How to use these timesheet templates

Pick the pay period that matches how you pay people: weekly, biweekly or monthly. Each one is a blank form, so nothing is filled in and nothing is calculated for you.
Choose the print version if the sheet will live on a clipboard or a break room wall. It is sized for one sheet of letter paper with the header, the day rows and the signature block already laid out.
Choose the CSV version if the sheet will live in a spreadsheet. The columns arrive in the same order as the printed form, so paper handed in from the field keys into the same layout.
Write the employee name and the exact period dates at the top before anyone punches in. A sheet with no period on it is the first thing a wage audit flags.
Have the employee and the supervisor sign at the bottom when the period closes, then file the copy.

What a complete timesheet has to contain

A timesheet is a payroll record, and a payroll record answers who, when and how long without anyone needing to remember. Seven fields carry that weight.

Employee name. Full legal name, not a nickname, so the sheet matches the payroll file.
Pay period start and end dates. Written out, including the year. "Week of the 14th" is unusable twelve months later.
A dated row per day. Day of week and calendar date together, so a missing Wednesday is visible and there is no doubt which Wednesday it was.
Time in and time out. Actual clock readings, not a shift label. A split shift needs two pairs on that row rather than one long span.
Break minutes. Unpaid meal breaks of roughly 30 minutes are deducted. Short rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes are paid, so they do not belong in this column.
Daily and period totals. Both matter. A period total alone hides the 11-hour Tuesday that triggers daily overtime in some states.
Two signatures. The employee attests that the hours are right; the supervisor approves them. That pair of signatures is what turns a tally into evidence.

Weekly, biweekly and monthly layouts

The three layouts are not the same form stretched to different lengths. Each one answers a different question at the bottom of the page.

The weekly sheet is seven rows with a single total. Overtime under federal rules is measured per workweek, so one sheet equals one overtime test, and nothing has to be split. Choose it for crews with variable schedules and anyone paid every Friday.

The biweekly sheet holds fourteen rows but keeps two separate weekly subtotals, and that separation is the whole point. Overtime never averages across two weeks. Someone who works 48 hours one week and 32 the next has worked 80 hours in the period and is still owed 8 hours of overtime, not zero. A sheet with one 80-hour box at the bottom invites exactly that mistake. The biweekly time card calculator keeps the same two-subtotal shape on screen.

The monthly sheet runs 28 to 31 rows and suits salaried staff, contractors billing by the day, and attendance tracking. Because a month is not a whole number of weeks, week boundaries fall mid page, so if overtime is in play use the weekly or biweekly form instead.

How long to keep the records

Federal recordkeeping rules set two different clocks. Payroll records, including hours worked each day and each week, total wages and the dates of payment, are kept for three years. The records that back up the wage computation, which is where time cards, work schedules and records of additions to or deductions from wages sit, are kept for two years. States often require longer, and litigation can extend both.

The practical reading: keep everything for three years, and scan paper before it fades, since thermal punch-clock slips go blank in a drawer faster than most people expect. A legible copy satisfies the rule; an unreadable original does not.

Filling in by hand versus running the totals

Hand totaling works if you do it in minutes and convert once at the end. Take a week of 8:00, 7:45, 8:30, 7:30 and 8:15. In minutes that is 480, 465, 510, 450 and 495, which sums to 2,400 minutes, and 2,400 divided by 60 is exactly 40.00 hours. Added the other way, the hours column gives 38 and the minutes column gives 120, and that 120 has to be carried back as two more hours before the figure means anything. A tired clerk who writes 38.2 has just erased two hours of pay.

The two habits that prevent that: add minutes, never fractions, and check each daily figure against the minutes to decimal hours chart before it leaves the sheet. If a period has split shifts, crossing midnight or any overtime at all, key the punches into the time card calculator instead and print the result, then attach the blank template only as the signature page.

Frequently asked questions

Are these templates really blank?

Yes. They contain headers, dated rows and signature lines, and no formulas or sample data. Nothing computes, which is the point of a form that gets filled in with a pen.

Which format should I download, print or CSV?

Print if the sheet is posted, carried on a job site or signed in ink. CSV if the hours are typed rather than written, or if you need to import them later. Many small teams use both.

Can employees fill out their own timesheets?

Self-reporting is allowed and common, but the employer still owns the accuracy of the record, so a supervisor should review and sign rather than just collect sheets.

How should a correction be made on a paper sheet?

Draw one line through the wrong figure so it stays readable, write the right one beside it, and add initials and a date. Erasing or covering an entry is what makes an otherwise honest correction look deliberate.

Does a signed timesheet stop an employee from claiming unpaid hours later?

No. A signature is strong evidence, not a waiver. Hours actually worked but never recorded are generally still owed.

What if someone forgets to punch out?

Do not guess. Reconstruct the end time from another source such as a supervisor's note or a closing log, then record it and initial it as a reconstructed entry.

Do I need a separate sheet for each employee?

Yes. One sheet per person per period keeps each signature meaningful. For a department figure, total the individual sheets on a separate summary.