How do I fill out a time card?

Write your name and the date the week starts. Each day, write the time you start in the first In box, when you leave for lunch in the first Out box, when you come back in the second In box and when you finish in the last Out box. Add up the hours at the end of the week.

Should I write times in 12-hour or 24-hour format?

Either works, but add a or p to 12-hour times, like 8:05a and 4:30p. Without it, 7:30 could mean morning or evening, and a payroll person has to guess.

What size are these time cards?

They print on US Letter paper. The single card fills a page; the two-per-sheet version gives two half-page cards you cut along the dashed line.

Can I print the cards for a time clock?

No. Mechanical time clocks need cards cut to fit their slot, usually bought from the clock maker. These cards are for writing times by hand.

How long should I keep paper time cards?

Federal rules say keep time cards for at least 2 years and payroll records for 3 years. Some states ask for longer; California asks for 3 years for time records too.

Why are there black squares in the corners?

They help our photo reader find the edges of the card in a tilted phone photo, so the hours in each box are read from the right row.

Free printable time card

By 1000 Ventures Last reviewed 2026-11-15

Print a blank weekly or biweekly time card on US Letter paper. Each day has two In and two Out boxes, so lunch is written down, plus an Hours column and a weekly total. Free PDFs, no sign-up.

Weekly time card with In, Out and Hours boxes for Monday to Sunday

Weekly time card One card per page, big boxes Open the PDF

Two weekly time cards on one sheet with a dashed cut line

Two cards per sheet Half-page cards, saves paper Open the PDF

Biweekly time card with 14 day rows split into week 1 and week 2

Biweekly time card 14 days, weeks kept apart Open the PDF

How to fill out the time card

Write the name and the first day of the week. The week starts on whatever day your workweek starts, often Sunday or Monday.
Write each punch in its own box. The first In is when you start, the first Out is when you leave for lunch, the second In is when you come back and the last Out is when you finish. A day with no lunch uses only the first In and Out.
Add a or p to every time. 8:05a and 4:30p cannot be misread. Write it at the moment you punch, not at the end of the week.
Total each day and the week. Type the times into the time card calculator to get the hours, overtime and pay, then copy the totals onto the card. Sign at the bottom.

Why these cards are easy to read

We designed the cards for the person who adds them up, and for our photo reader. The columns are always In, Out, In, Out, in that order, so a time never lands in the wrong slot. Each row has the day printed in it, so a skipped day is a blank row, not a shifted one. The black squares in the corners let the reader find the card's edges in a tilted phone photo.

That matters if you run a small team on paper. A stack of these cards, photographed on a counter, can go straight into Run payroll, which fills in everyone's week and checks overtime and meal breaks before you pay.

Weekly or biweekly?

Pick the card that matches how often you pay. A weekly card is one workweek. The biweekly card covers two workweeks on one page, with a heavier line between them, because overtime is counted for each week on its own. Two weeks of 48 and 32 hours hold 8 hours of overtime even though they add up to 80. The timesheet calculator adds up both weeks this way.

What a time card should record

Federal law asks employers to keep, for each hourly worker, the hours worked each workday and each workweek, along with pay details (29 CFR 516.2). A card with the start and end of each work period, the daily total and the weekly total covers the hours part. Keep time cards for at least 2 years and payroll records for at least 3. California asks for 3 years for both.

Want to type instead of write? The time card template comes as an Excel file with the formulas already in.

Printing tips

Print at 100% or "Actual size", not "Fit to page", so the boxes stay the same size.
Card stock (65 lb or heavier) holds up better in a wall rack than plain paper.
For the two-per-sheet version, cut along the dashed line in the middle.

Ready to add up your own week?

Open the time card calculator