Overtime Tricks in QuickBooks Time

As a business owner, many of you are familiar with overtime. Although mostly unplanned, overtime happens often, and it’s important to account for it correctly. If you need help setting up our basic Overtime Settings, take a look here: Set up Overtime Tracking.

What I’m going to show you now are some hidden gems in QuickBooks Time that help you track advanced overtime hours accurately and take the stress out of time tracking.

So, you have your basic overtime rules set up, but you need more overtime options? Don’t you worry, QuickBooks Time has got you covered. Click on “Use Pay Rate Engine” like you see in the screenshot below and continue reading.

Once there, you’ll see there’s a Company Default Setting which is created based on your choices in Company Settings for overtime. This gives the Pay Rate Engine the basics to build additional rules on top of. 

Here are the steps for setting up additional overtime rules:

1. Go to Featured Add Ons, then Pay Rate Engine, and select Add Setting.
2. Name your setting, then click on No team members assigned.
3. Add individual team members or groups and click OK.
4. If you want this setting to be automatically assigned to every new user, check the box next to Default Setting. 
5. Choose Add. 

Now you’re ready to create this setting! In the pay rate engine, you can base overtime off of:

• Week - we have this set up already in our Company Settings, but you can add an additional one if needed.
• Day - Select days like Saturday and Sunday to have overtime rules.
• Holiday - Not to be confused with PTO, this can be used for setting up overtime on specific dates.
• Pay Period - overtime starts after a certain number of hours worked in a pay period.
• Time of day - late shifts? Set up overtime for a range of times during the day.
• Consecutive Days - if your employee works a certain number of days in a row, they can earn overtime after X number of days.

There are plenty of options and each can be customized to include only certain employees and also set up a rate multiplier like 1.5x base pay, or fixed rate like $1.50 + base pay. 

You’ve done it! The settings are in, people are working, and now you can sit back and enjoy all your free time. Ok ok, maybe not… you are a business owner. But one thing I can show you to make your life even easier is the best report in QuickBooks Time to see these overtime hours. 

1. Go to Reports on the left menu.
2. Choose Payroll Report.
3. Pick your dates and any other filters.
4. Select Run Report.

Look at those colors! You’ll see my regular overtime is in red and my pay rate engine hours are in white with my rate multiplier! Not only do I see the hours for all my employees, but for each individual user. 

Do you want something easy to read and showing timesheets? Easy as pie in the Payroll Report. Click on “Open as PDF” to see individual timesheets, including notes and in/out times. This will be your go-to report for viewing hours in an easy-to-read way. 

Are you tired of talking about overtime yet? No? Ok, good. I have one last goody to give you that you’re going to love. Wouldn’t it be great to be alerted when your employees are close to hitting their overtime? I think so too! Enter stage left our Overtime Alerts. As always, very simple to set up and super helpful for busy owners and admins. 

1. Once again, go to Featured Add Ons and click on Overtime Alerts.
2. Click on one of the sample alerts to customize, or Add New Setting.
3. Then, choose when you want to be alerted and how often. You can also select admin, manager, employee, or all three. 
4. Choose Save.

And there you have it! You have our overtime special tricks ready whenever you need them. Now go forth and conquer time tracking!