How to keep your own record of hours worked so it holds up

Write down your start and finish times as they happen, every shift, along with your breaks and anything that changed, like who asked you to stay late. Keep that record somewhere your employer can't edit, and check it against every paycheck or payslip. A note made at the time, the same way every day, is far easier to rely on than a list put together from memory after the money has gone missing.

Why this is the advice everyone gives

When I went through British Reddit threads about unpaid hours, "keep your own record" came up in 14 of the 20 threads I read in full. No other piece of advice turned up in as many threads. In the US the union threads go one step further and turn those records into grievances that pay. A typical answer, from r/LegalAdviceUK:

"Keep a record of all the time worked, individually and among other coworkers. Take that information to ACAS"

r/LegalAdviceUK, August 2026

The usual worry is that it's your word against theirs. A former manager wrote this in reply to someone from HMRC's minimum wage team:

"I did start keeping a tracker on my phone of the extra unpaid hours, with dates and times but it won’t account for all of it and is essentially just my word."

r/UKJobs, November 2025

It's a fair worry. What helps is a record that's hard to argue with. Most of that is in what you write down and how soon.

What to write down every shift

• The date, and the time you actually started and finished, written when it happens.
• Every break, when it started and ended, and whether it was paid.
• Where you worked, if it changes.
• Who asked you to come in early, stay late or skip a break, and how (in person, by text).
• What the schedule said, so you can show the difference. A photo of the posted schedule or rota, or a screenshot of the scheduling app, is enough.
• Your rate for that shift, if you get differentials or premiums.

The start time matters as much as the finish. A hotel worker on r/LegalAdviceUK:

"They wont let us clock in at 9:30, we have to clock in at 10am even though we have started work (i.e setting up linen stock ect)."

r/LegalAdviceUK, May 2026

Thirty minutes a day, five days a week, adds up to two and a half hours a week that never get paid.

Why "at the time" matters

A record written down when it happens has details a memory doesn't, like 10:47pm instead of "around 11". It's also consistent, the same fields every day, which makes it much harder to dismiss. And if your record and your employer's differ on the same three shifts every week, that pattern says more than any single shift.

Write it straight away. Someone answering an r/AskReddit thread about hourly jobs has a one-line rule: "Notes app right when I start." If you only remember at the end of the week, at least write down the end time before you leave the building.

Keep a copy outside your employer's system

The company's own app can be part of the problem. Two posts from the last few months:

"He uses an app on his phone to clock in and out of his shifts and has noticed the last couple of weeks that all of his closes have been manually changed to a 1 am clock out time."

r/LegalAdviceUK, June 2026

"the app that our hours are logged on automatically deducts a 30 minute break which I obviously don't take."

r/LegalAdviceUK, September 2026

Screenshot your punches when you can. Once a month, export or copy your own record somewhere else, to your email or a printout. If the job ends badly and your login stops working, that's the copy you'll need.

What your employer has to keep

Your record is there to check theirs.

In the US, employers must record the hours each non-exempt employee works each day and each week, along with straight-time and overtime earnings. The Labor Department's recordkeeping fact sheet says payroll records must be kept for three years or more and time cards for two, and that any timekeeping method is allowed as long as it's complete and accurate.

In the UK, a payslip for work paid by the hour has to show the hours being paid for. Employers must keep records that prove they pay at least the minimum wage, including total hours worked, for at least six years. You can also ask, in writing, to look at your payment records, bring someone along and copy them.

A template that works without any app

If you'd rather use a spreadsheet or a notebook, use the same columns every time. Copy this into a sheet and add one row per shift:

date,scheduled_start,scheduled_end,actual_start,actual_end,unpaid_break_min,paid_break_min,location,asked_by,notes
2026-10-02,16:00,23:00,15:50,23:40,30,0,Main St,Shift lead (text),Till recount

Keep the actual times exactly as the clock showed them. Don't round, and don't convert to decimals until you're doing the sums. A spreadsheet is fine for this. It just leaves the adding up and the night or overtime rates to you.

Keeping the record in ShiftWallet

ShiftWallet is one way to keep this record on your phone. When you tap clock in, it saves the time, and if you've let it use your location, where you were when you clocked in. If you add a shift afterwards, the shift details are marked Manual, so you can tell a live clock-in from one typed in later. Breaks are logged as paid or unpaid. You can export your shifts to CSV for free (date, clock in, clock out, minutes and gross pay for each shift), and PDF timesheets and a full backup come with Pro.

You can still edit a shift, which is handy when you forget to clock out, but since version 2.4 the change is kept. The proof of hours export (dated, free as a CSV and with Pro as a PDF) says how and when each shift was logged and lists every change and deletion made afterwards, and the app doesn't let you delete that history. It's still your own record rather than independent proof: it isn't signed and it doesn't replace the record your employer has to keep. Location is saved at clock-in, never at clock-out, and only if you allow it. It goes into the proof of hours only when you ask for it. To save typing, you can bring in your schedule from your calendar, a file or a photo, or with Pro set up a weekly schedule and let the app log the repeating shifts.

With a record in hand, the next step is putting it next to what you were paid. In the US that's how to check your paycheck, and in the UK how to check your payslip.