How does overtime work?

Learn all about how to enable overtime rules, view total overtime and understand how overtime is calculated

Overtime refers to the extra hours that employees work beyond their standard or regular working hours. It typically involves additional compensation, often at a higher rate than the regular hourly wage, to compensate employees for their extended work time.

Overtime is a critical aspect of managing working hours, ensuring fairness, and complying with labor laws. With Jibble’s employee overtime tracker, it’s easy to track and manage overtime efficiently. This guide will walk you through the key concepts and features related to overtime.

This article covers:


Setting up overtime (OT) rules

To get started with overtime tracking, you’ll need to configure the overtime rules under work schedules. This involves specifying the respective thresholds and multiplier rates for each overtime type. Owners and Admins will be able to set up overtime rules on all plans.

Important❗: Overtime periods will end based on the split time specified in the work schedule, which is set to midnight, 12 am, by default. This implies that if your overtime starts from 8 pm onwards, it will continue until 12 am, after which the overtime will cease. To learn more about splitting timesheets, refer to our guide on adjusting your end-of-workday settings.

  1. Go to Work Schedules.
  2. If no work schedule exists, create one first. Otherwise, select an existing schedule.
  3. Click on the pencil icon and look for the Overtime Rules section.
  4. In the overtime rule configuration, you’ll find options to enable different types of overtime and define thresholds and multiplier rates for each.These options include:
    • Daily overtime – Applied when an employee works beyond their standard daily hours.
    • Daily double overtime – A higher rate applied after a specific daily limit. If set earlier than daily overtime (e.g., double overtime after 6 hours, daily overtime after 8), the double overtime threshold takes precedence.
    • Weekly overtime – Applied when total weekly hours exceed a set threshold (e.g., more than 40 hours). Note: Weekly overtime cannot be combined with daily, double daily, rest day, or public holiday overtime.
    • Rest day overtime – Applied when employees work on their designated rest days.
    • Public holiday overtime – Applied when employees work on recognized public holidays, based on assigned holiday calendars. Read more about managing public holiday calendars.
  5. Choose whether overtime begins after a specific time or after a designated number of hours.
  6. Set the multiplier value, which determines overtime pay based on the billable rates assigned to members. Learn more about how to set up billable rates by updating profile details.
  7. Click the Save button to confirm your overtime rule settings.

For further details on configuring all aspects of work schedules, explore our comprehensive guide on managing work schedules.

▶️ Click through to see it in action.

Viewing overtime on timesheets

Daily Timesheets

Daily timesheets show you a breakdown of each team member’s daily logged hours. Overtime hours will be clearly displayed on the columns on the right side.

Daily timesheets view on the web app

Weekly Timesheets

In the weekly timesheet view, you can get a summary of overtime hours for each team member throughout the week. Days in which overtime is recorded will be indicated in red with a moon icon. Additionally, you can hover over the time and easily view the number of hours designated as overtime. 

Weekly timesheets view on the web app

Monthly Timesheets

Monthly timesheets provide a broader perspective on overtime. You can easily track the accumulation of overtime hours for each team member over an entire month. In this view, overtime is indicated with a moon icon. The greater the depth of color in the box, the longer the duration of recorded time on that specific day.

Monthly timesheets view on the web app

Detailed Timesheets

For a granular understanding of overtime, detailed timesheets are your go-to option. Simply click on a specific time on the day you wish to view overtime and the individual time entries will be displayed. Here, you can view all time entries recorded for the day along with specific details such as activities, projects, notes, and breaks.

Detailed timesheet view on the web app

Click on the dropdown next to the payroll hours section to view the total hours designated as overtime.

Breakdown of hours shown on timesheets on the web app

Detailed Payroll View

To find a comprehensive summary of payroll hours for each team member, tap on the payroll view button in the top right corner. This view simplifies payroll processes by providing all the information you need to calculate wages accurately, including breakdowns of overtime hours.

Payroll view of timesheets on the web app

If you need to edit your team’s payroll hours (regular or overtime hours), you will be able to do so here. Check out our article on how timesheets work for a thorough understanding of all things related to timesheets.

Pay Period Timesheets

In addition to daily, weekly, and monthly timesheet views, you will be able to view pay period timesheets to view overtime calculations that align with your payroll cycles. For more information on pay periods, check out our article on pay periods and approvals.

Pay period timesheets on the web app


Example calculations

Daily Overtime and Daily Double Overtime

Alan has a daily overtime threshold of 8 hours and a daily double overtime threshold of 12 hours. This means that he will start earning daily overtime after he has worked 8 hours in a single day. If Alan works more than 12 hours in a single day, he will start earning double overtime for the hours that he works over 12 hours.

Here is an example of how the daily overtime and double overtime thresholds would be calculated:

  • Alan works 8 hours = 8 regular hours
  • Alan works 9 hours = 8 regular hours + 1 hour daily overtime
  • Alan works 10 hours = 8 regular hours + 2 hours daily overtime
  • Alan works 11 hours = 8 regular hours + 3 hours daily overtime
  • Alan works 12 hours = 8 regular hours + 4 hours daily overtime
  • Alan works 13 hours = 8 regular hours + 4 hours daily overtime + 1 hour daily double overtime 
  • Alan works 14 hours = 8 regular hours + 4 hours daily overtime + 2 hours daily double overtime 
Weekly Overtime

David has a weekly overtime threshold of 40 hours. This means that he will start earning weekly overtime after he has worked 40 hours in a workweek. 

Here’s an example where David has tracked a total of 65.5 hours in a workweek.

Workweek Overview:

  • Total Hours Tracked: 65.5 hours
  • Total Unpaid Breaks: 5 hours
  • Weekly Overtime Threshold: 40 hours

Calculation:

  • Total Regular Hours Worked: 65.5 (total hours) – 5 (unpaid breaks) = 60.5 hours
  • Weekly Overtime Hours: Total Regular Hours Worked – Weekly Overtime Threshold
    • 60.5 – 40 = 20.5 hours
Rest Day Overtime and Public Holiday Overtime

Whenever tracked time falls on a scheduled rest day or a recognized public holiday, these hours are automatically classified as overtime in Jibble. Rest days are determined by the assigned work schedule, while public holidays follow the designated holiday calendar. It’s important to note that unpaid breaks are not included in the calculations for both rest day overtime and public holiday overtime. 

Let’s illustrate this with an example:

Consider Michelle, who follows a work schedule that designates Fridays as her designated days off. Assuming rest day overtime is enabled within her work schedule, let’s examine her time entries on a typical Friday:

  • She clocks in at 8 am.
  • Takes an unpaid break from 12 pm to 1 pm.
  • Finally, clocks out at 3 pm.

In light of these entries, Michelle’s total rest day overtime would amount to 6 hours (comprising 4 hours + 2 hours). 

Another example for Public Holiday Overtime:

Now, consider John, who is assigned to a holiday calendar where New Year’s Day, January 1st, is a public holiday. John clocks in at 9 am and clocks out at 5 pm on that day. Given that it’s a public holiday according to the holiday calendar, all his hours worked on that day will be considered as Public Holiday Overtime. In this case, his total Public Holiday Overtime for the day would be 8 hours.

Important❗: If you have integrated Jibble with PayrollPanda, please note that overtime will be calculated differently when exporting timesheets to PayrollPanda. For a more detailed understanding of overtime calculations specific to Malaysia, check out how overtime is calculated according to the Malaysian Employment Act.

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