Everhour tracks time inside work tools, but lunch-break timesheets still need clear paid and unpaid hour rules.
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A timesheet with lunch break answers one practical question: how many paid hours remain after unpaid meal periods come out of the clocked span. The gross span runs from clock-in to clock-out. Paid time includes work actually performed, short paid breaks, and any extra work the employer suffered or permitted before or after the scheduled shift.
Federal law does not require lunch or coffee breaks for adult employees. If an employer provides short breaks, usually about 5 to 20 minutes, federal law treats them as compensable hours worked. A bona fide meal period is generally unpaid only when the employee is completely relieved from duty, and work performed while eating stays in paid time.
Use this formula for each workday: clock-out minus clock-in equals gross hours, then gross hours minus unpaid lunch equals paid hours. Add paid daily totals across the fixed workweek. For covered nonexempt employees in the United States, hours worked over 40 in that FLSA workweek receive overtime pay at not less than 1.5 times the regular rate.
For example, a covered nonexempt inventory assistant earns $23.60 per hour and records gross daily spans of 9, 9, 10, 8, and 8 hours. Five unpaid 30-minute meal periods equal 2.5 hours, so paid time is 41.5 hours. Pay is 40 regular hours at $23.60, plus 1.5 overtime hours at $35.40, for $997.10 before taxes, deductions, or other payroll adjustments.
The common mistake is treating every break as unpaid. A 30-minute lunch can be unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved from duty. A 15-minute rest break that the employer provides stays paid under federal rules, so it counts toward weekly overtime. State law or employer policy can require stricter break treatment, but the calculator still needs the correct paid or unpaid label.
Another mistake is averaging across pay periods. An FLSA workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, seven consecutive 24-hour periods. Overtime for covered nonexempt employees is tested inside that workweek, and hours cannot be averaged across multiple workweeks to erase overtime. A biweekly timesheet still needs each week totaled separately.
A one-off calculation is enough when you have one completed timesheet, known lunch deductions, no disputed break time, and no state-specific overlay to check. It gives a fast payroll estimate or invoice-supporting total. It does not prove that every lunch was duty-free or that a manager approved the entries.
A managed workflow becomes necessary when employees clock in and out daily, lunch entries change after the fact, or payroll needs a clean approval trail. Everhour embeds tracking controls in supported project tools, syncs project and task metadata, and exposes timesheets inside work tools, so approved time can move from daily entry to review without duplicate re-keying.
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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Lunch should be subtracted only when it is an unpaid bona fide meal period. Under federal rules, that generally means the meal period is at least 30 minutes and the employee is completely relieved from duty. If the employee answers calls, monitors work, serves customers, or performs other duties while eating, that time remains hours worked.
Paid short breaks count toward overtime under federal rules. When an employer provides short breaks, usually about 5 to 20 minutes, federal law treats them as compensable hours worked. Those minutes stay in the weekly paid total, so they can push a covered nonexempt employee over 40 hours in a fixed FLSA workweek.
Automatic lunch deductions are arithmetic shortcuts, not proof that lunch was unpaid. They work only when the deducted meal period actually happened and the employee was completely relieved from duty. If an employee worked through lunch or had an interrupted meal period, the timesheet needs a correction before payroll uses the total.
An overnight shift uses the same span math, but the end time falls on the next calendar day. Calculate the full clock-in to clock-out span first, then subtract only the unpaid meal period. The workweek boundary still controls overtime, so an overnight shift must be assigned to the correct fixed workweek for covered nonexempt employees.
Federal law does not require extra pay for Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or regular rest days unless weekly overtime is worked. For covered nonexempt employees, the federal overtime trigger is hours worked over 40 in a fixed FLSA workweek. State law, employer policy, or a contract can create additional premium-pay rules.
Everhour integrates with tools such as Asana, ClickUp, GitHub, Jira, Monday, Notion, Trello, QuickBooks, and Xero, and adds tracking controls through native integrations and the browser extension. Teams can track time in the place where work is assigned while synced project and task metadata flow into timesheets and budgets.
Everhour timesheets let users submit weekly project hours or working hours for review. Managers can approve, reject, or partially approve submitted time, and approved time stays locked for regular members, which gives payroll a cleaner record than editable spreadsheet totals.
Track time where work happens, review lunch-adjusted timesheets, and send approved totals forward with Everhour integrations that reduce duplicate entry before payroll.
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