The timesheet app that fills itself in from every punch

The buyer’s guide to choosing a timesheet app

A timesheet is the weekly record of when each employee worked. For hourly staff, payroll is built from it. This guide covers what a timesheet app should do, what federal law says a timesheet must contain and how long to keep it, and what to test before you pick one. If you want the basics first, start with what a timesheet is.

What a timesheet app does

A timesheet app records start and stop times, subtracts unpaid breaks, totals hours by day and by workweek, and puts the result in front of a manager to approve. The difference between apps is where the times come from. In some, employees type their hours, a digital paper sheet. In others, including Workzenly, the timesheet is built from clock-ins on a phone or shared tablet as the work happens.

A good app also flags missed clock-outs, late starts and punches from outside the site, keeps the original punch next to every correction, lets a manager approve one person or the whole team, and hands approved hours to payroll.

Salaried staff are a separate case. Properly classified exempt employees do not need daily and weekly hours records under federal rules. Our guide to exempt vs non-exempt employees explains who is who.

What a timesheet must record under federal law

The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require a time clock or a particular form. It does require accurate records. The Department of Labor’s recordkeeping rule at 29 CFR 516.2 lists what employers must keep for each non-exempt employee, and the Wage and Hour Division’s Fact Sheet #21 summarizes it. Some of the items live in the employee profile. The ones a timesheet app touches directly are:

• The time of day and day of the week the workweek begins
• Hours worked each workday
• Total hours worked each workweek
• The regular hourly rate of pay for any workweek with overtime
• Total daily or weekly straight-time earnings
• Total overtime earnings for the workweek
• All additions to and deductions from wages, total wages paid each pay period, and the date of payment and the pay period it covers

The rest is identity: name and Social Security number, address, birth date if younger than 19, sex, occupation and basis of pay. In Workzenly those sit in the employee record, tied to the same person as the timesheet.

The workweek is a fixed, recurring 168-hour period, such as Sunday to Saturday, and overtime is counted per workweek, so two weeks of a biweekly period cannot be averaged. Converting minutes to decimals by hand is where errors creep in. Our hours to decimal calculator shows why 7:57 is 7.95 hours, not 7.57.

How long to keep timesheets

According to the Department of Labor, payroll records must be kept for at least 3 years. Records used to compute wages, such as time cards, wage rate tables and work schedules, must be kept for at least 2 years. They can be kept at the workplace or a central office.

Many employers keep timesheets for 3 years alongside payroll, and many states set longer periods.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the Department of Labor, your state labor department or an employment lawyer for your situation.

Paper vs spreadsheet vs timesheet app

All three can meet the federal rule if records are complete and accurate. They differ in the work it takes.

If you are not ready to switch, our free timesheet templates give you weekly and biweekly layouts that cover the required fields, and the time card calculator totals a week with breaks. Most teams move to an app when they add a second manager, a second location or overtime that has to be caught early.

How timesheet approval works

Approval is where a manager confirms the hours before they become pay. Federal rules do not require a signature, but a sign-off is when errors get caught. A simple workflow:

1. The week closes Saturday night with every punch on each timesheet.
2. Flags come first: missed clock-outs, late starts, geofence misses and overtime.
3. Fixes go through a request with a reason, and the original punch stays in the history.
4. Approve the rest together, and the flagged ones once settled.
5. Payroll takes over when both weeks of the pay period are approved.

Make sure nobody is discouraged from recording time they worked, since unrecorded work still has to be paid, and approve soon after the week ends, while people still remember Tuesday.

Breaks and rounding on a timesheet

Federal rules treat short rest breaks, usually 20 minutes or less, as hours worked, so they stay paid. Bona fide meal periods, usually 30 minutes or more, are not work time if the employee is completely relieved of duty. A lunch eaten at the station while watching orders counts as work, which is why Workzenly deducts breaks from break punches rather than assuming one. Some states, such as California, Washington and Oregon, add their own meal and rest break rules.

Rounding is allowed but narrow. Under 29 CFR 785.48(b), recording times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter hour is accepted only if, over time, it does not result in employees being underpaid. With quarter-hour rounding, that means 1 to 7 minutes round down and 8 to 14 minutes round up, in both directions. Rounding that only ever rounds in the employer’s favor is not allowed. Paying exact punched minutes, as in the timesheets above, avoids the question.

How to choose timesheet software

Run one real week through each tool, with the messy parts: a forgotten clock-out, a late start, a skipped lunch and someone over 40 hours. Then check:

• Where the hours come from. Clock-ins on a phone or shared tablet beat typed hours.
• The math. Breaks deducted from punches, overtime split per workweek, totals shown in both hours:minutes and decimal.
• The edit history. Make a correction. Are the original punch, the editor and the reason still visible?
• Approval. Can a manager approve one person and the whole team, from a phone, and see what is still waiting?
• The employee view. Can employees see their own timesheet and request a fix?
• The payroll hand-off. Do approved regular, overtime and PTO hours reach payroll without exporting and re-importing?
• Records. Can you pull up a week from last year with its punches, edits and approval?

Our list of the best time and attendance software covers the main options neutrally. If you want to see that test week in Workzenly, book a demo and we will set up a workspace with your company name before the call.