Overtime Calculations

uAttend automatically calculates overtime based on your department-level settings, so you don’t have to do the math yourself. This article explains how overtime is determined, how different overtime types interact, and how calculations appear on employee timecards.

In this article:

• How Overtime Is Calculated
• How Overtime Appears on Timecards
• Notes on Department Transfers
• Calculating Overtime Pay

How Overtime Is Calculated

uAttend calculates overtime using the overtime settings in each employee's home department.

Regular (REG) hours are determined after all punch rules such as rounding, lunch and break deductions, and grace periods have been applied. 

Overtime is applied in the following order per day, if applicable:

1. Lunch Overtime
2. Saturday, Sunday, or 7th Day Overtime
3. Daily Overtime (OT1 and OT2)
4. Weekly/Bi-weekly Overtime

Each type of overtime pulls from the remaining regular hours, ensuring that hours are not double-counted across multiple overtime types.

Lunch Overtime

Lunch Overtime is applied first, before any other overtime type. It is triggered when an employee works beyond a configured threshold without taking a lunch. The hours are assigned to either OT1 or OT2, depending on your department settings.

This rule is reoccurring, meaning lunch overtime can occur before or after a lunch break, as long as the required uninterrupted hours are worked to exceed the threshold.

Lunch overtime may appear to override other overtime types on an employee's timecard, but it simply takes priority in the calculation order.

Example: Your department is configured for 

• Overtime 1 (OT1) after 8 hours
• Overtime 2 (OT2) after 12 hours
• Lunch overtime after 5 hours worked, assigned to OT1

 

If an employee works 13 hours without a lunch punch, the system assigns:

• 8 hours to OT1 for lunch overtime (13 total hours - 5 hour threshold)
• 0 hours to OT2

Because Lunch Overtime takes priority, all hours over the threshold are allotted to Lunch Overtime (OT1). Even though the employee worked more than 12 hours, no hours remain for OT2.

If the employee had taken a lunch, the 5-hour lunch overtime clock would reset, and lunch overtime would only apply after an additional 5 consecutive hours worked. 

Saturday, Sunday, or 7th Day Overtime

If enabled, all hours worked on Saturday, Sunday, or 7th Day are assigned to overtime but only if those hours haven’t already been allocated to lunch overtime. 

7th Day Overtime applies when an employee works 7 consecutive days in the same workweek. The first 8 hours worked on the 7th day are applied to OT1. Any additional hours are applied to OT2. 

Saturday or Sunday Overtime applies when an employee works that day. All hours worked are set to either OT1 or OT2, depending on your department settings. 

Note: The 7th Day Overtime setting cannot be enabled at the same time as Saturday or Sunday Overtime.

• If 7th day overtime is enabled, Saturday and Sunday Overtime settings are disabled.
• If Saturday or Sunday is enabled, 7th day is disabled.  

Daily Overtime

After the system applies Lunch Overtime and any weekend or 7th Day Overtime, it compares the remaining regular hours against your daily overtime thresholds. 

• OT1 is applied after the Daily Overtime 1 threshold is met (e.g., 8 hours).
• OT2 is applied after the Daily Overtime 2 threshold is met (e.g., 12 hours).

Weekly/Bi-weekly Overtime

Weekly and Bi-weekly Overtime is always calculated last - after daily and special overtime rules.

Additionally, Weekly and Bi-weekly Overtime is calculated based on your configured workweek - not the pay period. This setting applies across all departments. 

At the end of the workweek, uAttend checks for any remaining regular hours not assigned to another overtime type. If those hours exceed the weekly or bi-weekly threshold, the excess is assigned to OT1.

Weekly and Bi-weekly Overtime always calculate on the last day of the workweek, even if your pay period ends mid-week. 

If your pay period ends mid-week, such as with a monthly or semi-monthly setup, overtime will be finalized and appear in the following pay period on the last day of the workweek. This ensures accurate overtime tracking, even across pay periods.

How Overtime Appears on Timecards

uAttend clearly displays overtime calculations on employees' timecards for transparency.

Each timecard shows:

• Initial regular hours
• Break and lunch deductions
• Overtime breakdown

Negative values (such as -5:00) indicate the hours being moved out of regular time and into an overtime category. They ensure the employee is not paid for the same hours twice.

Example: An employee works 13 hours with no breaks and

• Overtime 1 threshold: 8 hours
• Overtime 2 threshold: 12 hours

The timecard will show two lines:

• Hours worked (13 hours) 
• Overtime assignments (4 hours to OT1 and 1 hour to OT2)

The -5:00 hours on the Daily Overtime 1 line is there as an indicator that the employee will not be paid both regular time and overtime for those hours.

Notes on Department Transfers

• Overtime settings are based on the employee’s home department.
• Hours are assigned to the department worked. 
• When employees work across departments, overtime is labeled by the order in which the hours are assigned, not by the overtime type itself.
  • Any overtime applied to the first department worked will be labeled as Daily Overtime 1. 
  • Any overtime applied to the second department worked will be labeled as Daily Overtime 2, and so on.

Example: If an employee works 16 hours across three departments with a Daily Overtime 1 threshold of 8 hours and a Daily Overtime 2 threshold of 12 hours, their time card might appear as follows:

Additionally, all applicable reports will reflect the departments worked:

Calculating Overtime Pay

uAttend supports both integrated and external payroll workflows:

• Using uAttend Payroll? We’ll help you configure your overtime settings so pay is calculated correctly. Learn more about uAttend Payroll
• Using another payroll provider? You can use uAttend’s export options to generate files that include time totals and pay codes (REG, OT1, OT2) for import into your payroll system.
• Want to see gross pay? If you enter an hourly wage for each employee, uAttend will display gross pay estimates on timecards and in some reports. This is a basic calculation based on hours and pay codes and does not include any necessary payroll processes such as taxes and deductions.

We recommend consulting your payroll provider or software to ensure overtime pay is calculated and processed correctly.