Article Contents
- Introduction
- What Overtime Handling Methods Do
- Where Overtime Handling Methods Are Used
- Ordinary Days, Non-Ordinary Days and Public Holidays
- How TOIL Accrual Is Calculated
- How Penalty Hours Are Calculated
- Understanding the Payroll Spreadsheet
- TOIL Balances and Xero
- Access and Permissions
Introduction
Overtime Handling Methods control how Hiro reports timesheet hours in the Payroll Spreadsheet when extra hours are recorded.
They are used to help prepare payroll information, such as identifying hours that may need to be paid with penalty rates or accrued as TOIL. Payroll itself is still processed outside Hiro, typically in your payroll system such as Xero.
It is important to understand that Hiro does not maintain a running TOIL ledger. The TOIL Accrual value in the Payroll Spreadsheet is a calculation for the selected reporting period only. It is not an employee’s current TOIL balance, and it does not show opening balance, TOIL accrued, TOIL taken and closing balance.
Overtime Handling Methods are configured in Settings, then assigned to individual staff members. Different employees can therefore use different overtime rules.
What Overtime Handling Methods Do
An Overtime Handling Method tells Hiro how to classify extra timesheet hours in the Payroll Spreadsheet.
For ordinary working days, Hiro assesses overtime per day. It checks the hours recorded on each individual day against the applicable overtime trigger, rather than averaging hours across the whole payroll period.
Depending on the employee’s assigned method, those extra hours may be reported as penalty hours, TOIL accrual, or handled another way for payroll preparation.
Overtime methods can also define different treatment for non-ordinary days, specific weekdays and public holidays.
Where Overtime Handling Methods Are Used
Overtime methods are created centrally in:
Settings > Overtime Handling Methods
They are then applied per employee in:
Settings > User Accounts > [employee] > Payroll > Overtime handling
An employee can be assigned a specific overtime method, or set to Ignore overtime.
Hiro’s Payroll Spreadsheet uses the overtime method assigned to each employee at the time the report is generated.
Ordinary Days, Non-Ordinary Days and Public Holidays
Hiro determines whether a day is an ordinary working day based on the employee’s payroll setup.
For full-time permanent employees, weekdays are generally treated as ordinary days.
For permanent part-time employees, ordinary days are based on the ordinary work days configured on their user account.
An employee’s ordinary hours per day can also be customised on their user account. This can affect when overtime is triggered if the overtime method is based on the employee’s ordinary hours.
Overtime Handling Methods can also include specific rules for particular weekdays or public holidays.
How TOIL Accrual Is Calculated
TOIL is one possible outcome of an Overtime Handling Method.
If an overtime method is configured to accrue TOIL, Hiro calculates the TOIL hours when the Payroll Spreadsheet is generated.
For example, if TOIL is configured to accrue after 7.5 hours per ordinary day:
- Wednesday: 6.5 hours worked = no TOIL accrued
- Thursday: 8.0 hours worked = 0.5 hours TOIL accrued
Hiro evaluates this per day. It does not average the employee’s hours across the payroll period unless a different overtime configuration has been specifically set up.
How Penalty Hours Are Calculated
If an overtime method is configured to apply penalty rates, Hiro calculates the hours that should be reported against the relevant penalty rate columns in the Payroll Spreadsheet.
Penalty rules can include:
- a primary penalty multiplier
- an optional secondary penalty multiplier
- a threshold for when the secondary penalty applies
For example, an overtime method may pay the first portion of overtime at one multiplier, then apply a different multiplier after a set number of overtime hours.
Understanding the Payroll Spreadsheet
The Payroll Spreadsheet is a payroll preparation report. It calculates payroll-related hours for the selected reporting period.
The report includes sections such as:
- employee details
- daily timesheet hours
- earnings
- reimbursements
- leave
- total pay
- TOIL accrual
The TOIL Accrual column shows TOIL calculated for the selected payroll reporting period only.
It is not:
- a current TOIL balance
- an opening/accrued/taken/closing balance report
- a stored TOIL ledger
- a deduction of TOIL taken from TOIL accrued
Leave taken, including TOIL leave taken if configured as a leave type, is shown separately in the relevant leave columns.
Payroll Processing and Balances
The Payroll Spreadsheet is used to help prepare payroll. It itemises payroll-related hours for the selected reporting period, including ordinary hours, leave, penalty hours and TOIL accrual where applicable.
Payroll itself is not processed in Hiro. After reviewing the Payroll Spreadsheet, you still need to process payroll in your payroll system, such as Xero.
Hiro also does not maintain a standalone running TOIL ledger. The TOIL Accrual column is a period-based calculation, not an employee’s current available TOIL balance.
If you use Xero for leave balances, Hiro can display leave balances back to employees, including TOIL balances, when the relevant Hiro leave type is linked to the matching Xero leave type and configured to show balances to employees.
For more information, see Managing Leave Balances in Hiro and Xero.
Access and Permissions
Overtime Handling Methods and the Payroll Spreadsheet are payroll settings. Access is restricted to users with the appropriate permissions.
If you cannot see these settings, ask a Global Administrator to review your access.
For more information, see Privileges - who can access what in Hiro.