Timesheet calculator: questions and guides
Each guide here answers one question with a practical example, then takes you to the tool to try it yourself. Guides: 17.
Questions
- How to calculate work hours and payHow to work out daily hours after breaks, shifts that run past midnight, and total pay including overtime, with worked examples.
- Why does the calculator say 19.5 hours for a shift that ran from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon?A day shift showing 19.5 hours usually means the end time went in as 04:00 instead of 16:00. How to spot it from the '+1 day' badge and fix the row.
- How do I log a split shift, 9 to 1 in the morning and 4 to 9 in the evening?Enter a split shift as two rows on the same date, get the day's total, and see why no overtime appears when the daily threshold is checked row by row.
- As a freelancer billing short sessions, how do I charge by the exact minute instead of rounding to quarter hours?For freelancers working short sessions: log each start and end, get the exact minute total and an amount rounded once, then carry it onto your invoice.
- During Ramadan our working day is shorter; how do I make the calculator count overtime after 6 hours instead of 8?How to change the daily regular-hours threshold on the timesheet calculator for shorter Ramadan days, with a worked week, and why the number is yours to set.
- My security guard works a 24-hour shift from 08:00 to 08:00; why does the calculator refuse it?Why the timesheet calculator refuses an end time equal to the start, like 08:00 to 08:00, and how to log a guard's full-day shift as two rows with breaks.
- I typed 1 for a one-hour break and only one minute was taken off. Why?The break field on the timesheet calculator is in whole minutes: 1 is a minute, an hour is 60, decimals are refused, and a break longer than the shift is an error.
- I work from Dubai for a client in London; which time zone should I use on my timesheet?The timesheet calculator reads times as typed, with no time zone, so hours are right on any clock as long as a row uses one. When daylight saving makes it an hour out.
- Are my employees' hours and pay rates stored or sent anywhere when I use the timesheet calculator?Staff hours and pay are calculated, and the CSV and PDF built, inside your browser with nothing sent to a server or kept after you close the page. What to keep.
- Should I give the employee a PDF timesheet to sign and the accountant a CSV?When to send the timesheet summary as a PDF and when as a CSV: what each file holds, how Excel opens Arabic, and why both are arithmetic, not proof of attendance.
- Can't I just calculate hours with an Excel formula? What does the calculator do differently?Where Excel time formulas go wrong: negative overnight shifts, 7:30 multiplied as 7.30, totals over 24 hours and rounded decimals, and what the calculator handles.
- How do I total a delivery driver's hours for a full month and work out his hourly pay?How to total a delivery driver's month on one sheet: a row per working day up to 62 rows, empty rows for days off, flagged gaps, and the total and pay worked out.
- Why does total pay show three decimal places when I choose KWD or BHD?The timesheet calculator rounds pay once to the currency's decimals: two for SAR and AED, three for KWD, BHD, OMR and JOD. Worked examples of what changes.
- A night shift starts on Thursday and ends on Friday; which date do I put on the row?On the timesheet calculator the date is optional and never used in the maths. Why to write the night shift's start date, and how it stops shifts being counted twice.
- My employee takes several breaks a day, for lunch and prayer; how do I enter them?The timesheet calculator has one break field per row. Add the unpaid breaks into one figure in minutes, or split the day into rows, and see where the two methods differ.
- Why didn't the calculator add extra pay for a night shift?The timesheet calculator's only premium is overtime above a daily threshold. A night shift gets no allowance by itself; here are ways to add a night allowance yourself.
- I multiplied the decimal hours by the rate myself and got 45 halalas less than the calculator. Which is right?The decimal hours column is rounded to two places for display, so multiplying 7.33 by the rate drops part of a minute a day. Why the calculator's figure is right.