A timesheet is a record of the hours a person worked, broken down by day and usually by project, client or task. Payroll uses it to work out pay. A services business uses it to work out what to bill. That is the whole job of a timesheet.
The format varies a lot. It can be a paper sheet on a clipboard, a spreadsheet, or time tracking software that builds the sheet as people work. What stays the same is the question it answers: who worked, when, for how long, and on what.
Is it "timesheet" or "time sheet"?
Both are correct. "Timesheet" as one word is now the more common spelling, and it is what most software and job ads use. Dictionaries still list "time sheet" as two words, and older payroll and government forms tend to use that version. Search engines treat the two as the same word, so the choice makes no difference to what you find.
Inside your own company, pick one and stay with it. Mixed spellings across a policy document, a form and a reminder email make one thing look like two.
What goes on a timesheet
Every timesheet, however simple, carries the same core fields.
- The person. A name or employee ID, so the hours land on the right paycheck.
- The date. One row per day is the normal shape.
- Start time, end time and break. A shift from 9:00 to 17:30 with a 30 minute lunch is 8 hours worked.
- Total hours, written as a decimal rather than hours and minutes.
- What the time was for. A project, client, task or cost code. This is the field that lets you bill.
- A signature or an approval. Someone has to confirm the hours are right before they turn into money.
Anything past that list is a nice-to-have. Notes, billable flags and expense lines all help, but a sheet without them still does its job.
Weekly, biweekly or monthly
A timesheet covers one pay period, and the length of that period sets the shape of the sheet.
- Weekly. Seven columns, one per day. The usual sheet for hourly and shift work.
- Biweekly. Two weeks on one sheet, which matches the most common US pay cycle.
- Semi-monthly or monthly. Fewer approvals to chase, but a much longer wait before anyone spots a mistake.
- Per project. Rows grouped by job instead of by date, used by agencies and consultants who bill by project.
Paper, spreadsheet, or software
Three ways to run timesheets, and the trade-off is always the same. How much admin are you willing to do by hand?
- Paper. Costs nothing and works anywhere. Someone has to type the numbers in later, and that retyping is where errors get in.
- Spreadsheet. Free, familiar, and it can total the week for you. It falls apart once several people share one file, because nobody can tell who changed a cell.
- Software. The sheet fills in as people work, totals are automatic, and approvals leave a record. It costs money per person.
For one freelancer a spreadsheet is genuinely fine, and our free timesheet template will do the week without a sign-up. The point where it stops working is usually about five people, or the first time you have to prove a number to a client who is questioning an invoice.
Why the hours are decimal
Timesheet totals are written as decimal hours because that is the only way the multiplication works. 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5 hours. Multiply 7.5 by a 40 dollar rate and you get 300 dollars. Try the same sum with "7:30" and you get nothing useful.
The conversion is minutes divided by 60, so 15 minutes is 0.25 and 20 minutes is 0.33. If you would rather not do it in your head, the hours to decimal converter handles single times and the timesheet calculator totals a whole week with breaks and overtime.
The 7-minute rule, and how rounding should work
The 7-minute rule is a US payroll convention for rounding clock times to the nearest quarter hour. Minutes 1 to 7 past a quarter-hour mark round down. Minutes 8 to 14 round up. It comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows employers to record worked time in 15 minute blocks instead of to the exact minute.
Here it is on a real day. Someone clocks in at 8:56 and clocks out at 5:04. Both times are within 7 minutes of a quarter-hour mark, so they round to 9:00 and 5:00. The day pays 8 hours, not 8 hours and 8 minutes.
Rounding is only allowed if it works both ways over time. A rule that always rounds against the worker is wage theft, however small each slice looks on its own. If you round at all, keep the raw times as well, so you can show the pattern is neutral if anyone asks.
TimeTracker rounds billable time to the nearest 6, 15 or 30 minutes, or leaves it exact, and you set that once for the whole workspace. Rounding never overwrites the real duration. Each entry stores the exact time and the rounded time side by side, so you can always show what actually happened.
How long you have to keep timesheets
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, US employers keep basic payroll records for at least three years. The records used to work out pay, which includes timesheets and time cards, must be kept for at least two years. Some states ask for longer, so check the rule where you are before you throw anything away.
This is where paper quietly fails. A box of clipboards is not a record you can search when someone questions a paycheck from 18 months ago.
Where timesheets go wrong
- They come in late. Friday hours get filled in from memory on Monday, and memory rounds up.
- Rows come back blank. No project and no task, so nobody can bill the time.
- Someone forgets to clock out, and the day records 14 hours.
- The numbers change after the invoice goes out, so the books and the bill no longer agree.
Those four are the reason approvals and locking exist. A submitted timecard routes to an approver who can approve it, ask for changes, or reopen it, and approved periods lock against edits with every change recorded. You can also require a description or a task on every entry, so sheets stop coming back with blank lines. If someone forgets to clock out, the app spots the open session and tells them.
How to fill out a timesheet
- Write the hours down the same day you work them. This one habit fixes most timesheet problems.
- Log the start time, the end time and any break, rather than a guess at the total.
- Put every entry against a project or task, including internal work.
- Convert to decimal hours before you total the week.
- Compare the total against your scheduled hours and explain any gap before you submit.
- Submit it on time, so nobody is chasing you on payroll day.
One thing worth being straight about: getting hours into payroll is a CSV export, not a direct connection to a payroll provider. If you need approved hours to land in your payroll system with no file in between, we are not the right fit yet.
Timesheet questions people actually ask
The spelling, the rounding rule and the record-keeping window, answered directly rather than in a definition of a definition.
- Is it spelled timesheet or time sheet?
- Both are correct. "Timesheet" as one word is now the more common spelling and the one most software uses, while dictionaries and older payroll forms still write "time sheet" as two words. Search engines treat them as the same word.
- Is timesheet one word or two?
- Most often one. The one-word form overtook the two-word form as timesheets moved from paper to software. Neither is wrong, so the only real rule is to stay consistent inside your own documents and forms.
- What is the 7 minute rule for timesheet?
- It is a US rule for rounding clock times to the nearest quarter hour. Minutes 1 to 7 past a quarter-hour mark round down, and minutes 8 to 14 round up. So 8:56 becomes 9:00. It is only legal if the rounding cuts both ways over time. TimeTracker rounds to 6, 15 or 30 minutes and keeps the exact duration too.
- How do I get a timesheet?
- If your employer uses one, ask your manager or payroll team, because the format is usually fixed. If you need your own, the free timesheet template fills in on the page and downloads as a CSV, with no sign-up.
- How to write timesheets?
- Fill in one row per day with the start time, the end time and any break, then note which project or task the time was for. Total the week in decimal hours, check it against your scheduled hours, and submit it before payroll runs.
- Can I do a timesheet in Excel?
- Yes, and for one person it works well. Excel struggles once several people share one file, because you cannot see who changed a cell or when. The timesheet calculator does the same sums in a browser if you would rather skip the formulas.
- How long do employers have to keep timesheets?
- In the US, at least two years for the records used to work out pay, which is where timesheets sit, and at least three years for basic payroll records. That comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act. Some states require longer.
Let the timesheet fill itself in
Chasing sheets on payroll day is the worst part of running timesheets. Track time as the work happens, route the week to an approver, and lock it once it is signed off.
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