What is puantaj? The timesheet, the timekeeper and payroll in Türkiye

What does puantaj mean?

Puantaj is a sheet that marks each of an employee’s days with a status and an hour total: 3 November worked 9 hours, 4 November annual leave, 5 November sick leave and so on. At month end the days are totalled; payroll reads paid days, unpaid days and overtime hours from it. The person who keeps it is called a puantör (timekeeper), and the sheet itself a puantaj cetveli (timesheet table).

A timesheet is not the same as a clock-in record. A PDKS or a signing-in sheet gives “who came in and left when”; the timesheet turns that into a countable day using shift, break, leave and holiday rules.

What does a timesheet contain?

The short timesheet codes that mark daily statuses and the step-by-step preparation of the sheet are in a separate guide.

Why does the timesheet matter?

When paying wages the employer must give the employee a pay slip showing separately additions such as overtime, weekly rest, national and public holiday pay and every kind of deduction (Law 4857 art. 37). Each of those lines comes from a number in the timesheet: if the timesheet is wrong, the slip is wrong, and so is the payment.

The employer also keeps legally required documents and records in the employee’s personnel file and shows them to the authorities on request (Law 4857 art. 75). In practice the timesheet and clock-in records are the first documents examined in pay and overtime disputes.

The timesheet and SGK premium days

In Turkish social security law a month is treated as thirty days (Law 5510 art. 3). For an insured person reported with fewer than thirty days in a month because of unpaid leave, absence or sick leave, the reason and number of missing days are declared on the monthly withholding and premium return (Law 5510 art. 86). The correct day count again comes from the timesheet.

Part-time employees. For a part-time employee whose contract is paid by the hour, premium days are found by dividing the month’s total working time by 7.5 hours, with any remainder under 7.5 hours rounded up to 1 day (Social Insurance Procedures Regulation art. 101/3). For 100 hours in a month: 100 ÷ 7.5 = 13.33 → 14 days. Details: part-time work.

How is a timesheet calculated? A short example

In a workplace working six days and 45 hours a week, a 30-day month’s timesheet might be summarised like this: 24 days worked, 1 day of annual leave, 4 weekly rest days, 1 day of unpaid leave (30 days in total); 48 hours worked in the second week.

The example is illustrative; pay for weekly rest and public holidays is inside the monthly wage. Weekly rest days and public holidays do not count towards annual leave (art. 56).

To find weekly hours and overtime bands with your own data use the working hours calculator, and for the premium amount the overtime pay calculator.

Should the timesheet be kept in Excel or software?

With a few employees an Excel sheet works; but clock-ins typed by hand every month, breaks not deducted, shifts past midnight written on the wrong day and part-timers assumed to work 45 hours are the most common mistakes. Timesheet software applies these rules the same way every day and keeps a record of corrections. The choice depends on headcount and the shift pattern.

This guide is for information only and is not legal or payroll advice.