Free timesheet template: weekly, biweekly, project and monthly

This timesheet template set is built for US small businesses that pay hourly staff, track job hours or need a simple leave record for salaried employees. There are four versions: a weekly timesheet, a biweekly timesheet for the November 1–14, 2026 pay period, a project and job code timesheet, and a monthly timesheet for exempt staff that tracks PTO. Each one is tab-separated, so it splits into columns when you paste it into a spreadsheet, and the formulas for daily hours, weekly totals and overtime come with it. A timesheet is the weekly or pay-period summary that gets approved before payroll. If you want the daily punch card that sits by the door instead, use our printable time card template.

Free timesheet templates to copy

Click Copy text on any template, open a blank sheet, click cell A1 and paste. The formulas refer to fixed cells, so pasting anywhere other than A1 will break them. The next section explains every formula.

Use the weekly timesheet when you pay weekly, or when you want each workweek on its own page. Change “Sunday” in the first column if your workweek starts on another day.

The biweekly timesheet is set up for a pay period from Sunday, November 1 to Saturday, November 14, 2026, paid on Friday, November 20. It totals and checks overtime for each workweek separately, which is what the law requires. For the next period, change the dates to November 15–28.

Use one line for each block of time on a job, so a crew member who spends the morning at one site and the afternoon at another fills in two lines for the same date. Type Y in the Billable column for time you will invoice to a client. Agree on a short job code list (for example 100 for installs, 200 for repairs, 900 for shop time) and print it with the sheet.

The monthly sheet records days, not hours, because federal law does not require hour records for properly exempt employees. Use the status codes W (worked), WFH (worked from home), PTO, SICK, HOL (paid holiday) and OFF (weekend or day off), and enter leave hours in the matching column. It is set up for November 2026. For a 31-day month, insert one row above the Monthly total row so the formulas stretch to include it.

How to use the excel timesheet template formulas

Every formula works the same way in Excel and Google Sheets. Here is what each one does, using the weekly timesheet’s cell positions.

• Daily hours: =IF(D7="","",MOD(D7-C7,1)*24-E7/60). Spreadsheets store a time as a fraction of a day, so time out minus time in, multiplied by 24, gives hours. Dividing the break minutes by 60 turns them into hours before they are subtracted. A shorter version, =(D7-C7)*24-E7/60, works for day shifts. The MOD part handles shifts that end after midnight, and the IF part leaves the cell blank on days off.
• Weekly total: =SUM(F7:F13) adds the seven days.
• Regular and overtime hours: =MIN(F14,40) caps regular hours at 40 and =MAX(F14-40,0) returns the hours over 40, or zero.
• Estimated gross pay: regular hours × rate + overtime hours × rate × 1.5 + PTO hours × rate. It is an estimate before taxes and does not include bonuses or shift differentials, which change the overtime rate.

Three setup tips. Type times with a.m. or p.m., such as 7:00 AM and 4:30 PM, so the spreadsheet reads them as times. If an hours cell shows something like 0:00 or a long string of decimals, format the column as Number with two decimal places; Excel sometimes copies the time format into the result. And enter the hourly rate as a plain number, such as 19, not “$19/hr”. To check a single figure, the hours to decimal calculator converts hours and minutes such as 8:45 into 8.75.

How to fill in a weekly timesheet: a worked example

Emily Carter works in the kitchen at Northfield Coffee in Austin, Texas, and earns $19.00 an hour. Northfield pays every two weeks and its workweek runs Sunday to Saturday. Here is her biweekly timesheet for November 1–14, 2026. She takes a 30-minute unpaid lunch on every shift except the short Saturday on November 14, and took Friday, November 6, off as approved PTO.

Take Wednesday, November 11, as a check on the daily formula: 7:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. is 9 hours 15 minutes on the clock, minus a 30-minute lunch, leaves 8 hours 45 minutes. As a decimal that is 8.75, because 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75. Writing it as 8.45 would underpay her 18 minutes.

Now the overtime. Overtime is counted per workweek, so each week is checked on its own:

1. Week 1 (November 1–7): 32.00 hours worked. No overtime. The 8 PTO hours are paid but are not hours worked, so they do not count toward 40.
2. Week 2 (November 8–14): 46.00 hours worked, so 6.00 hours are overtime.
3. Regular hours for the period: 32 + 40 = 72. Regular pay: 72 × $19.00 = $1,368.00.
4. Overtime pay: 6 × ($19.00 × 1.5 = $28.50) = $171.00.
5. PTO pay: 8 × $19.00 = $152.00.
6. Wages for the period: $1,368.00 + $171.00 + $152.00 = $1,691.00 before taxes, paid on Friday, November 20.

Her pay stub shows the same three lines, plus an $86.00 expense reimbursement, which is not time and does not go on the timesheet. Our guide on how to read a pay stub walks through the rest of Emily’s stub. If you start from punch times on paper, the time card calculator adds up a week with lunch breaks, and the overtime calculator handles bonuses that raise the overtime rate.

What the FLSA requires a timesheet to show

The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require a particular timesheet form. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division says in Fact Sheet 21 that employers may use any timekeeping method they choose, as long as it is complete and accurate. What it does require is the information. Under 29 CFR 516.2, for each non-exempt employee you must keep:

• Full name as used for Social Security, and any employee ID used on records.
• Home address with ZIP code, date of birth if under 19, sex and occupation.
• The time of day and day of week the employee’s workweek begins.
• Hours worked each workday and total hours worked each workweek.
• The regular hourly rate in any week with overtime, and the basis of pay.
• Straight-time earnings, overtime premium pay, additions and deductions, total wages each pay period, and the pay date and period covered.

A timesheet covers the hours part. The rest usually lives in your payroll records and employee files. That is why each template above asks for the week starting date and has a column for every day.

Two details trip employers up. First, Fact Sheet 21 lets you record a fixed schedule and simply note that the employee followed it, but any day the hours differ, you must record the actual hours. Second, the rules are different for exempt staff. Under 29 CFR 516.3, for bona fide executive, administrative and professional employees you keep the same identity and pay-period records but not the daily and weekly hours. Salaried non-exempt employees are not covered by that exception, so they need hour records like everyone else. Our exempt vs non-exempt guide explains who qualifies.

For exempt employees, the salary itself cannot be docked for a partial day missed in a week they worked; the Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet 17G allows deductions only in narrow cases, such as full-day absences for personal reasons. The monthly template tracks leave balances, not pay cuts. For more on accruals and carryover, see our guide to paid time off.

Timesheet approvals and signatures

No federal rule requires an employee signature on a timesheet; 29 CFR 516.2 lists the information the record must contain, and a signature is not on that list. A sign-off is still worth having because it is the moment errors get caught. A simple approval routine looks like this:

1. Employee reviews and signs on the last day of the week or pay period, confirming the hours are complete, including any work done before or after a shift.
2. Manager reviews missed punches, meal breaks that were deducted, unusual overtime and PTO against approved requests, then signs or approves.
3. Payroll locks the sheet and runs pay from the approved totals. Any later change goes in a note with who changed it, when and why.

Approval cannot be used to remove time someone actually worked. Under the Department of Labor’s rules, if you know or have reason to believe work is being done, the time counts and must be paid, even if it was not approved in advance. You can discipline someone for breaking an overtime approval rule, but not refuse to pay for the hours.

How long to keep timesheets

Fact Sheet 21 sets two federal minimums:

• Payroll records: at least three years. These include the pay records listed above.
• Records wages are calculated from: at least two years. Time cards, timesheets, wage rate tables and work schedules fall in this group.

Records can be kept at the workplace or in a central records office. If they are kept off site, 29 CFR 516.7 says they must be made available within 72 hours of a request from the Wage and Hour Division. Many states set longer retention periods for wage and hour records, so check your state labor department. A practical rule for a small business is to keep every timesheet with the matching payroll run for at least three years.

Common timesheet errors

• Overtime counted across the pay period. Emily’s two weeks add up to 78 hours worked. If you compare that to 80, you would pay no overtime and shortchange her 6 × $9.50 = $57.00 in overtime premium. Check each workweek on its own.
• Minutes written as decimals. 8 hours 30 minutes is 8.50, not 8.30. Use the decimal column or the hours to decimal calculator.
• Paid breaks deducted. Under federal rules, short rest breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes are paid time. Only a bona fide meal period, typically 30 minutes or more with no duties, can be unpaid.
• PTO counted toward overtime. PTO and holiday hours are paid but are not hours worked under federal law, so keep them in their own column. Our holiday pay guide covers the exceptions some employers choose.
• Estimated or rounded-up hours. Timesheets filled in from memory on Friday drift from reality. Rounding is allowed only if it is neutral over time; record actual start and stop times.
• Off-the-clock work left out. Pre-shift setup, closing duties and answering work messages after hours can all be hours worked.
• The wrong workweek. If the timesheet starts on Monday but payroll counts Sunday to Saturday, overtime lands in the wrong week.

Paper or spreadsheet timesheets vs a time clock app

A free timesheet template is a good fit for a handful of employees with steady schedules. It costs nothing, everyone understands it, and the spreadsheet does the arithmetic. The trade-offs show up as the team grows.

If you move off spreadsheets, a time clock app with GPS and geofencing records where and when each shift started. For the basics of what a timesheet is and the rules around it, read what is a timesheet.

Frequently asked questions