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Free Timesheet Templates

A timesheet only has one job: record the hours accurately enough that payday is boring. These templates do that job in whichever format your workplace actually uses — a printable PDF for the clipboard by the time clock, a Word file you can put your company name on, an Excel spreadsheet that totals hours and calculates overtime and gross pay by itself, or a Google Sheets copy that lands straight in your Drive. Every sheet has lunch columns, a 40-hour overtime split, and signature lines for both sides of the paycheck.

The whole library

Every timesheet we make.

By state rules
Pick your period

Four sheets, every pay cycle.

Each card downloads the Excel version with working formulas — or opens a Google Sheets copy in your own Drive. The printable PDF and Word versions of every sheet live on the period pages below.

Weekly Timesheet
The Monday-to-Sunday standard: lunch columns, automatic overtime split at 40 hours, gross pay from your rate.
Biweekly Timesheet
Two week blocks for a two-week pay period — overtime calculated per workweek, the way the FLSA requires.
Monthly Timesheet
Thirty-one dated rows on one page. Enter the month's first date and every row dates itself.
Daily Timesheet
One day, task by task — start, end, break minutes, and notes per row. Built for freelancers and job costing.
From the owner

Why these sheets calculate the way they do.

“The first payroll I ever ran, I totaled the week’s hours on a legal pad and got two of them wrong — in opposite directions. Nobody was cheating anybody; arithmetic at 9 p.m. just isn’t a payroll system. That’s why every Excel sheet here does the adding itself.”
— David, Apollo’s Templates

A few deliberate choices, so you don’t have to reverse-engineer them:

  • Overtime splits at 40 hours per workweek — the federal FLSA rule. The biweekly sheet runs the split inside each week separately, because a 30-hour week can’t “lend” hours to a 50-hour one.
  • Lunch columns are optional per row. Skip them on a day with no break and the sheet totals straight time-in to time-out.
  • Both signature lines are printed on every sheet. A timesheet that only one side signed is an argument waiting to happen.
  • Overnight shifts don’t break the math. Clock out after midnight and the Excel formulas still count forward correctly.

Working under California’s daily-overtime rules? That state does its own arithmetic — use the California overtime sheet instead of the standard weekly one.

Keep it legal

The two federal rules worth knowing.

The FLSA doesn’t require any particular form — a handwritten sheet is as valid as a payroll system — but it does require that the record exist and survive. Two rules cover most small-business situations:

Retention. Payroll records: three years. The timesheets the pay was computed from: two years. Scan the signed sheet at the end of each period and the requirement is met with a phone camera.

Rounding.Rounding to the nearest quarter hour is allowed if it’s neutral — 1–7 minutes down, 8–14 up, applied the same way every day for everyone. Systematic rounding in the employer’s favor is the pattern that loses lawsuits. Source for both: U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #21.

Three ways to use them

Download, copy, or print.

  1. Excel: download the .xlsx, enter times with AM/PM (like 8:00 AM), and the hours, overtime, and gross pay calculate as you type.
  2. Google Sheets: click “Open in Google Sheets,” then Make a copy — the formulas come with it, in your own Drive.
  3. Paper: print the PDF version from the period pages and keep it where people clock in. Same layout, hand-totaled.
Common questions

Timesheet FAQ

What's the difference between a timesheet and a time card?
In everyday use they're the same document — a record of the hours someone worked in a pay period, usually with clock-in and clock-out times. “Time card” leans toward the punch-clock tradition (one card per employee per week), while “timesheet” is the broader term that covers project and task tracking too. Every template on this page works for either meaning: they record in/out times per day, total the hours, and leave room for both signatures.
Should I use a weekly, biweekly, or monthly timesheet?
Match the sheet to your pay cycle. If payday comes every week, use the weekly sheet; every two weeks, the biweekly (it keeps each workweek's overtime separate, which matters legally); twice a month or monthly, the monthly sheet. If you bill clients by the task or need job costing rather than payroll, the daily sheet with its project rows is the right tool regardless of how often anyone gets paid.
Are these timesheet templates really free?
Yes — every format on this page downloads directly with no signup, no email wall, no watermark, and no trial that expires. The Excel files include the working formulas, not a crippled preview. We're a free template library, not a time-tracking app fishing for subscriptions; there's nothing to upgrade to.
How long does an employer need to keep timesheets?
Under the FLSA, payroll records must be kept for at least three years, and the documents wage computations are based on — including timesheets and time cards — for at least two years. Some states require longer, so treat two years as the floor, not the ceiling. A simple habit that satisfies this: scan or photograph each signed sheet at the end of the pay period and file it by month. See the Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #21 for the full recordkeeping list.
Is it legal to round clock-in and clock-out times?
Yes, within limits. Federal practice allows rounding to the nearest quarter hour under the “7-minute rule”: 1–7 minutes rounds down, 8–14 rounds up. The key requirement is neutrality — rounding must not systematically favor the employer over time. If you'd rather skip the question entirely, record exact times on the sheet and let the Excel version total the real minutes; the formulas don't care whether the entry is 8:00 or 8:04.

Free timesheet templates · Updated August 2026 · by David Nelsen — built for the small shops that still run payroll from a signed sheet of paper.

Nearby tools

Scheduling is the other half.

Before the hours happen
Shift Work Calendar
A monthly calendar with the rotating shift pattern pre-filled — plan the schedule the timesheet will record.
Open
For classrooms & teams
Attendance Sheet
Monthly attendance grid with a row per person — the sign-in side of time tracking.
Open