How we calculate

1. Minutes, not decimals

Every time is turned into whole minutes after midnight (9:15 AM = 555), and all adding and subtracting is done in whole minutes. Results are shown as hours:minutes (8:30) and as decimal hours rounded to 2 places, half up (8.50). Converting only at the end avoids rounding drift.

2. Reading times

You can type 24-hour times (9:00, 09:00, 17:30) or 12-hour times (9:00 AM, 5:30 pm, 9a, 9 a.m.). Anything else, such as 25:00 or 9:75, shows “Use a time like 9:00, 17:30 or 9:00 AM”.

3. A day

• Up to 6 in/out pairs per day.
• Overnight: if Out is the same as or earlier than In, Out is on the next day; the shift counts on the day it started. Equal times mean a 24-hour shift.
• Errors: a missing In or Out, pairs that overlap, more than 24 hours in total, or a break longer than the shift. A day with an error counts as 0 until it is fixed, and the error is shown next to the field.
• Unpaid break: 0 to 480 minutes, subtracted once from the day.
• Rounding (off by default): each punch is rounded to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes; exactly halfway rounds up. With 15 minutes, 8:07 becomes 8:00 and 8:08 becomes 8:15.

Day hours worked = Σ (Out − In) for each pair − unpaid break

Example: 7:58 AM to 12:01 PM and 12:31 PM to 4:35 PM = 8 h 7 min (8.12).

4. Leave days

A day marked PTO, Holiday or Sick has paid hours (0 to 24) instead of punches. Those hours are added to paid hours and to pay at the regular rate, but not to hours worked, so they never create overtime. This follows the federal approach, where pay for vacation, holidays and illness is not pay for hours worked (29 U.S.C. § 207(e)(2); 29 CFR 778.218).

5. Overtime

Overtime is worked out for each workweek: seven days from your chosen start day (Sunday or Monday). It is never averaged across weeks.

• No double counting: hours that are already daily overtime or double time are not counted toward the weekly threshold.
• Which hours become weekly overtime: the hours after the 40th, in time order. They are taken from the latest regular hours of the week.
• Seventh day: applies only when all seven days of the workweek have hours worked.
• Months and years: each full workweek that touches the month is calculated (including days in the next or previous month), the regular and overtime hours are given to the days, and then the days inside the month are added up.

6. Pay

Regular pay = regular hours × rate
Overtime pay = overtime hours × rate × overtime multiplier
Double-time pay = double-time hours × rate × double-time multiplier
Leave pay = leave hours × rate
Gross = the sum of the four

Pay is worked out in whole cents from exact minutes, and each line is rounded once, half up. The rate you enter is used as the regular rate; the legal regular rate can include other pay, such as some bonuses. No taxes, withholding or net pay are calculated.

7. Average week

Average week = hours worked so far this year ÷ number of workweeks with at least one logged work day

8. What this calculator does not do

• It does not know your state’s or employer’s rules unless you choose them: shift differentials, call-in pay, penalty rates, meal-break premiums and similar rules are not included.
• It does not include bonuses or commissions in the regular rate.
• It does not calculate tax or take-home pay.
• It is an estimate, not legal or payroll advice.

9. How it is checked

The calculation code is separate from the page, and an automated test suite covers minutes math, 12-hour and 24-hour parsing, overnight shifts, overlapping punches, breaks longer than the shift, rounding to 5, 6 and 15 minutes, weekly overtime, daily plus weekly overtime without double counting, California daily and seventh-day rules, biweekly periods (never averaged), Sunday and Monday week starts, month and year allocation across month boundaries, leave days, pay totals and data validation. Worked examples on this site are produced by the same code when the site is built.