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Excel spreadsheet to calculate working hours

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 min
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Updated on
13/10/25

35 hours per week is the maximum permitted working time in France. If an employee works more than this number of hours, it is considered overtime, and therefore the employee must receive pay increases and possibly rest periods. To track each employee's working hours, you can use a table to calculate working hours.

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What are the legal obligations regarding working time tracking?

The employer is required to record the actual working hours of employees to ensure that legal limits are not exceeded, and to record overtime and any breaks that may have been taken. He must also keep records that the labor inspector can use to confirm the working hours of each employee. If the employer doesn't use a tool that allows them to track actual working hours like Skello, they can use a timesheet template to help them with their task.

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Failure to comply with this obligation may result in a fine and even prosecution. Working hours and overtime are included in the calculation of the week.

Note that beyond 35 hours, the employee's pay may be affected. To help you calculate your salary, download the Excel overtime table provided by Skello.

Generally, the week begins at midnight on Monday and ends at midnight on Sunday (calendar week), unless otherwise provided by a collective agreement.

An exception to this rule occurs when the distribution of hours over a period longer than a week requires a different counting system.

When all members of a workshop, department, or team work the same collective schedule, the count can be either collective or individual. In the workplace, the schedule must be displayed.

Why use a spreadsheet to calculate working hours?

While Microsoft Excel won't replace your primary HR management system, it's hard to beat it as a daily checking and ad hoc reporting tool. It will help you understand the information provided by your built-in analytics tools.

Excel spreadsheets are a tool you can use to track your employees' working hours. They make it easy to manage and process data and information. It allows you to easily calculate hours worked and obtain accurate results thanks to its many features. This makes determining an employee's salary easier and less time-consuming for human resources.

It's often best to create a spreadsheet for each employee based on the many pay periods they work in to keep track of their information. For this reason, many employers may create a quarterly or bi-weekly spreadsheet. This keeps the data organized and easy to store. If you decide to create spreadsheets for each pay period, you can store them digitally and access them later.

Excel can also be used for reporting easily, quickly, and inexpensively.

What are the limitations of an Excel spreadsheet for calculating working hours?

Excel spreadsheets are still widely used today to calculate working hours. This makes perfect sense, as they are excellent tools for gathering and transforming certain amounts of data. They are perfect for businesses with a small number of employees.

However, while there are add-ins that allow Excel to perform certain data analyses, you won't be able to undertake complex analyses if you're working with a large amount of data. Working with excessively large data sets in Excel is not recommended, as it could even slow down your computer.

Calculation errors can occur and be a source of friction. Find the formulas and rules to follow to calculate working hours per month and avoid making mistakes. Also discover how to use a spreadsheet to calculate your working hours.

Fortunately, you can continue using your current Excel spreadsheets while taking advantage of cutting-edge automation thanks to Skello scheduling software.

Automating Working Hours Calculation: What Are the Benefits?

Automation is the solution for repetitive and time-consuming data activities. Automating working hours calculation has many benefits.

Optimizing Scheduling

Companies that keep time records can learn a lot about how their employees spend their time. They can use them to identify inefficiencies and determine how long tasks typically take to complete. These insights can help them plan projects more accurately, limit costs, and streamline processes.

Flexibility

Automated calculation often allows companies to modify their procedures and give their employees more freedom. For example, a company may decide to use scheduling software like Skello, which makes it easy to accurately track employee work hours.

Reducing Workload

For human resources managers, tracking employee attendance and compensation is often a crucial task. A timekeeping system can automate these processes and handle several simple HR responsibilities, freeing up staff members for other activities. A time management system, for example, can collect attendance records, determine pay, monitor overtime, provide insight into activities that directly affect employees, remind staff to clock in, and identify inefficiencies in organizational processes.

Reducing Unnecessary Overtime

When a worker clocks in more than 35 hours during a workweek, it results in overtime. Companies are legally required to pay their employees more in these situations. While overtime is sometimes necessary, if management doesn't monitor it closely, it can also drain the company's resources. Work time monitoring can provide HR managers with a more accurate record of employee hours and output, allowing them to reduce hours and avoid overtime without impacting business efficiency.

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