Free Online Timesheet: Clock In and Out From Your Phone
Most people who need to log hours are not sitting at a desk. They are on a job site, in a client's office, between deliveries, or finishing a shift somewhere with nothing but a phone in their pocket. An online timesheet solves that: you open a web page, tap once to clock in, tap again to clock out, and your hours are recorded.
The timesheet above runs entirely in your mobile browser. There is no app to install, no account to create, and no team admin who needs to invite you. It works the same on iPhone and Android because it is just a web page.
How the mobile timesheet works
The tool is built around the two actions you actually perform during a workday.
- Clock In starts a live timer and stamps the current time on today's date.
- Pause stops the clock for a lunch or a break and starts a separate break counter. Resume picks the shift back up where it left off.
- Clock Out stops the timer and saves the shift as an entry on that day.
- Add hours lets you enter a shift by hand on any day: useful when you forgot to clock in, or you are filling in last week.
- Tap any entry to correct the times, add an unpaid break, or label it with a project or client. Edits save as you type, and deleting a saved time asks you to confirm first.
Pausing is the honest way to handle a break you are not paid for. Time spent paused is added up and saved as that shift's unpaid break, so a 9:00 start, a 30-minute paused lunch, and a 17:00 finish records as 7.5 payable hours rather than 8. The big counter always shows worked time only: it holds still while you are paused, so the number on screen is the number you are owed.
Above the day list you get a running total for the week, split into regular and overtime hours. Add your hourly rate in Settings and it also estimates your pay, with overtime at 1.5×.
👆 Scroll up and tap Clock In to start tracking.
Where your hours are stored
Your timesheet is saved in your browser's local storage on the device you are using. That has a specific set of consequences worth understanding before you rely on it for a pay period.
- Nothing is uploaded. Your hours never reach a server, so there is no account to hack and no employer dashboard watching you.
- Your data persists between visits. Close the tab, lock your phone, come back tomorrow: the week is still there.
- It is per-device and per-browser. Hours logged on your phone will not appear on your laptop, and Safari will not see what Chrome recorded.
- Clearing browser data deletes it. So does private/incognito browsing, which discards storage when you close the window.
The practical rule: export a CSV at the end of each week. The export button saves a spreadsheet file you can email to payroll, open in Excel or Google Sheets, or keep as your own record. That file is the durable copy; the browser is just where you collect the hours.
Add it to your home screen
If you are going to use this daily, save it as an icon so it opens like an app.
On iPhone (Safari): tap the Share button, scroll down, and choose Add to Home Screen.
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu and choose Add to Home screen or Install app.
You get a one-tap launcher with no download, no permissions request, and no storage cost beyond a bookmark. Because the hours live in your browser, they will still be there when you open it from the home screen icon.
Rounding, breaks, and overtime
Three settings control how your raw clock times become payable hours.
Rounding. Many employers round each entry to a standard increment rather than paying to the exact minute. The tool supports exact minutes, 5-minute, 6-minute, and 15-minute rounding. Six-minute rounding is the one to pick if you bill in tenths of an hour, which is standard practice in law and consulting. Under US federal rules, rounding is permitted as long as it is neutral over time and does not systematically favour the employer.
Breaks. Unpaid breaks are subtracted per entry, not per day, so a shift with a 30-minute lunch records as 7.5 hours rather than 8. Short rest breaks (typically under 20 minutes) are usually paid and should not be deducted; a genuine meal break where you are relieved of duty usually is unpaid. Log breaks the way your employer actually treats them.
Overtime. The default threshold is 40 hours per week, which matches the federal FLSA standard. Change it in Settings if your state, contract, or employer uses a different rule: some jurisdictions calculate overtime daily rather than weekly. The estimate here is a guide for checking your own paycheck, not a payroll ruling.
Who this is for
A browser-based timesheet is a good fit when the tracking need is real but small.
- Hourly employees keeping an independent record to check against their paycheck. If your employer's numbers are ever wrong, your own timestamped log is what settles it.
- Freelancers and contractors who need defensible hours per client without paying for software. Use the note field on each entry as the client or project label.
- Field and trade workers moving between sites, where the phone is the only device on hand.
- Small teams where everyone tracks their own hours and sends a CSV to whoever runs payroll.
It is not the right fit if you need shared team dashboards, manager approvals, GPS verification, or automatic syncing across devices. Those require a real backend and an account. See our guide to mobile timesheet apps for the tools that do that, or the best time tracking software if you are evaluating paid options for a team. Clockify and Toggl Track both have free mobile tiers worth a look.
Online timesheet vs spreadsheet vs app
All three approaches work. They differ in what they cost you in setup, discipline, and money.
An online timesheet like this one wins on speed to first use. There is nothing to configure and it takes one tap to record a shift, which matters because the main reason timesheets are inaccurate is that people fill them in from memory days later. The trade-off is that it is single-device and has no team features.
A spreadsheet wins on flexibility and permanence. You own the file, you can add any column you want, and it syncs through your cloud drive. The trade-off is friction: typing times into cells on a phone keyboard is slow enough that most people stop doing it. If you want this route, start from our Excel timesheet template or the Google Sheets version, which already have the formulas built.
A dedicated app wins on everything except cost and setup: real sync, approvals, integrations, reporting. It is the right answer for a team, and overkill for one person tracking one job.
A common and sensible pattern is to use this tool during the week and export to a spreadsheet at the end of it. You get one-tap capture plus a permanent record.
Other free tools on this page
If you only need to do the maths once rather than track hours as they happen, these are quicker:
- Work hours calculator — total a single shift, including breaks.
- Time card calculator — fill in a whole week at once on a desktop.
- Time to decimal converter — turn 7h 45m into 7.75 for payroll.
- Billable hours tracker — log sessions per client and calculate what to invoice.
FAQ
Is this online timesheet free?
Yes. There is no charge, no signup, no trial, and no usage limit. It is a static web page with the timesheet logic running in your browser, so there is no cost on our side to pass on to you.
Do I need to download an app?
No. It runs in the mobile browser you already have. If you want an app-like icon, add the page to your home screen using the steps above: that creates a launcher without installing anything.
Will my hours still be there tomorrow?
Yes, as long as you use the same browser on the same device and do not clear your browsing data. Your entries are saved locally after every change, including the currently running shift. Private/incognito windows are the exception: they discard everything when closed.
Can I use it offline?
Once the page has loaded, clocking in and out, editing entries, and exporting all work without a connection, because the calculations happen on your device. You do need a connection to load the page the first time, so on a site with no signal, open it before you lose service.
Can my team share one timesheet?
Not directly: each person's hours stay on their own device. For a small team, the workable pattern is that everyone tracks their own week and exports a CSV to whoever runs payroll. If you need live shared visibility or manager approvals, you need software with an account behind it.
Does it handle overnight shifts?
Yes. If your clock-out time is earlier than your clock-in time, the entry is treated as crossing midnight: 22:00 to 06:00 records as 8 hours, not a negative number.
How do I fix a shift I forgot to clock out of?
Clock out whenever you notice, then tap the entry and correct the finish time. Nothing is locked after it is saved, so you can edit or delete any entry at any point. If you started a timer by mistake, use "Discard this shift" and it is dropped without being recorded.
Can I lose hours by tapping the wrong thing?
Deleting is the only action that removes saved time, and every one of them asks you to confirm first: deleting a single entry, clearing a whole week, and discarding a running shift. Editing is safe by comparison, because changes save as you type and you can always correct them again. The one thing that is not recoverable is clearing your browser data, which is why the export button exists.
What happens if I forget to resume after a break?
The break counter keeps running, so the shift records more unpaid break than you actually took. Fix it the same way as any other mistake: clock out, tap the entry, and set the break minutes to the right number. The hours recalculate immediately.
Is this valid for payroll or a wage dispute?
It produces an accurate record of what you entered, which is genuinely useful as your own evidence, but it is not an official employer system of record. Your employer's timekeeping is what payroll runs on. Keep your exported CSVs as a personal cross-check, and raise discrepancies with the actual numbers in hand.