How to fill out a time card correctly
A time card is a legal record of your work — and the document your pay is calculated from. Filled in carelessly, it underpays quietly. Here is how to fill one in properly, and how to check it.
Step by step
- Write your name and the workweek dates at the top. Pay is calculated per workweek, so a card that mixes two weeks invites errors.
- Record start and finish times exactly — 9:07, not "about 9". Consistent detail is what makes a card believable if pay is ever disputed.
- Subtract unpaid breaks only. A 30-minute unpaid lunch comes off; paid short rest breaks do not.
- Total each day, then the week. Add minutes as minutes and carry every 60 into an hour — never add clock times as decimals (see our minutes-to-decimal guide).
- Sign or submit it on time. Late cards are the number-one reason overtime lands a pay period late.
The five mistakes that cost money
- Rounding your own times down out of habit — five minutes a day is over 20 hours a year.
- Forgetting weekend or overtime days on the card entirely; if it is not written, it is rarely paid.
- Writing break times you did not take. If you worked through lunch, the card should say so.
- Not keeping your own copy. A photo or downloaded receipt of each card is your proof if a stub is ever wrong.
- Never checking the stub against the card. Most payroll errors are honest and are fixed the moment they are shown.
Keep your own record
The safest habit takes thirty seconds: total your card, keep a copy, and compare the gross pay on your stub with your own figure. Our time card calculator keeps your entries on your device, and its Download receipt (JPG) button saves a shop-style receipt of the week — name, days, totals and gross pay — that you can keep or send to your manager.
Try it free
Skip the hand maths — the Time Card Calculator does all of this automatically, with your state's rules built in.