Using an Employee Time Card Calculator to Determine Hours Worked

Employee Time Card Calculator January 11, 2023

Priyanka Bhadani

Writer

Using an Employee Time Card Calculator to Determine Hours Worked

The ability to accurately calculate hours worked per week is essential for employees to receive proper compensation. Not knowing how many hours total an employee works per week puts businesses at risk of labor law violations. Additionally, hours worked by staff members influences everything from employee scheduling to time tracking processes.

Tracking time is not a new phenomenon whatsoever but the tools used have changed. Over the years, businesses have used many different tools to calculate hours per day and hours per week of employees. There are both technologically advanced and more simple tools available for businesses.

Especially for a busy restaurant business, tracking total hours worked by employees is not an easy task. A bustling restaurant is not known for offering employees free time throughout shifts. Hours worked by restaurant employees can be unpredictable and may include overtime hours more frequently. Contrarily, a traditional 9-5 job is associated with lunch break and work hours predictability. Thankfully, there are tools available to help businesses to track time and calculate hours appropriately including-

Traditional Tools

The traditional time clock and time card paved the way for more advanced time tracking tools. A time card can clock time in and out as well as a lunch break and free time supplied. An employee will use time cards throughout the pay period and are an employee's responsibility. Contemporarily, a pen and paper time card is typically considered not as ideal. With so many online time tools available, the time card is not as popular as it once was.

Mechanical time clocks are more advanced as mechanical devices stamp an employee time card with the time and date. A mechanical time clock still requires an employee to use time cards for stamping. Then, employers use time cards submitted to calculate total hours worked. Finally, employers compensate employees based on a variety of factors ranging from hourly rate to gross pay deductions.

Technologically Advanced Tools

An employee time card calculator helps streamline the entire process. There are various different employee time card calculator types available. From a desktop timesheet calculator to free time clock calculators online, restaurants have many choices. Instead of employees or employers needing to use time cards to calculate hours, technology handles the task. This is especially helpful for more advanced tasks like converting worked hours and minutes to decimal hours or vice versa.

An employee time card calculator can help avoid break time or lunch break violations. The ability for staff to view time clock entries throughout the work week may decrease misunderstandings. Corrections to an online time card calculator are much easier and cleaner than printed time cards that use ink. With an employee time card calculator, information ranging from total gross pay to overtime pay adjustments is easily referenced. Employees can clearly see hours per week and per day worked on a single online time card application. Some free employee time card calculators may even offer mobile app accessibility.

Time clock software is a very popular tool for tracking employee hours. Previously, time clock software required staff to use time clock software from a specific computer on site. Now, online time clock software is accessible from virtually any location with internet service. Additionally, both free time clock software and paid online time clock software can offer mobile app accessibility.