Check out our free printable time sheet templates your team can use to manually track their time. We also offer alternatives if manual time entry isn’t the right fit.
Free Downloadable Time Sheet Templates for Your Business
Small businesses use time sheets to track the number of employee work hours for payroll purposes, while independent contractors and freelancers use them to bill clients for time worked. Time sheets take the guesswork out of time tracking.
For those needing a free time sheet template, you can download any of our six free printable time sheets (depending on how often you pay your employees’ wages): weekly, biweekly, monthly, semimonthly, daily, and project-based.
If you need to calculate employee time worked, overtime, PTO, and wages earned weekly, the weekly time sheet template may be right for your small business. Calculations are handled for you based on formulas included within the spreadsheet cells.
Pro Tip: When calculating hours on a time sheet, you will need to convert minutes for payroll. This process takes hours and minutes and converts them to a decimal so you can accurately calculate your employees’ time.
Biweekly Time Sheet Template
If you pay or calculate wages every other week, then use this biweekly time card template, which has room to add two weeks’ worth of time worked. You can use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets if you want it to handle the calculations for you. Otherwise, a PDF is available for your employees to complete manually. Of course, this means you’ll have to add up their hours by hand.
Monthly Time Sheet Template
If you pay or calculate wages monthly, or need to keep track of hours worked (such as for nonprofits that want to track the days and hours worked by volunteers), the monthly time sheet for employees will be your best choice. Like the other employee time sheet templates, this one is customizable if you download the spreadsheet versions.
Semimonthly Time Sheet Template
If your company pays on a semimonthly basis (twice per month), then your time sheet will need to have fields to track time worked for days 1–15 and days 16–31. You can manually input each day and date into the spreadsheet or simply list the month (this spreadsheet will allow you to create a new tab for each month of the year). Employees can then input their time worked into the correct month’s tab (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.), so you’ll have a running total of all hours that employee worked for the year in one file.
Daily Time Sheet Template
In some situations, like when employees are all working an event or spending the day at an off-site training session, you may need a daily time sheet. You’ll want all your employees to sign in and out on one daily time sheet so that you can track hours worked by all attendees on one page. Nonprofit organizations may prefer this time sheet format to track volunteer hours worked each day. You can also revise the form to add a column for the employee signature, but you have to download either the Excel or Google Sheets version.
Project Time Sheet Template
The project time sheet template can be used by freelancers who need to calculate hours worked on projects. It can also be used in offices where workers’ time is tracked against customers or projects, or when staff needs to designate billable hours so that you can invoice customers properly.
Tips for Using Time Sheet Templates
Our free printable time sheets are easy to use. You just need to download the form you want and fill out the required fields. We’ve added some of the basic information needed (such as data fields for employee names and date ranges), but you’re free to revise it based on your business needs—provided you download the Excel or GoogleSheets versions.
However, to fully utilize our time sheet templates, here are a few reminders and tips.
- Choose the template version: If you find that our time sheet templates are sufficient enough to meet your time tracking needs, you can simply download it as a PDF file and manually add the details needed (e.g., start and end times, employee name, number of hours, etc.). Note that you’ll need to calculate the totals by hand. You can also download the template as an Excel or Google Sheets file and modify the sections by adding new data fields or columns/rows. This will allow you to customize the template to fit your time-tracking needs.
- Share the template with employees: Communicate with your employees the type of form they need to complete and how to fill it out. You can distribute the form via email or save it in a shared Google Drive. If you decide to use a paper form, ensure that the document is stored in a place that’s easily accessible by employees. You may also want to consider creating a clock in/out policy, which includes guidelines for recording and calculating work hours, as well as the applicable disciplinary actions for policy violations.
- Set submission deadlines: Set a reasonable deadline for employees to submit the completed form. Ensure that you also provide enough time for your payroll administrator to review the document and use the indicated total hours worked (both regular and overtime hours) for pay processing.
- Time sheet approval: Make sure that the time sheets submitted are signed by the employee and supervisor or manager. The signed document will serve as proof that both parties have verified all of the time details as correct. Not only does this provide a record of the actual hours worked, but will also help avoid potential payroll disputes.
New to handling payroll? Read our how to do payroll guide for helpful tips. If you have a very small team and don’t mind using spreadsheets to compute pay, read our guide on how to calculate payroll using Excel.
Pros & Cons of Using a Free Printable Time Sheet Template
Using a printable time sheet template to calculate and track employees’ hours has highlights and drawbacks. It is good for those with a limited number of employees and budget. However, it may not be right for your business if you need more advanced payroll processing features.
PROS | CONS |
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Reporting. Time sheet templates offer reporting capabilities such as pivot tables and financial reports. | Inaccurate Hours. Time sheet templates, like Excel files, don’t provide the option of tracking hours in real-time. You must rely on the accuracy of your employees’ input. |
Cost Efficient. Since these simple time sheet templates are free to use, there is no cost involved other than the overhead required to manage the spreadsheets. | Input Errors. Using a work time sheet template can result in errors, as you must be sure you are on the correct line when inputting time. |
Simple to Use. Most employees and business owners already know how to use spreadsheets, making this type of time tracking easy to understand. | Time Consuming. Entering data into a spreadsheet and verifying the accuracy can be time-consuming for a small business. |
Time Sheet Compliance
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are required to keep and retain accurate records on which wage computations are based (including time sheets) for a minimum of two years. This means you need to not only be sure you are recording the time worked for your hourly employees but also keeping those records for proof.
There are no laws, however, dictating how you must record the hours worked for your employees. Therefore, you can use one of the free time sheet templates provided here, keep hand-written logs (not recommended), or use a software provider to record employee hours. Whichever method you choose, make sure they are legible and contain accurate employee data.
For more FLSA requirements, including minimum wage and overtime exemption laws, check out our guide.
Free Software Alternatives to Using a Manual Time Sheet Template
If you have more than 10 employees, have issues with time fraud (like time theft), or prefer to use a time tracking software for your time sheets, check out the following comparison table to find a solution that’s right for you.
Free Plan | Starting Paid Monthly Price | Our Review | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
✓ (One location and up to 20 employees) | $24.95 per location | |||
✓ | $6 per user | |||
✓ | $4.99 per user | |||
Free trial only | $3.99/month | No Review Yet |
Time Sheet Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Expand the questions below to get answers to some of your most frequently asked time sheet questions.
Yes, time sheets provide you with an accurate way of recording and tracking your employees’ actual hours worked, including the applicable minutes or hours for payment (e.g., regular and overtime pay) and deduction (e.g., unpaid leave, tardiness, and undertime).
A time sheet for employees should contain the following details:
- Employee name (or employee ID, if applicable)
- Pay period or timeframe
- Rows for each day of the period or client/project
- Columns for start and end times, regular/overtime hours, and total hours worked
- Columns for vacation/sick hours or break times (as needed)
- An area for employees and supervisors to put their signatures to validate the time sheet’s accuracy
Employees should fill in and check their time sheets daily (at least) to ensure that their time logs are correct. If you use project time sheets to record client billable hours, we recommend having your workers complete this as soon as they can so they don’t forget the tasks they completed and the time spent on each activity/project.
Bottom Line
Tracking time correctly is crucial to your business, and choosing the best time sheet template should be decided by your pay frequency and the type of spreadsheet that works best for your growing needs. Excel-based time sheets may work well for your needs; however, they can lead to accuracy errors, which can be costly for your business.
New to managing employees? Check out our guide to employee management for practical advice.