How-to
How to track employee hours
By the TrackBadges team · Updated · 6 min read
The short answer
To track employee hours, record each person's start time, end time and unpaid breaks every workday, total them by a fixed workweek, and keep the records at least two years (three for payroll). You can use paper, a spreadsheet, a punch clock, badge or biometric hardware, an app on employees' phones, or a supervisor scanning each worker's badge.
Key takeaways
- Record start, end and unpaid break time every day, and total by a fixed workweek.
- A spreadsheet works for free: hours = (out − in) × 24 − break minutes ÷ 60.
- The FLSA requires hours worked each workday and workweek; keep time records 2 years and payroll records 3.
- Choose a method by cost, accuracy, buddy-punch risk and how much admin it creates.
- Self-reported times drift; methods that capture exact punches are more accurate.
How to track employee hours: the basics
Whatever tool you use, tracking hours comes down to three numbers per person per day: when they started, when they stopped, and how much unpaid break time came in between. Total those by a fixed workweek and payroll, overtime and compliance follow.
A good system should:
- Capture times when they happen, not at the end of the week
- Make it hard to record time for someone who isn't there
- Total hours by the same workweek you use for overtime
- Keep corrections visible, and keep records for at least 2 years
- Get the totals into payroll without retyping
6 ways to track employee hours, compared
The six common methods trade cost against accuracy and admin time; the right one depends on how your crew starts work.
| Method | Upfront cost | Ongoing cost | Accuracy | Buddy-punch risk | Admin effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper timesheets or sign-in sheets | Printing | None | Low: self-reported, often rounded | High | High: read, total, retype |
| Spreadsheet | None | None | Medium: typed in, often after the fact | High | Medium |
| Punch clock with cards or PINs | A clock per entrance | Cards and upkeep | High at the clock | High: cards and PINs get shared | Medium |
| Badge or biometric hardware | A device per entrance | Often a software fee | High | Low with biometrics, moderate with cards | Low |
| Employee app on personal phones | None | Usually per-user pricing | High, with GPS | Moderate: phones and logins can be shared | Low, but every worker needs a smartphone |
| Supervisor-scanned badges | Printed badges | Usually per-person pricing | High | Low: the supervisor sees each person | Low |
Free options exist at both ends. Paper and spreadsheets cost nothing in cash but cost admin time, and some time clock apps have free plans for small teams; TrackBadges, for one, is free for up to 3 people. See the best free time clock apps.
How to track employee hours in Excel or Google Sheets
A spreadsheet is the best free option for a small team, as long as someone enters the times every day. Set it up once and copy it each week.
- Make the columns. A: Date. B: Time in. C: Time out. D: Unpaid break (minutes). E: Hours worked.
- Format the columns. Format B and C as Time (like 7:00 AM) and E as a number with two decimal places.
- Enter the hours formula. In E2, type
=(C2-B2)*24-D2/60and fill it down. Spreadsheets store times as fractions of a day, so multiplying by 24 turns the difference into hours, and dividing the break minutes by 60 turns them into hours. - Handle overnight shifts. If a shift crosses midnight, use
=MOD(C2-B2,1)*24-D2/60instead, so 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM counts as 8.5 hours before breaks, not a negative number. - Total the week. With seven days in rows 2 to 8, put
=SUM(E2:E8)in E9. - Split regular and overtime hours. In E10,
=MIN(E9,40)gives regular hours; in E11,=MAX(E9-40,0)gives overtime hours. - Save each week separately. Keep a copy or tab per week and never overwrite past weeks; they're your records.
A worked example: in at 7:00 AM, out at 3:30 PM, with a 30-minute lunch. 3:30 PM minus 7:00 AM is 8.5 hours, and 30 ÷ 60 is 0.5, so E2 shows 8.00. A full week of five such days totals 40.00 hours, with no overtime.
Common spreadsheet mistakes:
- Typing times as decimals. 7.30 isn't 7:30; type the colon so the spreadsheet treats it as a time.
- Formatting the hours column as Time. The formula returns a plain number of hours, so a Time format shows nonsense.
- Mixing up minutes and decimals. 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours, not 7.45; the minutes to decimal converter helps.
- Trusting it too much. A spreadsheet can't stop someone typing a friend's times; it's only as accurate as whoever fills it in.
If you'd rather not build one, the crew timesheet template is ready to print or open as a CSV, and the hours calculator and timesheet calculator do the math for you.
How to track breaks and lunches
Record unpaid meal breaks; short rest breaks are paid and shouldn't be deducted. Under the FLSA, breaks of about 5 to 20 minutes count as hours worked, while a meal period, usually 30 minutes or more, can be unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved of duty.
There are two common ways to record a meal break:
- A break column. Workers note the minutes, and the formula subtracts them, as in the spreadsheet above.
- Clocking out and back in. The punches show exactly when the break started and ended, which is how California's wage orders expect meal periods to be recorded.
Be careful with automatic lunch deductions. If the system deducts 30 minutes every day, make sure people actually get the break; a lunch that's auto-deducted but worked through is unpaid work, and it's a common source of wage claims. Several states, including California, also require meal or rest breaks by law, so check yours.
What records the FLSA requires
The FLSA doesn't require a particular time clock, but it does require specific records for each nonexempt employee (29 CFR 516.2), including:
- Full name, and any employee number used on time and payroll records
- Home address, date of birth if under 19, sex and occupation
- The day and time the workweek begins
- Hours worked each workday and total hours each workweek
- The regular rate of pay in weeks with overtime, and the basis of pay
- Total straight-time earnings and total overtime pay for the workweek
- Additions to and deductions from wages
- Total wages paid each pay period, the payment date and the period covered
Keep payroll records at least 3 years (29 CFR 516.5), and time cards and other records used to compute wages at least 2 years (29 CFR 516.6). Some states require longer. The FLSA recordkeeping guide covers the details.
What counts as hours worked
Track all time worked, not just scheduled time. Under the FLSA, that includes:
- Work before or after the scheduled shift that the employer knows or should know about (29 CFR 785.11 to 785.13)
- Short rest breaks, typically 5 to 20 minutes (29 CFR 785.18)
- Travel between job sites during the workday (29 CFR 785.38); see tracking time across job sites
- Required meetings and training, with limited exceptions (29 CFR 785.27 to 785.32)
Generally not counted: a bona fide meal period, usually 30 minutes or more, when the employee is completely relieved of duty (29 CFR 785.19), and the ordinary commute from home to work.
Choosing a method
Choose by how your crew works, not by features:
- 1 to 3 people on regular hours: a spreadsheet or paper sheet filled in daily is fine.
- One location with a door everyone uses: a kiosk or wall clock. Add biometrics or photo capture if buddy punching is a problem, but read biometric time clock laws first.
- Solo workers at scattered sites, all with smartphones: an employee app with GPS.
- Crews that start together with a lead: supervisor clock-in, where the lead taps names in an app or scans each worker's badge.
If you're moving off paper, paper timesheets vs time clock apps has a one-week switch plan.
Tracking hours with supervisor-scanned badges
For crews, TrackBadges gives every worker a printed QR badge. The supervisor scans it with their phone at the start and end of the shift, and the hours land on a weekly timesheet with daily and weekly overtime applied, optional rounding (the raw punches are kept), weekly approvals and a CSV export for payroll. Workers need no app or phone; the scanner needs a connection while scanning. It's free for up to 3 people with every feature; Pro is $9 a month for the first 3 people plus $1.50 a month for each person after that.
Frequently asked questions
How do I track employee hours for free?
Use a paper timesheet or a spreadsheet with columns for date, time in, time out and unpaid break minutes, filled in every day. Some time clock apps also have free plans for small teams; TrackBadges is free for up to 3 people with every feature.
How do I track employee hours in Excel?
Put time in and time out in columns B and C, unpaid break minutes in column D, and use =(C2-B2)*24-D2/60 in column E to get hours worked as a decimal. Total the week with =SUM(E2:E8), and use =MAX(E9-40,0) to find overtime hours.
How do I calculate hours worked with a lunch break?
Subtract the start time from the end time, then subtract the unpaid lunch. For 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM with a 30-minute lunch, that's 8.5 hours minus 0.5 hours, or 8 hours. In a spreadsheet, =(C2-B2)*24-D2/60 does it with the break in minutes.
How long do I have to keep employee time records?
Under the FLSA, keep time cards and other records used to compute wages for at least 2 years and payroll records for at least 3 years (29 CFR 516.5 and 516.6). Some states require longer, so check your state's rules too.
Is it illegal to not have a time clock?
No. Federal law doesn't require a time clock or any particular method, but it does require accurate records of each nonexempt employee's hours worked each workday and workweek. Paper, spreadsheets and apps are all allowed if the records are accurate and complete.
What's the most accurate way to track employee hours?
A method that captures exact punch times when they happen and confirms the right person is there: a supervisor-scanned badge, a biometric clock, or an app with GPS and photo checks. Self-reported paper and spreadsheet times are the least accurate, because they're often rounded or filled in later.
Keep reading
- Crew timesheetFree printable weekly crew timesheet: one row per crew member, a column per day, totals and overtime. For foremen tracking a whole crew's hours. PDF or Excel CSV.
- Timesheet calculatorFree weekly timesheet calculator: enter clock-in and clock-out times with lunch breaks to get total hours, overtime and gross pay. Rounding options too.
- Hours calculatorFree work hours calculator: enter a start time, end time and break to get hours worked in decimal and hours:minutes. Handles overnight shifts.
- Paper timesheets vs appsPaper timesheets look free but cost hours of retyping, rounded-up times and lost sheets. Compare the yearly cost with a time clock app and switch in a week.
- FLSA recordkeepingFLSA recordkeeping requirements: the time and pay records 29 CFR 516 requires, how long to keep time cards (2 years) and payroll (3 years), and state rules.
- The best time clock apps for small business in 2026The best time clock apps for small businesses in 2026, compared on free plans, ease of setup, buddy-punching control and what 10 or 25 employees cost a month.
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