Vocations · Job Skills · Showing up

On time, and
paid for every
minute.

Plan backward from your shift so you walk in early, fill in a week of punches and see your hours, overtime and pay, then practice the timecard math until it is automatic.

Open the trainerWhat you get
8:00 AMleave-by time for a 9:00 AM start by bus
46:00hours on the example timecard
5kinds of timecard question to practice

The time and attendance trainer

Three parts: plan the trip, fill in the timecard, practice the math.

Loading the trainer. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What a timecard is really asking

Four rules cover almost every question about hours and pay.

Hours and minutes

7:45 is not 7.45

Time has 60 minutes to the hour, so 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours. Divide the minutes by 60 before multiplying by your pay.

Breaks

Meal breaks are usually unpaid

Under federal rules, a meal period of 30 minutes or more when you are fully relieved of work is not paid time. Short rest breaks of 5 to 20 minutes are paid.

Overtime

After 40 hours, 1.5 times

Non-exempt employees earn time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek. In the example: 40 × $16.50 + 6 × $24.75 = $808.50.

Rounding

To the quarter hour, both ways

Some employers round punches to the nearest 15 minutes. It is allowed only if it rounds both up and down, so that over time you are paid for the time you worked.

What you get

Vocations · Job SkillsFree

What you finish with
A plan with the time to get ready and the time to leave for any shift; a ready-to-send message for when you are running late; a filled-in weekly timecard with hours, overtime and gross pay worked out; and fluency with the five kinds of timecard math, tracked by skill.
Who it is for
Students starting a first job, adults returning to work, job-training and work-based learning programs, transition programs, and the teachers and job-training staff who run them.
Format
Browser trainer in three parts: Get there on time, My timecard and Practice. Works on a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints the plan and the timecard; downloads the timecard as a .csv.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Job Skills space in Caveat Vocations.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.
The one conversion every timecard needs: minutes ÷ 60. A quarter hour is 0.25, not 0.15.

How to use it

  1. Load the example, or type your shift’s start time, how you get there and how long the trip takes.
  2. Fill in the message under the plan for a day you will be late, and copy it.
  3. Open My timecard, type a week of clock-in and clock-out times and breaks, and add your hourly pay.
  4. Open Practice for a round of eight questions; a miss gets a second try and the steps.

Open the trainer

How the trainer works things out

Backward from the start time, and minute by minute on the timecard.

getting ready 45bus 35buffer 15early 107:15 AMGet ready8:00 AMLeave8:50 AMArrive9:00 AMShift startsCount back from the start time, never forward from when you wake up.getting ready, 45 minbus, 35 minbuffer, 15 minearly, 10 min7:15AM8:00AM8:50AM9:00AMShift starts
Planning backward from a 9:00 AM start in the example: 10 minutes early, 35 minutes on the bus plus a 15-minute buffer, 45 minutes to get ready.

How the timecard counts

Each day is clock-out minus clock-in minus the unpaid break; a clock-out earlier than the clock-in is read as a shift that ran past midnight. The week is added up in minutes, split at 40 hours into regular time and overtime, and paid at the regular rate and one and a half times the regular rate, rounded to the cent once at the end. With rounding switched on, each punch is moved to the nearest quarter hour (7 minutes or less down, 8 or more up) and shown beside the exact figure.

What it does not cover

Some states require overtime after 8 hours in a day, a higher minimum wage, or paid rest breaks, and salaried exempt employees are not owed overtime at all. Gross pay here is before taxes and deductions. Your employer’s handbook and your state labor department are the places to check the rules where you work.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA (overtime at not less than one and one-half times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek), and 29 U.S.C. 207.
  2. 29 CFR 785.18 and 785.19: rest periods of 5 to 20 minutes are hours worked; bona fide meal periods, ordinarily 30 minutes or more with the employee fully relieved of duty, are not.
  3. 29 CFR 785.48(b): rounding starting and stopping times to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth or quarter of an hour is accepted when, over time, it does not fail to pay employees for time worked.
  4. U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success (professionalism, including punctuality and notifying a supervisor).

A training tool, not legal advice. State rules on daily overtime, breaks and pay can differ from the federal rules used here. The example week, rate and messages are made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.