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Set your work period and overtime rules

Who is this article for?
  • Sellers with the shifts permission to manage timecard reports. Set permissions in Square Dashboard.
  • Square Shifts and Square Shifts Plus subscribers
  • About work periods and overtime

    A workday is a rolling 24-hour period when all business activity takes place. For most businesses, the standard day (midnight to midnight) aligns with their workday. For businesses open past midnight, your workday hours should align with when all team members have clocked out for the day. For bars, the workday may span from 4 AM – 4 AM to account for the few hours they’re open past midnight. 

    Your workweek and workday affect how overtime is calculated. Your workday hours are not the same as your business hours. By setting a work period and overtime rules, your timecards can report and calculate overtime based on your business’ operations. 

    If a team member works more than one job or wage, their overtime is based on the team member’s blended rate. A blended rate is the weighted average of the total normal earnings divided by total hours worked. For compensation, the team member is paid .5x this rate for their overtime premium.

    Before you begin

    You can set your work period and overtime rules from your Square Dashboard.

    To set your work period you need to have created and published a team schedule and set up time cards for team members. Learn how to Set up team schedules and Set up time tracking.

    Overtime rules vary by state and are extremely important to comply with to avoid any issues with your local or state Department of Labor. Learn more about state minimum wage laws on the Depart of Labor website. 

    If your team members are typically clocked in past midnight, set your workday hours to at least an hour past the end of the closing shift.

    Set your work period

    You can adjust your workweek and workday hours from your Square Dashboard.

    1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Staff & payroll > Shifts > Settings > Schedule.

    2. For Start of workweek, select a day from the drop-down menu.

    3. Select Customize and choose a timeframe from the Workday hours drop-down menu.

    4. Select Save.

    Set overtime rules

    You can set your overtime rules from your Square Dashboard.

    1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Staff & payroll > Shifts > Settings > Overtime.

    2. Adjust overtime rules by toggling on Daily overtime, Weekly overtime, Daily double time, and/or 7th day overtime.

    3. Enter the After Working (hours) for each overtime rule you toggled on.

    4. Select Save.

    5. To default to your state’s settings, select Restore settings.

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