Section 1-3 Weekly Time Card

Weekly time cards are a means of keeping track of the amount of hours an employee has worked in a given week. For an employee to receive a check, the payroll clerk needs some documentation of the amount of hours he or she worked during the pay period. The pay period is the length of time for which payroll is computed. Some businesses pay weekly, others biweekly (every two weeks), and others monthly or semimonthly (usually on the 1st and the 15th of the month).

Examine the Employee Time Card shown on page 96 of your textbook. Notice the level of detail shown for the times that Gail clocked in or out. She does not clock in at an exact hour, but rather at different minutes throughout the hour. Calculating the hours worked can be a bit tricky, but you'll be fine if you use either the steps shown on page 97 of the textbook, or follow the explanation provided below.

Calculating hours in a work day

Page 97 of the textbook suggests one way of calculating the amount of hours worked in a day. In STEP 1-A, it suggests, "When the start time is prior to 1:00 and the end time is 1:00 or later, add 12:00 to the end time." This may seem confusing as first, but they're simply converting to military time, which continues to add the number of hours in a day (13:00, 14:00, etc.) instead of restarting the numbering at 1:00. For instance, 3 p.m. would be 15:00 in military time ( 12:00+3 hours=15:00 ) , and 17:00 military time would be 5:00 p.m. standard time ( 17:00−12:00=5:00 ) . STEP 1-B instructs you to round to the nearest quarter-hour. Then follow STEP 2 to find the total hours for the week by adding all of the daily hours together.

Calculating a portion of an hour

Minutes are rounded to the nearest quarter-hour, which is equal to 15 minutes. Since rounding rules state to round up anything that is one-half or over, if you clocked in before one-half of the time (seven minutes, since a time clock calculates on an even minute), the entire 15 minutes are fully calculated. If you would clock in from 8 to 15 minutes past the hour, the pay time would be calculated starting at the 15-minute mark. So if you clocked in at 8:05, you would receive credit for the entire 15 minutes. If you clocked in at any time between 8:08 and 8:15, you would receive credit starting at 8:15.

Another method for calculating hours is counting the time worked until the 12 o'clock mark and then adding the time worked afterward. Follow this example:

From 8:03 to 9:03 is one hour, 9:03 to 10:03 is two hours, etc. If you got 5 full hours from 8:03 to 1:21, you counted correctly. Then add in the extra 15 minutes for the first time frame and drop the extra 6 minutes for the second time frame, since they're below one-half of a quarter-hour of work, and you have a total of 5 hours and 15 minutes worked by clock-out time at lunch. This person returned at 2:15, so begin counting the number of whole hours, just as you did before. If you counted 3 hours, you're correct again. Now, just add the additional 30 minutes; you have a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes. Add the 3 hours and 30 minutes to the 5 hours and 15 minutes and you have 8 hours and 45 minutes.

We've calculated the time to the nearest quarter hour. However, different businesses will sometimes calculate to the nearest minute. Also, other businesses have computers or registers at which to clock in and out, rather than having employees complete a time card by hand or punch a time card with a time-card clock. The computers and registers will calculate the time for you. However, it's always helpful to be able to double-check the time on your own to be sure that you are being paid accurately.