Why do payroll systems use decimal hours instead of HH:MM?

Because decimal hours multiply directly by an hourly rate and HH:MM doesn't. Seven hours and 45 minutes is 7.75 hours, not 7.45 — 45 minutes is 45/60 of an hour, or 0.75, not 0.45. Typing 7.45 into a payroll system understates the pay by six minutes' worth of wages. HH:MM is easier to read; decimal is what the arithmetic needs.

What's the difference between a paid and an unpaid break?

An unpaid break — typically a lunch — is time the worker isn't paid for, so it has to come out of the payable total; that's what the break field on this calculator subtracts. A paid break stays on the clock: the worker is still being paid for it, so it should not be entered in the break field, or it will be subtracted twice.

How does the calculator handle a shift that crosses midnight?

If the clock-out time is earlier in the day than the clock-in time, the calculator assumes the shift crossed midnight and adds 24 hours before subtracting, rather than treating it as an error. A 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift comes out to 8 hours.

Time Card Calculator

Q: Why is the overtime threshold editable instead of fixed at 40 hours?

Overtime rules vary by state and by workplace — some use a weekly threshold, some add a daily one, and the multiplier isn't always 1.5×. Rather than hard-code a single rule that would be wrong for some readers, the threshold and multiplier are both fields you set yourself. This calculator is arithmetic, not a compliance reference.

Q: Why might my weekly total differ from adding five rounded daily numbers?

Rounding each day before adding them up introduces drift that rounding the total once does not. This calculator keeps every day's worked time to the exact minute and only rounds for display, so the weekly total reflects the actual sum rather than five separately-rounded approximations of it.

Enter clock-in, clock-out and an unpaid break for each day worked. This adds up the week in both decimal hours and HH:MM, applies an overtime rate above whatever threshold you set, and — if you enter an hourly rate — works out gross pay. Leave a day blank and it's skipped, not counted as a zero.

Day	Clock in	Clock out	Break (min)	Hours
Mon				—
Tue				—
Wed				—
Thu				—
Fri				—
Sat				—
Sun				—

Hourly rate Optional — leave blank to see hours only

Overtime after Hours per week — edit for your state or workplace rule

Overtime multiplier 1.5 = time-and-a-half

Decimal hours vs HH:MM — the single most common payroll error

Seven hours and 45 minutes is 7.75 decimal hours, not 7.45. Forty-five minutes is 45 ÷ 60 of an hour — 0.75 — not 0.45, because an hour has 60 minutes in it, not 100. It's an easy slip: the clock reads "7:45" and someone types "7.45" straight across. That six-minute difference (0.75 vs 0.45 is actually a 0.30-hour, 18-minute gap) is exactly the kind of small, repeated error that adds up to real money over a pay period.

Payroll systems want decimal because it's the format that multiplies directly: hours × hourly rate = pay. HH:MM has to be converted before it's useful for that math, which is exactly what this calculator does automatically — every day and the weekly total are both shown in decimal and in HH:MM side by side, so nothing needs converting by hand, and there's a way to sanity-check one format against the other.

Rounding: quarter-hour, tenth-of-hour, and why consistency beats the choice

Two rounding conventions cover most workplaces. Quarter-hour rounding snaps a punch to the nearest 15 minutes — 7:52 becomes 7:45 or 8:00, whichever is closer. Tenth-of-hour rounding snaps to the nearest 0.1 hours, which is 6 minutes — the same 7:52 becomes 7:50 (7.83 hours) or thereabouts. Neither is more "correct" than the other; they're just different-sized buckets.

What actually matters is applying one convention consistently, and — just as important — rounding once, at the end, rather than rounding every day and then adding the rounded figures. Take five days that each run exactly 7 hours 52 minutes (472 minutes). Round each day to the nearest quarter hour first, then add: 472 minutes rounds to 465 (7.75h), and five of those is 2,325 minutes — 38.75 hours. Add the exact minutes first, then round the total once: 5 × 472 = 2,360 minutes, which rounds to 2,355 — 39.25 hours. Same five days, same rounding rule, a half-hour of drift depending only on when the rounding happened. This calculator keeps every day's worked time to the exact minute and rounds only for display, so the weekly total is the sum of what was actually worked, not a sum of five separate approximations.

Unpaid vs paid breaks

The break field on this calculator is specifically for unpaid time — a lunch a worker clocks out for, where they're not being paid. That time comes out of the payable total, which is why it's subtracted from the shift. A paid break — a short rest period some workplaces provide where the worker stays on the clock — should not go in this field at all, because they're still being paid for it; entering it would subtract pay they're actually owed.

Mixing the two up is an easy way to shortchange someone by a few minutes without noticing. A worker on an 8:00 to 4:30 shift with a paid 10-minute break and an unpaid 30-minute lunch should have 30 entered in the break field — not 40. Entering 40 pays them for 8 fewer minutes than they actually worked.

Overnight shifts

If the clock-out time is earlier in the day than the clock-in time, this calculator assumes the shift ran past midnight and adds 24 hours before subtracting, instead of flagging it as an error. A 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift is 8 hours: from 10:00 PM to midnight is 2 hours, and midnight to 6:00 AM is another 6, for 8 total — the same answer the wraparound math produces directly. An in and out time that are identical is treated as a full 24-hour shift, on the same logic; it's an unusual entry, but not an invalid one.

Overtime is a workplace rule, not a universal formula

The 40-hour default here is a common starting point, not something this calculator enforces or claims is correct for any particular reader. Overtime requirements vary by state and by workplace — some use a weekly threshold, some add a daily one on top, and the multiplier isn't always 1.5×. Rather than bake in one rule and risk it being wrong for whoever's reading this from a different state, the threshold and the multiplier are both plain fields: set them to match a specific workplace's policy, and everything downstream — regular hours, overtime hours, gross pay — follows whatever's entered. This page is arithmetic, not a compliance reference, and it isn't trying to be one.

Worked example: a full week, including a night shift

Say a worker's week runs Monday through Thursday, 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, with a 30-minute lunch each day — an 8.5-hour shift minus a 0.5-hour break is 8 hours a day, 32 hours across the four days. Friday is an overnight call: 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, no break, 8 hours by the same wraparound math described above. That's 40 hours for the week before anything else is added — exactly at the default threshold, with no overtime yet.

Then a Saturday call-in gets added: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, no break, 4 hours. The week's total is now 44 hours. Against the 40-hour threshold, 40 of those hours are regular and 4 are overtime. At $22 an hour with the default 1.5× multiplier, regular pay is 40 × $22 = $880.00, overtime pay is 4 × $22 × 1.5 = $132.00, and gross pay for the week is $1,012.00. Every figure in that walkthrough — each day's hours, the 40/4 regular-overtime split, and the final pay — is exactly what entering those same six days into the table above produces, in decimal and in HH:MM together.

Common questions

Why does this show both decimal hours and HH:MM?

Decimal multiplies directly by an hourly rate; HH:MM doesn't. 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 decimal hours, not 7.45 — that's the single most common manual-entry error in payroll. Showing both lets you read the clock time and use the payroll number without converting by hand.

What's the difference between a paid and unpaid break?

An unpaid break (usually lunch) comes out of payable time — enter it in the break field. A paid break keeps the worker on the clock and being paid, so it shouldn't be entered there, or it gets subtracted twice.

How does an overnight shift work?

If clock-out is earlier in the day than clock-in, the calculator treats it as crossing midnight and adds 24 hours before subtracting. 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM comes out to 8 hours.

Why is the overtime threshold editable instead of fixed at 40 hours?

Overtime rules vary by state and by workplace. Rather than hard-code a rule that would be wrong for some readers, the threshold and the multiplier are fields you set yourself.

Why might my weekly total differ from adding five rounded daily numbers?

Rounding each day before summing drifts from rounding the total once. This calculator keeps every day to the exact minute and rounds only the final display.