How to track nanny hours and send the family a weekly summary
Quick answer: Log the exact time you arrive and leave every day, to the minute, in one place both of you can see, and send the family a weekly summary showing each day's hours, the rate and the total owing before payday. A shared note or a text each day works; an app such as Time Card does the adding up and makes the PDF.
Nanny hours go wrong in small ways. The nanny is ten minutes late three mornings a week and stays ten minutes late on two evenings, and nobody writes any of it down. The family pays partly in cash and loses track. An app rounds every finish up to the quarter hour. By the end of the month, both sides feel short-changed, and the r/Nanny threads about it run to dozens of comments.
The fix is the same whichever side you are on: exact times, recorded the same day, visible to both of you, and a weekly summary sent before payday. This page covers the free ways to do that, where an app helps, and what the summary should look like. We make Time Card, one of the apps mentioned, and we say where the others are a better fit.
For nannies: what to send the family each week
A weekly summary should show each day you worked, when you arrived and left, any unpaid break, the hours, your rate and the total owing. A nanny on r/Nanny put it well: she sends an invoice that includes the exact times she arrived and asks the family to double-check it before paying. That one habit removes most arguments.
Here is what a week looks like. The figures are an example.
| Day | Arrived | Left | Unpaid break | Paid hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 12 October | 7:55 am | 3:10 pm | none | 7 h 15 min |
| Tuesday 13 October | 8:00 am | 3:00 pm | none | 7 h 00 min |
| Wednesday 14 October | 8:05 am | 6:20 pm | 30 min | 9 h 45 min |
| Thursday 15 October | 8:00 am | 3:00 pm | none | 7 h 00 min |
| Friday 16 October | 7:58 am | 1:30 pm | none | 5 h 32 min |
| Total | 36 h 32 min (36.53 h) | |||
| Rate | A$35.00 an hour | |||
| Total owing | A$1,278.67 |
Decimal hours matter when the family pays through a payroll service, so show both.
For families: how to keep the record without being “that mom”
Three methods families on r/NannyEmployers actually use, from simplest up:
- A text each day. The nanny texts “in” on arrival and “out” on leaving. The thread is the record. Free, honest, and enough for set hours with the odd change.
- A shared note or spreadsheet. A Notes page or a Google Sheet both of you edit. Good when hours vary, bad on a phone at 6 pm with a toddler on your hip, which is when the entry gets skipped.
- A time card app on the nanny’s phone, with the PDF sent to you weekly. The app does the adding up, keeps exact minutes, and the weekly PDF is the thing you pay against. You see the summary, not the app.
Whichever you choose, write down the rules once: the rate, guaranteed hours if you pay them, how a late arrival or a late finish is treated, and whether you round. Then apply them the same way in both directions. Most of the disputes on Reddit are not about the app; they are about rules nobody agreed.
Which app
- Time Card (ours): add the family as a client with their rate, tap each day and set start, finish and break to the minute, see the week’s hours and total, and send a PDF timesheet or invoice. Works offline, no account, free for two families. It does not clock in by location and does not apply overtime rules by itself.
- Nannly and NannyLog: nanny-specific, with one-tap clock in and out, overtime and guaranteed-hours features, and childcare logs. Better if you want the childcare diary and the hours in one place.
- Nanny Admin and Daily Nanny: built for the family and nanny to share; Daily Nanny adds photos and activity updates. Better if the family wants a shared view inside an app.
- Paypr and HoursKit: simple running-balance apps for “who owes what”, good for babysitters with several families.
- Connecteam or Jibble: proper employer time clocks with geofenced punches, free for very small teams. Right if you want a punch clock rather than a record the nanny keeps.
How to do it in Time Card
- Add the family as a client and enter the hourly rate. Add a second family if you have one; two are free.
- Each day, tap the date and set arrival, finish and any unpaid break on the wheels. An empty day opens with your usual hours filled in.
- On your pay day, open the week, check the hours, and tap to make the PDF. Choose the timesheet if the family employs you, or the invoice if you charge them.
- Send it by Messages, WhatsApp or email, and keep a copy. If the family records a payment, Pro can mark it as paid and show what is still owed.
The employment side, briefly
In Australia, a family that employs a nanny has record-keeping and pay obligations; the Fair Work Ombudsman sets them out, and its free Record My Hours app is a good official record for the nanny. In the United States, a family that pays a nanny above the annual threshold is a household employer with payroll-tax obligations, and overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate generally applies over 40 hours a week; the Department of Labor has the details. None of this is advice for your situation, and an app does not take care of it. It only makes the hours clear.
Questions people ask
What is the easiest way to track nanny hours?
A text saying 'in' and 'out' each day is the simplest honest record, and plenty of families use it. It stops working when you need the week added up at different rates or a tidy summary to pay against. That is when a shared spreadsheet or a time card app earns its place.
How do I bill a family for overtime?
Agree in advance what counts as overtime and the rate. Time Card shows hours times your rate and does not apply overtime rules itself, so add overtime as a separate line or a second rate. In the United States, household employees are generally owed 1.5 times their rate over 40 hours a week under federal law; check the Department of Labor's guidance for your state.
Should a nanny send an invoice or a timesheet?
If the family employs you and pays wages, send a timesheet: the days, times and hours. If you work for yourself and charge the family, send an invoice. The PDF looks similar; the difference is who is responsible for tax and super or payroll taxes.
Does Time Card need an account or internet?
No. It works offline and keeps the record on your phone. Nothing you enter about the family or the children is uploaded to us.
What about rounding to the quarter hour?
Some apps round every clock-out to the nearest 15 minutes, which adds up: four days of finishing one minute late becomes an extra hour. Time Card records the actual minute. If you and the family prefer rounding, agree the rule and apply it the same way both ways.