Updated 22 Aug 2026 · 11 min read · Time Tracking

Timesheet for Employees: How to Create One (Templates, Formulas & Automation)

A timesheet for employees is one of the simplest documents in a business — until you’re the one building it. Whether you’re setting up a timesheet for employees by hand in Excel or trying to find the fastest way to track hours across a remote team, this guide covers the manual method, the formulas, the US legal requirements, and the automated option most growing teams eventually switch to.

Quick answer: A timesheet for employees is a record of the hours someone worked in a given day, week, or pay period, usually broken down by date, clock-in/clock-out time, breaks, and total hours. You can build a timesheet for employees in under 10 minutes in Excel or Google Sheets using a subtraction formula, or skip the manual work entirely with automatic time-tracking software like Backlsh, which fills the timesheet in the background as your team works.

What Is a Timesheet for Employees?

A timesheet for employees is simply a structured log of hours worked. At minimum, it captures who worked, on what date, from what time to what time, and how many total hours that adds up to. Most businesses also track breaks, overtime, project or task codes, and an approval signature or status.

A timesheet for employees exists for three reasons: to pay people accurately, to bill clients or allocate project costs correctly, and — in the US — to satisfy federal recordkeeping law for non-exempt employees. That third reason is the one most small businesses underestimate, so we’ll cover it in detail below.

Why a Timesheet for Employees Matters

A well-kept timesheet for employees does more than log hours. The benefits of moving from paper or memory-based tracking to a structured — and eventually automated — timekeeping system include:

• Accurate payroll: hours worked map directly to what people are paid, cutting both over- and under-payment errors.
• Audit-ready compliance: a documented, timestamped record is your defense if a wage dispute or Department of Labor audit ever comes up.
• Real project and client billing: if you invoice by the hour, a timesheet is the paper trail that justifies every line item.
• Visibility into workload: managers can see who’s overloaded, who’s underutilized, and where deadlines are at risk — well before it becomes a problem.
• Less manual admin: automated systems remove the weekly scramble to remember and re-enter hours, which is usually the single biggest time-sink in the whole process.

How to Create a Timesheet for Employees in Excel (Step by Step)

If you just need to build a timesheet for employees quickly, Excel or Google Sheets is the fastest no-cost route. Here’s how to build one from scratch:

1. Set up your columns. A standard weekly timesheet needs: Employee Name, Date, Time In, Time Out, Break (minutes), Total Hours, and Notes/Project.
2. Format the time cells. Select the Time In / Time Out columns and set the number format to Time (h:mm AM/PM), so Excel treats entries as actual time values rather than text.
3. Add the hours formula. In the Total Hours column, subtract Time In from Time Out, convert to decimal hours, then subtract the break:

=((C2-B2)*24)-(D2/60)

Where B2 = Time In, C2 = Time Out, D2 = Break in minutes. Multiplying by 24 converts Excel’s internal day-fraction time value into decimal hours.

4. Handle overnight shifts. If Time Out is earlier than Time In (an overnight shift), add 24 hours before subtracting: =IF(C2<B2,((C2+1-B2)*24),((C2-B2)*24))-(D2/60)
5. Sum the week. At the bottom of the Total Hours column, add =SUM(E2:E8) to get the weekly total.
6. Flag overtime. A conditional formula like =IF(E9>40,E9-40,0) next to your weekly total will surface overtime hours automatically.

Skip the setup: Backlsh’s free Timesheet Generator builds a ready-made timesheet for employees for you — pick weekly or bi-weekly, and it’s ready to fill in or hand to your team. If you only need to check totals, the Work Hours Calculator and Overtime Pay Calculator handle the math instantly, no spreadsheet required.

How to Calculate Timesheet Hours (Manually)

The most common mistake when calculating hours on a timesheet for employees by hand is mixing minutes and decimal hours. A shift from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM isn’t “9 hours 30 minutes” in payroll math — it needs to be converted to decimal: 8.5 hours.

• Convert minutes to decimals by dividing by 60 (30 minutes = 0.5, 15 minutes = 0.25, 45 minutes = 0.75).
• Subtract unpaid breaks before totaling the day, not after — otherwise weekly overtime calculations will be off.
• Total each day first, then the week. Adding raw clock times across multiple days is where most manual errors creep in.
• Watch the 40-hour line. Under the FLSA, anything over 40 hours in a single workweek for a non-exempt employee generally needs to be paid at 1.5x the regular rate.

If keeping a timesheet for employees is a recurring weekly task across more than a couple of people, manual calculation is exactly the kind of repetitive, error-prone work that automated time tracking removes entirely — hours are calculated the moment they’re logged, with no spreadsheet math involved.

Timesheet for Employees: Manual vs. Automated Options Compared

Not every team needs the same setup. Here’s how the main approaches to a timesheet for employees compare for a small or mid-sized business:

For fully remote or distributed teams specifically, automatic tracking tends to win on accuracy simply because there’s no “did they remember to clock in” problem — time is captured passively as work happens, then organized into a timesheet, attendance record, and project report without anyone touching a start button.

Legal Requirements for Employee Time Tracking in the US

If you employ non-exempt workers in the US, a timesheet for employees isn’t just an operational nicety — it’s required under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), enforced by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Here’s what actually matters:

• No specific format is required. Paper, spreadsheet, or software timesheets are all acceptable, as long as the records are complete and accurate.
• Non-exempt employees must have hours tracked. This applies to on-site, remote, and hybrid workers equally.
• Minimum data to capture: the employee’s name, workweek start day/time, hours worked each day, total hours worked each week, pay basis and rate, and total wages paid per pay period.
• Retention periods: payroll records generally need to be kept for at least three years; the underlying time cards and wage-rate records for at least two years.
• Exempt employees are not required to have their hours tracked the same way, but employers still need records showing the basis on which they’re paid.
• State laws can add requirements on top of the federal baseline — some states mandate daily time-tracking records regardless of exemption status, so it’s worth checking your state’s labor department alongside the FLSA.

This is general information, not legal advice — if you’re unsure how these rules apply to your business, it’s worth a quick check with an employment attorney or your state labor department, especially if you operate in multiple states.

Choosing the Best Timesheet Software for Your Team

Once manual tracking stops scaling, here’s what’s worth comparing when you’re choosing timesheet for employees software for your team:

• Automatic vs. manual entry. Manual timers only work if people remember to use them. Automatic tracking removes that dependency entirely — useful the moment you have more than a handful of people.
• Payroll integration. If you’re choosing a payroll system with integrated time entry, check that hours flow directly into payroll without a manual export/import step — that’s usually where errors get introduced.
• Mobile access. For field or hybrid teams, look for a mobile app so hours and attendance are logged wherever people are actually working.
• Screenshot or activity context (optional). For remote teams specifically, some tools pair timesheets with lightweight screenshots or app/website activity so managers have context, not just a number.
• Cost per user. At scale, small per-seat differences add up fast — worth comparing pricing per active user, not just the headline plan price.
• Data compliance. If you’re in a regulated industry or work with EU/UK clients, check for GDPR support and, ideally, on-premise or self-hosted deployment options.

Timesheets that build themselves

Backlsh automatically tracks time, attendance, and project hours in the background and turns it into a ready-to-review timesheet — no manual clock-ins, no spreadsheet formulas, no chasing submissions. Plans start at $2.99/user/month.Start Your 14-Day Free Trial

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a timesheet used for?

A timesheet is used to record hours worked so a business can run accurate payroll, bill clients or projects correctly, and keep the records required for US wage-and-hour compliance under the FLSA.

How do I create a timesheet in Excel?

Add columns for Employee, Date, Time In, Time Out, Break, and Total Hours, format the time columns as Time, then calculate hours with a formula like =((C2-B2)*24)-(D2/60). See the step-by-step section above, or use Backlsh’s free timesheet generator to skip the setup.

How do I calculate timesheet hours?

Convert clock times to decimal hours (30 minutes = 0.5), subtract unpaid breaks from each day’s total before summing the week, and flag anything over 40 hours in a workweek as overtime for non-exempt employees.

Are timesheets confidential?

Timesheets typically contain personal pay and schedule data, so they should only be accessible to the employee, their manager, and payroll/HR staff — not shared company-wide. Most time-tracking software restricts visibility by role for this reason.

Can an employer change an employee’s timesheet?

Employers can correct timesheet errors, but under the FLSA the record still has to reflect hours actually worked — edits that reduce recorded hours without the employee’s knowledge can create compliance risk. Software with an audit trail (showing who edited what, and when) protects both sides.

What’s the difference between a timesheet and time-tracking software?

A timesheet is the record itself — a log of hours. Time-tracking software is the tool that creates that record, either by letting someone log hours manually or, with automatic tracking, by capturing work activity in the background and generating the timesheet without manual entry.

What’s the best timesheet software for a remote team?

For remote and distributed teams, automatic time-tracking tools tend to outperform manual timers because there’s no reliance on someone remembering to clock in — hours, attendance, and project time are captured passively as work happens. Backlsh is built specifically for this use case.

Is automated employee time tracking legal in the US?

Yes. The FLSA doesn’t require a specific timekeeping method — paper, spreadsheets, and software are all acceptable, as long as the records are complete and accurate. Most businesses choose software specifically because it reduces the errors and gaps that create compliance risk.

Looking for timesheet guidance specific to billing clients hourly? See our guide to timesheets for consultants, or if payroll math is your main concern, read how to calculate work hours for payroll.