An overtime policy is a set of rules that dictates which hours on your employee time cards will be counted as overtime hours, instead of regular hours. Typically, overtime hours are paid out at a different rate than regular hours are, but their configurations can differ vastly, depending on factors such as your company's pay structure, or even some state laws.
In this article, you will learn:
Why the starting day is important for overtime policies
When creating an overtime policy, you will set a starting day for the week so that the system knows when to start calculating when determining how many hours have been worked within a week. This is important since most overtime policies trigger when an employee has worked X amount of hours, and everything after that is overtime.
For example, if you have a weekly-based overtime policy and January 1 is a Sunday, your workweek is January 1 through January 7. If you set the beginning of the week to Sunday, the policy will know to take all hours worked within that week into the calculation, but nothing after or before.
If we use the same example but set the start of the week to Wednesday, the system will total all hours between the days of January 4 through January 10.
How to set up or change an overtime policy
Log in to your Fingercheck account as an Administrator.
Make sure you have an earning code configured for overtime. See How to Set up Earning Codes.
Click the SETUP tab.
Select Policies > Overtime Policies.
The page lists any existing overtime policies for your company.
To add an overtime policy, click Add on the right side of the window.
A list of pre-defined overtime policies appears.
To add a pre-defined policy:
Click the policy's Add button.
A pop-up window appears.Update the fields as needed, and click Continue.
Click OK.
To add a custom policy:
Click Add Custom.
Complete the fields in the Details section, which are defined in the Fields for overtime policies section below.
To add rules to your policy, click Add in the Overtime Rules section at the bottom of the page, and complete the fields, which are defined in the Fields for overtime rules section below.
Click Save.
Attach the Overtime Policy to a Master Profile.
Go to Setup > System > Master Profiles.
Open the profile you want to edit, and enter the policy in the Overtime Policy field.
Click Save.
Fields for overtime policies
If you click Add Custom or you want to edit an overtime policy, enter information into the following fields to define the policy:
Field | Description |
Code | An abbreviated name for the overtime policy (for example, OT). This, in combination with the Description field, determines the full name of the policy, as it will be displayed in other areas of Fingercheck. |
Description | A descriptive name for the overtime policy (for example, Overtime). This, in combination with the Code field, determines the full name of the policy, as it will be displayed in other areas of Fingercheck. |
Not Allowed | When selected, this checkbox disables the policy. Even if it is triggered, it does not do anything. |
Before/After Scheduled Start Time | When selected, these checkboxes are used with Daily-type Overtime Policies that allow employees to work hours outside of the ones assigned to them. |
Starting Day of the Week | Used for Weekly and Bi-Weekly-type Overtime Policies. This field tells the system what day is considered the beginning of the workweek, so the system knows when to reset the counter for an employee's hours worked. |
Include Paid Break/Meal/Holiday/Absence/Overtime Hours | These checkboxes tell the policy to count hours that would not be considered otherwise, such as time absent due to sick leave or a holiday or time spent out on lunch. |
Fields for overtime rules
Overtime rules tell the policy how to look at hours and calculate them to determine when overtime should happen. To create an overtime rule, complete these fields:
Field | Description |
Over Time Type | Tells the system what time period to calculate for.
Typically, this is set to Daily or Weekly. You can choose from other options such as Saturday or Sunday, and any hours worked on those days would be counted as overtime.
Another option is DayConsecutively7InWorkWeek, which gives overtime on the 7th consecutive working no matter how many hours were worked in the week. |
Hours Above | Tells the system the beginning of the range in which hours worked should be marked as Overtime. |
Hours To | Tells the system the end of the range in which hours worked should be marked as Overtime. |
Division Earning | Tells the system what earning code to use for overtime hours. The earning code dictates the rate at which those hours should be paid.
Earnings are set in the SETUP tab > Payroll > Earnings. See How to Set up Earning Codes. |
Is Comp Time | If selected, hours that fall within the range of Overtime are disqualified. Instead of counting those hours towards overtime, the system ignores them. |
Comp Time Accrual | Used in combination with the Is Comp Time checkbox to make it so the hours count towards an accrual policy, instead of overtime. |
Start/End Time | Used when labeling a certain range of time as eligible for one kind of overtime rule, different from any other range of time. |
Sequence | Used to dictate the order in which rules are applied, which can be useful in situations where multiple rules can apply at the same time. |
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