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Setting Up Automatic Overtime

Configuring automatic overtime calculations.

Updated over 3 months ago

SmoothPay can automatically convert hours above a defined threshold into Overtime using the Timesheet.

This article explains how to enable the feature, how to apply company-wide defaults, how to override settings per employee, and how calculations work in practice.


Important Rule

Automatic overtime and automatic TOIL/RDO cannot operate together.
Only one automatic method can be active for any employee.


Initial Setup (Company-wide Defaults)

To enable automatic overtime:

  1. Go to Settings > Options

  2. Locate Automatic overtime options

  3. Configure the following:

Basis

Select how the threshold should be measured:

  • Daily

  • Weekly

  • Pay period total

Ordinary time cutoff

Enter the number of hours allowed before excess time becomes overtime.

Balance goes to

Select the overtime paycode that excess hours should be transferred to.

This paycode must be defined in your Work Codes.

Once Basis, Ordinary time cutoff and Balance goes to have been configured Save.


Applying Overtime Settings to All Staff

After configuring defaults:

  1. In Settings > Options, locate the spanner icon next to the Basis setting

  2. Click Apply Auto-Overtime settings to all staff

This sets the default for all existing employees.
New employees will inherit these settings automatically.


Per-Employee Settings

Where employees have different overtime rules:

  1. Go to Staff

  2. Select the Contract tab

  3. Select the Overtime/TOIL tab

  4. Adjust Basis or Ordinary time cutoff

Notes:

  • You cannot individualise the overtime paycode. The paycode always comes from the company setting under Settings > Options.

  • Terminology may appear as Overtime/TOIL or Overtime/RDO depending on country settings. The options function the same.


Automatic Overtime Example

Daily threshold: 8 hours

Timesheet entries:

  • Tuesday: 9 hours

  • Thursday: 9.5 hours

When you click Save:

SmoothPay will:

  • Record 8 hours each day as Ordinary

  • Record 1 hour (Tue) and 1.5 hours (Thu) as Overtime

  • Create separate transactions for Ordinary and Overtime in the payrun

This ensures correct allocation with no manual calculation required.

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