Small business timesheet software
- Gross pay for the period
- $1,815
- Hours on the sheet
- 85
- Paid hours after unpaid breaks
- 80
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. The only constants HeadcountDesk supplies are the published federal payroll tax rates and the overtime multiplier, each cited where it is used. The defaults are a worked example to replace with your own.
Timesheet software for a small business has one job before any other: turn hours into a gross pay figure that is right, on time, every pay period, with overtime at the rate the law requires. Everything else, the approvals, the projects, the GPS, is optional. A timesheet that totals hours and pays overtime at time and one-half after forty hours in a workweek, as the Department of Labor requires for non-exempt staff, is doing the whole legal part of the job.
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Split regular and overtime hours on the sheet itself
Overtime is decided per workweek, not per pay period, so a biweekly sheet with one hours total cannot be paid correctly. The timesheet template on this site takes each week's regular and overtime hours separately, which is the shape payroll actually needs and the shape a dispute is settled from.
Take unpaid breaks off before you multiply
A thirty-minute unpaid lunch across ten working days is five hours a period, and a sheet that leaves it in overpays every employee every time. Recording the break as a standard deduction on the template, rather than trusting each person to subtract it, is what keeps the totals honest without an argument.
Keep the sheet after the pay run
Hours records are the evidence in a wage claim and the answer to a query months later, and a spreadsheet tab that gets overwritten each period is neither. Saving each period's sheet against the employee, with the rate it was paid at, is the record-keeping half of the job.
Small business timesheet software: common questions
Is there free timesheet software for a small business?
The timesheet template on this site totals hours, splits overtime at time and one-half, deducts unpaid breaks and gives gross pay for the period, free and with no account. HeadcountDesk Pro adds saving each period's sheet against the employee, your company name on the printed copy, and export.
When is overtime due?
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, for hours worked over 40 in a workweek by a non-exempt employee, at not less than one and a half times the regular rate. Some states set daily overtime as well; the template handles the federal rule and asks you to enter overtime hours as your state defines them.
Can contractors use the same timesheet?
A contractor's hours become an invoice rather than payroll, so this site has a separate timesheet invoice template for them: hours at the agreed rate, any premium hours, expenses, tax where it applies and a balance due with payment terms.
HeadcountDesk Pro
Keeping what you make
The answers are free forever. Pro turns them into your paperwork: your logo on the handbook and the contract, no watermark, every employee's documents saved against their record, reminders to the people who need to sign, and clean exports.
- Download as PDF
- No HeadcountDesk watermark
- Save and reopen later
- Your logo and company name on it
- Bulk export documents
- Signing and review reminders emailed to your employees
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
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Cite or embed this figure
For non-exempt employees the Department of Labor requires overtime at not less than time and one-half after 40 hours in a workweek, so a timesheet that totals hours without splitting overtime out is a payroll error waiting for the pay run.
Timesheet template (Gross pay for the period): $1,815, HeadcountDesk, worked example.
Cite as: "Small business timesheet software, HeadcountDesk", updated 2026-09-02, https://headcountdesk.com/small-business-timesheet-software/.