Construction timesheet template

Download the construction timesheet template

Pick Excel if you want the hours to calculate as you type, or PDF if you want to print a stack and fill them in by hand. Both have the same layout. The files are free and open without an account.

• Construction timesheet templateExcel · Hours, weekly total, regular and overtime calculate from the times you type. Set to print landscape on one page.
• Construction timesheet templatePDF · Blank weekly sheet to print and fill in by hand. Landscape, one page.

What goes in each column?

The sheet has a header block and nine columns. Each column answers one question that payroll or job costing will ask later, so a blank cell now usually means a phone call on Monday.

Under the table, the sheet totals the week three ways: weekly total, regular hours up to 40, and overtime hours over 40. A signature line at the bottom is for the worker and the foreman.

How should a foreman fill it in?

A foreman should fill in each day's row at the end of that day, not at the end of the week. Memory is the biggest source of error on a paper sheet, and a day recorded at 3:30 PM is far closer to the truth than a week recorded on Friday night.

1. 1

   Fill the header once

   Company, worker, the Friday week-ending date and the foreman's name. If the worker changes crews mid-week, start a new sheet.

2. 2

   Write the start and end as they happened

   Use the real minutes, such as 6:07 AM, not a rounded 6:00 AM. If the crew is told to round, round at payroll, where it is visible, not on the sheet.

3. 3

   Enter the unpaid break

   Put 30 if the worker took a 30-minute unpaid lunch. Put 0 if they worked through it or the break is paid. A blank is not a zero to the person typing it into payroll.

4. 4

   Name the jobsite and cost code

   One row per jobsite per day. If the worker moves, use a second row for the second jobsite, and note the drive in the notes column.

5. 5

   Add a note for anything unusual

   Shop time, a supply house run, a weather hold or a late start. One line now saves a question later.

6. 6

   Total and sign on Friday

   Check the weekly total, then have the worker and the foreman sign. An unsigned sheet is the first one the office sends back.

What does a filled-in week look like?

Here is one worker's week with a split day on Wednesday. The worker totals 44 hours: 40 regular and 4 overtime.

What mistakes make a timesheet unusable?

Most timesheet problems are small habits that make the sheet impossible to check. These are the ones payroll sees most often on handwritten sheets.

• Rounding every start and end to the quarter hour, so a week of 7 to 15 minute differences disappears into the totals.
• Leaving the break blank, so payroll cannot tell whether lunch was taken or the worker worked through it.
• Writing 9.30 for nine and a half hours. In decimal hours nine and a half is 9.5, and 9.30 reads as 9 hours 18 minutes.
• Putting two jobsites in one row, so the labor cannot be split on the job cost report.
• No cost code or phase, so the hours reach the payroll file but not the job.
• Filling the whole week in on Friday afternoon from memory.
• Forgetting drive time between sites, which is often paid time. Read travel time between job sites and write your own rule in a drive time policy.
• No signature from the worker or the foreman.

When does a crew outgrow a paper timesheet?

A crew has outgrown a paper timesheet when the office spends more time re-keying and chasing sheets than the sheets save, or when crews move between jobsites during a day. At that point the record should come from the worker's shift, not from a form someone fills in afterward. See how to replace paper timesheets for what changes and what stays the same.

Until then, a clear template filled in daily is better than a blank one filled in weekly. Use the time card calculator to check a sheet's math.