Free Timesheet Templates (Weekly, Biweekly & Monthly)

A timesheet template turns the messy question of "how many hours did we work?" into a clean, repeatable record. Whether you pay weekly, biweekly, or monthly, a good template captures the same core facts — who worked, when, and for how long — so payroll is a matter of adding up columns instead of chasing people for numbers. This guide covers the templates worth using, the fields they should include, and the point where a spreadsheet starts costing you more time than it saves.

What every timesheet template needs

The formats differ, but the useful columns are almost always the same:

• Employee name and role so each timesheet maps to one person.
• Date for every work day in the period.
• Time in and time out for each shift, including a second pair if people clock out for lunch.
• Break duration so unpaid breaks are subtracted, not paid by accident.
• Total hours per day, calculated from the times above.
• Regular vs. overtime hours split out, because they're often paid at different rates.
• Notes for anything unusual — a sick day, a client code, an early finish.

Add a period total and a signature line at the bottom. The signature matters more than it looks: an approved timesheet is your record if a pay dispute ever comes up.

Weekly timesheet template

A weekly template has seven day rows and a total at the bottom. It's the best fit for hourly teams, shift work, and anyone whose hours change from week to week. Because the period is short, errors surface fast — if Tuesday looks wrong, someone still remembers Tuesday. Weekly is also the easiest cadence for calculating overtime, since most overtime rules are based on a single workweek.

Biweekly timesheet template

A biweekly template covers two workweeks on one sheet, which matches the most common US payroll cycle. The key detail people miss: keep the two weeks visually separated with their own subtotals. Overtime is almost always calculated per week, not per pay period, so a biweekly sheet that only totals 80 hours can hide overtime that's owed in one of the two weeks.

Monthly timesheet template

A monthly template is best for salaried staff, contractors billing a flat monthly retainer, or anyone tracking time for records rather than hourly pay. It trades detail for a big-picture view. The downside is memory: reconstructing what happened three weeks ago is hard, so monthly timesheets work best when people fill them in daily rather than all at once at month-end.

How to total the hours correctly

The single most common timesheet mistake is mixing clock time with decimal time. Payroll runs on decimals, not minutes.

To convert, divide the minutes by 60. Fifteen minutes is 0.25 hours, thirty minutes is 0.5, forty-five is 0.75. So 8 hours and 30 minutes is 8.5 hours, not 8.30. Add the decimal daily totals to get the period total. If you're doing this by hand every pay run, it's exactly the kind of arithmetic that quietly leaks money in both directions.

When a template stops being enough

Templates are free and familiar, but they have real limits once a team grows:

• Manual entry errors compound — a mistyped "18:00" instead of "08:00" throws off a whole week.
• No real-time view. You only see the hours when the sheet comes back, usually right at deadline.
• Version chaos. Five people editing five copies of a spreadsheet is five chances for the wrong number.
• Overtime is easy to miss when totals aren't split by week automatically.

When any of these start eating your time, a dedicated tool pays off. Timesheet Maker lets your team clock in and out from any device, calculates regular and overtime hours automatically, and gives you an approvals-ready summary — no formulas to maintain and no copies to reconcile.

Frequently asked questions

Are these timesheet templates really free? Yes. A timesheet is just a structured table, and you can build one in any spreadsheet app at no cost. The cost shows up later, in the time spent maintaining and totaling them by hand.

Weekly, biweekly, or monthly — which should I use? Match your pay cycle. If you pay hourly staff weekly or biweekly, use that cadence so overtime is easy to calculate. Monthly suits salaried or retainer-based work.

How do I calculate overtime on a timesheet? Overtime is usually based on hours over 40 in a single workweek, so total each week separately before combining. Rules vary by country and state, so confirm what applies to you.

Can I switch from a template to software later? Easily. Most teams start with a template and move to a tool like Timesheet Maker once manual totaling and chasing timesheets becomes the bottleneck.

Start with the right format

Pick the cadence that matches how you pay, include the columns above, and total in decimals. When the spreadsheet starts costing more time than it saves, try Timesheet Maker free and let the hours add themselves up.