French timesheets use 24-hour punches and break rules. Everhour keeps daily work-hour totals organized for review.
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A timesheet calculation answers how many paid work hours belong in a day, week, or pay period after unpaid breaks are removed. In France, that means parsing 24-hour times such as 09:00 and 17:30, subtracting the break time that does not count as actual working time, and totaling the remaining hours by date.
The result matters because France treats full-time legal working time as 35 hours per week, equivalent to 151.67 hours per month or 1,607 hours per year. Hours beyond the legal duration are treated as overtime unless an exception applies. The timesheet total also helps catch schedule issues before payroll review, including unusually long days or missing breaks.
French law gives adult employees at least 20 consecutive minutes after 6 consecutive hours of work. Employees under 18 receive at least 30 consecutive minutes after a continuous work period of 4 hours 30 minutes. Lunch time between two periods of actual work counts as break time, with no separate statutory lunch duration beyond the applicable break rules.
Break time is generally unpaid unless it qualifies as actual working time, such as when the employee must remain available to the employer during the break. A collective, company, or branch agreement can also provide paid breaks. French locale formats use 24-hour HH:mm time and day-first dates such as dd/MM/y, so 14:30 means 2:30 p.m., not a decimal hour entry.
Use this formula for each day: clock-out time minus clock-in time minus unpaid break time equals paid daily hours. Then add the paid daily hours across the week. For payroll review, keep the daily line items visible because French rules also include a general 10-hour cap on actual daily work, with limited derogations.
For example, an employee earning €18.50 per hour records paid daily totals of 7, 8, 9, 8, and 6 hours after unpaid breaks are removed. The weekly paid total is 38 hours. At the base hourly rate, that equals €703.00 before taxes, deductions, overtime premiums, or agreement-specific adjustments. The same total also flags 3 hours above the 35-hour legal weekly duration.
A one-off calculator is enough when you need a quick weekly total, a decimal-hour conversion, or a check before correcting one timesheet. It works well when the schedule is simple, the break entries are clear, and the person reviewing the time already knows which breaks are paid under the contract, company agreement, or branch agreement.
A managed workflow is better when clock-in and clock-out records feed payroll every week. Everhour timecards can record start times, end times, breaks, daily totals, weekly totals, and monthly totals, then support review before payroll. That matters when managers need an approval trail, exports, and a consistent way to compare normal working hours with exceptions.
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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Yes. French locale formats use 24-hour HH:mm time, such as 08:30, 13:00, and 17:45. A timesheet should parse those entries as clock times, then convert the elapsed duration into hours only after subtracting unpaid break time. Day-first dates such as dd/MM/y also reduce confusion when reviewing multi-day periods.
No. French law treats lunch time between two periods of actual work as break time. Break time is generally unpaid unless it qualifies as actual working time, such as when the employee must remain available to the employer during the break. A collective, company, or branch agreement can also make breaks paid.
A French timesheet should flag totals above the 35-hour legal working time for full-time employees, unless an exception applies. That flag does not replace payroll rules for overtime premiums, agreements, or worker categories. It gives payroll and managers a clean number to review before applying the correct pay treatment.
A long shift needs more than a total-hours check. In the general case, actual daily work may not exceed 10 hours, with limited derogations such as labor-inspector approval, emergencies, or collective-agreement rules allowing up to 12 hours. Adult employees also generally need at least 11 consecutive hours of daily rest between two working days.
Yes. The weekly check should use paid working time after unpaid breaks are removed. Breaks that count as actual working time stay in the paid total. This distinction matters because a 38-hour presence total with 5 unpaid break hours is 33 paid work hours, while 38 paid work hours crosses the 35-hour legal weekly duration.
Everhour timecards record daily, weekly, and monthly work-hour totals, including clock-in, clock-out, breaks, and auto clock-out behavior. Managers can review those totals before payroll, compare project hours with working hours, and export team timesheet data in PDF, CSV, or XLSX format.
Track clock-in, clock-out, breaks, and approved totals in Everhour timecards, then export clean timesheet data for payroll review and fewer manual corrections.
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