The single biggest source of timesheet errors is breaks — specifically, treating paid and unpaid breaks the same way. They are not the same, and the difference is money.
The rule
- Unpaid breaks (typically meal breaks) are subtracted from hours worked. You are off the clock.
- Paid breaks (typically short rest breaks) count as time worked. You stay on the clock.
Which breaks are paid depends on your jurisdiction and your employment agreement. Many places require a meal break after a certain number of hours without requiring it to be paid, while short rest breaks are often paid. Check your local rules — then total accordingly.
Worked example: one unpaid lunch
9:00 AM to 5:30 PM with a 30-minute unpaid lunch.
- Span: 8 hours 30 minutes
- Minus unpaid lunch: 8 hours worked
Worked example: mixed breaks
7:00 AM to 3:30 PM with a 30-minute unpaid lunch AND two paid 15-minute rest breaks.
- Span: 8 hours 30 minutes
- Minus unpaid lunch: 8 hours
- Paid breaks: no subtraction — they were work time
- Total: 8 hours worked (the paid breaks changed nothing)
The work hours calculator handles this directly — add each break and mark it paid or unpaid, and it does the arithmetic per break.
Split shifts
For a split shift (say 7:00–11:00 AM and 4:00–8:00 PM), calculate each segment separately and add them: 4 hours + 4 hours = 8 hours. The unpaid gap between segments is not a break — it is simply off-duty time and never enters the calculation.
Weekly totals
Totalling a full week of varied shifts by hand is where errors compound. The weekly time card calculator takes each day's start, end, and lunch and produces the weekly total with weekly overtime — or ShiftFlow tracks it automatically shift by shift.