How to Make a Timesheet in Excel

Need to keep track of your hours worked each week? Follow this guide to create a formatted timesheet in Excel, which calculates hours worked (minus breaks) and total pay for the week.

Don't have time to format it yourself? Use our handy timesheets templates here (available in Excel, Google Sheets and PDF print out).

Create your layout

You'll need to make room for important employee details, including their name and hourly rate.

If you're creating a weekly timesheet, enter in the days of the week on the left hand side. Drag downwards to autofill the days of the week.

Format your clock in and out entries

To format your time entries, select the cells and click 'More number formats'. Selecting 'h:mm am/pm' will format your time entries in 12 hour clock format.

Format your break duration

To format your Break Duration column, select the cells and click 'More number formats'. Selecting [h]:mm will display your break duration in hours and minutes. Repeat this step for your Total Hours column too.

Calculate your break duration

To work out how long you spent on break, subtract the Break Start time from the Break End time.

Calculate your total hours

To calculate total hours worked for each day, you'll need to subtract the start time from the end time, then subtract your break duration.

Sum up your hours for the week

Create another separate cell for your total weekly hours, and sum up your Total Hours column.

Calculate your total pay for the week

To work out your total pay for the week, you'll first need to multiply the total hours by 24 (as Excel stores your time as a fraction). You can then mutliply this by your hourly rate, to work out your gross pay for the week.

Want to save yourself the manual effort next time? Start tracking time with TimeKeeper's mobile app, and we'll calculate total hours, overtime, leave hours and estimated total pay automatically.