Are you rounding your employee’s time sheets to make payroll easier, to prevent early clock ins, or even to boost employee pay? It’s important to accurately and legally round time clock punches to protect yourself and your business.
Here are a few rounding rules to keep in mind while adjusting time sheets.
Rounded time sheets cannot benefit the employer. This means that any adjustments made to the time sheet cannot be a means for the employer to save money. For example, if an employer were to see a time sheet with a start time of 8:03 and then round it to 8:15, the employer would save a quarter hours’ worth of pay, even though the employee worked the majority of the quarter hour and should be compensated accordingly.
Follow the 7-Minute Rule. According to the Department of Labor, “Employee time from 1 to 7 minutes may be rounded down, and thus not counted as hours worked, but employee time from 8 to 14 minutes must be rounded up and counted as a quarter hour of work time.” If you want to double check your time sheet rounding, the chart below breaks down how to round time sheets to the nearest 15-minute mark.
You cannot round in increments greater than 15 minutes. While it’s most common to round time sheets to the nearest quarter hour, employers can also round by the 1/10 of an hour (6 minutes) or by 5 minutes. Remember, though, that employers cannot round in increments greater than 15 minutes.
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Employees can clock in anywhere and on any device – even job site phones! Chronotek eliminates the need for employees to wait in line at a kiosk, allowing them to clock in and out at the precise moment they need to. Shift Lock™ also automatically locks time cards to the employee’s schedule on in and out times while notifying them of the edit in the moment, preventing early clock in and late clock out.
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