating insurance deductions (medical, dental, and vision)
- Calculating garnishments
- Calculating taxes (FICA, state and federal income taxes, and unemployment taxes)
If you’d like to learn how to calculate these payroll amounts on your own, check out our article that breaks down how to payroll calculations.
When to Use an Alternative Time Calculator
If you have a large number of employees or issues with lateness or time fraud, such as buddy punching, using a time card calculator or time sheet to record hours might not be a long-term solution for your business. Here are other options that we think may be a better fit:
- Time Tracking Software: There are a ton of free and affordable software available that allow your employees to record their time. Using a timekeeping software negates the need for manual calculations, and many of them can integrate directly with your payroll software. With in-depth features such as biometric screening and GPS-enabled clock-ins, time tracking software can provide you with a valuable layer of protection.
- Payroll Software: Many payroll software have built-in timekeeping systems that allow your employee to track their time, view their paystubs, update their tax elections, and more all in the same portal. This can be a huge time saver if you have a complicated pay structure (commissions, bonuses, and tips) or if you have a large number of employees. Using payroll software can be a great tool to streamline your payroll process so that you can focus on running your small business.
Bottom Line
Time card calculators are a really valuable asset for small business owners and can make managing your people’s time much simpler. Our calculator gives you the ability to manually enter the time your employees work, and any breaks throughout the day, to calculate the total hours worked that they’ll need to be paid for. Calculating the total hours worked, in addition to the breakdown of regular and overtime hours, can be a huge help when running your payroll.
