Counting employee hours by hand looks harmless until payroll is due and your spreadsheet decides 15:30 means 15.30 hours. You calculate hours from real start and end times, not vibes. If Sam works 10:30-14:15 and 17:00-21:30, the total should be obvious before anyone opens a calculator.
How the calculator works
Add a start time and an end time for each shift. The calculator turns those times into minutes, totals them by day and week, and shows the result as both hours-and-minutes and decimal hours. Why should your bookkeeper guess whether 38h 45m means 38.75? Show both and save the back-and-forth.
Where the math comes from
Per-shift duration
End time minus start time, measured in minutes. A 09:00-17:00 shift is 480 minutes. That number is the source of truth.
Daily totals
Add every shift on that day for that employee. If someone works 9:00-14:00 and 17:00-19:00, your daily total is 7 hours.
Weekly totals
Add the daily totals from Monday through Sunday. This is the number you use for overtime review and payroll.
Overtime
If weekly hours pass your threshold, the extra time gets flagged. The overtime calculator explains how the threshold and multiplier work together.
What the export contains
Export gives you a CSV you can actually use. It includes employee name, total scheduled hours, regular hours, overtime hours, and gross pay when wages are configured. Open it in a spreadsheet, send it to payroll, or print it for the office binder nobody admits they still likes.
Why this beats a manual count
This beats a manual count because the calculator does not get tired. Add a Wednesday cover shift and the weekly total changes immediately. Compare scheduled hours to actual hours, then send payroll a clean file with decimal hours and named columns.
For the schedule itself, start with the employee schedule maker or use the weekly schedule template when you want a reusable layout.