Everhour Timesheets support approved weekly hours, while break-time math separates paid rest from unpaid duty-free meals.
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A break-time calculation answers one practical question: how many paid hours remain after subtracting unpaid break time from the gross clock span. For U.S. timesheets, short breaks an employer provides, usually about 5 to 20 minutes, count as compensable hours worked under federal law. A bona fide meal period is generally unpaid only when the employee is completely relieved from duty.
This matters for payroll, billing, and overtime review because the break label alone does not decide the result. A 15-minute rest break usually stays in paid hours. A 45-minute duty-free meal period usually comes out. A meal period spent answering calls, watching equipment, or serving customers stays in hours worked because the employee performed duties while eating.
Start with the full clock span, then subtract only unpaid break minutes. Convert break minutes to decimal hours by dividing minutes by 60. The formula is: gross span hours minus unpaid break minutes divided by 60 equals paid hours. Paid rest breaks remain inside the gross span because federal law treats employer-provided short breaks as compensable hours worked.
For example, an adult employee is on site for 9 hours at $30 per hour, takes two paid 10-minute rest breaks, and takes one duty-free 45-minute meal period. The paid rest breaks stay in the total. The unpaid meal is 45 divided by 60, or 0.75 hours. Paid time is 9 minus 0.75, or 8.25 hours. Straight-time pay is 8.25 times $30, or $247.50.
Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks for adult employees. Break requirements, when they exist, come from state law or employer policy. The arithmetic still needs a clean input: mark each break as paid or unpaid before subtracting anything. Treating every break as unpaid understates hours. Treating every break as paid overstates paid time when the employee had a duty-free meal period.
The safest timesheet structure uses separate fields for clock-in, clock-out, paid breaks, unpaid meal periods, and notes for interrupted meals. This keeps the calculation readable. It also preserves the difference between a voluntary policy break, a state-required break, and a break that counts as hours worked because the employee was not completely relieved from duty.
A one-off calculation is enough when you need a single day total, a quick correction, or a check on whether an unpaid meal was deducted correctly. It works best when the inputs are already clear: start time, end time, paid break minutes, unpaid break minutes, and whether the employee performed any duties during the break.
A managed workflow matters when break entries affect weekly payroll, client billing, approvals, or overtime review. Everhour Timesheets collect weekly project hours and working hours by person, then let managers approve, reject, partially approve, and lock submitted time before payroll or billing uses it. That approval trail keeps break corrections from becoming scattered spreadsheet edits.
This content is for general information only, may not be fully up to date, and is provided without any warranty or liability.
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Subtract only unpaid break time from the gross clock span. Convert minutes to decimal hours first: 30 minutes equals 0.5 hours, and 45 minutes equals 0.75 hours. Employer-provided short breaks, usually about 5 to 20 minutes under federal guidance, stay in paid hours because they are compensable hours worked.
Meal breaks are unpaid under federal law only when they are bona fide meal periods and the employee is completely relieved from duty. A meal period generally lasts 30 minutes or more. An employee who answers phones, monitors a desk, helps customers, or performs other duties while eating is still working.
Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks for adult employees. State law or employer policy can create break requirements. Federal law still controls how provided breaks are treated for covered FLSA purposes: short employer-provided breaks are paid, and bona fide duty-free meal periods can be unpaid.
Break deductions change overtime only when they change hours worked in the fixed workweek. Covered, nonexempt employees in the United States must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a fixed workweek at not less than 1.5 times the regular rate. Hours cannot be averaged across multiple workweeks for overtime.
The common mistake is subtracting paid rest breaks along with unpaid meals. A 10-minute or 15-minute employer-provided rest break usually remains compensable under federal law. The unpaid deduction belongs to a bona fide meal period where the employee is completely relieved from duty, not to every pause during the day.
Everhour Timesheets collect weekly project hours and working hours by person so managers can review time before payroll or billing. Team members submit time for approval, and admins can approve, reject, partially approve, and lock submitted entries after corrections are resolved.
Everhour Timesheets use color coding, reminders, and activity history to help managers spot unusual daily totals, missing hours, auto-stopped timers, and later edits. That review gives approvers a clearer place to check break deductions before time reaches payroll or billing.
Use approved timesheets when break deductions affect pay or billing. Everhour turns weekly working hours into a reviewable approval flow, giving teams cleaner payroll and billing handoff.
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