What this labour attendance sheet is for
Daily-wage labour is paid for the days actually worked, so attendance is the wage calculation. On a construction site, in a warehouse, at a brick kiln or with a housekeeping contractor, the hazri sheet the supervisor keeps is the only evidence of who worked and for how long, and it decides both the workers' pay and the contractor's bill to the principal employer.
This template is for site supervisors, contractors and the accounts staff who convert the site sheet into wages. It supports half days, skill categories with different rates, overtime at double the hourly rate and advance recovery, and it rolls up to a Site Summary by category so the month's labour cost is visible at a glance. Sites with several contractors keep one file per contractor.
It replaces the notebook and the photo of the notebook on WhatsApp. It does not replace the statutory muster roll; the muster roll format template covers that register, and the two share a total-days column so you fill one from the other.
What is inside: Daily Wage Attendance and Site Summary
The Daily Wage Attendance sheet starts with a header block: Site, Contractor and Month. The body has one row per worker: Sr, Labour Name, Category (Unskilled, Semi-skilled or Skilled), Daily Wage Rate, then Days 1 to 31 with codes P for a full day, A for absent and H for a half day. The totals follow: Total Days, OT Hours, OT Rate, Gross Wages, Advance, Net Payable and a Signature or Thumb column for payment day.
Total Days counts P cells plus half of the H cells. OT Rate is the daily rate divided by 8 hours, doubled, which is the statutory overtime rate under the Factories Act and the Code on Wages. Gross Wages is Total Days times Daily Rate plus OT Hours times OT Rate. Net Payable subtracts any advance recovered this month.
The Site Summary sheet groups the month by category: number of workers, total man-days, total OT hours, gross wages and net payable for Unskilled, Semi-skilled and Skilled, with a grand total. It also shows the average daily rate paid per category against a Minimum Wage cell you fill from the current state notification, so an underpayment shows as a red variance.
- Total Days: =COUNTIF(F6:AJ6,"P") + 0.5 × COUNTIF(F6:AJ6,"H").
- OT Rate: =Daily Rate ÷ 8 × 2; change the 8 if your notified normal day is different.
- Gross Wages: =Total Days × Daily Rate + OT Hours × OT Rate.
- Net Payable: =Gross Wages − Advance; the Site Summary uses SUMIF on Category for every total.
How to use it at site and in accounts
Print the sheet with names, categories and rates filled in and give it to the site supervisor at the start of the month. Mark attendance twice a day if you can: P at the morning muster and a confirmation after the shift, changing to H if the worker left at midday. Overtime hours go in a separate daily note and are totalled into the OT Hours column at month end.
Weekly or fortnightly payment is common on sites. If you pay weekly, add up the P and H cells for that week's columns manually or add four small weekly sub-total columns; the month-end formulas still work because they count the whole row. Record any advance the day it is given, in the Advance column, so the net payable already reflects it.
At month end, type the codes into Excel, check the Site Summary against the budget, and print two copies: one for the contractor's bill to the client and one to be signed by workers on payment day. Where the principal employer requires it, attach it to the muster roll and wage register; the contract worker attendance guide covers what clients usually ask for.
- Enter Daily Wage Rate per worker rather than per category; skilled workers on the same site often have different agreed rates.
- Use the overtime pay calculator to verify a few OT amounts the first month.
- Keep the signed paper sheet; the Excel file is the working copy, the signed sheet is the evidence.
How to customise it
Add codes for weekly off (WO) and paid holiday (PH) if you pay for those days; the Total Days formula then adds COUNTIF for each paid code. Many contractors pay daily-wage workers only for days worked, in which case leave WO and PH unpaid and simply do not count them. Whatever you decide must match the appointment terms and the minimum wage notification, which treats the weekly rest day differently in different states.
For sites with piece-rate work, add a Units column and a Rate per Unit column and replace Gross Wages for those rows with Units × Rate, keeping the attendance codes for the record. For sites where the client pays on man-days, add a Billable Days column that excludes rework or idle days at your discretion, so the wage payable and the billable quantity are separate.
Link the Daily Wage Rate cells to a small rate table on the Site Summary sheet keyed by category and zone, and update that table when the state revises the variable dearness allowance, typically in April and October. Rates then change for every worker in one place.
Compliance context for daily-wage labour
Daily-wage workers must be paid at least the minimum wage fixed by the appropriate government for their skill category and zone, revised with VDA usually twice a year. Security, construction and housekeeping notifications classify workers as unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled, which is why the sheet carries Category. Use the latest notification for your state and enter it in the Minimum Wage cell; the minimum wages glossary entry explains how categories and zones work.
Overtime beyond the normal daily hours or 48 hours a week is payable at twice the ordinary rate. The hourly rate for a daily-rated worker is the daily rate divided by the normal hours, ordinarily eight. Consent-based overtime under the Labour Codes means the worker should agree; a signed OT note or a message trail is enough for most sites.
Contractors engaging 50 or more contract workers need a licence under the OSH Code, and the principal employer must be registered; below that threshold the record-keeping and wage-payment duties still apply. Workers on sites where ESI is implemented and the establishment meets the headcount threshold are covered up to ₹21,000 gross, and EPF applies to establishments with 20 or more employees at 12% of wages up to the ₹25,000 ceiling. A daily-wage worker earning up to ₹176 per day is exempt from the employee ESI share.
When the paper sheet stops working
The site sheet breaks when a supervisor marks P for workers who never came, when the sheet reaches head office a week after payday, when the client disputes man-days and there is no proof the workers were on site, and when rates change mid-month and the recalculation takes an afternoon.
A daily-wage attendance app fixes the evidence problem first. Attend Mitra marks each worker present with a selfie and GPS inside the site geofence, works offline until the site gets signal, supports a shared tablet in kiosk mode at the gate, and exports site-wise man-days for billing. Supervisors can still add or correct entries with approval, and the month's sheet exports in this template's shape. See the daily wage worker attendance app, the construction worker attendance solution, and the construction site attendance guide.