Upgrade your timesheets with free downloadable template

A schedule tells employees when to show up — it lists their assigned shifts for the week. A timesheet records when they actually worked — the real clock-in and clock-out times. Both are important: the schedule helps you plan labor costs in advance, and the timesheet gives you the accurate hours you need to run payroll. In 7shifts, the schedule and time tracking are connected, so you can instantly see if someone clocked in late or worked longer than planned.

Yes, but you’ll need to add a column manually to track tip income if you want a complete record for payroll purposes. The template covers hours worked, but tip reporting — especially for tip pooling or tip credit calculations — requires additional tracking that a basic Excel sheet doesn’t handle automatically. If you’re managing tipped employees across multiple roles, 7shifts’ tip management tools can automate tip pooling calculations and keep you compliant with federal and state tip credit rules.

In most U.S. states, overtime kicks in when an employee works more than 40 hours in a workweek, and you’re required to pay them at least 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for those extra hours. To calculate it manually, add up each employee’s total hours for the week, subtract 40, and multiply the remainder by their overtime rate. Some states — including California, Colorado, and Nevada — have daily overtime rules, which makes manual calculation even more complex. 7shifts automatically tracks hours against your local overtime rules and sends you an alert before an employee crosses the threshold, so you can adjust the schedule before the cost hits.

Yes, the template is completely free to download and use. There’s no sign-up required, no trial period, and no credit card. It’s a straightforward Excel file you can customize with your restaurant’s name, employee list, and shift types. If you find yourself spending too much time managing it manually, 7shifts offers a free plan for single-location restaurants, so you can try the software without committing to a paid subscription.

A template gives every shift the same structure, so hours get recorded the same way no matter who’s filling it in. That makes payroll faster to run and easier to double-check, and it gives you a paper trail if a pay question ever comes up.

Yes. The template works as a fillable PDF or a printed sheet you keep at the host stand or in the back office. Printing it out works fine for a small team, just make sure someone’s transferring those hours into payroll accurately each week.

It depends on how you run payroll. A daily timesheet is useful if you’re watching for overtime or tracking split shifts and clopens closely. A weekly timesheet is simpler and works well if you just need total hours before running payroll. Some restaurants use daily sheets during the week and roll them into a weekly total at the end.

A time clock that’s connected to your schedule removes the manual step entirely. Employees clock in and out, and hours worked, overtime, and breaks get calculated automatically, no adding up numbers by hand. With 7shifts, those punches sync straight into 7shifts Payroll, so what’s worked flows into pay without re-entering hours by hand.