Guide
Timesheets: rounding rules, unpaid breaks and overtime
Most disputes about a timesheet are not about whether someone was at work. They are about two quiet conventions: how the clock readings were rounded, and which parts of the day were treated as unpaid. Both are decided long before anyone adds up a column, and both are worth writing down.
Rounding
Rounding to the nearest quarter of an hour is common, and it is neutral only if it rounds in both directions. Rounding start times up and finish times down is not rounding: it is a systematic deduction, and in several jurisdictions it is unlawful. If rounding is used at all, the rule should be symmetrical, stated in the contract, and applied to everyone.
The alternative is not to round. Modern systems record to the minute, and a total computed from exact readings needs no policy at all. Where rounding survives, it is usually a leftover from paper cards.
Breaks
A break is either paid or unpaid, and the distinction is contractual rather than obvious. Common arrangements:
- Automatic deduction. A fixed break subtracted from any shift over a certain length. Convenient, and wrong whenever the break did not happen, which is why it needs a way to be corrected.
- Clocked breaks. The worker records the break, so the timesheet reflects what happened. More accurate and more admin.
- Paid short breaks. Many rules treat short rest breaks as working time and only longer meal breaks as unpaid.
Whichever is used, the timesheet should show the break explicitly rather than folding it into a smaller total. A number that cannot be explained is a number that will be challenged.
Overtime is a threshold question
Overtime rules turn on a threshold, and the threshold is usually either daily or weekly. The same hours can produce different pay depending on which applies: four ten-hour days is overtime under a daily rule and not under a weekly one. Where both exist, they usually do not stack, and the contract or the local rule says which takes precedence.
Make the arithmetic visible
A timesheet that shows the start, the finish, the break and the resulting total is auditable. One that shows only the total invites the argument. The time card calculator works this way: it takes the clock readings and the break, and shows the hours it produced, so the number can be checked line by line rather than taken on trust.