Automatic overtime tracking

How it works

1. HR switches overtime on in the overtime policy under Policies in Settings and chooses how it is counted: beyond the full-day hours or after the shift end.
2. Every night after 2 am, ZeniaHR reads the graded days for the two previous days for everyone with punches.
3. On a working day it counts the minutes beyond the full-day hours or past the shift end. On a weekly off or holiday it counts every worked minute.
4. The minutes are rounded down to the rounding step and must reach the minimum. Days on leave, absent days and days with no punch-out never carry overtime.
5. Once the month reaches the cap, the day that crosses it is trimmed and later days that month are not raised.
6. HR can run Detect for a date range of up to 31 days, ending yesterday at the latest, or raise a request by hand for a day.
7. Each person has at most one overtime request per day, so running detection again never doubles a day.

What you can set

• Overtime: on or off, off by default.
• Count overtime beyond the full-day hours, or after the shift end.
• Minimum: overtime counts from 30 minutes by default.
• Rounding: rounded down to 15 minutes by default; 0 keeps every minute.
• Monthly cap: 50 hours by default; 0 means no limit.
• Detect for a date range: up to 31 days, ending yesterday at the latest.
• Request by hand: HR enters 1 minute to 24 hours for today or a past day.
• When the comp-off leave type earns comp-off automatically for weekly offs and holidays, those days are not counted as overtime.

Why detect overtime instead of claiming it

When overtime depends on claims, the people who remember to claim get paid and the rest do not, and supervisors spend month end checking sheets against the gate register. Detecting it from punches makes the record the same for everyone. The manager still decides whether the extra time was needed, but nobody has to remember to ask, and HR does not have to rebuild the hours from memory.

Worked example: a long day at an Aurangabad auto parts plant

Ganesh Pawar is a machine operator at an Aurangabad auto parts plant on the General shift, 9 am to 6 pm with a 60-minute break and 8 full-day hours. On Tuesday 6 October he punches in at 8:52 am and out at 8:40 pm to finish an urgent order, without punching a break. His gross time is 11 hours 48 minutes; after the 60-minute shift break he has 10 hours 48 minutes of effective time.

Counted beyond the full day, that is 2 hours 48 minutes, rounded down to 2 hours 45 minutes. Counted after the shift end, it would be 2 hours 40 minutes, rounded down to 2 hours 30 minutes. The plant counts beyond the full day, so by Wednesday morning his request shows 2 hours 45 minutes. By 26 October his approved and pending overtime reaches 48 hours 30 minutes, so another 2 hours 45 minutes that day is trimmed to 1 hour 30 minutes, and later days are not raised.

Setting the policy sensibly

Choose the counting basis that matches how you pay. Beyond the full day suits offices with flexible arrival, because it pays for extra work however the day was spread. After the shift end suits plants with fixed timings, because arriving early before the shift is not paid as overtime.

• Keep the minimum at 30 minutes or more, so a few minutes of packing up do not create requests.
• Round down to 15 minutes, which is simple to explain on a payslip.
• Set the monthly cap at or below the limit that applies to your workers.
• Run Detect for a date range after fixing punches for past days, so corrected days are picked up.

Frequently asked questions