A time card is the record of when an employee started and stopped work each day. Today it is usually digital, but its job has not changed: it is the source for pay, overtime and the hours records employers must keep.
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Clock-in and clock-out each day | Hours worked each workday |
| Meal breaks | Unpaid breaks must be real breaks |
| Daily and weekly totals | Overtime is calculated by workweek |
| Location of the punch | Shows where work happened |
| Corrections with reason and approver | Audit trail if hours are questioned |
EZTime records punches from the mobile app, web or kiosk, and timecard corrections go through a request and approval with an audit trail.
To total hours with breaks and overtime, use our time card calculator.
A dishwasher forgets to clock out on Tuesday. On paper, his manager would have written in 10 p.m. from memory. The digital time card shows the missing punch, and the system prompts a correction request.
He submits a request for 11:30 p.m., noting he stayed to finish the closing clean. The manager checks the closing checklist, which was completed at 11:20 p.m., and approves 11:30 p.m. The time card shows the original missing punch, the request, the approval and who approved it.
His week totals 41.5 hours instead of 40, so 1.5 hours of overtime are paid. Months later, when he asks about that week, the record answers the question in seconds.
A short approval routine catches most errors before payroll. Each period, the manager reviews exceptions first: missing punches, shifts much longer or shorter than scheduled, meal breaks shorter than the policy, and punches from unexpected locations. Then the manager approves the totals, and the employee can see and confirm their own hours.
Approvals should happen before the payroll cutoff, with a named backup when the manager is away. Signed monthly reports, exported to PDF or Excel, give payroll and the business a fixed record of what was approved for each period.
A home services company sees a technician clock in each morning at 6:40 a.m. at a location 3 miles from the first job, which starts at 7:30. His time cards show about 50 minutes more each day than his jobs account for.
The manager asks rather than assumes. The technician explains that he picks up parts at the supplier on the way, as the dispatcher asked him to. Because the stop is assigned work, the company counts it as part of his workday. The manager approves it, updates the dispatch notes so the parts run is on the schedule, and the time cards now match the job records.
A record of an employee’s start and stop times for each workday, used to calculate pay and overtime.
Under federal rules, at least two years. Some states require longer.
Corrections can be made, but they should be documented with the reason and approver, and hours actually worked must be paid.
A time card records punches in and out. A timesheet is often a summary of hours, sometimes by job or project, that may be filled in by the employee.
The employee’s direct manager, who knows the schedule, with a named backup. Employees should be able to see their approved hours.
Review the punches, corrections and any supporting records together, and correct the record through the normal correction process with a note explaining the change.
Employees clock in by mobile GPS, web, kiosk or NFC, with geofencing, break alerts and missed-punch requests that keep an audit trail.