Free Timesheet Templates
Weekly, biweekly, and monthly timesheet templates in Excel, Word, and PDF. The Excel versions calculate hours from start and end times, split regular and overtime hours by workweek, and work out pay. Or fill in a timesheet online and print it.
Free · No sign-up · Works in Excel and Google Sheets
Download timesheet templates
Each template comes in three formats. Excel does the arithmetic and opens in Google Sheets; Word and PDF are printable forms with the same layout for filling in by hand.
| Template | Best for | Excel | Word | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly timesheet | Weekly payroll; hourly employees | Download | Download | Download |
| Biweekly timesheet | Every-other-week payroll, with overtime per week | Download | Download | Download |
| Monthly timesheet | Monthly reporting, with overtime grouped by workweek | Download | Download | Download |
| Weekly by client and project | Agencies, consultants, and contractors who bill clients | Download | Download | Download |
Timesheet example: a week with overtime
This is the sample week in the weekly Excel template, so you can see what the formulas produce. The employee earns $20 an hour, takes a 30-minute unpaid lunch on weekdays, and works a short Saturday.
| Day | Date | Start | End | Break (min) | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Oct 12 | 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 30 | 8.00 |
| Tuesday | Oct 13 | 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 30 | 8.00 |
| Wednesday | Oct 14 | 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 30 | 8.00 |
| Thursday | Oct 15 | 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 30 | 8.00 |
| Friday | Oct 16 | 9:00 AM | 5:30 PM | 30 | 8.00 |
| Saturday | Oct 17 | 9:00 AM | 1:00 PM | 0 | 4.00 |
| Sunday | Oct 18 | — | — | — | 0.00 |
Total pay for the week: $920.00. Without the overtime premium, the same 44 hours would wrongly come to $880, a $40 underpayment, which is the mistake many basic timesheets make.
How to fill out a timesheet
- Fill in the header. Employee name, manager, the first day of the period, the hourly rate, the weekly overtime threshold (40 by default), and the overtime multiplier (1.5 by default). Dates for each day fill in automatically.
- Record start and end times every day. Use the actual times worked, not the scheduled ones, and fill them in daily rather than from memory at the end of the week. Leave both blank on days off.
- Enter unpaid breaks. Put the minutes of unpaid meal break in the break column. Short rest breaks, generally 5 to 20 minutes, are usually paid under federal rules and should not be deducted.
- Check the totals. Hours, regular and overtime hours, and pay calculate themselves. If a number looks wrong, check that the times are entered as times (for example 5:30 PM or 17:30), not as text.
- Sign and approve. The employee signs to confirm the hours are accurate, the manager approves, and the timesheet goes to payroll. Keep a copy.
How to calculate hours and overtime on a timesheet
Daily hours
Subtract the start time from the end time, then subtract unpaid break time. A shift from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM with a 30-minute lunch is 8 hours 30 minutes minus 30 minutes, or 8 hours. For an overnight shift, add 24 hours to the end time first: 10:00 PM to 6:30 AM is 8.5 hours before breaks. The hours calculator does this for several days at once.
Decimal hours
Payroll uses decimal hours, so convert minutes by dividing by 60: 15 minutes is 0.25 hours, 20 minutes is 0.33, and 45 minutes is 0.75. The minutes to decimal calculator has a full conversion chart.
Overtime is counted per workweek
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees earn at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. A workweek is a fixed, recurring period of seven consecutive days. Each workweek stands alone, so you cannot average two weeks: 45 hours one week and 35 the next is 5 hours of overtime, even though the two weeks total 80. That is why the biweekly template calculates each week separately and the monthly template groups days into workweeks.
Some states add daily overtime. California, for example, requires overtime after 8 hours in a day. Check your state labor laws and use the time and a half calculator to check overtime pay. If you pay shift differentials or bonuses, they generally count toward the regular rate used for overtime.
Timesheets and pay periods
Weekly and biweekly payrolls line up with workweeks, which keeps overtime simple. Semimonthly and monthly payrolls do not: a workweek can start in one pay period and end in the next. Track hours by workweek anyway and pay any overtime in the period in which the workweek ends. The biweekly pay calculator and payroll hours calculator help with the totals.
Free online timesheet generator
Enter hours for each day, add client and project details if you need them, and print the timesheet or save it as a PDF. No sign-up required.
Employee Information
Timesheet Period
Time Entries
| Date | Start | End | Break (min) | Regular | OT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon, Oct 26 | — | — | |||
| Tue, Oct 27 | — | — | |||
| Wed, Oct 28 | — | — | |||
| Thu, Oct 29 | — | — | |||
| Fri, Oct 30 | — | — | |||
| Sat, Oct 31 | — | — | |||
| Sun, Nov 1 | — | — |
Total Hours
0.00
Regular
0.00
Overtime
0.00
Total Pay
$0.00
What is in each timesheet template
Weekly timesheet template
Seven days from the start date you enter, with start time, end time, unpaid break, hours, and notes for each day. The summary shows total hours, regular and overtime hours, regular and overtime pay, and total pay, with signature lines for the employee and manager. Use it for weekly payroll or if you need weekly records for labor law compliance.
Biweekly timesheet template
Two weeks on one sheet, each with its own overtime calculation, and a pay period summary of total hours, overtime hours, and pay. It suits every-other-week payroll, the most common pay frequency in the US.
Monthly timesheet template
One row for each day of the month you choose; dates fill in automatically and stop at the end of the month. A workweek table groups the days into Monday-to-Sunday weeks and calculates overtime for each, so a month never hides overtime the way a single monthly total would.
Weekly timesheet by client and project
One row per block of work with date, client, project, task, start and end time, and break. A summary totals hours and amounts by client, ready for client billing, and the weekly total still splits regular and overtime hours. Agencies and consultants can also use the agency timesheet template.
How to Use These Templates Online
To use these as shared digital timesheets:
1. Save to a shared location
Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, or a shared network folder. Restrict access to authorized people only.
2. Choose your organization method
One workbook per period — create one Excel file per week/month with a separate sheet for each employee. Add a summary sheet that totals all employees' hours and costs.
One file per employee — each employee copies the template, fills it in, and saves to the correct period folder. Name files consistently (e.g., Smith-Jane-2026-W12.xlsx).
3. Back up your data
Keep copies in a second location. If your state labor laws require physical records, print and file signed copies.
When to Move from Templates to Software
Manual timesheet templates work well for small teams. As your team grows, consider switching to automated timesheet software when:
- Employees spend too much time filling out timesheets instead of working
- You're losing accuracy because people fill them in from memory at the end of the week — automatic time tracking solves this
- Collating, reviewing, and processing timesheets consumes hours of management time
- You need real-time visibility into who's working on what
- You're losing billable hours due to forgotten or underreported time
HiveDesk automates the entire process — employees track time via desktop, mobile, or browser apps, and timesheets are generated automatically with a manager approval workflow. For teams that want to eliminate manual entry entirely, time tracking software captures hours in real time and feeds them directly into timesheets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about using timesheet templates.
Match the template to your pay period: weekly for weekly payroll, biweekly for every-other-week payroll, monthly for monthly reporting. Use the client and project version if you bill clients for time. Download Excel if you want hours, overtime, and pay calculated for you; Word or PDF if you want a printable form to fill in by hand.
Yes. Enter a start time, an end time, and an unpaid break for each day, and the template works out the hours, including shifts that run past midnight. It then totals the week, splits regular and overtime hours, and calculates pay from the hourly rate and overtime multiplier you enter.
Overtime is calculated per workweek, which is how the federal Fair Labor Standards Act works: hours above the weekly threshold (40 by default) are overtime and are paid at the multiplier you set (1.5 by default). The biweekly template calculates each week separately, and the monthly template groups days into Monday-to-Sunday workweeks. Some states, such as California, also require daily overtime, which you would need to add.
Yes. Upload the Excel file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets. All of the hours, overtime, and pay formulas work in Sheets.
Divide the minutes by 60. For example, 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours and 8 hours 20 minutes is 8.33 hours. The Excel templates already show hours as decimals; for manual timesheets, the minutes to decimal calculator converts them for you.
Yes. The templates are free to use and change. Add columns, rename fields, or change the overtime threshold and multiplier to match your policy.
Contractors can use the same templates, usually the client and project version, so their hours can be matched to invoices. Overtime rules apply to non-exempt employees, not independent contractors, so contractors can set the overtime threshold high enough that it never applies.
Under federal rules, employers must keep payroll records for at least three years and the records used to compute wages, such as time cards, for at least two years. Many states require longer, so check the rules where your employees work.
Automate Your Timesheets
Stop wasting hours on manual timesheets. HiveDesk automatically tracks time by project and task, generates timesheets, and runs them through a manager approval workflow. $5/user/month.