Good time tracking is a routine, not a product: record real times daily, reconcile weekly inside each workweek, and archive an export you could hand to an auditor. Small teams can run that whole loop with a free calculator and a folder of CSVs.
What to record (the FLSA floor)
For every non-exempt employee, employers must keep: the workweek definition, hours worked each day and week, the regular rate, straight-time and overtime earnings, deductions, and pay dates — for at least three years. Practically, that means your record needs four columns per day: start, end, unpaid breaks, total — exactly a timesheet.
The weekly routine that prevents 90% of problems
- Enter times daily, not Friday. Memory invents round numbers; Friday reconstructions cluster suspiciously at 9:00 and 5:00. Two minutes at shift end beats twenty on payday.
- Record actual breaks. Unpaid meal periods deducted as taken; 5–20 minute rest breaks left in (they’re paid time).
- Close the week against the workweek, not the calendar you happen to like — overtime lives inside the employer-defined 7-day cycle. The timesheet calculator totals it with the right overtime split per state.
- Export and file. One CSV (or PDF) per employee per week into a
YYYY/MMfolder. That folder is your audit trail.
Rules worth writing down once
A one-page time policy saves recurring arguments. It should name:
- the workweek (e.g., “Monday 12:00 AM through Sunday 11:59 PM”),
- rounding (to the minute, or neutral quarter-hour rounding),
- break policy (length, paid/unpaid, how to report a missed meal),
- overtime authorization (who approves it — note that unapproved overtime worked must still be paid; it’s a discipline issue, not a pay deduction),
- how corrections happen (in writing, within one pay period).
Calculator vs. tracking software
| Situation | Right tool |
|---|---|
| 1–10 hourly employees, single site | Timesheet calculator + weekly exports |
| Job costing, client billing by project | Tracking software with projects |
| Multi-site scheduling, swaps, PTO accrual | Workforce platform |
| You mostly need paycheck verification | Calculator, always |
Timer-based apps (Clockify, Toggl and similar) excel at billable-hours and project analytics. For wage compliance, the timesheet — times in, times out, breaks, weekly totals — remains the unit that matters, whatever produces it.
For employees: track in parallel
Keep your own copy even if work has a system. It takes a minute a day in the time card calculator (it autosaves locally and exports anytime), and when a stub looks light, you’ll be debating from data instead of memory. Disputes are won by whoever kept the better record.