Troubleshooting overtime discrepancies when schedule weeks don't align with pay periods

Your employee may show weekly overtime hours in 7shifts even when they haven't exceeded your overtime threshold. This happens when your schedule week (set by your Start Week On setting) doesn't align with your pay period. For example, if your Start Week On is set to Monday, your schedule week runs Monday to Sunday. If your pay period runs Friday to Thursday, 7shifts will calculate overtime based on your schedule week, not your pay period in Time Clocking. 

Things to know

• The schedule week determines overtime calculations.
• Overtime calculations use the weekly threshold you've set (for example, 40 hours per week), and this threshold applies to the schedule week, not the pay period.
• If your schedule week misaligns with your pay period, overtime hours may appear distributed across two different pay periods, creating the perception of incorrect overtime.
• The Worked Hours and Wages report will show different totals depending on which week you filter by.

What to do

Ensure the overtime isn't driven by daily or weekly overtime rules set in Labor & Compliance settings (e.g., hours exceeding 8 hours in a single day) before checking weekly schedule alignment.

Next, verify the issue by checking the Worked Hours and Wages report for the schedule week (not the pay period). To do this:

1. In the left navigation bar, select Reports. 
2. Select the Worked Hours and Wages report.
3. Filter the report to show the exact week displayed on your Schedule page.
4. Check the total hours for that schedule week. If the total exceeds your overtime threshold, that's why overtime was calculated.

Once you've confirmed the overtime calculation is due to the Start Week On day configuration, you have two options:

Option 1: Align your 'Start Week On' day with your pay period

1. Log in to the 7shifts web app as an Admin.
2. In the left navigation bar, select Settings and click Company Settings.
3. Select the General tab.
4. Choose your pay period start day from the Start Week On dropdown menu (for example, if your pay period starts on Friday, select Friday).
5. Click Save.

Option 2: Manually adjust overtime

If you prefer not to change your schedule week, you can manually adjust the overtime hours before processing payroll.

If you use 7shifts Payroll:

Overtime hours cannot be edited directly in a regular 7shifts Payroll run if overtime already exists in the system. Instead, you'll need to create a manual Off-cycle payroll run for the affected employee:

1. Remove the employee from the Regular payroll run.
2. Create a new Off-cycle payroll for the employee to process with the correct overtime hours and total hours worked.

If you use another payroll provider:

Check with your payroll provider's support to confirm whether you can manually adjust overtime hours on their end before processing payroll. Some providers allow direct edits, while others may require a similar off-cycle approach.

Related articles