How to Fill Out a Timesheet: A Worked Weekly Example

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This method works whether you are an employee keeping hours-worked records or an independent worker keeping time records for invoicing and personal files. Keep those categories separate and avoid conflating their legal status: employees document time for attendance and payroll processing by another party, while independent workers document time to support their own invoices and business records. The arithmetic is the same, but the purpose, retention, and labeling are different.

Report Period and Correct Dates

Start with the report period, not just isolated dates. Write the period start date, period end date, and the rule you are using, for example Monday to Sunday or Monday to Friday.

Then use one row per calendar date worked. Use the full date, including year, to avoid ambiguity. Correct dating matters because pay cycles, invoice cycles, and record retention are period-based. If you did not work on a date in the period, leave the row blank or mark it as not worked rather than omitting the date entirely. That makes it clear the absence was intentional, not a missing entry.

No name or employer details are required for an arithmetic example. For real submission, follow whatever identification the recipient requests, but do not add unnecessary personal data to a practice calculation or retained working copy.

Record Original Start and End Readings

Record the actual observed start and end times as readings first, before any calculation. Use a consistent 24-hour format such as 09:00 and 17:00 to avoid a.m./p.m. errors, and include minutes even when they are 00.

Do not round before recording. If the observed start was 08:57, write 08:57. Any rounding or policy adjustment, if applicable to your situation, should be shown as a separate step so the original remains visible. This preserves an audit trail and prevents disputes about what was observed versus what was calculated.

For independent workers, the same principle applies: record when work started and stopped, separately from the billable quantity you later invoice.

Record Multiple Breaks Separately With Paid Status

List each break on the same date row as its own entry with start, end, duration, and paid status. Do not combine paid and unpaid breaks into one number.

For example:

• 12:00–12:30, 0:30, unpaid
• 15:00–15:15, 0:15, paid

Only unpaid breaks are subtracted from gross time to obtain net hours. Paid breaks remain part of net time because they are counted as time for record purposes. If there were no breaks, write none rather than leaving the field ambiguous.

When there are multiple unpaid breaks, add them together for that day, but keep the individual entries visible. That allows anyone checking the sheet to verify the total.

Handle Overnight Shifts by End Date

If work continues past midnight, record both the start date and the end date. The date of the row is normally the start date, with an explicit end-date column when different.

Example: start 22:00 on 2026-05-04, end 06:00 on 2026-05-05. Gross time is 8:00 across two calendar dates, but it belongs to one shift record. Without the overnight end date, the same times look like a negative or zero duration.

For breaks during an overnight shift, record them with dates if they fall after midnight, or at least note that they belong to the same shift.

Calculate Daily Net Hours

Daily net is gross shift time minus total unpaid break time for that shift.

Formula:

Gross = End − Start

Unpaid break total = sum of unpaid breaks

Daily net = Gross − Unpaid break total

Keep gross, unpaid break total, and net visible. Do not record only the net result, because the check cannot be repeated without the inputs.

Worked Example: Five Identical Days

This example uses five identical days to show the arithmetic clearly. Report period: Monday to Friday.

Each day:

• Start: 09:00
• End: 17:00
• Gross: 8:00
• Unpaid break: 12:00–12:30, 0:30, unpaid
• Daily net: 8:00 − 0:30 = 7:30

In decimal hours, 7:30 is 7.50 hours.

The weekly gross is 40:00. Total unpaid breaks are 2:30. Weekly net is 37:30.

Do not infer overtime purely from pay-period totals. A weekly total alone does not establish overtime entitlement. Selected thresholds, daily limits, weekly limits, agreements, and applicable rules are separate from arithmetic and must be assessed separately. Record the total accurately first, then apply any separate threshold as a distinct step.

Add the Weekly Sum Correctly

Add daily nets in hours and minutes, carrying 60 minutes as one hour. Five days at 7:30 is 35 hours plus 150 minutes, which is 35 hours plus 2 hours 30 minutes, or 37:30.

Check the sum by also adding in decimal form: 7.50 × 5 = 37.50. Both representations should agree. If they do not, the error is usually a conversion or minute-carry mistake.

Use Hours:Minutes and Decimals Correctly

Hours:minutes and decimal hours are two notations for the same duration, but they are not interchangeable in calculation.

• 7:30 means 7 hours and 30 minutes.
• 7.50 means 7 and one-half hours.
• 7.30 in decimal would mean 7 hours and 18 minutes, not 7 hours 30 minutes.

Convert minutes to decimal by dividing by 60:

Minutes ÷ 60 = decimal fraction

Common values: 15 minutes = 0.25, 30 minutes = 0.50, 45 minutes = 0.75. For 37:30, 30 ÷ 60 = 0.50, so 37.50. Keep two decimal places for consistency and label the column clearly as either h:mm or decimal so readers do not misread 7.50 as 7 hours 50 minutes.

Make Corrections Without Erasing Originals

Preserve originals and do not silently erase corrections. If a time was entered incorrectly, keep the original entry legible and add a dated correction beside it.

A practical correction entry includes:

• Original value
• Corrected value
• Date of correction
• Initials or identifier, where appropriate
• Brief reason, such as wrong start time or break entered on wrong date

On paper, draw a single line through the error and write the correction nearby. In a spreadsheet or file, do not overwrite history without a record; add a correction note or retain a prior copy. Silent changes make verification impossible and undermine the record.

Export, Submit, and Final Checklist

Before submitting your timesheet, save a dated complete copy of your original entries and keep a separate record of any later corrections with dates and reasons. Follow the recipient’s submission instructions and any applicable retention requirements for how long to keep these records and in what form. A saved snapshot is useful for comparison if questions arise later, but it does not by itself prove that entries were unchanged or ensure acceptance in any later review.

Final checks:

• Period start and end dates are present.
• Every worked date has original start and end readings.
• Each break is listed separately with paid or unpaid status.
• Overnight shifts show the end date.
• Gross, unpaid break total, and daily net are visible.
• Weekly sum is 37:30 / 37.50 for this example and both notations agree.
• Corrections preserve originals with date and reason.
• A personal copy has been saved before submission.

No special software is required for these checks. They can be performed on paper, in a basic spreadsheet, or in any plain record that preserves columns and copies.

Blank Copyable Record Template

Copy the following columns for each date. Keep both time notations until the final total is verified.

Date | Period | Start | End | End date if different | Break 1: start-end, duration, paid/unpaid | Break 2: start-end, duration, paid/unpaid | Gross h:mm | Unpaid break total h:mm | Net h:mm | Net decimal | Notes / correction ref

Verification checks for each row:

1. Gross = End - Start, with overnight end date checked.
2. Unpaid total = sum of unpaid breaks only.
3. Net = Gross - Unpaid total.
4. Decimal = hours + minutes/60.
5. Weekly total = sum of daily nets; h:mm and decimal agree.

Sources and rule references

• 29 CFR 785.18: short rest periods
• 29 CFR 785.19: meal periods
• 29 CFR 778.104: each workweek stands alone
• 29 CFR 778.105: defining the workweek

Related reading

• How to Calculate Hours Worked With Lunch Breaks
• Paid Breaks vs Unpaid Lunch: What Counts in Your Work Hours?