Time Card Calculator
Enter each day’s start, end and break, and get the daily and weekly totals in both hour:minute and decimal form.
| Day | Start | End | Break (min) | Day total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 8:00 | |||
| Tuesday | 8:00 | |||
| Wednesday | 8:00past midnight | |||
| Thursday | 8:00 | |||
| Friday | 4:00 | |||
| Saturday | 0:00 | |||
| Sunday | 0:00 |
What is a time card calculator?
A time card calculator adds up a week of shifts: for each day you enter a start, an end and any unpaid break, and it returns the hours for that day and the total for the week. It gives the total in hours and minutes and in decimal hours, which is the form payroll multiplies by a rate.
How it works
Each day is the time between clock-in and clock-out, minus the unpaid break. A shift that crosses midnight is handled by adding a day when the end time is earlier than the start.
Payroll systems want decimal hours, not hours and minutes: 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5, not 7.30. Both are shown so you can copy whichever the form asks for.
Totals are rounded only at the end. Rounding each day first is what makes a week come out a few minutes short.
What a time card calculator works out
A time card calculator turns clock times into hours worked. You give it the time you started and the time you finished for each day, plus any unpaid break, and it returns the hours and minutes for that day and the total for the week: the number that goes on a timesheet, an invoice or a payroll run.
Doing this by hand is where the errors come from, because clock time is base 60 and a calculator is not. 9:15 to 17:45 is not 8.30 hours, it is 8 hours 30 minutes, which is 8.5 when you decimalise it for an hourly rate. Both forms are shown here: hours and minutes to check against the clock, decimal hours to multiply by a rate.
Overnight shifts, breaks and rounding
- A shift that crosses midnight 22:00 to 06:00 is eight hours, not minus sixteen. When the finish time is earlier than the start, the day is treated as running into the next one, so night shifts, split rotas and anything in hospitality or healthcare add up correctly.
- Unpaid breaks the break is entered in minutes and subtracted from that day's total. Enter only the breaks you are not paid for: a paid rest break is already inside the shift.
- Rounding the totals are exact to the minute. If your employer rounds to the nearest quarter hour, round the daily figures before you add them up: rounding the weekly total instead gives a different and usually smaller number.
Filling a week from a punch-clock export
Typing fourteen times into a form is the worst part of a timesheet, so the week can be filled from a CSV instead. Export the punches from your time clock, attendance app or spreadsheet, drop the file on the tool, and the days are filled in.
The expected columns are day, start, end and break: in that order, with or without a header row. The delimiter is detected, so a file saved by an Italian or German Excel with semicolons works as well as a comma-separated one, and a tab-separated export pasted out of a terminal works too. Rows the tool cannot use are listed with the reason rather than silently dropped, so a malformed line is visible instead of quietly costing you an hour.
Download the example CSV if you would rather start from a template, then take the completed week back out as a CSV with the daily totals and the weekly total, ready to attach to an invoice or hand to whoever runs payroll.
What it does not decide for you
This is an arithmetic tool, not an employment-law tool. It counts the hours you worked; it does not know your overtime threshold, your contract, your country's rules on daily rest or night work, or which hours attract a premium. Those differ by country, sector and collective agreement, and a calculator that guessed at them would be worse than one that does not.
Use the totals as the input to that conversation, not the answer to it: a week of 36:00 means thirty-six hours were worked, and what that is worth is a question for your contract.
Questions people ask
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours?
Divide the minutes by 60. 30 minutes is 0.5 hours, 45 minutes is 0.75, 20 minutes is 0.333. The calculator shows the decimal total next to the hour:minute one.
Does it handle a night shift that crosses midnight?
Yes. When the end time is earlier than the start time, the shift is treated as ending the next day, so 22:00 to 06:00 counts as eight hours.
Are breaks paid?
That depends on your contract, so the tool subtracts the break you enter and leaves the decision to you. Enter 0 if your break is paid.