Clock and hours · rules read October 11, 2026
Two-week timesheet with overtime per workweek
Enter the in and out times and breaks of each day for two weeks, choose your state rule and rate; the timesheet totals each week and the pay period.
Written by Radif Partners · How the hours are counted · Editorial policy
Type 8, 830, 8:30, 2:15pm or 14:15. An out time earlier than the in time is read as the next morning (night shift). Paid rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes are not deducted.
| Day | Counted shift | Hours | Reg | OT | DT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Tue | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Wed | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Thu | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Fri | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 6.00 | 2.50 | 0.00 |
| Sat | · | 0:00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Sun | · | 0:00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Mon | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Tue | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Wed | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Thu | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 8.50 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Fri | 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 30 min off | 8:30 | 6.00 | 2.50 | 0.00 |
| Sat | · | 0:00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Sun | · | 0:00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Hours worked in the two weeks
85:00
85.00 decimal hours · gross pay $1,750.00
| Regular hours | 80.00 h |
| Overtime at 1.5x | 5.00 h |
| Regular pay | $1,600.00 |
| Overtime pay | $150.00 |
| Gross pay before taxes | $1,750.00 |
Overtime after 40 hours in the workweek (FLSA). How this is calculated.
A biweekly timesheet covers two workweeks, and overtime has to be worked out on each of them separately: under the Fair Labor Standards Act every hour past 40 in a workweek earns at least 1.5 times the regular rate, and the Department of Labor does not permit averaging hours over two or more weeks (Fact Sheet #23). A pay period of 50 hours followed by 30 hours totals 80, which looks like two ordinary weeks, yet the first week alone holds 10 overtime hours. At $20 an hour the correct gross is $1,700.00, not the $1,600.00 that eighty straight-time hours would give, a gap of $100.00. The calculator takes clock times for fourteen days, splits each workweek under the federal rule or the daily rules of California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado, and prints a timesheet ready to check against the pay stub.
Two weeks on one timesheet
Overtime hours owed
10.00
| Week 1 overtime | 10.00 |
| Week 2 overtime | 0.00 |
| Gross for the two weeks | $1,700.00 |
All 80.00 hours at straight time would come to $1,600.00; the FLSA measures each workweek alone, never an average.
The fortnight from the summary, week by week
The Department of Labor treats each workweek as a separate unit, so the first step on any biweekly timesheet is to draw a line between day seven and day eight. Below, the two weeks of the example are split by the engine under the federal rule and, for comparison, under California's rule, at $20 an hour.
| Week | Daily hours | Total | Regular | Overtime | Gross (federal) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 | 50 | 40 | 10 | $1,100.00 |
| Week 2 | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 | 30 | 30 | 0 | $600.00 |
| Pay period | 80 | 70 | 10 | $1,700.00 |
The first week's ten-hour days push it 10 hours over the weekly line, and those hours are paid at $30.00. The second week is short and has no overtime. California would reach the same 10 overtime hours here, since every hour past 8 on those ten-hour days is already overtime by the day, but the route is different and so is the result when the days are uneven.
That second case is in the next table. Both weeks add up to 44 and 36 hours, so the federal rule finds nothing to pay at a premium. Under the California rule, the twelve-hour Friday holds 4 overtime hours on its own.
| Week | Daily hours | Total | Federal overtime | California overtime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 8, 8, 8, 8, 12 | 44 | 4 | 4 |
| Week 2 | 8, 8, 8, 8, 4 | 36 | 0 | 0 |
Why averaging is the error to look for
Payroll systems that pay a flat eighty hours, or supervisors who send someone home early in week two to "even out" a long week one, both rely on the idea that the pay period is what counts. It is not. Fact Sheet #23 is explicit that the workweek stands alone, and an employer cannot offset a short week against a long one. Cutting hours later in the same workweek is allowed; cutting them in the next one does not cancel overtime already earned.
When you check a paycheck, look at the overtime line first. If it shows zero but one of the two weeks went past 40 hours, recompute with this timesheet. A pay stub that only shows an eighty-hour total, with no weekly breakdown, is not proof of an error, but it is a reason to ask for the weekly figures. The biweekly pay calculator turns the corrected hours into the gross for the check.
Filling the timesheet well
Enter the real in and out times rather than the scheduled ones, and put the unpaid meal in the break column only when it was at least 30 minutes and duty-free. Short rest breaks stay on the clock. If your employer rounds punches, use the same rounding in the timesheet so the totals match; the rounding guide explains which increments are accepted. Pick your state before reading the totals: a twelve-hour shift means something very different in California, Alaska, Nevada or Colorado than in the other states, as the daily overtime guide shows. For a single week, the weekly time card does the same job with less to type.