Does a 20 minute rest break have to be paid?

Not under the Working Time Regulations, which apply in Great Britain. Workers aged 18 or over who work more than six hours get one uninterrupted 20 minute break, and whether it is paid depends on the contract. For minimum wage purposes, rest breaks are not counted as hours worked, even when you choose to pay for them.

Can I automatically deduct a break from every shift?

You can, but only if the break was really taken. If someone was pulled back to the till halfway through, or never got away from the floor, that time was working time and deducting it underpays them. For a low-paid worker, that can push the pay below minimum wage, so check the shifts where a break looks doubtful.

What should I do if someone forgot to clock out?

Do not guess. Ask the employee and check another source, such as the rota, the till log or the time the site was locked up. Enter the corrected time and keep a short note of who confirmed it and how, so the change can be explained later.

Can I round clock-in and clock-out times?

There is no official safe interval, so do not assume one exists. HMRC has named employers for rounding clock-in times in their own favour. The safest habit is to pay from the actual recorded times, or to make sure any rounding cannot leave a worker short.

Does time before opening count as paid working time?

Yes, if the person is at work and preparing for the shift. Gov.uk says time spent at the workplace and early arrival to prepare for a shift can count as working time for minimum wage. Fifteen unrecorded minutes can be enough to put a low-paid worker under the minimum.

How to read a timesheet before you approve it

Q: How long do I need to keep timesheet and pay records?

National minimum wage records need to be kept for at least six years, according to HMRC guidance. Holiday records also need to be kept for six years from April 2026. Keeping approved timesheets and any correction notes together makes both easy to produce.

Q: How much holiday do casual or irregular-hours staff build up?

For irregular-hours and part-year workers, Acas sets accrual at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period. Part hours round down under 30 minutes and up at 30 minutes or more. Acas gives the example that 70 hours worked gives 8 hours of holiday.

Quick answer. Before you approve a timesheet, check four things: missing clock-outs, shifts that ran long, overtime nobody agreed and break deductions that do not match what happened. These are good practice, not a legal checklist, but they catch most of the errors that lead to underpaid staff, wrong wage bills and awkward conversations.

Approving timesheets is the last point where a mistake is cheap to fix. Once the payroll run has gone, you are correcting pay after the fact, apologising, and hoping nobody has already noticed.

Here is how to read a timesheet so the problems show up while there is still time to sort them out.

Check 1: Is every shift closed?

Does every clock-in have a clock-out? A missing clock-out is the most common fault on a timesheet, and the most tempting to fix by guessing.

It usually shows up as a shift that runs for 14 hours, a shift that ends at midnight on the dot, or a blank where the end time should be. Someone has walked out of the door with their mind on the bus home.

Do not fill the gap with what the rota said. The rota is what you planned, not what happened. Correct it from a source:

the employee, asked directly
the till or card machine log, showing the last sale they rang up
whoever locked up, and when the alarm was set
a handover message or a delivery sign-off

Then keep a correction note. Something short will do: "Clock-out added as 17:45, confirmed by Sam and the last till entry." Write who changed it and why. If a worker questions their pay six months later, that note is the difference between a quick answer and an argument.

A correction note also helps you spot patterns. If the same person forgets every Friday, or the same closing shift always drifts, that is a conversation to have rather than a gap to keep patching.

Check 2: Which shifts ran long?

Did anyone work longer than the rota said, and does it matter? A shift that ran 40 minutes over is usually just a busy evening. It still needs a look, because it can tip a person over a line.

Compare the clocked hours against the rota, shift by shift. The ones worth a second look are where the extra time crosses one of three triggers. For the full detail on each, see our guide to UK rest breaks and rota rules.

The six hour trigger

In Great Britain, workers aged 18 or over who work more than six hours are entitled to one uninterrupted 20 minute rest break. A 10:00 to 16:00 shift does not trigger it. A 10:00 to 16:20 shift does. If a shift grew past six hours on the day, check that a break was possible and was actually taken.

The 11 hour gap

Workers get 11 hours of rest in each 24 hour period. A late close that overran, followed by an early open the next morning, is the classic breach. A close planned for 22:30 that ran to 23:20 still leaves enough time before a 10:00 start, but not before a 09:00 one. Look at the gap between each person's last clock-out and their next clock-in.

The 48 hour average

The weekly limit is an average of 48 hours over 17 weeks, unless the worker has signed a voluntary written opt-out. A single long week is not a breach. A pattern of long weeks that keeps creeping up is what to watch, so glance at the running total for anyone who is regularly near the top.

Check 3: Was the overtime agreed?

Who approved the extra hours, and what do you owe for them? Overtime is where timesheets and managers' memories most often disagree.

Start with the plain fact that there is no statutory overtime rate. Whether extra hours are paid at the normal rate, a higher rate or time off in lieu is a contract matter. Read the contract or staff handbook, and apply it the same way to everyone.

Then ask whether the overtime was asked for. If a member of staff stayed 45 minutes to finish a clean-down you told them to do, that is working time and it is paid. If they stayed because they chose to chat, you have a different conversation, but you should have it on the day, not at payroll. Refusing to pay for hours you let happen is a quick way to lose goodwill.

Run a minimum wage check on the whole period

Here is the check that gets skipped. Take the total hours for the pay period, not just the overtime, and divide the pay by the hours.

From April 2026 the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour. The rate for 18 to 20 year olds is £10.85, for under 18s it is £8.00, and the apprentice rate is also £8.00. The April 2027 rate has not been announced.

A worked example, for illustration only. Say a worker aged 21 or over has 40 hours on the timesheet and is paid £500 for the period. That is £12.50 an hour. At £12.71, 40 hours comes to £508.40, so the pay is £8.40 short. It looks like a decent week's wage and still falls below the minimum.

Things that often cause this:

Unrecorded time. Gov.uk guidance on paid hours says time at the workplace counts, and so does arriving early to prepare for a shift. Fifteen unrecorded minutes can be enough to push a low-paid worker under the minimum.
Deductions for uniform, protective kit, meals or parking that take pay below the minimum rate. Where a deduction does that, it is a breach.
Rounding in the business's favour, covered below.

Check 4: Do the break deductions match reality?

Was the break deducted actually taken? Many teams auto-deduct 30 minutes from any shift over a set length. It saves admin. It also assumes every break happened.

For minimum wage purposes, rest breaks are not counted as hours worked, even if you pay for them. So a break that was genuinely taken can come off the hours. But a break that was cut short, interrupted by a customer or never taken at all is working time, and deducting it underpays the person.

Look at the shifts where a break is doubtful:

a short-staffed shift where the floor was never clear
a day with a delivery or an unexpected rush
a lone worker, such as a solo opener
anyone who clocked back in within a few minutes of clocking out for their break

Ask the question and note the answer. If the break was missed, pay the time and fix the cover that caused it. For staff aged 18 or over, the 20 minute break is a right, not a favour, though it need not be paid unless the contract says so.

A word on rounding

Some systems round clock times to the nearest five, ten or fifteen minutes. There is no official safe interval to rely on. HMRC has named employers for rounding clock-in times in their own favour. If you round, make sure it cannot leave staff short over the pay period. Paying from the actual recorded times is simpler and easier to defend.

After approval: holiday and records

What follows from an approved timesheet? Two things: holiday and a filing habit.

For irregular-hours and part-year workers, Acas sets holiday accrual at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period. Part hours round down under 30 minutes and up at 30 minutes or more. Acas gives this example: 70 hours worked gives 8 hours of holiday. If your casual staff are on timesheets, the holiday figure comes straight from the approved hours, so a correct timesheet is also a correct holiday balance.

On records, HMRC guidance says minimum wage records should be kept for at least six years. Holiday records also need to be kept for six years from April 2026. Keep the approved timesheet, the original clock times and any correction notes together, so you can show how a figure was reached.

Making the check quicker

None of this takes long once it is a habit. A sensible order is: scan for blanks and 12 hour shifts, compare against the rota, look at anything over six hours for break trouble, then check the pay-to-hours figure for your lowest-paid staff.

Done on paper, it eats a Friday afternoon. Wavro puts the rota, clock-ins and timesheets in one place, so you can compare planned and actual hours without switching between files. You can see how it works in the live demo, or look at pricing if you are weighing it up.

This post is general information, not legal advice. The working time rules described here apply in Great Britain, and contracts and individual situations differ, so take advice on your own.