Free Time Card Calculator

An appealing PDF of the time card can be downloaded and sent to your accounting department. Or your employees can do it themselves.

If you want to really crunch down on the numbers you can send the tracked data to your custom URL and than connect it to tools like Google Sheets, Excel, even Zapier.

Contractors must track time accurately to meet client expectations and contractual obligations. Using a time card calculator is also essential for tracking labor costs and complying with wage rules.

Contractors must record their daily start and stop times, including travel between sites, break periods, and the projects they worked on. Maintaining detailed records reduces the risk of disputes by providing a clear account of each worker’s efforts.

Best practices for contractor time cards:

• Record start and stop times for projects.
• Document meal and rest breaks.
• Send data to a spreadsheet to input any necessary project details, job codes, or cost codes.

‍Tip: If you’re tracking hours for multiple clients, use a separate time card for each of them.

Engineers are often required to split their time between different projects, tasks, and even funding sources. Therefore, detailed time tracking is essential for proper job costing and client billing, as well as for providing more accurate estimates for upcoming projects.

Best practices for engineer time cards:

• Keep billable and non-billable activities separate.
• Track regular hours vs. overtime hours.
• Use project codes for time card entries to simplify billing and reporting (you can do this by pulling the time card data onto a spreadsheet).

Agencies usually manage multiple clients and projects simultaneously, with staff working on overlapping assignments. Time cards help track time by client, project, or deliverable, providing a clear picture for billing and project costing.

Time cards also help balance team schedules, especially during periods with tight deadlines.

Best practices for agency time cards:

• Use project or client codes for time entries to capture billable hours in the right places.
• Implement time card approval workflows to verify time entries before billing clients.
• Analyze time card data to look for resource optimization opportunities.

Most attorneys bill by the hour, so transparent time tracking is crucial for maintaining client trust and ethical standards. Legal time cards should detail the work performed and allocate the hours to specific cases or clients.

This precision allows law firms to comply with professional obligations while minimizing the risks of billing disputes.

Best practices for attorney time cards:

• Record time in standard billing increments immediately after completing a billable task.
• Add clear descriptions of tasks performed and which client or case they relate to.
• Clearly indicate which tasks are billable and which are not.

Nonprofits are obligated to track time for each employee and volunteer to prove that grant funds are being used appropriately and for the right projects. Granting agencies often audit time records and could halt funding if accurate records aren’t maintained.

Detailed time cards also help separate grant-funded tasks from operational ones, ensuring complete transparency throughout each work day.

Best practices for nonprofit time cards:

• Keep tracked time for grant-funded work and operational work separate.
• Similarly, do not mix paid time with volunteer time—use separate time cards for each.
• Employee signatures are required on timesheets to comply with regulations.

Office teams tend to have standard working hours, but time cards are still required to ensure that overtime is paid correctly and all breaks and time off are accounted for.

Time cards are also highly useful for spotting trends such as frequent absenteeism or excessive overtime, which could indicate problems such as burnout and excessive workloads.

Best practices for office team time cards:

• Enforce a consistent approach to daily time entries for all employees.
• Review overtime hours regularly to help prevent excessive workloads and payroll spikes.
• Communicate and provide training on timekeeping policies and the importance of time cards.

Construction workers need to track hours by project, job classification, and location to ensure time is allocated in the right places, especially when multiple clients are involved.

Accurate time keeping is not only crucial for payroll, but also for meeting the recordkeeping requirements of government contracts and avoiding client disputes and issues.

Best practices for construction time cards:

• Send time card data to a spreadsheet to enable more detailed time records.
• Include certification or contract numbers if required by project rules.
• Short breaks are typically compensated, so do not add these as unpaid breaks.

Detailed and transparent time cards are required from consultants since they generally bill clients by the hour or per deliverable. Detailed records also protect against disputes over billed hours.

And besides supporting accurate invoicing, historical time cards can be analyzed to understand the profitability of each project.

Best practices for consultant time cards:

• Add short work descriptions to support each time entry and the subsequent invoice.
• Round time up or down according to what’s stated in each contract.
• Retain records to back up disputes.

The hospitality industry is renowned for shift work, making reliable time cards essential for managing payroll for standard, split, or overtime shifts.

Also, since break times for hospitality staff tend to be irregular, a time card makes it convenient to track when each worker takes a pause and how long it lasts.

Best practices for hospitality time cards:

• Implement a solid time card approval process to check for errors, omissions, and discrepancies.
• Regularly audit split or double shifts to stay compliant with overtime laws.
• Analyze time cards to prevent underpayment claims and optimize shift patterns.

Freelancers are responsible for managing their own schedules and keeping careful time logs for accurate client billing, making time cards very useful and convenient.

Clear time records also help freelancers justify their invoices and demonstrate their value to clients.

Best practices for freelancer time cards:

• Get in the habit of completing time cards each day to avoid missing billable hours.
• Keep billable and non-billable time separate.
• Retain records of all time cards in case of tax reviews or client disputes.