How to use the time card calculator
- Type each day as it reads on the card. "855a-530p", "8:55-5:30" and "9-5" all work. A time without am or pm is read the way shifts usually run: 7 to 11 is morning, 1 to 5 is afternoon. The note under each day shows exactly what was read, so a wrong guess is easy to spot.
- Check the lunch. A 30 minute unpaid lunch comes off every day longer than 5 hours. If you clocked out and back in for lunch, type both parts, like "8-12, 12:30-4:30", and the gap is used instead.
- Pick your overtime rules and add your rate. Total hours, overtime and gross pay update as you type. Print the week, save it as a PDF or download a CSV.
Time card calculator with lunch
Most time card mistakes are lunch mistakes. A week of 8:55 am to 5:30 pm with a 30 minute lunch is 8 hours 5 minutes a day, not 8 hours 35. Over five days that is 2.5 hours, which at $18 an hour is $45 of pay that should not be there, or should, depending on whether the lunch was really taken.
That is why the lunch is on from the start here. Some popular calculators leave it off until you find a setting, and their first total for that week comes out wrong. If your lunch is paid, set it to "None".
Short shifts keep their full time: a 9 am to 1 pm Saturday is 4 hours, because nobody takes a lunch in a 4 hour shift. If you did take one, type the two parts.
How overtime is calculated
Under federal law (the Fair Labor Standards Act), overtime is every hour over 40 in a workweek, paid at 1.5 times the regular rate. A long day does not count on its own: four 10-hour days are 40 hours and no overtime.
A few states add a daily rule, and that changes the answer for the same week:
- California: overtime after 8 hours in a day, double time after 12, and on the 7th day in a row the first 8 hours are overtime. Four 9.5-hour days are 38 hours but include 6 hours of overtime.
- Alaska: overtime after 8 hours a day, at employers with 4 or more employees.
- Nevada: daily overtime after 8 hours only for workers paid under 1.5 times the minimum wage, which is $18.00 an hour.
- Colorado: overtime after 12 hours in a day or 40 in a week.
Already know the hours per day? The overtime calculator shows the same week under every state's rules side by side. In California, a missing or late lunch also owes an extra hour of pay; the meal break premium calculator checks each day.
Pay is worked out from exact minutes, not rounded hours: regular minutes times your rate, plus overtime minutes times 1.5 times your rate, plus double time minutes times 2, rounded to the cent only at the end. Rounding hours first is how some calculators end up a few dollars off.
Hours and minutes to decimal hours
Payroll systems want decimal hours: 44 hours 25 minutes is 44.42 hours. Divide the minutes by 60: 15 minutes is 0.25, 30 is 0.50, 45 is 0.75, and 25 minutes is 0.42. The calculator shows both forms under the total, and the time card conversion chart lists every minute from 1 to 59.
Two-week timesheets, printable cards and templates
Paid every two weeks? The timesheet calculator takes two weeks of times and counts overtime week by week, the way the law does. To write times down first, print a free time card or download the Excel time card template, which adds up the hours by itself.
For owners: a whole team's time cards at once
If you run a shop on paper punch cards, typing every card into a calculator one by one takes most of an evening. Run payroll reads a photo of the stack instead, fills in everyone's week, checks state overtime and California meal break premiums, catches missed clock-outs and hands back a file for Gusto, QuickBooks or a spreadsheet. Staff never need an app.
A calculator, not legal or tax advice. Rules from the federal and state labor departments, checked November 15, 2026. See how the calculator works.