How to Make a Timesheet With Lunch Hours in Excel
Whether you received paid time off for your lunch at work or it’s not included in your daily package, knowing how long you’re away from your workplace can be a great way to optimize your productivity. Use Microsoft Excel to create a timesheet tracker that does more than just track hours worked; add data that tells you whether you’ve been missing out on your lunch hours or are taking a little too much time off.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Launch Microsoft Excel. Click into cell A1 and type your name and the word “Timesheet,” or your company’s name and “Hours Worked.”
-
2
Press the “Enter” key twice to drop two cells below the title into cell A3. Type “Morning Hours.” To adjust the column width to fit the header, double-click the small line separating the A and B column headers. The A column adjusts to fit the header width.
-
-
3
Press the “Tab” key to move into B3. Type “Lunch Time.” Adjust the column width if necessary.
-
4
Press the “Tab” key to move into C3. Type “Afternoon Hours.”
-
5
Press the “Tab” key to move into D3. Type “Date,” “Date Range,” “Week” or your preferred tracking header.
-
6
Click the small line separating rows three and four. Drag the line down so the row width is enlarged.
-
7
Highlight the column headers and the spreadsheet title. Click the “B” icon in the “Font” section of the ribbon to make the headers and title bold. Click the small paint bucket icon and choose a background color for these cells to make them stand out on the timesheet.
-
8
Click the “File” tab, then click “Save As.” Type a name for the timesheet file and click “Save.” You now have a timesheet template.
-
9
Click into cell A4, below the “Morning Hours” – or your respective entry – header. Type the hours the morning you are tracking, such as 9am to 11am.
-
10
Press the “Tab” key. Type the hours you took for lunch, such as 12pm to 1:30pm, or type an “X” to signify you took your appropriate lunch time.
-
11
Press the “Tab” key and type into the “Afternoon Hours” column the hours you worked that afternoon.
-
12
Press the “Tab” key and type the day you worked, such as “Tuesday, September 6, 2011” or “Week of Monday, September 5.”
-
13
Click the “File” menu. To save the timesheet as an ongoing spreadsheet, click the “Save” option. To keep a version of each timesheet change in a separate file, click the “Save As” option. Retitle the spreadsheet, such as Hours09-05-2011 and click the “Save” button.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Each timesheet is different and unique to the user, so you may find yourself more comfortable with different and/or more column headers. Examples include breaking the columns into the actual hours worked, such as 9am to 10am, 10am to 11am, and so on. Another option is to title the lunch column “Lunch?” and use the cells as a check box, signifying whether you took lunch hours or worked through them by making an “X” in the cells.
