What’s covered in this guide?
Quick checklist
If overtime or a pay rate isn’t applying the way you expect, work through these in order:
Check which rule paid the hours, in the timesheet’s Timesheet Export Summary.
Check the rule still exists and its conditions match the shift.
Check the employee’s pay conditions for the date of the shift: tags, template, and contracted or regular hours.
Check the overtime averaging period.
Check no other rule matches the same hours.
Check clock-in rounding isn’t rounding the extra time away.
If the rule is for bank holidays, check your bank holiday dates.
If you’ve changed something, recalculate the timesheets.
Each step is explained below.
See which rule paid each hour
Open the employee’s timesheet.
Scroll to Timesheet Export Summary.
Check the Pay Rate column. It shows the name of the rule that paid those hours.
Check the Ordinary Hours column. It shows Ordinary Hours or Non-ordinary Hours (for example, overtime).
Hover over a line to see that rule’s conditions.
If the extra hours show your ordinary rule in Pay Rate, and Ordinary Hours in the next column, the overtime rule didn’t apply. Work through the checks below.
📝 Important to note: To see the Timesheet Export Summary for someone else’s timesheet, you need permission to see their wages.
Check the rule
Earnings rules are managed in Time & Attendance > Compliance > Compliance HQ (US: Time & Schedules > Compliance). Next to Custom Earnings Rules, click Manage.
Check:
The rule is still in the list. If it’s missing, it may have been deleted. See An overtime rule has disappeared in the FAQs below.
Who it applies to. Under Who will it apply to?, the rule applies to All Staff or only staff with the tags listed.
Advanced options. Will Not Apply To (By Tag) excludes staff with those tags. Age Range, Probation and Rule Applies Between can also stop a rule applying.
When overtime starts. Under After number of hours worked, check the condition and the number of hours. Common overtime conditions are:
Daily: hours worked after a set number of hours in a day.
Overtime period: hours worked after a set number of hours a week, across the overtime averaging period.
Monthly overtime period: used instead of Overtime period if your account uses monthly overtime.
Beyond contracted weekly hours: hours worked after the employee’s contracted weekly hours.
Contracted hours: hours worked outside the employee’s regular hours of work.
Scheduled hours: hours worked outside scheduled times, or beyond the number of scheduled hours.
To see what changed on a rule and who changed it, open the rule and expand Award Rule History (US: Earnings Rule History).
Check the employee’s pay conditions
Rules use the employee’s pay conditions for the date of the shift, not their profile as it is today. On the employee’s profile, open Pay Conditions and check the pay conditions that cover that date:
Tags. The employee needs at least one of the rule’s tags on that date. If a tag was added or removed partway through, shifts before the change use the old tags.
Template. A rule only applies to employees on the same template as the rule (Statutory Minimum Wage Template; US: Labor Law Template).
Contracted weekly hours. Rules that use Beyond contracted weekly hours compare hours worked with this number.
Regular hours of work. Rules that use Contracted hours compare hours worked with the employee’s regular hours. If an employee’s regular hours have changed, for example from 9am–2pm to 9am–12pm, overtime will start at the new time.
If the employee has no active pay conditions on the date of the shift, no earnings rules apply to it.
To see which rules apply to an employee today, open their profile and go to Pay Conditions > Earnings Rules.
💡 Tip: Preferred weekly hours for scheduling is only used for scheduling. It doesn’t affect overtime.
Check overtime averaging
Overtime is worked out over the overtime averaging period, which can be different from the timesheet period.
For example, with a 2-week averaging period, overtime only starts once the employee passes the threshold for the whole 2 weeks. Fewer hours one week can balance out more hours the next.
Your organisation’s averaging period:
Go to Settings > Timesheets.
Under Advanced, click Show Advanced Settings....
Check Overtime averaging period (weeks), or Enable monthly overtime if you use monthly overtime.
One employee’s averaging period:
If your account has the Advanced Payroll Fields feature, open the employee’s profile, go to Pay Conditions > Pay Configuration and check Overtime Averaging. If it’s blank, or you don’t see it, the employee uses their template’s averaging period, or the organisation’s if they’re not on a template.
📝 Important to note: On most accounts, the hours in an Overtime period condition are weekly hours, for example 40. Workforce multiplies them by the averaging period, so 40 hours with a 2-week period means overtime after 80 hours. Some older accounts use hours for the whole period instead. If you’re not sure which yours uses, check the Pay Rate in a recent Timesheet Export Summary.
Check for overlapping rules
Each hour is paid by one rule only. If two rules match the same hours, Workforce picks one. Generally, the rule that can apply soonest wins. If two can apply at once, bank holiday rules win, then usually the rule that matches more conditions. You can’t set the order yourself.
For example, if you have a night rule and an overtime rule, hours that are both at night and overtime will only get one of them. To pay a different rate for overtime worked at night, create one rule with both conditions: Specific times for the night hours, and After number of hours worked for overtime. A night premium can also be paid on top of a rule as an hourly allowance (US: supplemental payment).
To fix it, check the Pay Rate in the Timesheet Export Summary to see which rule won, then change the conditions so only the rule you want matches those hours.
Check clock-in rounding
Clock-in rounding can remove small amounts of overtime. Go to Settings > Timesheets and check Clock-in Time Rounding and Clock-out Time Rounding:
Rounding of times (minutes): how far clock-in and clock-out times can be rounded. New UK accounts round to 15 minutes.
Round clocks-ins to scheduled times and Round clocks-outs to scheduled times: clock-ins and clock-outs within the rounding time of the scheduled start or finish are changed to the scheduled time. These are ticked by default, but only work if a rounding time is set.
Use smart clock-in rounding and Use smart clock-out rounding: clock-in times are rounded forward and clock-out times back to the nearest rounding interval. New UK accounts have smart rounding on.
For example, if the rounding time is 20 minutes and someone scheduled from 8:45 clocks in at 8:27, their shift starts at 8:45, so the extra 18 minutes isn’t paid.
Check bank holiday dates
If the rule is for bank holidays, check your dates in Settings > General Settings, under Bank Holiday Region and Bank holiday dates (US: Holiday region and Holiday). Locations can have their own Public holiday regions.
When timesheets update after a change
When you save a change to a rule, an employee’s tags, or their pay conditions, Workforce recalculates the affected timesheets in the background:
Timesheets from the last month are recalculated first, usually within a few minutes.
Older timesheets can take up to 24 hours.
Some changes don’t recalculate timesheets on their own:
Changing your overtime averaging period.
Deleting a rule.
Narrowing who a rule applies to. Staff it no longer covers aren’t recalculated.
After any of these, go to Timesheets, click More Actions, then Recalculate costs for all timesheets.
Exported timesheets don’t update. They keep the pay they were exported with. To change one, Unlock it, then use Recalculate costs for all timesheets. This doesn’t update your payroll, so correct anything already paid in payroll.
FAQs
Why isn’t my employee’s timesheet calculating overtime?
Why isn’t my employee’s timesheet calculating overtime?
Open the timesheet and check Timesheet Export Summary. If the extra hours show your ordinary rule in Pay Rate and Ordinary Hours in the next column, check:
The overtime rule is still in your earnings rules list. If it was deleted, it no longer applies.
The employee has the rule’s tag in their pay conditions for that date.
Their Contracted weekly hours or Regular hours of work are correct for that date. If their regular hours have changed, overtime starts later.
Your overtime averaging period. With a 2-week or 4-week period, overtime only starts once the employee passes the threshold for the whole period.
Clock-in rounding isn’t rounding the extra time to the scheduled times.
If you’ve fixed something, recalculate the timesheet (see When timesheets update after a change above).
Why is my employee showing overtime too early?
Why is my employee showing overtime too early?
Compare them with an employee whose overtime is right. Check:
Their Contracted weekly hours and Regular hours of work in their pay conditions for that date.
Their averaging period. If your account has the Advanced Payroll Fields feature, check Overtime Averaging in Pay Conditions > Pay Configuration.
Which rule paid the hours, in the Pay Rate column of the Timesheet Export Summary. Then check that rule’s hours and conditions.
Why is the overtime rate being paid for all hours, not just hours after their contracted hours?
Why is the overtime rate being paid for all hours, not just hours after their contracted hours?
Check the rule’s condition under After number of hours worked:
Beyond contracted weekly hours pays the rate only after the employee’s Contracted weekly hours for the week (or averaging period).
Contracted hours pays the rate for hours outside their Regular hours of work.
If the employee’s contracted weekly hours or regular hours are missing, these rules can’t work out when overtime starts. Check their pay conditions for that date.
An overtime rule has disappeared. Who deleted it, and can I get it back?
An overtime rule has disappeared. Who deleted it, and can I get it back?
Deleting an earnings rule archives it. It stops applying, and you can’t restore it yourself. Contact Workforce support. They can check when it was deleted and by which login, and may be able to restore it. You can also create the rule again.
Deleting a rule doesn’t recalculate timesheets. Timesheets keep the deleted rule’s pay until they’re recalculated, so go to Timesheets > More Actions > Recalculate costs for all timesheets.
To see other changes to a rule that still exists, open it and expand Award Rule History (US: Earnings Rule History).
How do I change all staff from fortnightly to weekly overtime?
How do I change all staff from fortnightly to weekly overtime?
Go to Settings > Timesheets.
Under Advanced, click Show Advanced Settings....
Change Overtime averaging period (weeks) to 1, then save.
Go to Timesheets > More Actions > Recalculate costs for all timesheets. Changing the averaging period doesn’t recalculate timesheets on its own.
Employees with their own Overtime Averaging in Pay Conditions > Pay Configuration, or on a template with its own averaging period, keep that period.
On some older accounts, the hours on overtime rules are for the whole averaging period, not per week.
Check a recent Timesheet Export Summary after the change, or contact Workforce support first if you’re not sure.
My employee averages over 2 weeks. Why aren’t their extra shifts counted as overtime?
My employee averages over 2 weeks. Why aren’t their extra shifts counted as overtime?
With averaging, overtime only starts once they pass the threshold for the whole period. For example, with a 2-week period and 33 hours a week, overtime starts after 66 hours across both weeks. If they work 22 hours one week and 44 the next, that’s 66 hours, so none of it is overtime.
How do I pay a different rate for overtime worked at night?
How do I pay a different rate for overtime worked at night?
Each hour is paid by one rule only, so a night rule and an overtime rule won’t both apply to the same hours. Create one rule with both Specific times (the night hours) and After number of hours worked (overtime), with the rate you want. Then check the Pay Rate in the Timesheet Export Summary to make sure it’s the rule being used.
If an employee has a tag that excludes them from overtime, can they still be scheduled for extra hours?
If an employee has a tag that excludes them from overtime, can they still be scheduled for extra hours?
Yes. Tags only change how hours are paid. They don’t stop anyone being scheduled or clocking in. If the overtime rule has that tag under Will Not Apply To (By Tag), their extra hours are paid by another rule that applies to them, such as ordinary hours.
Who can change earnings rules?
Who can change earnings rules?
By default, Admins and Payroll Officers can create, edit and delete earnings rules. General Managers can view rules and create new ones, but can’t edit or delete them. Team Managers can’t open the earnings rules list. Rules that come from your template can’t be edited.