Why Your Timesheet Total Doesn't Match Your Paycheck
The most common causes are an employer's clock-time rounding policy (rounding each punch to the nearest 5, 6, or 15 minutes), overtime being calculated on a different basis than expected, and a pay period boundary splitting a work week across two paychecks — each shifts the paid total away from a naive manual calculation.
A self-calculated timesheet total that doesn't match an actual paycheck usually isn't a payroll error — it's almost always one of a small number of specific, standard payroll practices that a simple manual calculation doesn't account for.
Clock-time rounding policies
Many employers round each individual punch to the nearest interval — commonly 5, 6, or 15 minutes — rather than paying to the exact minute. A punch at 8:53 AM might round to 8:50 or 9:00 depending on the specific policy, and this rounding applied consistently across every punch in a week can shift the total by a meaningful amount either direction.
Overtime calculated differently than expected
Overtime rules vary — commonly time-and-a-half after 40 hours in a single work week under US federal law, but some states and employers apply daily overtime rules as well. A manual calculation using only the standard weekly-40-hour rule can undercount pay in a jurisdiction with additional daily overtime protections.
Pay period boundaries splitting a work week
If a pay period ends mid-week, a single work week's hours can be split across two separate paychecks — each paycheck reflects only its portion of that week, which can look wrong compared to a manual total for the full week, even though both paychecks combined are correct.