Clock out time calculator
Enter when you clock in, how long the shift is and your unpaid break. The clock out time is the start plus both. A shift that runs past midnight ends the next day.
If I leave at a certain time, how many hours did I work?
Type the time you plan to leave. It uses the clock in time and unpaid break above.
Example: clock in at 8:12 AM for an 8-hour shift with a 30-minute unpaid break, and you clock out at 4:42 PM. Leave at 5:00 PM instead and you worked 8:18, which is 8.30 decimal hours. A 10:00 PM start with the same 8 hours and 30-minute break ends at 6:30 AM the next day.
How punches are added up
Each punch pair is a clock-in and the clock-out that follows it. The calculator measures the time between the two, so a lunch you clocked out for is left out on its own, with no break column to fill in. If the clock-out is earlier than the clock-in, the pair is read as running past midnight.
Pair = clock out − clock in
With rounding: each punch moves to the nearest step first, then the pair is measured
The day and week totals add the pairs together. Hours over 40 in the workweek are shown as overtime under the US federal rule. For California daily overtime or pay, use the time card calculator or the overtime calculator.
What the rounding rule says
Federal rules say that in some industries, starting and stopping times have long been recorded to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest tenth or quarter of an hour. The Department of Labor accepts this for enforcement, provided it is used in a way that does not, over a period of time, leave employees unpaid for time they actually worked.
So rounding has to come out even over time. The Rounding figure in the calculator shows which way your punches went, and by how much.
Time clocks are not required. When an employee clocks in early or out late by choice and does no work in that time, the early or late punch may be disregarded.
29 CFR 785.48(a), (b).
Worked example
Two days of punches with a clocked-out lunch, rounded to the nearest quarter hour. These are the example punches loaded above.
| Punches | Rounded to | Exact | Rounded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 7:53 AM to 12:02 PM | 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM | 4:09 | 4:00 |
| Mon 12:33 PM to 4:07 PM | 12:30 PM to 4:00 PM | 3:34 | 3:30 |
| Tue 8:06 AM to 12:00 PM | 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM | 3:54 | 4:00 |
| Tue 12:28 PM to 4:12 PM | 12:30 PM to 4:15 PM | 3:44 | 3:45 |
| Two days | 15:21 | 15:15 |
Monday lost 13 minutes to rounding and Tuesday gained 7, so the two days are 6 minutes short. Over a longer run of punches the gains and losses should come close to canceling out.
The 7-minute rule
"7-minute rule" is a common name for rounding to the nearest quarter hour, not wording from the regulation. With whole minutes, 1 to 7 minutes past a quarter hour round down and 8 to 14 round up.
| Step | Rounds down | Rounds up |
|---|---|---|
| Nearest 5 minutes | 1 to 2 minutes past | 3 to 4 minutes past |
| Nearest tenth of an hour (6 minutes) | 1 to 2 minutes past | 3 to 5 minutes past |
| Nearest quarter hour (15 minutes) | 1 to 7 minutes past | 8 to 14 minutes past |
With a 6-minute step, 3 minutes past is exactly halfway. The regulation does not say which way a tie goes; this calculator rounds it up to the later time.
Questions
What time do I clock out if I start at 8:12 and work 8 hours with a 30 minute lunch?
4:42 PM. Add 8 hours and the 30-minute unpaid break to 8:12 AM. If the break is paid, leave it out of the break box and you get 4:12 PM.
What does 8:07 round to?
8:00 on quarter-hour rounding, 8:06 on tenth-of-an-hour rounding, and 8:05 on 5-minute rounding.
Should overtime use the rounded or the exact time?
The hours your employer pays are the rounded ones when rounding is used, so the overtime here follows them. Switch to Exact to see the unrounded total.
Is rounding applied to the lunch punches too?
By default, yes: every punch is rounded the same way. California does not allow rounding of meal period punches (Donohue v. AMN Services, 2021). Tick Keep lunch punches exact to leave those punches unrounded.