Time Card Calculator

What the time card calculator does

This is a full timesheet rather than a single shift. You set a date range, and it gives you a row for each day to fill in your start time, end time, and break. From all of that it totals your hours for the whole period, splits them into regular and overtime according to a rule you choose, and, if you add a pay rate, estimates what you earned. It is the tool for working out a whole pay period at once.

How to use it

1. Start Date and End Date. Set the range, and a row appears for each day in it.
2. Each day. Enter the start time, end time, and any break as hours and minutes.
3. Overtime Option. Choose how overtime is counted, or no overtime. The next section explains the choices.
4. Normal Pay Rate and Overtime Rate. Optional. Add your hourly rate and an overtime multiplier, such as 1.5, to estimate earnings.

Press Calculate for the totals and, if you entered a rate, the pay estimate.

How it adds up your hours

For each day, it takes the gap between your start and end times and subtracts the break, which gives the hours worked that day. If the end time is earlier than the start, it treats the shift as running past midnight and adjusts. Then it applies your overtime rule to split each day, or the week, into regular and overtime hours, and adds everything up across the range. If you have given it pay rates, it multiplies the regular hours by your rate and the overtime hours by your rate times the multiplier, and totals the earnings.

The overtime options, and why there are several

The tool offers a few ways to count overtime, after 7 hours a day, after 8 hours a day, after 40 hours a week, or none at all, and the reason there is more than one is that overtime law genuinely differs depending on where you are. In the United States, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets overtime at one and a half times the regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a week, and it has no daily overtime rule at all. Some states go further. California, for example, requires overtime once you pass 8 hours in a single day, on top of the weekly rule. So the right option is the one that matches your own situation, your country, your state, or your contract. The "after 40 hours a week" choice lines up with the US federal rule, while the daily options suit places or agreements that count overtime by the day.

The pay estimate, and what it does not include

If you add a pay rate, the earnings figure is a useful estimate, but it is worth being clear about what it is. It is a gross figure, the pay before anything is taken out, so it does not account for income tax, social security, pension contributions, or any other deductions, which means your actual take-home will be lower. It also assumes you are entitled to overtime in the way you selected, and whether you are depends on your location and on whether your role is classed as exempt from overtime in the first place. So treat the number as a planning estimate or a rough check against a payslip, not as a definitive statement of what you are owed. For anything official, your employer's payroll or your local labor authority is the place to confirm it.

Where it fits

Working out the hours and rough pay for a whole pay period, checking a timesheet before you submit it, tracking hourly or freelance work across several days, or sanity-checking a paycheck against your own record of the hours. Because it handles a date range, breaks, overnight shifts, and overtime in one go, it does the fiddly part of a timesheet that is easy to get wrong by hand.

Questions people ask

How is overtime worked out?

By the rule you choose: after a set number of hours in a day, after 40 hours in a week, or not at all. Overtime hours are then paid at your rate times the multiplier you enter.

Is the pay figure before or after tax?

Before. It is a gross estimate that does not subtract income tax, social security, or other deductions, so your take-home pay will be lower than the figure shown.

Which overtime option should I pick?

The one that matches your situation. The 40-hours-a-week option reflects the US federal rule, while the daily options suit places like California that count overtime by the day, or contracts that do. Check your local rules if you are unsure.

Does it handle shifts that cross midnight?

Yes. When a day's end time is earlier than its start time, it treats the shift as running into the next day so the hours come out right rather than negative.

References

1. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: Overtime Pay. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime