Free weekly timesheet template (Excel)
One person, one week, Monday to Sunday. Enter start and finish times and the unpaid break, and the sheet works out paid hours per day and for the week.
Weekly timesheet
Excel format (.xlsx) • Ready to download
No signup required. Works with Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice.
This template is a record-keeping tool, not legal or payroll advice. It does not calculate minimum wage, holiday pay or statutory sick pay for you, and it does not check working time limits. Check GOV.UK, or take advice, before relying on a spreadsheet for compliance. It does not constitute legal, HR, or professional advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice specific to your business, workforce, or circumstances.
Roster and track hours in one place
A timesheet only records what already happened. Roster the shifts first and the hours record themselves — free, no signup.
What's in this template
A week of hours that adds itself up
Monday to Sunday
Seven day rows in the order UK weeks are counted, so the sheet lines up with how weekly rest is measured.
Start and finish times
Enter times as 09:00 and 17:30 — the sheet handles the arithmetic, including shifts that run past midnight.
A separate break column
Unpaid breaks are entered and deducted explicitly, so paid hours are never a matter of interpretation.
Paid hours per day
Finish minus start minus break, calculated per row and totalled for the week.
Contracted vs additional
A contracted-hours field splits the weekly total, so hours beyond the contract are visible rather than absorbed.
Approval lines
Employee and manager sign-off fields at the foot — an unapproved timesheet is much weaker evidence.
How a week is recorded
Enter the times you actually started and finished, not the times on the rota. The break column is deducted from paid hours, so a 09:00–17:30 day with a 30-minute unpaid break is 8.0 paid hours, not 8.5.
| Day | Start | Finish | Break | Paid hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 5 | 09:00 | 17:30 | 0:30 | 8.0 | |
| Tue 6 | 09:00 | 19:15 | 0:30 | 9.75 | Covered late — delivery ran over |
| Wed 7 | — | — | — | 0.0 | Annual leave (AL) |
| Thu 8 | 08:45 | 17:30 | 0:30 | 8.25 | Early open |
The 15 minutes before opening on Thursday is working time and is on the sheet. Time like that is the most common route to an accidental minimum wage underpayment — it is real work, it is rarely recorded, and it is invisible in a timesheet copied from the rota.
How to fill in the weekly timesheet
Four steps, once per week
1. Set the header
Name, payroll number, week-commencing Monday date and contracted weekly hours. The contracted figure drives the overtime split.
2. Enter actual times
Start and finish as they happened, to the nearest five minutes. Rounding always in the employer’s favour is how underpayments accumulate.
3. Record unpaid breaks
Only genuinely uninterrupted breaks. If someone stayed on the floor or answered the phone, it was not a break and it is payable.
4. Approve it
Employee confirms, manager signs. Approve weekly rather than monthly — nobody accurately remembers a Tuesday three weeks ago.
The formulas are already in place. Type into the white cells only; the shaded ones calculate.
Who uses this template
UK teams running a weekly pay cycle
Hospitality
Where the finish time on the rota is almost never the finish time worked.
Trades and construction
Weekly hours per person per site, with travel between sites recorded as working time.
Agencies and contractors
A signed weekly sheet per placement, which is usually what the client is invoiced against.
Paid fortnightly? Use the fortnightly timesheet instead — it keeps both weeks on one sheet with separate weekly totals.
Or stop collecting timesheets altogether
A timesheet is filled in after the fact. RosterElf timestamps the clock-in and clock-out as they happen, deducts the break, and sends approved hours straight to payroll — no chasing, no reconstruction.
Hours, overtime and pay
What the weekly total feeds into
Timesheets and working time records
What UK employers must record about hours, and the unpaid time that causes minimum wage breaches.
Read the guideOvertime and unsocial hours pay
There is no statutory overtime premium in the UK — here is what actually governs the rate.
Read the guideNational Minimum Wage rates
Current rates by age, and how an underpayment is calculated and settled.
Read the guideMore free UK templates and tools
The rest of the set
Free rota templates
Weekly, monthly, rolling and blank staff rotas in Excel — the planning side of the same job.
Browse the rotasMinimum wage compliance checker
Work out effective hourly pay once unpaid time and deductions are counted.
Open the checkerAll free UK tools
Calculators and generators for planning and costing your workforce.
See all toolsWeekly timesheet FAQ
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Subtract start from finish and multiply by 24 to get decimal hours:
=(C2-B2)*24. Deduct the break the same way. Format the time cells ashh:mmand the result as a number, or Excel will show you a time instead of a quantity. For a shift crossing midnight use=(C2-B2+(C2<B2))*24. The template has all of this built in. -
Enter times as
hh:mmbecause that is how people read a clock, and let the sheet convert to decimals for the total. Payroll almost always wants decimal hours — 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75, not 7.45, and typing 7.45 is one of the most common payroll errors there is. -
If you round, round to the nearest five or ten minutes in both directions. Rounding down consistently — always to the employer’s benefit — is how a compliant hourly rate quietly becomes a minimum wage breach across a year. Our minimum wage checker shows the effect.
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Yes. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets — the time arithmetic and the weekly totals carry over. It works in LibreOffice Calc too.
Before you download
General information only — not legal advice
This document is a general HR template provided for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice and may not reflect the latest changes in legislation or apply to every workplace situation. RosterElf Pty Ltd and the template provider accept no liability for any loss arising from reliance on this document. Users should seek independent legal advice and customise the template to ensure it complies with all relevant laws and workplace requirements.